Good morning.
The royal family and the world are saying a “last farewell” to Queen Elizabeth II during a state funeral at Westminster Abbey today attended by a 2,000-strong congregation including world leaders.
Police described the security operation, with more than 10,000 officers on duty, as the biggest in Britain’s history.
In a statement, King Charles III said he and the Queen Consort had been “moved beyond measure” by those who had paid their respects to the late Queen.
He said: “Over the last 10 days, my wife and I have been so deeply touched by the many messages of condolence and support we have received from this country and across the world.
“As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my family and myself in this time of grief.”
When did Joe Biden arrive in the UK? He landed in London yesterday. The US president then went to Westminster Hall yesterday evening to pay his respects to the late Queen, attending the lying-in-state with the first lady, Jill Biden, before an official state reception hosted by the King at Buckingham Palace.
Who else will attend the funeral? Hundreds of foreign royals and heads of state were expected to attend the funeral, in one of the biggest diplomatic gatherings in decades. About 500 heads of state and foreign dignitaries were expected. Also attending Britain’s first state funeral for six decades were the Queen’s family, courtiers, public figures and UK politicians.
Proud Boys memo reveals meticulous planning for ‘street-level violence’
The document is so dowdy and formal it resembles the annual minutes of a society of tax accountants, writes Ed Pilkington. Its index lists sections on “objectives” and “rules of engagement” and carries an “addendum” that provides recommendations for hotels and parking.
On the cover, two words give a clue to the notoriety of the group that produced it: “MAGA” and “WARNING”. That and the date, 5 January 2021, the day before the US Capitol attack.
What goes unsaid on the cover and is barely mentioned throughout the 23 pages is that this is the work of one of the most violent political gangs in America, the far-right street fighters whom Donald Trump told to “stand back and stand by”: the Proud Boys.
The document, published by the Guardian for the first time, gives a very rare insight into the meticulous planning that goes into events staged by the far-right club.
What does the document show? It shows the lengths to which the Proud Boys go to prepare for potentially violent encounters and then to cover their tracks – something prosecutors have stressed but that has never been seen in the group’s own words. It exposes the militaristic structure and language the Proud Boys have adopted, and their aspiration to become the frontline vigilante force in a Trump-led America.
Utah polygamist sect accused of indoctrination, rape and child marriage
Ten former members of a Utah-based polygamist sect known as the Kingston Group are pursuing punitive damages against the organization after they say it subjected them to years of unpaid labor, sexual violence and human trafficking.
In a lawsuit filed this month, the ex-members allege: “It is largely through … illegal marriage practices that the [Kingston Group] is able to unlawfully make girls and their children religious martyrs and traffic them for sexual and labor purposes.”
The lawsuit contains explicit details of how Kingston Group leaders – who own and operate several businesses and schools in the suburbs of Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City – allegedly arrange incestuous and sometimes underage marriages between teenage girls and adult men with exalted status to produce hundreds of children.
The suit alleges episodes of rape aimed at forcing pregnancy, group members covering up years of sexual abuse and indoctrinating children in elementary school about plural marriage.
What do the complainants say? One of them, Amanda Rae Grant, claims she was assigned to work in her early teens at Advance Copy, where wedding announcements and invitations were printed, because “wedding pictures of little girls marrying men in incestuous or plural marriages could not be printed at Walmart”.
In other news …
Most of Puerto Rico is without power after a category 1 hurricane bringing heavy rains and dangerous winds made landfall yesterday evening, causing severe flooding and landslides and damaging infrastructure. Hurricane Fiona was causing “catastrophic flooding”, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The Taliban have freed an American engineer in exchange for an Afghan tribal leader linked to the group whom the US had held on drugs charges since 2005. Mark Frerichs was exchanged at Kabul airport for Bashir Noorzai.
The decision by the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, to move unwitting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last week has been compared to a “mini-ethnic cleansing with genocidal precedence” by a philosopher who has closely studied dehumanization and its role in genocide and the Holocaust.
Joe Biden has again said US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, in his most explicit statement so far on the issue. Asked in a CBS 60 Minutes interview broadcast whether US forces would defend the self-ruled island, he replied: “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”
Stat of the day: Biden says Covid ‘pandemic is over’, despite US daily death toll in the hundreds
Joe Biden has said “the pandemic is over”, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, though he admitted “we still have a problem with Covid”. But nearly 400 people a day continue to die from Covid in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The president told CBS’s 60 Minutes: “We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”
Don’t miss this: Roe reversal powers new generation to sign up and vote
Sonya Koenig is scared. A 19-year-old student from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Koenig often stays up until 2am thinking, writes Poppy Noor. Sometimes she paces up and down the hall, or speaks to her roommate about nightmare scenarios. In August, a week after her 19th birthday, Koenig signed up to vote. She is one of many women registering in droves since the supreme court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion on 24 June. “My brain is constantly on fire. I can’t relax. I just want this election to be over with,” says Koenig.
… or this: ‘We need to find our kin, people who speak the same language’ – the power of shared grief, from Covid to the Queen
As many have noted, this period of national mourning has a peculiarly British tinge, with the rain, the queueing, the marmalade sandwiches. People stood through the night, in a miles-long line, to pay their last respects to the Queen, lying in state. The TV coverage was almost soothing in its bland repetition, and its sombre reverence unavoidable. But why are so many people mourning a queen they’ve never met? Is it about Elizabeth II the person, or what she represented for Britain and the world – or us, and our apparently unrelated sorrows? Emine Saner talks to psychotherapists, anthropologists – and the bereaved.
Climate check: Burning world’s fossil fuel reserves could emit 3.5tn tons of greenhouse gas
Burning the world’s proven reserves of fossil fuels would emit more planet-heating emissions than have occurred since the industrial revolution, easily blowing the remaining carbon budget before societies are subjected to catastrophic global heating, a new analysis has found. A total of 3.5tn tons of greenhouse gas emissions will be emitted if governments allow identified reserves of coal, oil and gas to be extracted and used, according to what has been described as the first public database of fossil fuel production.
Last Thing: California teens identify two new scorpion species
A pair of California scorpion species that may have crawled under the radar for tens of thousands of years have finally been exposed – thanks to the efforts of two Bay Area teenagers. And for one at-risk species, the students’ work could prove life-saving. Prakrit Jain, of Los Altos, and Harper Forbes, of Sunnyvale, 17 and 18 at the time, identified two new species – Paruroctonus soda and Paruroctonus conclusus – after a tip from social media and excursions into the harsh terrain the arachnids inhabit, aided by a black light and Jain’s mother’s car.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
