Pop culture has become more and more sexualised, as sex is sold to us willy-nilly. But young people are turning away from it in drovesIt might be hip to be square, but nothing is more passé than being straight these days. That’s according to Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, the 23-year-old daughter of the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, anyway. In a recent Instagram livestream with the former CEO of a health company, Kennedy-Cuomo talked about being queer, noting that when she first came out she worried that people would think she was attention-seeking, since it’s “hip or cool to be not hetero in my liberal bubble”. Kennedy-Cuomo then went on to say that after flirting with bisexuality and pansexuality she has decided that the identity that most resonates with her is demisexuality.Reader, I rolled my eyes. I know that’s not the kind or constructive thing to do when someone is brave enough to come out, but I’m afraid I couldn’t help it: my old gay eyes rolled involuntarily. That was partly due to amazement. When I came out, 20 years ago, I wasn’t worried that people might think I was declaring myself queer because it was cool – it was decidedly not cool. No, I was worried about getting beaten up. I’m not trying to win the oppression Olympics over here: I think it’s brilliant that we’ve gone from words like “gay” and “queer” being widespread slurs to something that the privileged offspring of politicians reckon is a badge of honour. Continue reading...

• Pharma company presses case with senior health officials• WHO urges priority for nations with low Covid vaccination ratesPfizer, the pharmaceutical company that created one of the first Covid-19 vaccines to be approved, has been making a hard sell for emergency approval of boosters – additional doses given to those already vaccinated, especially immunocompromised adults.But in private meetings with Pfizer on Monday, senior US officials said they needed more data – prompting the latest debate over how to curb a pandemic which has claimed more than 620,000 lives in the country. Last week, the US health department also rebuked Pfizer for pressing for a booster shot, and Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has said there isn’t enough evidence to support needing a third shot. Continue reading...

A firefighter battling the rapidly growing Beckwourth Complex wildfire in California recorded dramatic conditions near the small town of Doyle that forced the crew to take shelter inside a vehicle as wind and flames roared outside. The largest wildfire to hit the state this year broke out over the weekend and has so far consumed more than 140 sq miles (362 sq km). The blazes are spreading as extreme temperatures continue to blast the American west

Lawmakers fly to Washington in an effort to block bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ by the leftGood morning.Texas Democrats have fled the state in an escalation of one of the most high-stakes battles over voting rights in the US. Continue reading...

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

Major League Baseball’s most accomplished two-way player since Babe Ruth has become an avatar of hope, the latest best chance at rescuing a sport from cultural irrelevanceFor all the talk of its absence from victorious athletes and preening coaches, fear is one of sports’ dominant forces. It isn’t called that, of course; it’s called strategy, a plan, the better part of valor. But it is why NFL teams trot out their punting units on fourth down more often than they should, why aces on the precipice of World Series wins get pulled. Why the most singular athletic talent in the world – an apple-cheeked 27-year-old who hits left-handed home runs that jostle geometry and throws right-handed pitches that blur and vanish – wasn’t allowed to let that talent shine in full before this season. “He’s proven this year [that when] given the opportunity to do two things, that you should listen to him,” Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon said in May of Shohei Ohtani, Major League Baseball’s first legitimate dual threat in a century. “I don’t see any real reason to interfere a whole lot.”Related: Mets’ Pete Alonso bests Angels’ Shohei Ohtani to defend Home Run Derby title Continue reading...

On one hand these Tokyo Games could be a recipe for disaster. On the other persisting with deeply flawed ideas is very much in line with the Olympic spiritThe Delta variant of the coronavirus is in full flower. Japan is under a state of emergency. Less than a quarter of Japanese population has been jabbed. In a few days’ time USA Swimming’s Michael Andrew and other anti-vaxxers will descend on Tokyo and parts surrounding to go for gold inside fan-less stadia. On one hand this could be a recipe for disaster. On the other persisting with deeply flawed ideas is very much in line with the Olympic spirit.Consider the case of the 1904 Games, the first worldwide Olympics held outside of Europe. The decision to stage them in the US nearly scuttled the Olympic experiment as we know it. Not only was the host nation an ocean away, but the host city, St Louis, was in the midwest, making for terrifically expensive and slow travel. All together 12 countries showed, with some events playing out like US national trials (which to say the field was all-American). In the end the host nation bagged 238 medals‚ or 223 more than second-place Germany. A German-American gymnast named George Eye won six medals that year on a wooden left leg, including gold in the vault after jumping over a long horse without a springboard. Continue reading...

