First Thing: Texas Democrats push to blunt impact of state’s abortion ban

Good morning.

Throughout Texas, Democratic-held cities are galvanizing to mitigate the results of the Republican-run state’s near-total abortion ban after the US supreme courtroom voted in June to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that gave People a constitutional proper to terminate their pregnancies.

Texas’s capital, Austin, voted final week to “decriminalize” abortion within the metropolis by passing the Guarding the Proper to Abortion Take care of Everybody (Grace) Act. Though abortion remains to be unlawful within the state, the passing of the Grace Act will redirect the town’s funds to concentrate on going after extra essential crimes corresponding to sexual assault, theft and housebreaking.

Native politicians in Waco, a metropolis midway between Austin and Dallas, adopted swimsuit and put ahead their very own model of the Grace Act for consideration.

Different cities corresponding to San Antonio are additionally gearing as much as shield those that obtain and supply abortions. On Wednesday, the mayor, Ron Nirenberg, and the town council gathered on the steps of metropolis corridor to announce the consideration of an analogous decision in assist of reproductive rights.

  • Will these cities succeed? Liberal cities face an uphill battle. Metropolis council member Teri Castillo, who drafted a decision, anticipates the Republican get together will determine methods to shut potential loopholes or protections for many who want or want to hunt entry to an abortion.

  • What else is occurring? The variety of clinics providing abortion care in 11 US states which have carried out complete or six-week bans within the month for the reason that supreme courtroom overturned abortion rights has dropped from 71 to 43, a research reveals.

May the US highways that break up communities on racial traces lastly fall?

Interstate 10 expressway
The elevated Interstate 10 expressway in New Orleans was constructed instantly on high of Claiborne Avenue, typically referred to as the “Most important Avenue of Black New Orleans.” Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP


When the US transportation division not too long ago introduced a $1bn five-year pilot program to assist communities racially segregated by US government-sponsored freeway tasks, native residents responded with a mixture of optimism and tempered expectations. Joe Biden singled out the Claiborne Expressway when this system, referred to as Reconnecting Communities, was first introduced.

Specialists and advocates query whether or not the preliminary funding is sufficient to reverse the devastation in Black neighborhoods within the title of connection. The quantity unveiled by the transportation division is a far cry from the unique $20bn proposed. However advocates agree that it’s an unprecedented and welcome step in pursuit of freeway reparations.

Beneath the division’s program, introduced in late June, cities, states, non-profits, tribal governments and metropolis planning organizations can search grants to conduct visitors research, encourage public enter on freeway plans, and pursue different planning actions “upfront of a undertaking to take away, retrofit, or mitigate an present eligible facility to revive neighborhood connectivity.” Communities can apply for $195m in grants within the first 12 months, $50m for planning research, and the rest for capital building.

  • What do those that dwell regionally say? Amy Stelly, an city designer and co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, which is advocating for its elimination, instructed the Guardian: “It’s the start, not the top, of the method.”

‘What about my life?’ West Virginia lady, 12, speaks out in opposition to anti-abortion invoice

Gardner
Plea by Addison Gardner throughout public listening to in opposition to invoice that may prohibit process in practically all circumstances goes viral. Photograph: West Virginia Home of Delegates

An impassioned plea from a 12-year-old lady has gone viral after she spoke to West Virginia Republican lawmakers throughout a public listening to for an abortion invoice that may prohibit the process in practically all circumstances.

On Wednesday, Addison Gardner of Buffalo center faculty in Kenova, West Virginia, was amongst a number of individuals who spoke out in opposition to a invoice that may not solely ban abortions most often but additionally enable for physicians who carry out abortions to be prosecuted.

Addressing the West Virginia home of delegates, Gardner, amongst about 90 different audio system, was given 45 seconds to plead her case.

“My training is essential to me and I plan on doing nice issues in life. If a person decides that I’m an object and does unspeakable and tragic issues to me, am I, a toddler, supposed to hold and delivery one other baby?” Gardner mentioned.

In different information …

Pompeo at AIPAC
Then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo addresses an American Israel Political Motion Committee (AIPAC) convention in 2020. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

  • Congressman Andy Levin, the scion of a distinguished Jewish political dynasty, a dedicated Zionist and the previous president of his synagogue, has been stung by the most important pro-Israel foyer group’s marketing campaign to paint him as an enemy of the Jewish state as a result of he has spoken up for the Palestinians.

  • Alabama has executed a person convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend practically three many years in the past, regardless of a request from the sufferer’s household to spare his life. Joe Nathan James Jr acquired a deadly injection on Thursday evening at a south Alabama jail after the US supreme courtroom denied his request for a keep.

  • Instagram is reversing some modifications to the app following a person backlash that noticed influencer royalty Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian turning on the platform. The photograph and video sharing app was accused of mimicking TikTok on the expense of its most loyal customers.

  • Novaya Gazeta, certainly one of Russia’s final remaining unbiased information retailers, is underneath risk after the nation’s media watchdog demanded that its web site and print version be stripped of its licence. The announcement was made after the newspaper acquired two warnings over alleged violations.

Don’t miss this: how Marilyn Monroe’s ‘intercourse bomb’ picture buries the reality

Monroe with book
Marilyn Monroe reads To the Actor: On the Strategy of Appearing by Michael Chekhov in 1955. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Photographs

In life, Marilyn Monroe made herself observed far past Hollywood and in methods very totally different from the corny “intercourse bomb” picture that's the leitmotif of her trendy iconography. But 60 years after she died, Monroe’s vivid presence on the planet’s tradition – solely Diana, Princess of Wales rivals her maintain over the general public creativeness – doesn't enable for nuance. The spectacle of Monroe’s tumultuous life and demise nonetheless holds us in its grip. With a significant new biopic on the best way, her biographer types truth from fiction.

Local weather examine: what’s within the local weather invoice that Joe Manchin helps – and what isn’t

Manchin
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator and coal firm proprietor who has repeatedly thwarted Joe Biden’s makes an attempt to go laws to sort out the local weather disaster, shocked Washington on Wednesday by saying he'll assist a invoice geared toward reducing planet-heating emissions. The $369bn bundle has been touted by jubilant Democrats as the most important local weather invoice ever within the US, and even the world. So what’s within the laws? And what does Manchin assist and never assist in it?

Final Factor: potential rival or operating mate? Kristi Noem, the governor denying Trump a face on Mount Rushmore

Noem on horseback
Kristi Noem, the Republican South Dakota governor, presenting a US flag in 2020. Photograph: Abigail Dollins/AP

Donald Trump’s tough summer time continues. Hammered by the January 6 committee, his affect ebbing and doable prosecution looming, now the previous US president should face the demise of a long-cherished dream. No, Trump’s face won't be carved into Mount Rushmore. Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, house to the hallowed nationwide memorial, has dominated out any additions to the 60-foot-tall (18-metre) faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

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