US news | The Guardian

House speaker said she would veto two appointed by minority leader because they could threaten integrity of investigationThe House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, announced on Wednesday that she would veto the two top Republicans appointed by the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to the new select committee investigating the Capitol attack, saying the Trump-allied congressmen could threaten the integrity of the investigation.But the move triggered McCarthy to pull all five of the Republicans he had chosen off the committee if Pelosi wouldn’t seat the whole cohort – and threaten to set up their own investigation into the 6 January Capitol attack. Continue reading...

Group of US states attorneys general unveil settlement including three largest US drug distributors and Johnson & JohnsonA group of US state attorneys general unveiled on Wednesday a landmark $26bn settlement with large drug companies for allegedly fueling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic, but some states were cool on the agreement.Under the settlement proposal, the three largest US drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp, are expected to pay a combined $21bn, while drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which manufactures opioids, would pay $5bn. Continue reading...

Law, which was set to take effect on Friday, was approved by Republican-led legislature and signed by Asa HutchinsonA federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban nearly all abortions.The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson. Continue reading...

The pyrotechnic device sparked the destructive El Dorado fire, which destroyed five homes and killed one firefighterA California couple has been criminally charged for their role in igniting last year’s destructive El Dorado wildfire after they used a pyrotechnic device during a gender-reveal party.The blaze torched close to 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares), destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings, and claimed the life of a firefighter, Charlie Morton. Continue reading...

Jeffrey Burill steps down after Catholic media outlet obtains cellphone data that revealed he was a user of gay dating appThe top administrator of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after cellphone data revealed that he was a frequent user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and regularly visited gay bars.In a statement released on Tuesday, the organization announced that Monsignor Jeffrey Burill had resigned as its general secretary after the group learned of “impending media reports alleging possible improper behavior”. Continue reading...

Despite anger over a decision to deepfake the voice of the much-loved star in a new documentary it’s a haunting and difficult film that deserves to be seenAnthony Bourdain was a singularly beloved cultural figure. His death by suicide in 2018 at 61 while filming an episode of his CNN travel series Parts Unknown remains, for many, one of the most tragic and baffling public losses of the past few years. Given the intense connection to the chef turned TV personality felt by his fans, and the shock of his death, Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain, a bracing, graceful new documentary on Bourdain that features his inner circle, was going to be met sensitively.Related: Anthony Bourdain documentary sparks backlash for using AI to fake voice Continue reading...

The Bootleg fire in Oregon, now roughly the size of Los Angeles, is so intense that it has created its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames. It has been burning for two weeks and barely a third of its perimeter has been contained. The Dixie fire in California exploded in size to roughly 94 sq miles (243 sq km) on Tuesday, and is only 15% contained. It broke out on 13 July

The US were comfortably outplayed by their opponents in their campaign opener. But they have come back from adversity before at the GamesNorway 2-0 USA. That was the score of the US women’s soccer team opener the last time the Olympics were played in Asia. The distance from Qinhuangdao, site of that 2008 game, to the final in Beijing seemed vast, and not just because the buses were so slow.The result was no fluke. The US women by that point were a faint echo of their past selves. Without a professional league, the sport in the United States was in the doldrums. It seemed at the time that women’s soccer had used up its Warholian 15 minutes of fame. Continue reading...

In the era of the much-maligned superteam, the Greek star has the extraordinary skills to show a hometown hero can still win the game’s biggest prizesLaughing and smiling and dancing and hugging and I love you mans and chest bumps and tears and roars to the sky and arms raised in triumph, the Milwaukee Bucks, powered by the excellence of Giannis Antetokounmpo are NBA champions.On a night where no other Buck was able to score more than 17 points, Giannis produced a masterpiece against the Phoenix Suns. Fifty points. Fourteen rebounds. Five (!) blocks. Seventeen-of-19 from the line. Hellacious defense. Violent attacks to the rim. He was everywhere and did everything for his team. As close-out performances go, it ranks among the finest in NBA finals history. Continue reading...