Prosecutors in New York, Georgia and Washington have inquiries that could yield further, serious charges against the ex-presidentAs a New York criminal investigation continues after bringing tax fraud charges against Donald Trump’s business and a top executive, other prosecutors in Georgia, Washington DC and New York have inquiries under way that could also yield serious charges against Trump and his company, according to former prosecutors and public records.Related: Rupert Murdoch approved Fox News calling Arizona for Biden, book claims Continue reading...

Filibuster exception would allow Democrats to push through their voting rights reform bill over unanimous Republican oppositionTop Democrats in the House are spearheading a new effort to convince the Senate to carve out a historic exception to the filibuster that would allow them to push through their marquee voting rights and election reform legislation over unanimous Republican opposition.The sweeping measure to expand voting rights known as S1 fell victim to a Republican filibuster last month after the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his leadership team unified the conference to sink the bill in a party-line vote. Continue reading...

Exile communities, ready supply of military veterans, history of corrupt local politics and drugs money make city a nexus for mayhemOne of the less surprising developments in the unfolding mystery of the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse is the central role of Miami in the whole story.For decades, Miami has been the launching pad and a byword for half-baked plots and coups – from the Bay of Pigs, the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961, to last year’s harebrained raid on Venezuela, and now, allegedly, last week’s murder of the Haitian president. Most of the supposed participants were killed or arrested in the 24 hours after the murder. Continue reading...

Warning of potential for ‘extreme growth’ of Oregon blaze as two die in Arizona fire reconnaissance plane crashFirefighters are working in extreme heat to contain a number of wildfires raging across the US west, with the largest burning in California and Oregon, as another heatwave bakes the region and puts strain on power grids.The Beckwourth Complex, which is the largest wildfire of the year in California, was raging along the Nevada state line and has burned about 140 square miles (362 sq km) as of Monday. State regulators have asked consumers to voluntarily “conserve as much electricity as possible” to avoid any outages starting in the afternoon. Continue reading...

Non-profit group sees apparent surge in number of migrant deaths this yearThe 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...

Fire and Fury infuriated a president and fueled a publishing boom. Its latest sequel is required reading for anyone who fears for American democracyThe 45th president is out of office and Michael Wolff has brought his Trump trilogy to a close. First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three, and that is saying plenty.Related: Frankly, We Did Win This Election review: a devastating dispatch from Trumpworld Continue reading...

Jen Psaki said he will also ‘decry efforts to strip the right to vote’ as Republican state legislatures pass voter suppression billsJoe 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...

US department store chain will put fashion brand’s clothing back in brick and mortar shopsThe online fashion retailer Asos has struck a deal with the US department store chain Nordstrom that will put Topshop clothing back in brick and mortar stores.Nordstrom is taking a minority stake in the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and activewear HIIT brands – which Asos bought in March after the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire – for an undisclosed sum, as part of a joint venture announced on Monday. Continue reading...

The racism, violence and abuse are problems the sport can police, but only wider political and societal forces can solveAnd so, back to black. The Wembley gates have been rushed. Anthems have been booed, stewards punched, murals defaced, racism paraded across social media. The lads are gacked up on Cake and Russel Dust outside Bella Pasta, flicking Vs in little Italy, abusing passers-by in the tube station.A prime minister who has done more than any other person in Britain to enable division and stupidity, has sent a message condemning division and stupidity. A home secretary who employs cynical and divisive rhetoric is “disgusted” to find people have taken her seriously. Continue reading...

Edwards dominated Louisiana politics for three decades and won race against David Duke saying ‘Vote for the crook – it’s important’Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living four-term governor whose three-decade dominance of Louisiana politics was all but overshadowed by scandal and an eight-year federal prison stretch, died on Monday. He was 93.Related: Top US commander in Afghanistan set to step down as troops withdraw – live Continue reading...

After 46 years, I’m lowering my expectations. Who needs more than ice-cream and a few salty snacks?

