- Biden vows to end ‘season of darkness’ as he accepts nomination
- Steve Bannon pleads not guilty to fraud after arrest
- Firefighters stretched thin as California blazes grow rapidly
- 1,042 new Covid-19 deaths and 46,029 new cases in US yesterday
- Louis DeJoy to testify to Senate committee over USPS crisis
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1.22pm BST
Vice president Mike Pence has been very visible on the airwaves this morning. He’s been on Fox defending the president’s foreign policy, saying: “I’m happy to take this President’s record on the foreign stage to the American people in the next 74 days, because this is a president who has put America first, he’s put American Security first.”
Where Joe Biden actually criticized this President for taking out the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Qasem Soleimani, President @realDonaldTrump rebuilt our military, decimated ISIS, took their leader out without one American casualty and stood strong against China. pic.twitter.com/vaH6k9PL1A
VP Pence says Karen Pence will be returning to her art classroom next week amid the administration’s push to reopen schools. He confirmed @sarahcwestwood‘s reporting the administration has designated teachers as essential workers, but said it was not a mandate.
VP Pence: “My wife’s going to be back in the classroom teaching next week,” he later added. Second Lady Karen Pence teaches art two days a week at Immanuel Christian School, a private school in Northern VA. The school is resuming full time, in-person instruction.
12.56pm BST
While California’s wildfires are an ecological disaster at one end of the country, at the opposite end, Alaska, another environmental storm is brewing. Oliver Milman writes for us today about the Trump administration’s plans to allow oil and gas exploration in the Arctic sanctuary protected since the 1950s as the last fully intact ecosystem in the US.
Polling of the broader American public shows widespread opposition to the idea of drilling in Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR). Advocates for the country’s last great wilderness hope it will still be spared from being just another place riven by roads, trucks and buildings and that Alaska can move away from being handcuffed to the fortunes of volatile, polluting fossil fuels.
The ANWR lease area contains up to 11.8bn barrels of gettable oil, which, when burned, would further worsen a climate crisis globally and in Alaska, one of the fastest-heating places in the world where roads and buildings are buckling due to melting soil frosts, fierce wildfires now routinely tear through forests billowing unbreathable smoke and the animals are being so severely affected that the salmon are shrinking in size.
Related: ‘There’s nowhere like it’: Alaska’s wildlife refuge fears death by drilling
Continue reading…Biden vows to end ‘season of darkness’ as he accepts nominationSteve Bannon pleads not guilty to fraud after arrest Firefighters stretched thin as California blazes grow rapidly1,042 new Covid-19 deaths and 46,029 new cases in US yesterdayLouis DeJoy to testify to Senate committee over USPS crisisSign up to our First Thing newsletter 1.22pm BSTVice president Mike Pence has been very visible on the airwaves this morning. He’s been on Fox defending the president’s foreign policy, saying: “I’m happy to take this President’s record on the foreign stage to the American people in the next 74 days, because this is a president who has put America first, he’s put American Security first.”Where Joe Biden actually criticized this President for taking out the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Qasem Soleimani, President @realDonaldTrump rebuilt our military, decimated ISIS, took their leader out without one American casualty and stood strong against China. pic.twitter.com/vaH6k9PL1AVP Pence says Karen Pence will be returning to her art classroom next week amid the administration’s push to reopen schools. He confirmed @sarahcwestwood’s reporting the administration has designated teachers as essential workers, but said it was not a mandate.VP Pence: “My wife’s going to be back in the classroom teaching next week,” he later added. Second Lady Karen Pence teaches art two days a week at Immanuel Christian School, a private school in Northern VA. The school is resuming full time, in-person instruction. 12.56pm BSTWhile California’s wildfires are an ecological disaster at one end of the country, at the opposite end, Alaska, another environmental storm is brewing. Oliver Milman writes for us today about the Trump administration’s plans to allow oil and gas exploration in the Arctic sanctuary protected since the 1950s as the last fully intact ecosystem in the US.Polling of the broader American public shows widespread opposition to the idea of drilling in Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR). Advocates for the country’s last great wilderness hope it will still be spared from being just another place riven by roads, trucks and buildings and that Alaska can move away from being handcuffed to the fortunes of volatile, polluting fossil fuels.The ANWR lease area contains up to 11.8bn barrels of gettable oil, which, when burned, would further worsen a climate crisis globally and in Alaska, one of the fastest-heating places in the world where roads and buildings are buckling due to melting soil frosts, fierce wildfires now routinely tear through forests billowing unbreathable smoke and the animals are being so severely affected that the salmon are shrinking in size. Related: ‘There’s nowhere like it’: Alaska’s wildlife refuge fears death by drilling Continue reading…