Smoke from wildfires in the west caused hazy skies as air quality index surged to 157 in Manhattan, well above threshold of 100New York City air quality was among the worst in the world as cities across the eastern US were shrouded in smoke from wildfires raging several thousand miles away on the country’s west coast.State officials in New York advised vulnerable people, such as those with asthma and heart disease, to avoid strenuous outdoor activity as air pollution soared to eclipse Lima in Peru and Kolkata in India to be ranked as the worst in the world on Tuesday. Continue reading...

A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

Public health officials say life expectancy fell by a year a half, with Covid responsible for much of the declineUS life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since the second world war, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.Related: Are we being kept safe from ‘forever chemicals’ injected into fracking sites? | David Bond Continue reading...

New York officials have told vulnerable people to stay indoors because of sooty air pollution from wildfires in western US states that have drifted across the country. Residents of New York City, 2,000 miles away from the blazes, witnessed a fiery sunrise on Tuesday. The Bootleg fire in Oregon has become so large and hot it is creating its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames

A bombshell exposé revealed that oil and gas firms are injecting PFAS chemicals into fracking sites, threatening groundwaterNot willing to rest their laurels on the theft of the future, the fossil fuel industry is now salting the earth with forever chemicals.In a bombshell exposé from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and the New York Times last week it was revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were readily used at fracking sites across the US. Continue reading...

If our budget passes, it would be one of the most important pieces of legislation since the New Deal. But we must fight for itNow is the time.At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, when two people now own more wealth than the bottom 40% and when some of the wealthiest people and biggest businesses in the world pay nothing in federal income taxes, the billionaire class and large profitable corporations must finally start paying their fair share of taxes. Continue reading...

The Delta variant has become America’s dominant Covid strain, with midwestern and southern states emerging as virus hotspots. Plus, why men cause more emissions than womenGood morning.The highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is galloping across America and accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Inspired by Spears’ case, the Free Act would bring protection and oversight to a ‘broken system’Britney Spears’ fight to end her conservatorship has inspired a new bipartisan proposal in the US House of Representatives.The Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation (Free) Act would allow a person bound by a conservatorship to petition to replace their court-appointed private conservator with a public conservator, family member or private agent without having to prove abuse. Continue reading...

By using a narrow definition of heat-related injuries federal and state agencies miss thousands of othersUS government agencies are likely significantly undercounting the number of workplace injuries caused by extreme heat, according to new research.Federal and state labor departments keep track of heat-related injuries, which include things like dehydration and heat strokes. But if a worker falls from a ladder because of heat-induced dizziness, it’s typically not categorized as a heat-related injury. New research published this week shows that when those injuries are taken into account, the actual toll of heat on US workers is orders of magnitude higher than official counts. Continue reading...

It was a night of pure emotion for the Phoenix Suns coach, Monty Williams, as his side lost the NBA finals to Milwaukee Bucks. 'I think it's going to take me a minute. I just don't take it for granted. It's hard to get here and I wanted it so bad, you know. It's hard to process right now. It's hard. That's all.'

Giannis Antetokounmpo ended one of the greatest NBA Finals ever with 50 points and a championship Milwaukee waited 50 years to win again.Antetokounmpo added 14 rebounds and five blocked shots as the Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns 105-98 on Tuesday night to win the series 4-2. It was the third game this series with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds for Antetokounmpo, a dominant debut finals performance that takes its place among some of the game's greatest.“People told me I can’t make free throws and I made them tonight. And I’m a freaking champion,” Antetokounmpo said.

Bennie Thompson tells Guardian he will pursue wide-ranging inquiry to uncover root causes of January 6 attackCongressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the new House select committee to scrutinize the Capitol attack, says he will investigate Donald Trump as part of his inquiry into the events of 6 January – a day he sees as the greatest test to the United States since the civil war.Related: Trump supporter sentenced to eight months in prison for role in Capitol riot Continue reading...

Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci got into a heated discussion with Republican Senator Rand Paul during a Senate hearing on the coronavirus. Paul pressed Fauci on previous comments made to the committee about funding for a lab in Wuhan, China, 'You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans, you're saying that's not 'gain of function'?' To which Fauci replied, 'Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And, I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about'

Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion and longtime friend of Donald Trump, gently ribbed the former president and his false claims of election fraud during a visit to the White House.

The senator bit off more than he could chew when he accused Biden’s top health adviser of lying about US-funded virus researchAnthony Fauci has a reputation for plain speaking, as a senator who accused him of lying discovered to his cost on Tuesday.A congressional hearing on the coronavirus pandemic was electrified when Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, clashed with Rand Paul, a Republican senator for Kentucky and longtime opponent of mask-wearing. Continue reading...

More than 80 major wildfires currently burning in western states as Bootleg fire reaches 537 sq milesOregon’s explosive summer of wildfire is threatening to escalate further, with thunderstorms and lightning set to spur more of the blazes that have torn through much of a parched, dangerously hot US west this year.Related: Heat exhaustion, apocalyptic scenes: what it’s like fighting the US’s biggest wildfire Continue reading...

The scandal that has engulfed the presenter and influencer tells us something about changing attitudes to both cyberbullying and inequalityIf you live by the sword you tend to die by the sword. The same is true of social media – just ask Chrissy Teigen. Over the past decade, the model and cookbook author has risen to dizzying levels of fame by virtue of being good at posting things online. Such is her reach that Donald Trump, who disapproved of Teigen’s “filthy mouth”, blocked her on Twitter while he was president. Joe Biden, meanwhile, followed her the minute he became president. Which was a big deal considering Biden’s official @POTUS account only followed 11 people at the time, all of whom were aides or official White House accounts. The president doesn’t follow the Queen of the UK, but he did follow the unofficial Queen of Twitter. He also unfollowed Teigen a few weeks later at her behest; the pressure of having the most powerful man in the world read your tweets was too much to deal with, apparently.If Biden hadn’t unfollowed Teigen in February, he would probably be distancing himself from her now. A lot of big brands reportedly are. Thanks to a cyberbullying scandal, the influencer has gone from tastemaker to toxic. While Teigen may once have been online royalty, half the internet now seems to be aggressively screaming, “Off with her head!” Continue reading...

The US climate envoy, appointed by Joe Biden to spearhead the country’s international efforts to tackle the climate emergency, urged all large economies to come forward with new plans to cut emissions before the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November.‘While it may be unfolding in slow motion to some,’ he said, ‘this test is as acute and as existential as any previous one. Time is running out.’

First Black lieutenant governor will be state’s first African American US senator if he wins primary and beats Trump ally

After finally moving past outdated notions of consequence and loss based on little to no actual evidence, we’re on the cusp of the most open and progressive era of male pro sports in historyLuke Prokop of the Nashville Predators became the first active player under an NHL contract to come out as gay on Tuesday, only a month after Carl Nassib became the first NFL player to do so. To me, someone who has loved and admired sports his whole life, this is historic and groundbreaking news. But to the next generation of young sports fans and players, including my nephews and nieces, this is the new normal. Though it’s just a start, it is difficult for me to express how much joy the idea of that future gives me.Related: Trans kids deserve the same opportunity that made my NFL career possible Continue reading...

Reporting on the pandemic and global heating is an immense responsibility. More than ever we have to look to the possibility of positive change

Hosts are among the favourites in baseball while the US hope to belatedly atone for their 2008 final shock in softballBaseball, which was formally added as a medal sport in 1992, and softball, which joined it four years later, became the first sports in seven decades to be eliminated from the Olympic programme following the 2008 Beijing Games. The surprise vote by an International Olympic Committee that is typically broken toward expansion has been generally attributed to Major League Baseball’s refusal to pause its summer-long season and allow the sport’s best players to participate, while softball’s removal was widely interpreted – at least in American circles – as a punishment for Team USA’s dominance.Related: Nigeria spring historic upset of USA men’s basketball in Olympic tune-up Continue reading...