• Juan Mora, 80, died with his wife and son in the Surfside disaster• Mora took part in the abortive 1961 invasion of CubaAs workers continue to search the rubble of the collapsed condo building in Surfside, Florida, stories of the extraordinary lives of victims are starting to emerge, among them a Cuban exile who took part in the calamitous Bay of Pigs invasion 60 years ago.Related: Death toll rises to 90 in Miami condo collapse as search for victims continues Continue reading...

While Biden defends electronic bands as alternative to detention, advocates urge proper legal help for immigrants show up to courtImmigrants in America who are forced to wear electronic ankle monitors suffer from an emotional, mental and physical toll, which includes trouble sleeping, mental health problems, problems at work and thoughts of suicide, a new report reveals.The news comes amid an effort by the Biden administration to boost the use of the monitors as an alternative to putting people in brick-and mortar prisons as they await the outcome of their immigration cases. Continue reading...

The quiet dignity of England’s football team was in marked contrast to the prime minister’s cynical opportunismBy any normal standards, England’s performance in the European Championship was outstanding. The team reached heights it hadn’t for over half a century – and its off-field behaviour was dignified and sportsmanlike, a credit to England’s remarkable leader, Gareth Southgate. At the final whistle, the contest was a draw. The aftermath was a tragedy, requiring a “result” from a penalty shootout. This involved the ritual evisceration of young players’ emotions on the altar of entertainment.Related: England may have lost, but Southgate’s team shows us the nation we can be | Hugh Muir Continue reading...

American was a 500-1 shot to win the last time the major was at Royal St George’s and is able to shrug off perception of being an unsatisfactory winnerAs the 149th Open Championship rumbles towards its Sunday conclusion, Ben Curtis will be staging a charity brunch in a quiet corner of Ohio. Sixty guests will learn what it is like to win a Royal St George’s Open from the man who did that in 2003. Yet it seems a harsh reality that Curtis could walk outside the ropes in Kent this week without the majority of fellow gallery members knowing who he was. The American, who is 44, stopped playing competitively in 2017.“I’m at peace with it,” he says. “I still watch occasionally. There were multiple things but I was just tired of being away from family. When they are young they can travel, but that becomes very difficult as they get into school. Continue reading...

People are dying. Aquatic animals are baking in their shells. Fruit is being cooked on the tree. It’s time to actHuman beings crave clarity, immediacy, landmark events. We seek turning points, because our minds are good at recognizing the specific – this time, this place, this sudden event, this tangible change. This is why we were never very good, most of us, at comprehending climate change in the first place. The climate was an overarching, underlying condition of our lives and planet, and the change was incremental and intricate and hard to recognize if you weren’t keeping track of this species or that temperature record. Climate catastrophe is a slow shattering of the stable patterns that governed the weather, the seasons, the species and migrations, all the beautifully orchestrated systems of the holocene era we exited when we manufactured the anthropocene through a couple of centuries of increasingly wanton greenhouse gas emissions and forest destruction.This spring, when I saw the shockingly low water of Lake Powell, I thought that maybe this summer would be a turning point. At least for the engineering that turned the southwest’s Colorado River into a sort of plumbing system for human use, with two huge dams that turned stretches of a mighty river into vast pools of stagnant water dubbed Lake Powell, on the eastern Utah/Arizona border, and Lake Mead, in southernmost Nevada. It’s been clear for years that the overconfident planners of the 1950s failed to anticipate that, while they tinkered with the river, industrial civilization was also tinkering with the systems that fed it. 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...

Vermont senator tells New York Times $2tn or $3tn will not be enough for new infrastructure packageBernie Sanders plans to visit “Trumpworld” to persuade supporters of the former president of the errors of their ways, the Vermont senator and leading progressive said in an interview published on Sunday.Related: Biden’s clean energy plan would cut emissions and save 317,000 lives Continue reading...

Blazes in the north of California amid record-high temperatures are threatening power supplies. Plus, Haiti crisis deepens after president’s assassinationGood morning.Under punishing temperatures, firefighters have struggled to get a northern California wildfire under control as another heatwave prompted excessive heat warnings throughout the state. Continue reading...

