Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Special counsel Jack Smith has brought three new felony charges against former president Donald Trump in the investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House. Trump has been charged with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, according to the court docket.
Federal prosecutors also added a third defendant, Carlos de Oliveira, who they say joined Trump and aide Walt Nauta to seek the destruction of security footage.
Lawyers for Trump met with members of Smith’s team investigating the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump said his attorneys had a “productive” meeting with the Department of Justice this morning, and that “no indication of notice” was given during the meeting.
Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter on tax- and gun-related charges, the White House said. In court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two tax charges, both misdemeanours. He had been expected to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that also included a pre-trial diversion program on the guns charge, a felony.
Joe Biden announced new steps to help Americans face the “existential threat of climate change” and extreme heat. The new measures will shield workers from high temperatures, improve weather forecasting, strengthen access to drinking water and otherwise improve heat resilience, Biden said.
The supreme court cleared what may be the last obstacle to construction of the Mountain Valley pipeline, a controversial natural gas conduit in West Virginia and Virginia.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, suffered an initially unreported fall earlier this month, before a very public health scare this week revived questions about his age and fitness.
The Trump campaign has released a statement following the news that the former president faces additional charges in the case surrounding his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
The statement reads:
This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.
Deranged Jack Smith knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden.
Here’s a bit more detail on Carlos De Oliveira, the maintenance worker at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate who has been charged by federal prosecutors investigating the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
De Oliveira has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct efforts to retrieve the documents, along with Trump and his aide Walt Nauta.
He first came to the attention of prosecutors as they investigated Trump’s response to repeated efforts by federal officials to retrieve presidential records and classified material that he had taken with him after leaving the White House, according to the New York Times.
Mr De Oliveira was caught on a surveillance camera moving boxes into a storage room at Mar-a-Lago at a crucial moment of the investigation: in the days between the issuance of a grand jury subpoena demanding all remaining classified material in Mr Trump’s possession and a visit by federal prosecutors to see Mr Trump’s lawyers and enforce the subpoena.
Phone records show that Mr De Oliveira also called an information technology worker at Mar-a-Lago last summer. The call caught the government’s attention because it was placed shortly after prosecutors issued a subpoena to Mr Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, demanding the footage from the surveillance camera near the storage room.
Updated
Trump charged with three new counts
Donald Trump has been charged with three new counts in the case surrounding his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House, according to new court documents.
The former president is charged with one additional count of willful retention of National Defense Information.
The superseding indictment also charges Trump, his aides Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta with two new obstruction counts stemming from allegations that they attempted to delete surveillance camera footage last summer at Mar-a-Lago. From Politico’s Kyle Cheney:
“Attempt to delete security camera footage” pic.twitter.com/UZnRSIW94B
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 27, 2023
Updated
Donald Trump faces additional charges in classified documents case
Special counsel Jack Smith has brought additional charges against Donald Trump in the case surrounding his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House, according to court documents.
The additional allegations of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information were added to the indictment by a team of prosecutors led by Smith. A new defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, was also added to the case.
Carlos De Oliveira, who has just been charged in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, is a longtime employee of Donald Trump.
According to CNN, surveillance footage turned over to justice department officials showed Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, and De Oliveira moving document boxes around the Florida resort, including into a storage room just before Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran searched it for classified documents.
De Oliveira spoke to investigators earlier this year and his phone had been seized, the news channel reported.
Prosecutors have pressed De Oliveira to explain his actions in June 2021, when he helped Nauta move boxes around Trump’s home, as well as in July, when he allegedly had conversations with others about security camera footage, according to the Washington Post.
Second Trump aide charged in classified documents case
A third defendant has been charged alongside Donald Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, in the classified documents case in Florida, according to court documents in Florida.
Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker who helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago after investigators first subpoenaed Trump for classified documents last May.
JUST IN: Carlos de Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago worker, has been charged and added to Donald Trump’s criminal case re classified documents.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 27, 2023
No details on the charges are available, but he appears now on the Trump-Nauta docket. pic.twitter.com/8vT5QqkAhM
Updated
South Carolina senator and GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott has begun to see some momentum in early state polling as the campaign of his rival Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, appears to be floundering.
