US Politics

First ThingUS newsFirst Thing: US and UK battle to contain backlash to Aukus pactNuclear submarine deal with Australia draws mixed response plus, message in a bottle found after 37 years Nicola SlawsonFri 17 Sep 2021 05.41 EDTLast modified on Fri 17 Sep 2021 05.47 EDTGood morning.The US and Britain are battling to contain an international backlash over a nuclear submarine pact struck with Australia amid concerns that the alliance could provoke China and prompt conflict in the Pacific.The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, made clear that the administration had chosen to close ranks with Australia in the face of belligerent Chinese behaviour. He said: “While we seek a constructive results-oriented relationship with [China], we will remain clear-eyed in our view of Beijing’s efforts to undermine the established international order.”Meanwhile, Taiwan has welcomed support from major allies after a US-Australia ministerial forum pledged stronger ties with the island and the European parliament called for a bilateral trade deal. Beijing has been adopting an increasingly aggressive stance towards Taipei, which has long received military support from the US.
What is the Aukus agreement? The US and UK have pledged to share sensitive technology with Australia to let it develop its first nuclear-powered submarines.
How has China reacted? China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian accused the three partners of engaging in an “obsolete cold war zero-sum mentality”.
What did Taiwan say? Taiwan’s ministry of foreign affairs “sincerely thanked” the US and Australia for their “firm and open” support.
Facebook steps up fight against climate misinformation – but critics say effort falls shortFacebook has announced new efforts to combat climate crisis misinformation on its platform, including by expanding its climate science center to provide more reliable information, investing in organizations that fight misinformation, and launching a video series to highlight young climate advocates on Facebook and Instagram.But critics say the new push, announced on Thursday, falls short and will allow vast amounts of climate misinformation to slip through the cracks.Facebook has long been criticized for allowing misinformation about the climate crisis to proliferate on its platform. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, admitted in a 2021 April congressional hearing that climate misinformation is “a big issue”. In the past, the company has said such misinformation accounts for “a very low percentage of total misinformation on the service” but declined to share figures.
The climate denial watchdog group InfluenceMap found dozens of climate denial ads had been viewed more than 8m times after slipping through the social network’s filters.
One recent study conducted by Friends of the Earth, an environmental organization, found about 99% of climate misinformation about the February 2021 power outages in Texas went unchecked.
Facebook has rejected the study’s findings, calling its characterization “misleading”.
Far-right groups tell supporters planned Washington rally is a government ‘trap’Extremist groups and prominent rightwing figures are warning supporters not to attend a far-right rally in support of the people arrested for participating in the 6 January Capitol attack, calling the event a “false flag” and a “trap”.Capitol police are bracing for potential violence at the “Justice for J6” protest rally, which is taking place in Washington DC on Saturday, and security fencing has gone up once more around the Capitol building.But local and federal officials have also said that they expect no more than 700 people to attend the protest, a far cry from the estimated tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump who converged on the Capitol in January.Across rightwing social media platforms, “most people who are talking about the event in any capacity are telling people to steer clear of DC,” Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said.
Who is organizing the rally? It’s being organized by Look Ahead America, a group run by Matt Braynard, who was briefly employed by Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign
World’s largest tree wrapped in fire-resistant blanket as California blaze creeps closerFirefighters have wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.The colossal General Sherman tree in Sequoia national park’s giant forest, some of the other sequoias, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings were wrapped as protection against the possibility of intense flames, fire spokesperson Rebecca Paterson said.The aluminium wrapping can withstand intensive heat for short periods. Federal officials say they have been using the material for several years throughout the US west to protect sensitive structures from flames. Homes near Lake Tahoe that were wrapped in protective material survived while others nearby were destroyed.
Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
In other news …
US congressional investigators say they have uncovered “very concerning” new documents about ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign to discredit climate science. Representative Ro Khanna said the documents were “troubling”.
Academics of color are being targeted by the Professor Watchlist, an online list of academics curated by the rightwing Turning Point USA (TPUSA) group, a powerful supporter of Donald Trump and his Republican party allies.
A single bitcoin transaction generates the same amount of electronic waste as throwing two iPhones in the bin, according to a new analysis by economists from the Dutch central bank and MIT, which highlights the vast churn in computer hardware that the cryptocurrency incentivises.
Simone Biles offered emotional testimony at a US senate hearing on Tuesday into the Larry Nassar abuse scandal, an episode that rocked the world of gymnastics and involved some of the most famous young athletes in America.
Don’t miss this: Genesis on prog, 80s stardom and Phil Collins’s health“Below the radar” may be a strange way of describing a band who have sold more than 150m albums. But, then, Genesis have always been peculiarly self-effacing. From their early-70s, Peter Gabriel-fronted iteration, where they quickly ascended from progressive rock to their staggeringly successful 80s years, they remain a wildly popular – yet pleasingly eccentric – proposition. But how, exactly, did Genesis move from being titans of prog – famed for 20-minute epics, lofty concept suites and bizarre costume changes – to stadium-filling 80s everyman popsters?Climate check: Humans are encroaching on grizzly territory. Can we live together?A fatal encounter with a grizzly bear, or any bear, is exceptionally rare but in Montana the recent killing of 65-year-old camper Leah Davis Lokan is seen as further evidence that a burgeoning and spreading grizzly population, aided by four decades of federal protection, is now increasingly bumping up against residents and visitors of the US west. The number of bears is increasing as the human population in bear strongholds in south-west Montana has escalated by up to a third over the past decade. The two species now share more mutual startled gawps and more conflicts.Want more environmental stories delivered to your inbox? Sign up to our Green Light newsletter to get the good, bad and essential news on the climate every weekLast thing: Message in a bottle from Japan washes up on Hawaii beach after 37 yearsA glass bottle that was released into the sea 37 years ago by high school students in Japan has been found on the island of Hawaii, about 6,000km away. Students of the natural science club at Choshi high school in the eastern prefecture of Chiba released the bottle in 1984 as part of a project to investigate ocean currents, Japanese newspaper Mainichi reported. At a briefing on 15 September about the discovery, the school’s vice-principal Jun Hayashi said: “We thought the last one was found in Kikaijima. We never imagined another would be found 37 years on.”Sign upSign up for the US morning briefingFirst Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.Get in touchIf you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected] newsFirst ThingUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Jonathan Freedland hosted a special Guardian Live event where he spoke to the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. As the US commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks last weekend, the pair talked about her memories of the day, given she was the senator for New York at the time; how US politics has changed since then; and whether or not retaliation by American forces has made the US and the world a safer or more dangerous place