The city has pledged to find shelter for unhoused residents at the beach boardwalk, but some fear they will just be shuffled alongAt the edge of the sand of Venice Beach, rows of tents, recycled furniture and makeshift structures dot the palm tree-lined boardwalk, providing flimsy shelters for a community of unhoused people that has ballooned during the Covid pandemic.The encampment in the tourist destination has become the latest flashpoint in Los Angeles’ homelessness debate, with councilmembers, mayoral candidates, police leaders, activists, anti-encampment protesters, TV crews, citizen journalists and service providers descending on the boardwalk in a vicious public fight over a growing humanitarian crisis. Continue reading...

The US and British withdrawal has set off panic, but the truth is they were exacerbating the problem they were trying to solveFriends keep asking me to sign petitions urging President Biden to change his mind about withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. They all agree that the US can’t stay in the country for ever but this, they say, is not the time to leave: the Taliban are surging, and the social gains of the past 20 years are in jeopardy.I’ve not signed any of those petitions. Yes, the Taliban have committed horrific offences, and they won’t stop. And they must be stopped. Just the other day I saw a video of villagers in northern Afghanistan burying a dozen civilians killed by a bomb: an old woman wept because her whole family had been wiped out. Oh, but wait – that bomb was dropped by the government, delivered by drone. Continue reading...

Texans from across the ideological spectrum flocked to testify in person at public hearings convened by governor Greg AbbottHailee 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...

Biden chief medical adviser says guidance may change in future as Pfizer suggests booster ‘may be beneficial’ after six monthsDr 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...

Sean Penn has criticised Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, likening the former president’s approach to someone opening fire on vulnerable communities. Speaking at a press conference following the premiere of his new film, Flag Day, the actor said: 'It felt like someone with a machine gun gunning down communities that were most vulnerable from a turret at the White House.'

As older owners retire, millions of small businesses will change hands, and that means opportunities for young entrepreneursWhen you think of the typical small business do you think of the savvy and beautiful actor Anne Hathaway, who ran a Brooklyn-based fashion startup in The Intern? Or maybe you’re thinking of Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network?Related: Looking to grow your business and hire? Please, ditch the jargon | Gene Marks Continue reading...

• 2020 already a more deadly year on lakes than 2019• Heatwaves and swimming lesson hiatus among factorsRising 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...

We know governments are swayed by public opinion, but government policy may change us, tooPublic preferences can affect public policy – that’s what the whole democracy thing is about. Or at least the focus group part of it. But it turns out the policy/preferences relationship is a two-way street: government policy can affect our preferences, too. That’s the conclusion of new research examining Germans’ willingness to be vaccinated.Germans were asked how likely they were to agree to be vaccinated under different government approaches. And, by a clear margin, they were more positive about coming forward if vaccination was optional rather than mandatory. That difference reflects their reaction to the government approach, not any different information about vaccine benefits or risks. Willingness to be jabbed was also linked to trust in public institutions – so the NHS’s vaccine success is about more than sticking the needles in. Continue reading...

I’ve had an almost pandemic-free existence reporting from Taiwan, but it hasn’t all been a smooth ride

Vicky Ward’s 13-part series will focus on a manipulative con artist and the men involved with himThe disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been dead almost two years and his consort Ghislaine Maxwell is firmly behind bars awaiting trial, but the world’s obsession with the pair of accused high society sex traffickers who allegedly preyed on young girls continues unabated.The latest addition to the canon of lore on Epstein, Maxwell and rich and powerful social circles they moved in comes from the veteran British journalist Vicky Ward, who is launching a 13-part podcast based on hours of unpublished interviews with Epstein. Continue reading...

As the Taliban exploits the hasty US withdrawal, the fallout on

A candidate for Buffalo’s mayor seat, Walton attributes her success to ‘really experiencing so many tragedies and traumas’India Walton was just 14 when she had her first baby. After leaving a home for young mothers, and quitting high school at 19 when her twins were born, she went on to get her GED (the general educational development test for those who did not complete their schooling), have a fourth child and become a nurse.Now she’s firmly on the path to becoming the mayor of Buffalo, New York – the first socialist mayor elected to a US city since 1960, when mayor Frank Zeidler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin left office. Continue reading...

A poll finds American adults are happy with their partnerships, perhaps because lockdown has pushed couples to growFrom 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 administrationKamala 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...