Several recent early presidential primary state polls show Scott gaining ground on DeSantis. A pair of recent Fox Business polls in South Carolina and Iowa found Scott in the double digits. The senator appears to be picking up some steam in the states that matter most at this point in the race: Iowa and New Hampshire, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, the senator has reportedly met with several Republican governors and key donors in Aspen, Colorado. The Hill reports Republican strategist Mike Dennehy as saying:
He’s just a very positive guy who has a positive message for the country. And after so many years now of a deteriorating political environment, I do think there’s a large segment of voters who want that kind of change.
It comes as the DeSantis campaign confirmed on Tuesday that more than a third of its staff were being cut, “a total of 38 jobs shed across an array of departments”, two senior advisers among them.
Updated
The grand jury conducting special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss has left the federal courthouse in Washington.
Just before 3pm EST, a deputy clerk at the courthouse told journalists that no indictments had been returned on Thursday and that none were expected by the end of the day.
According to a Politico report, anticipation was palpable at the courthouse throughout the day.
Throngs of journalists crowded hallways and looked for signs of movement in the vicinity of the courthouse’s sealed grand jury spaces. Trump’s announcement that his lawyers had met with Smith’s team earlier in the day further fueled speculation that an indictment was imminent.
The media encampment outside the D.C. courthouse continued to grow through the day Thursday, despite the sweltering heat.
Can confirm that prolonged lack of information has led to wild and baseless speculation inside the courthouse about what may or may not be happening with the potential Trump indictment.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 27, 2023
Updated
Vice-President Kamala Harris expressed deep concern over the attempted army coup in Niger during a call with Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, the White House said in a statement.
The statement reads:
The vice president strongly condemned any efforts to seize power by force in Niger, and emphasized that our substantial cooperation with the government of Niger is contingent on Niger’s continued commitment to democratic standards.
Harris and Tinubu committed to “defending democracy” in west Africa and the Sahel, it said.
Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, remained held in the presidential palace this afternoon and it was unclear who had taken charge of the country, after a group of soldiers declared a military coup on Wednesday evening.
Updated
Rightwingers have long cried foul over Hunter Biden’s treatment by federal authorities.
The pardon power is established in article 2 of the US constitution, which says the president “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.
The use of the pardon power has become increasingly controversial; presidents including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump having bestowed pardons and acts of clemency on donors and supporters.
Trump was widely reported to have considered whether he could pardon himself, on issues including alleged collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump also reportedly explored the idea of giving preemptive pardons to family members, another step he did not ultimately take.
Updated
Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter on tax- and gun-related charges, the White House said on Thursday.
At a briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked: “From a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son?”
“No,” Jean-Pierre replied. Pressed, she said:
I just said no. I answered.
In court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two tax charges, both misdemeanours. He had been expected to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that also included a pre-trial diversion program on the guns charge, a felony.
Reporter: “Is there any possibility that the president would end up pardoning his son [Hunter]?”
— The Recount (@therecount) July 27, 2023
White House Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre: “No.” pic.twitter.com/w3aAkhV3K9
Updated
Donald Trump confirmed earlier today that his lawyers met with officials at the office of special prosecutor Jack Smith in Washington DC.
Trump’s attorneys attended the meeting not to argue the facts of the case against indicting the former president, but instead with a broader appeal that indicting him would only cause more turmoil in the country’s political environment, CNN is reporting, citing two sources.
Updated
In other justice department news, the Guardian’s Erum Salam reports that it will investigate Memphis’s police department after the beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of officers earlier this year:
The US Department of Justice has announced an investigation into the city of Memphis and the Memphis police department over its policing practices to examine if they are discriminatory.
The civil pattern or practice investigation will determine if Memphis police violated federal laws or the US constitution. The announcement comes after the police department came under scrutiny for its use of force, stops, searches and arrests that often targeted people of color.
One of these instances involved Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died on 10 January, three days after an encounter with Memphis police during a traffic stop in which he was violently beaten.