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Find out more about Guardian Live events here More

Joe BidenMic drop: Republican senator’s claim of button to silence Biden draws chucklesJames Risch questioned the secretary of state about an official supposedly able to mute the president – ‘Who is that person?’ S More

Biden administrationExperts divided over Covid booster shots days ahead of US rolloutHealth officials scramble to prepare for rollout despite a void of critical details amid chaos Alexandra VillarrealThu 16 Sep 2021 13.15 EDTLast modified on Thu 16 Sep 2021 13.29 EDTMere days ahead of the Biden administration’s self-imposed deadline to begin Covid-19 booster shots, experts remain deeply divided over the benefits of a third jab, while health officials are scrambling to prepare for the rollout despite a void of critical details.The vast majority of vaccinated adults in the United States want a booster, some so urgently that they are already fudging their vaccination records to get one.So – despite controversy and confusion about whether the additional shots are even necessary amid a global shortage – the White House is under immense political pressure to follow through with starting boosters next week.“Weeks ago, the administration decided that the public needs cake and deserves cake, and so shall have cake,” John P Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, told the New York Times. “Now, the public expects cake and would be very annoyed if its cake was taken away at this point.”Last month, the US’s top health officials announced a plan to officially greenlight boosters starting the week of 20 September, pending endorsement by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Back then, they said Americans would qualify for a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine eight months after their second – a timeline that could make millions eligible next week.But Moderna didn’t provide adequate data on boosters, leaving only the Pfizer vaccine as a possibility in time for this month’s deadline. On Friday, an FDA advisory committee will consider Pfizer’s application concerning third doses for patients 16 and older.An advisory committee for the CDC – which usually dictates vaccination policy – is teed up for a meeting next week.Third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are already available to those with compromised immune systems. But the plan for such an expansive booster rollout followed alarming reports of waning vaccine efficacy in Israel, where an urgent campaign to vaccinate quickly has made the country a data source for other parts of the world.It also coincided with yet another major uptick in US infections, driven by the highly infectious Delta variant. Those cases are currently on a downward trend.Joe Biden has described boosters as if they are a no-brainer and plans to get his own once they are widely available, according to Reuters.“As a simple rule – rule: eight months after your second shot, get a booster shot,” Biden said. “It will make you safer and for longer. And it will help us end the pandemic faster.”But some experts were upset by the administration’s perceived meddling in important health decisions, Politico reported.Earlier this week, two of the FDA’s top vaccine regulators – who are reportedly departing the agency at least in part because of opposition to the booster policy – joined an international group of experts in challenging the general population’s current need for additional protection.The vaccines remain highly effective against severe disease, they wrote in the Lancet, while boosters could pose risks if “widely introduced too soon, or too frequently”. “Current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations,” they wrote.As experts debate, state and local health officials are trying to get ready to possibly administer boosters next week. But amid the chaos, they are being left in the dark.“What is the interval for boosters? Is it any shorter than eight months at this point? What is the age cut-off? Will there be priority groupings?” Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN.“We don’t want to appear uncoordinated on boosters.”TopicsBiden administrationCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