Joe Manchin owns millions of dollars in coal stock, founded an energy firm and Exxon lobbyists brag about their access to him. Republicans fundraise on his behalfAs “thousand-year” heat waves caused by the climate crisis rock the west coast and biblical floods engulf major cities, Senate Democrats are negotiating a $3.5tn budget package that could include an attempt to slow the use of fossil fuels over the next decade.One prominent senator is very concerned about proposals to scale back oil, gas and coal usage. He recently argued that those who want to “get rid of” fossil fuels are wrong. Eliminating fossil fuels won’t help fight global heating, he claimed, against all evidence. “If anything, it would be worse.” Continue reading...

As the Delta variant spreads across the US and beyond, cities ponder whether to revive some curbs. Plus, the people who were forcibly sterilized in California prisons hope for some justice at lastGood morning.A worrying rise in coronavirus cases in the US and many other places in the world is fueling concerns that the pandemic has come back for another round. On Monday, news about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant sent shockwaves through the stock market, while Joe Biden urged Americans to “please, please get vaccinated”. Continue reading...

Republican had claimed the disease was not dangerous for non-obese people and the under-65s

One of the largest fires in modern Oregon history has burned an area half the size of Rhode IslandFuelled by erratic winds and dry lightning, the enormous Bootleg fire in southern Oregon burned through another 47,000-plus acres on Monday to reach an estimated total of 364,000 acres (564 sq miles) – an area more than half the size of Rhode Island.The challenging weather conditions have added to the dangers for the crews in parched Oregon forests who are battling the fire, currently the largest in the US. Continue reading...

US private equity firm’s move cuts chance of takeover battle for UK supermarket groupThe US private equity firm Apollo Global Management has pulled out of the bidding war for Morrisons and is looking to join a consortium led by US rival Fortress to buy the British supermarket group.New York-based Apollo, which confirmed it was considering a bid for Morrisons earlier this month, said it would no longer be making an offer for the grocer. Continue reading...

Internal battles may ultimately weaken the party, critics suggestAcross the United States, Republican state party officials are taking unprecedented steps to discourage or even purge critics of Donald Trump and promote potential allies of the former president.These efforts are the latest sign of Trump’s ongoing stranglehold over areas of the Republican party that are usually neutral and reflect his intense popularity with a wide slice of the Republican base, despite his scandal-strewn four years in power and his loss to Joe Biden in 2020. Continue reading...

Los Angeles police department and FBI are reviewing protocols for detonating explosives after incident left 17 injuredLos Angeles bomb technicians grossly miscalculated the weight of homemade fireworks last month when they detonated them in a containment chamber, likely causing a catastrophic explosion that injured 17 people and rocked a neighborhood, the police chief said Monday.Police chief Michel Moore said five members of the department’s bomb squad have been removed from field duties as the investigation continues. They could face discipline. Continue reading...

Then US leader also turned down Chequers dinner because he wanted to ‘be a tourist’, archives showBill Clinton turned down tea with the Queen and dinner at Chequers because he wanted to “be a tourist” and try out an Indian restaurant during his first official visit to the UK with Tony Blair as prime minister, formerly classified documents reveal.Downing Street wanted to pull out all the stops for a visit seen as crucial to “establishing a good working relationship” between the new prime minister and the then US president. Buckingham Palace contacted No 10 to say “HM the Queen would be very pleased” to invite the Clintons to tea at 5pm on their brief one-day detour from summits in Paris and The Hague. Continue reading...

Joe Biden has tempered his assessment that social media platforms are 'killing people' by hosting misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines, saying that he hoped they would not take it 'personally'. He added that vaccine misinformation on Facebook can harm people and the point of his rhetoric was to ramp up pressure on the companies to take action and save lives