Updated
Republican senator Ted Cruz gave a taste of how Donald Trump’s defenders could react if special counsel Jack Smith indicts the former president over his involvement in the January 6 insurrection:
Here are his comments to the conservative Newsmax network:
“The Democrats hate democracy … They are trying to use the machinery of law enforcement to prosecute [Trump].”
— The Recount (@therecount) July 27, 2023
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on the potential upcoming indictment of Trump over January 6th pic.twitter.com/Yq6DgPZrLg
Updated
In the House, Republicans vowed that today would be the day they vote to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt, but then changed their mind. The Guardian’s Mary Yang reports on why:
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, is no stranger to Capitol Hill, where he has sparred with Republicans and Democrats over how he runs his platforms. A Republican-led panel was set to vote on Thursday on a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress, for allegedly failing to turn over internal documents on content moderation.
However, House judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan, a Republican of Ohio, temporarily suspended the vote.
Jordan announced on Twitter that the committee “decided to hold contempt in abeyance. For now” and posted a series of tweets of alleged internal communications among Meta executives hours ahead of the hearing.
White House says president rules out pardon for Hunter Biden after plea deal complications
A day after Hunter Biden’s agreement with prosecutors to resolve federal charges was upended by a judge, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden would not consider pardoning his son, CNN reports:
White House Press Secretary offers a definitive “No” when asked if Biden would ever consider pardoning his son Hunter
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) July 27, 2023
Yesterday, federal judge Maryellen Noreika unexpectedly rejected a deal that would have seen Hunter Biden plead guilty to charges related to failure to pay taxes, and enter a diversion program to resolve lying in a background check to purchase a firearm. Prosecutors and Biden’s attorneys are now expected to negotiate a new agreement that will address concerns Noreika raised about the orgininal’s scope, and present it to the judge within 30 days.
Republicans have for years seized on Biden’s history of addiction and troubled business dealings to argue that both he and his father are corrupt, though they have struggled to find proof of their allegations.
Court indicates no indictments expected today after Trump lawyers met with prosecutors
The wait to find out whether Donald Trump will be charged over the January 6 insurrection continues, as Politico reports that the federal court in Washington DC says no indictments are expected to be filed today:
JUST IN: A deputy clerk at US Dist Court in DC says no indictments were returned today and none are expected for remainder of the day.
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 27, 2023
Updated
Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is facing criticism from African-American members of his own party after his appointees proposed new school curriculums standards, which will see students taught that slaves learned some useful skills.
As governor, DeSantis has pursued a campaign against “wokeism” in the state, which detractors have said is in fact an attempt to cover up the impacts of white supremacy and racism in American history. The new school standards were forcefully decried by Kamala Harris during a speech in the state last week.
Yesterday, Byron Donalds, a Black Florida congressman who is supporting DeSantis’s opponent and current frontrunner Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, tweeted that the assertions about slaves should be “adjusted”:
The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn't the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.https://t.co/muq8zi1p85
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) July 26, 2023
Hours later, Christine Pushaw, a spokeswoman for DeSantis, shot back at Donalds, implying that he was working with Harris – despite the congressman being a staunch conservative whose policies are generally at odds with Democrats:
Did Kamala Harris write this tweet?
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) July 26, 2023
This afternoon, Michael Steele, a Trump critic who was the first and thus far only African American to serve as chair of the Republican National Committee, joined in on criticizing DeSantis:
"...teaching our nation's true history"? So @RonDeSantis thinks America's TRUE history is Black people benefited from a glorified jobs program called slavery? Hating on @ByronDonalds because he called out his BS (and didn't endorse him) is pathetically sad and yet, so DeSantis. https://t.co/UsvsChHGry
— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) July 27, 2023
Here’s a round-up from the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly of everything we learned so far today regarding Donald Trump’s indictment over the January 6 insurrection, which may or may not happen at any time:
Lawyers for Donald Trump met on Thursday with the special counsel Jack Smith and members of his team, as a potential indictment loomed regarding Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a social media post the former US president called the meeting “productive” but lashed out at media coverage.
Multiple outlets reported that the Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche, meeting prosecutors including Smith, attempted to make a case for why the former president should not be indicted.