FranceAukus deal showing France and EU that Biden not all he seemsAnalysis: the western alliance is the main victim – and China will win out unless US can soothe Paris’s anger Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editorThu 16 Sep 2021 12.09 EDTLast modified on Thu 16 Sep 2021 14.22 EDTFury in Paris at Australia’s decision to tear up plans to buy a French-built fleet of submarines is not only a row about a defence contract, cost overruns and technical specifications. It throws into question the transatlantic alliance to confront China.The Aukus deal has left the French political class seething at Joe Biden’s Trumpian unilateralism, Australian two-facedness and the usual British perfidy. “Nothing was done by sneaking behind anyone’s back,” assured the British defence minister, Ben Wallace, in an attempt to soothe the row. But that is not the view in Paris. “This is an enormous disappointment,” said Florence Parly, the French defence minister.As recently as August, Parly had held a summit with her Australian counterpart, Peter Dutton, in Paris, and issued a lengthy joint communique highlighting the importance of their joint work on the submarines as part of a broader strategy to contain China in the Indo-Pacific region. Given Dutton’s failure to tell his French counterparts of the months of secret negotiations with the US, the only conclusion can be he was kept out of the loop, was deeply forgetful, or chose not to reveal what he knew.There was no forewarning. France only heard through rumours in the Australian media that its contract was about to be torn up live on TV in a video link-up between the White House, Canberra and London.Moreover, the move was presented not only as a switch from the diesel-powered subs France was building to longer-range nuclear vessels, but as part of a new three-way security pact for the region that would develop new technologies. Perhaps someone had decided the French could not be trusted to join this alliance. Perhaps there were sensitivities around US-UK tech transfer in nuclear propulsion and the other areas of tech cooperation, such as undersea drones, artificial intelligence and quantum.To add insult to injury, Biden timed the announcement for the day before the EU was to publish its long-planned Indo-Pacific policy. The EU said it was not consulted in advance, although Pentagon officials said otherwise.Australia said it had given ample warning that design delays meant it could look elsewhere by September, and France’s Naval Group was in fact given until September to revise its plans for the next two years of the project.But in reality, Australia was already working on plan B with the US. To French eyes, Biden had showed – and not for the first time – that he will put the US national interest first.01:27The language emanating from Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister and the man behind the original 2016 deal with Australia, is unprecedented. “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr Trump used to do. I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies. It’s really a stab in the back.”Emmanuel Macron, too, will be livid. He received Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, on 15 June at the Élysée Palace, referring to the contract for the 12 submarines as a “pillar [of] the partnership and of the relationship of trust between [the] two countries. Such a programme is based on the transfer of knowhow and technology and will bind us for decades to come.”Coming on top of the mishandled US exit from Afghanistan, a Nato operation in which allies had little say, France and the EU have come to terms with the fact that Biden is not all he seemed when he travelled to Brussels to promise America was back.Doubtless the US believes French ire will subside, or is a piece of artifice ahead of the French presidential elections. France is a major arms exporter, and the loss of an estimated €10bn (£7.25bn), once penalty clauses are included, hardly dents this industry. A state visit to Washington for Macron, a few contracts directed at the French Naval Group in Cherbourg, some Biden charm, an assurance that this was a purely Australian military decision based on a changed threat assessment, and all can be smoothed over.But that is not the language emanating from Paris or Brussels. France points out that the engine was designed specifically as a diesel to meet Australian specifications and it could have offered nuclear-powered subs. But France’s exclusion shows the extent to which the US does not trust it with nuclear technology. This is a big win for Boris Johnson, and those that said post-Brexit Britain would remain more important to the US than the EU, even if it is going to alarm the pro-China business lobby in the UK. Macron now has no option but to restate the case for greater European strategic defence autonomy, a subject less evidenced in real life than the seminars devoted to it. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Wednesday promised in her state of the union address an EU defence summit, saying Europe has to acquire the political will to build up and deploy its own military forces.Senior US officials in briefing on the Aukus deal seemed unaware of the offence it would cause, blandly saying the alliance “is not only intended to improve our capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, but also to involve Europe, especially Great Britain, more closely in our strategy in the region”.Washington, if it is wise, will work flat out to convince France it can still be a partner in the Indo-Pacific. If not, the only long-term beneficiary will be China.TopicsFranceUS politicsChinaForeign policyAsia PacificanalysisReuse this content More

