Good morning.
Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by the governor, Ron DeSantis.
At least 26 groups have cumulatively racked up more than $100,000 in fines since September last year, according to a list provided by Florida officials to the Guardian. The groups include for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as political parties, including the statewide Republican and Democratic parties of Florida.
The fines, which range from $50 to tens of thousands of dollars, were levied by the state’s office of election crimes and security, a first-of-its-kind agency created at the behest of DeSantis in 2022 to investigate voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and the office has already come under scrutiny for bringing criminal charges against people who appeared to be confused about their voting eligibility.
Election watchdogs worry the new policies could have a chilling effect on engaging voters. There has already been a drop in voter registrations this year compared with 2019, the last full year leading into a presidential election, according to Daniel Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida. Through 1 June of this year, 2,430 new registrations had come from third-party voter registration organizations, he said. That’s on pace to be a sharp decrease from the 63,212 new voter registrations from third-party groups submitted by the end of 2019.
Who is most likely to be affected? A crackdown on third-party voter registration groups is likely to disproportionately affect Floridians of color, who are about five times more likely to register with third-party groups than white voters are.
Floods, tornadoes, heat: more extreme weather predicted across US
The US is bracing for more extreme weather from coast to coast, with a heatwave hitting California, tornadoes in the midwest and the east expecting more rain as it continues to reel from historic flooding.
Residents of Vermont, still suffering from an onslaught of dangerous weather in recent days, are preparing for another round of severe storms in the area.
Historic flooding in the state has damaged thousands of homes, businesses and roads, and has left some residents stranded. One death was confirmed by the state department of health, a 63-year-old man who drowned in his home. More than 200 rescues and 100 evacuations have taken place as a result of the extreme storms.
Across the US, more than one-third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings as the heatwave baking the nation spread further into California. The sweltering conditions were expected to build on Friday and through the weekend in central and southern California, where many residents were told to prepare for the hottest weather of the year by the National Weather Service.
What’s happening elsewhere? Mild El Niño climatic conditions brewing in the Pacific Ocean will strengthen throughout the year, with an outside chance of a record-breaking event that will further turbocharge already sweltering temperatures around the globe, scientists have forecast. As well as the US, heatwaves have roiled China, India, parts of Europe and the Arctic.
Fran Drescher’s fiery speech against Hollywood studios goes viral as actors strike
Fran Drescher has blasted Hollywood studios in a fiery speech after talks between the actors’ union and studios failed to avert a strike, calling them “disgusting” for claiming “they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs”.
In a speech that was widely circulated yesterday – particularly among many who did not know the star of The Nanny was heading up Sag-Aftra, Hollywood’s biggest union – Drescher said actors were being “marginalised, disrespected and dishonoured” by a business model that had been drastically changed by streaming and artificial intelligence.
“What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run,” she said.
“We are the victims here. We are being victimised by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.”
What’s happening with the strike? On Thursday it was announced that 160,000 Sag-Aftra members – from big stars to background actors – would be joining the Writers Guild of America in a strike, marking the biggest shutdown of Hollywood since both unions last went on strike together in 1960. Sag-Aftra members have been ordered to stop any work connected to productions, including red carpets and promoting their work on social media.
What do actors want? The unions are fighting for better terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, an entity that represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery.
In other news …
Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in “any significant capacity” in combat operations in Ukraine, says the Pentagon, more than two weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia. The Pentagon press secretary, Pat Ryder, said the US assessed that “the majority” of Wagner fighters were still in areas of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Federal prosecutors asked the judge presiding over the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case yesterday to reject Donald Trump’s request that any trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election and reset the trial date for December. “There is no basis in law or fact,” they said.
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was among several witnesses to testify before a grand jury in recent weeks about the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, US media reports. Kushner reportedly said it was his impression that Trump truly believed the 2020 election was stolen.
At least 30 people died when the Sudanese army shelled a market in Omdurman during what residents of the country’s most populous city described as the worst week for civilian casualties since the outbreak of war in April. Most of the victims were children and women, according to witnesses.
A teacher in Wisconsin has been fired from her job after she criticized her public school district’s decision to ban the song Rainbowland, which exalts the virtues of inclusivity, from a children’s concert at her campus. The members of the board governing public schools in the solidly Republican community of Waukesha voted unanimously to dismiss Melissa Tempel from her job.
Stat of the day: Anchor, first and oldest US craft brewery, to shut down after 127 years
After 127 years, Anchor Brewing is no more. The first and oldest craft brewery in the US, which started in San Francisco in 1896, announced this week that it would end its operations after struggling financially as a result of a competitive market, inflation and declining sales, particularly after the storied brand’s 2017 acquisition by the Japanese beer distributor Sapporo. Those factors “left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations” a company spokesperson, Sam Singer, said in a statement.
Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery, mourned the loss in an interview with the Guardian: “Anchor was essentially the grandfather of all American craft brewing … You know that old saying about a band who only had maybe 50 people at its first show … but every one of those people went and started a band? That was Anchor Brewing Company. And all their people were the best.”
Don’t miss this: Boundaries are suddenly everywhere. What does the squishy term actually mean?
We are obsessed with invisible circles. “Personal boundaries” – or often just “boundaries” – are nowadays seen as the hallmark of emotional maturity. Wellness influencers promise that if you clarify the line dividing you from those around you, children will stay out of your home office. Friends and lovers will stop using you as a screen for their projections. As you are released from everyone else’s psychodrama, your racing thoughts will quiet, and your ability to concentrate will return. You will learn to say the word “no”, protect your time, and double your salary. This is how the concept is sold to us by an army of life coaches and content producers. But boundaries have a moral authority that’s easy to abuse, and the actor Jonah Hill’s text messages to his then-girlfriend Sarah Brady are an especially drastic example. The notion of “boundaries” is a seductive metaphor for how our relationships should work – but where did it come from?
Climate check: US Republicans oppose climate funding as millions suffer in extreme weather
Swaths of the US are baking under record-breaking heat, yet some lawmakers are still attempting to block any spending to fight the climate crisis, advocates say. Nearly 90 million Americans are facing heat alerts this week, including in Las Vegas, Nevada, which may break its all-time hottest temperature record, and parts of Florida, where a marine heatwave has pushed up water temperatures off the coast to levels normally found in hot tubs. Stifling heat is also blanketing parts of Texas, which for weeks earlier this summer sweltered under a record-shattering heat dome, which one analysis found was made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Despite this, the state’s Republican senator Ted Cruz is rallying his fellow GOP members of the Senate commerce committee to circulate a memo attacking climate measures in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget, Fox News reported on Wednesday.
Last Thing: My big day out as Barbie’s boyfriend – ‘Is topless mermaid Ken a step too far?’
Everybody wants to be a Barbie. But who wants to be a Ken? Barbie’s on/off boyfriend has happily remained in the background since 1961, with Barbie hogging the spotlight and glory. Even the Ken from the forthcoming Barbie film, played by Ryan Gosling, seems dutifully aware of his role in life: making Margot Robbie’s Barbie look good, with no rewards, physical or otherwise. The movie’s tagline: “She’s everything. He’s just Ken,” has spawned memes on everyone from Princess Diana and Prince Charles to Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. The insinuation is: for every alpha Barbie, there is a beta Ken behind them, and even Ken knows it.
We are in the midst of a Kencore summer – but Barbie’s dream guy is still being overshadowed and overlooked. I set out to change all that, with just a pair of rollerblades and some unbridled Ken-ergy, writes Rich Pelley.
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