The Guardian has reported that Smith’s team has assembled evidence to charge Trump with three crimes.
Updated
Former Texas congressman and GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd said if Republicans nominated Donald Trump then “we are willingly giving four more years to Joe Biden”.
Hurd, an outspoken Trump critic, told CNN that a potential third Trump indictment is “not going to change things” for his supporters, but that “those independents, those general election voters, of course they’re going to be sick and tired of this.”
Lawyers for Donald Trump met with members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team investigating the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, AP is reporting, citing a source.
The meeting included Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, according to the source.
Donald Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said a previous report by NBC that the former president’s lawyers were told to expect an indictment was “incorrect”.
Trump says DoJ gave 'no indication of notice' to his lawyers
Donald Trump said his attorneys had a “productive” meeting with the Department of Justice this morning, and that “no indication of notice” was given during the meeting.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote:
My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country. No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!
It was reported earlier today that Trump’s lawyers were seen entering the offices of special counsel Jack Smith, a week after the former president said he had received a target letter from Smith. According to NBC, Trump’s attorneys were told to expect an indictment against him.
The Department of Justice asked a federal judge on Wednesday evening to order Texas governor Greg Abbott to remove a floating barrier placed on the Rio Grande to stop migrants entering the US from Mexico.
The DoJ argued in a court filing that the barrier “caused significant and ongoing harm to the United States’ foreign relations with Mexico”, days after it filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas and Governor Abbott, arguing that the floating barrier violates federal environmental law and threatens public safety.
The filing states:
Governor Abbott’s suggestion that Texas can violate the [Rivers and Harbors Act] in service of its own policy priorities inverts the Supremacy Clause and controverts Supreme Court precedent recognizing the federal government’s plenary power over immigration and foreign affairs.
The department urged the judge to order the removal of the barrier and supporting infrastructure within 10 days and to prohibit the state from building any additional buoys.
The day so far
Joe Biden announced new steps to protect workers from extreme heat as much of the United States faces yet another day of scorching temperatures. He also singled out for criticism Texas Republicans, who recently acted to override local ordinances mandating water breaks for construction workers, and the wider GOP’s policies on climate change. Elsewhere in Washington DC, Donald Trump’s lawyers met at the office of special counsel Jack Smith and were reportedly told to expect an indictment, the latest sign that the former president could soon face charges related to the January 6 insurrection.
Here’s what else has happened today:
The supreme court cleared what may be the last obstacle to construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a controversial natural gas conduit in West Virginia and Virginia.
Two Florida lawmakers invited all of Congress to tour the site of the worst school shooting in US history in Parkland, before the building is torn down.
We live in the “era of global boiling”, the United Nations chief warned, as he called for more forceful action against climate change.
Biden says he will 'call out' US states that ignore worker heat protections
Joe Biden outlined steps his administration will take to protect workers, while taking time to criticize Republicans.
He announced that the “Hazard Alert” he has asked the labor department to issue “clarifies that workers have … federal heat-related protections. We should be protecting workers from hazardous conditions, and we will, and those states where they do not, I’m going to be calling them out.” Biden added that the department would also step up inspections “in high-risk industries, like construction and agriculture.”
He then accused the GOP of opposing efforts to protect Americans from heat and the broader threat posed by climate change.
“Maga extremists in Congress are trying to undo all this progress,” Biden said. “Not a single one of them, not a single Republican voted … for the Inflation Reduction Act that had all this money for climate, which provides funding … to combat climate change, and now many of them are trying to repeal those provisions. We’re not going to let that happen.”
Updated
Biden says 600 people a year die from heat-related illness as he kicks off announcement
Joe Biden kicked off his remarks with a veiled swipe at legislation passed by Republican lawmakers in Texas and approved by the governor, Greg Abbott, that overrode local regulations requiring construction workers be offered water breaks.
“The number one weather-related killer is heat. Six-hundred people die annually from its effects, more than from floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes in America combined,” the president said. “And even those places that are used to extreme heat have never seen it hot as it is now, for as long as it is. Even those who deny that we’re in the midst of a climate crisis can’t deny the impact of extreme heat is having on Americans.”