CaliforniaCalifornia Democrats vow to change ‘weaponized’ recall systemState has one of the nation’s lowest thresholds for the number of signatures needed to trigger a recall election A More

Climate crimesExxonMobilExxon and BP called to testify on climate after ‘troubling’ new documentsCongressman calls documents related to the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to discredit climate science ‘very concerning’ Supported byAbout this contentChris McGrealThu 16 Sep 2021 11.13 EDTLast modified on Thu 16 Sep 2021 14.59 EDTUS congressional investigators say they have uncovered “very concerning” new documents about ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign to discredit climate science.Representative Ro Khanna, a leading critic of the petroleum industry on the House oversight committee, said the documents came to light ahead of a hearing next month to question the heads of large oil companies about their industry’s long history of undermining the evidence that burning fossil fuels drove global heating.Khanna declined to discuss the information beyond describing it as “very troubling facts and some very concerning documents”.On Thursday, the House oversight committee sent out letters summoning the heads of four firms – Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP – to testify on 28 October.The letter to Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said the “fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits” while devastating communities, ravaging the natural world and costing taxpayers billions of dollars.“We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change,” the letter said.The hearings follow a secret recording of an Exxon lobbyist earlier this year describing the oil giant’s backing for a carbon tax as a public relations ploy intended to stall more serious measures to combat the climate crisis.“The big oil companies owe the American people an explanation,” said Khanna, a California Democrat who chairs the environmental subcommittee. “They need to admit what they’ve done on climate misinformation in the past, they need to acknowledge what they’re currently doing in terms of spending dark money, and they need to commit 100% that they’re going to stop any climate disinformation campaign.”The congressman said it was “unbelievable” that oil industry leaders have yet to face questioning by Congress about the climate crisis. He likened the hearings to the groundbreaking appearance of seven tobacco company chiefs before Congress in 1994 to expose what the cigarette companies knew about the hazards of smoking. He said the oversight committee is currently being advised by some of those involved in those hearings.Khanna said he wants to hear from the leaders of the oil giants not only about past actions but their continued funding of front groups and thinktanks spreading disinformation about climate science, the covert funding of denialist advertising and the use of lobby groups to oppose green legislation.“The magnifying glass is particularly important now so that they don’t interfere with the Congress’s agenda to get all kinds of legislation. We will not tackle the climate crisis successfully if we don’t first put an end to climate disinformation,” he said.The committee is also requesting that the heads of two major trade groups closely aligned with the oil industry, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Chamber of Commerce, answer questions about their role in the coverup.Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, is suing API, alleging that it “engaged in a public-relations campaign that was not only false, but also highly effective” to undermine climate science.Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse told the Guardian earlier this year that API was acting as a front for the industry by allowing oil firms to claim they were committed to addressing climate change while API lobbied against green policies in Congress. Whitehouse accused API of “lying on a massive industrial scale”.In 1998, after countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to help curb carbon emissions, API drew up a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign to ensure that “climate change becomes a non-issue”. The plan said “victory will be achieved” when “recognition of uncertainties become part of the ‘conventional wisdom’”.Similarly, the US Chamber of Commerce has helped downplay the climate crisis and oppose legislation to curb greenhouse emissions.In 2015, the Columbia Journalism School and the Los Angeles Times uncovered a raft of Exxon documents held at the University of Texas that showed the company worked to undermine climate science by promoting denialism.Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, Lee Raymond, told industry executives in 1996 that “scientific evidence remains inconclusive as to whether human activities affect global climate”.This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate storyTopicsExxonMobilClimate crimesBPRoyal Dutch ShellChevronOilUS CongressUS politicsnewsReuse this content More