Biden spoke about how the heat has made everything from fighting fires to harvesting crops more perilous, and noted, “construction workers, who literally risked their lives working all day in blazing heat, in some places don’t even have the right to take a water break. That’s outrageous.”
Updated
Biden to ask labor department to issue 'hazard alert' over extreme heat
Joe Biden will soon speak on his administration’s efforts to protect workers from extreme heat, including by asking the labor department to issue a “hazard alert” as swaths of the US struggle with scorching temperatures.
“The hazard alert will reaffirm that workers have heat-related protections under federal law. As part of the alert, the Department of Labor will provide information on what employers can and should be doing now to protect their workers, help ensure employees are aware of their rights, including protections against retaliation, and highlight the steps the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently taking to protect workers,” the White House announced. “Additionally, the Department of Labor will ramp up enforcement of heat-safety violations, increasing inspections in high-risk industries like construction and agriculture, while OSHA continues to develop a national standard for workplace heat-safety rules.”
Earlier this week, 112 Democratic lawmakers asked Biden to direct OSHA to issue standards for protecting workers from extreme heat, in reaction to Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott’s signature of legislation stopping local ordinances that mandated water breaks for construction workers.
In his address from the White House, Biden will also announce at $7m infusion of funds to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so it can improve weather forecasting, including of heatwaves, as well as $152m allocation for California, Washington and Colorado to pay for new water infrastructure.
Updated
As the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reported last week, federal prosecutors told Donald Trump they may charge him with three crimes – one of which involves violating civil rights. We will find out what the final lineup of charges is if and when any indictment is made public:
Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results have evidence to charge the former president with three crimes, including section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights, two people familiar with the matter said.
The potential charges detailed in a target letter sent to Trump by prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who also charged Trump with retaining classified documents last month, was the clearest signal of an imminent indictment.
Prosecutors appear to have evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States based on the target letter, two statutes that the House select committee examining the January 6 Capitol attack issued criminal referrals for last year.
Trump attorneys told to expect indictment – report
Attorneys from Donald Trump have been told to expect an indictment against him, NBC News says:
NBC News: Trump attorneys have been told to expect an indictment against former President Donald Trump
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) July 27, 2023
Media outlets reported earlier today that the former president’s lawyers were seen entering the offices of special counsel Jack Smith. Last week, Trump said he had received a target letter from Smith, which is typically sent to the subject of law enforcement investigation shortly before an indictment is brought against him.
That letter concerned his involvement in the January 6 insurrection, but Smith has already indicted Trump on charges related to the classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in south Florida.
Updated
The supreme court has just allowed construction to resume on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a controversial project transporting natural gas through West Virginia and Virginia, Bloomberg Law reports:
NEW: #SCOTUS clears way for construction to resume on controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline, lifting stays that had halted work. No 23A35. https://t.co/S46AnlFO26 pic.twitter.com/p4WDyz7x1Z
— Kimberly Robinson (@KimberlyRobinsn) July 27, 2023
Long championed by West Virginia’s lawmakers, including their Democratic senator Joe Manchin, despite local opposition, Congress had included language fast-tracking its construction in a deal reached last month to raise America’s debt ceiling and ward off a default.
Lawmakers invite Congress to tour site of deadliest US school shooting
Two House lawmakers have invited all members of Congress to next month tour Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, in Parkland, Florida, site of the deadliest school shooting in US history.
“The tour on August 4th will include the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to see firsthand how a school shooting can affect families and a community. Immediately following the tour, members will have the opportunity to meet with survivors and parents to discuss the challenges children face at school and to help find ways to mitigate these present dangers,” write Republican Mario Diaz-Balart and Democrat Jared Moskowitz. Both represent Florida districts, and Moskowitz’s includes Parkland.
The building where a gunman killed 17 people and wounded 17 others is scheduled to be demolished.
Trump lawyers meet with special counsel ahead of potential January 6 indictment - report
Attorneys for Donald Trump are today meeting at special counsel Jack Smith’s office, ahead of the former president’s possible indictment on charges related to the January 6 insurrection, ABC News reports:
NEWS - Lawyers for former President Trump have arrived at special counsel Jack Smith's offices this morning for a meeting as a potential indictment looms, sources tell me @Santucci @SooRinKimm @lauraromero1207
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) July 27, 2023
NBC News has also spotted members of the grand jury empaneled by Smith to consider charges heading into a Washington DC courthouse, and reports that Trump’s attorneys are preparing for the possibility they will vote to indict him as soon as today:
NOW: Members of Jack Smith’s DC federal grand jury have started arriving at the Prettyman courthouse
— Daniel Barnes (@dnlbrns) July 27, 2023
If it is unclear when, or if, Smith will hand down an indictment in his investigation. Last week, Trump said he had received a target letter from Smith, which are typically given to people under investigation shortly before charges are brought against them.
UN chief warns 'era of global boiling has arrived' with July on course to be hottest ever
The United States is not alone in grappling with extreme heat. United Nations secretary-general António Guterres just announced that July is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded, and warned that we are now in an era of “global boiling”:
.@antonioguterres tells journalists: today, @WMO and @CopernicusECMWF released data that confirms that July 2023 is set to be the hottest month ever recorded. pic.twitter.com/pycpZaYzwh
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) July 27, 2023
The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) July 27, 2023
The air is unbreathable. The heat is unbearable. And the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable - @antonioguterres pic.twitter.com/IR1owuGul8
He called on the G20 groups of the world’s 20 richest countries – the United States among them – to set “ambitious new national emissions reduction targets”. That’s easier said than done in the US, where much of the Republican party continues to reject the scientific consensus on global warming, and, with their control of one of Congress’s two chambers, have stopped any efforts to lower the country’s carbon emissions.
We need ambitious new national emissions reduction targets from @g20org members.
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) July 27, 2023
And we need all countries to take action in line with my Climate Solidarity Pact and Acceleration Agenda - @antonioguterres pic.twitter.com/hGWlzbAic9
Even as America grapples with successive and severe heatwaves, rightwing groups are planning to hamstring efforts to lower US carbon emissions, the Guardian’s Dharna Noor reports:
An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged.
Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.
Called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, it is meant to guide the first 180 days of presidency for an incoming Republican president. Climate experts and advocates criticized planning that would dismantle US climate policy.
Millions under heat alerts as extreme temperatures spread across US
The Guardian’s Michael Sainato is out with a look at how many Americans will be dealing with high, and often extremely high, temperatures today, and the numbers are staggering:
Over 170 million Americans are under heat alerts this week, according to the National Weather Service, as a heat wave that has affected the southern US for weeks has expanded into parts of the Great Plains, midwest and north-east US.
Between 250 and 275 million people in the US will face heat indexes of at least 90F (32C), as the US braces for the hottest weather of the summer averaged across the country.
The largest electric grid operator in the US, PJM Connection, which oversees electric power supply of 13 states and Washington DC, covering 65 million Americans, issued a level one emergency alert for Thursday in anticipation of increases in demands for electricity during the most recent heatwave.
Biden to announce new measures addressing heat as America roasts
Good mornings, US politics blog readers. We’re in the middle of a summer in which much of the United States has grappled with extreme heat, and today at 11.45am eastern time, Joe Biden will announce modest new measures intended to address the scorching temperatures. These include a hazard alert from the labor department that will remind employers of the rights workers have to protect themselves on hot days, as well as new funding to improve weather forecasting and water storage capacity in three drought-prone western states.
The moves to be announced at a White House ceremony in Washington DC – which is in the middle of its own heatwave – come a year after Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the first legislation ever specifically intended to lower America’s carbon emissions. It also comes amid a summer in which many parts of America have experienced not just unheard-of heat, but also devastating flooding, all effects of the climate crisis.
Here’s what else is happening today:
America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan will be the subject of a hearing by a House foreign affairs subcommittee. Expect the Republican majority to pin the blame on Biden for the deaths and abandonments that marked the end of America’s longest war.
Biden will at 3pm host Giorgia Meloni at the White House. She’s the Italian prime minister whose far-right ties have raised eyebrows among many on the left in Washington and elsewhere.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will take reporters’ questions at 1.30pm.
