Good morning.
Liz Cheney has paid the price for her staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy by losing her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president.
The vice-chair of the January 6 committee was beaten by a conservative lawyer, Harriet Hageman, who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud, in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives.
Conceding defeat in a speech in Jackson, Cheney said: “Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election.
“It would have required that I enabled his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take.”
What did Trump say? He wrote on his social media platform: “Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!”
What else did Cheney say? She issued a rallying cry for the defense of democracy and, in remarks that lasted about 15 minutes, made clear that she did not accept that her political career was over.
In praise of Liz Cheney: may we have more politicians like her
Sarah Palin advances to November election for Alaska House seat
Sarah Palin looks set to be on the ballot in November’s general election after the former governor of Alaska and ex-vice-presidential candidate clinched one of four spots vying for a seat in the US House, according to the Associated Press.
Palin, who rose to fame more than a decade ago as John McCain’s running mate, advanced to the general election along with her two challengers, Nick Begich III, a tech millionaire backed by the Alaska Republican party, and Mary Peltola, a former state legislator and Democrat. It was too early to call the fourth spot.
Palin, Peltola and Begich are competing for Alaska’s only House seat, formerly occupied by Don Young, who died in March. The trio were also competing in a special election to serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends early next year.
The results of the special election could take days to finalize as Alaska voters are using a ranked voting system for the first time.
Did Palin pave the way for Trump? In many ways, Palin’s attacks on the media, her racist rabble-rousing and her eschewing of policy or traditional politics in favor of demagoguery did pave the way for Trump to get elected as president. She was also an early endorser of his candidacy.
‘Biggest step forward on climate ever’: Biden signs Democrats’ landmark bill
Joe Biden signed Democrats’ healthcare, climate and tax package on Tuesday, putting the final seal of approval on a landmark bill that party leaders hope will boost their prospects in the midterm elections this November.
During a bill-signing ceremony at the White House, the president celebrated the bill as a historic piece of legislation that would reduce healthcare costs for millions of Americans and help address the climate crisis.
“With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said. “Today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright and the promise of America is real and just beginning.”
The signing came four days after the House passed the bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, in a party-line vote of 220 to 207. The bill had previously passed the Senate in a party-line vote of 51 to 50, with the vice-president, Kamala Harris, breaking the tie in the evenly divided chamber.
How important is the bill for the fight against the climate crisis? The law directs $369bn toward investing in renewable energy and reducing America’s planet-heating emissions, marking the country’s most significant effort yet to combat the climate crisis.
In other news …
A federal judge in Florida will hear arguments tomorrow over whether to make public an affidavit used to justify a search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate, as legal disputes on multiple fronts intensify against the former president and his allies.
The Tesla billionaire Elon Musk briefly electrified the debate about the future of Manchester United by claiming on Twitter that he was buying the struggling Premier League club – before saying the post was part of a “long-running joke”.
A Saudi student at Leeds University who returned to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. Salma al-Shehab, 34, a mother of two young children, was not an especially vocal Saudi activist.
As many as 20 passengers have suffered burns, three of them seriously, after they jumped from a train when it was engulfed by a forest fire near Castellón in north-east Spain. The train, en route from Sagunto to Zaragoza, stopped while the driver, seeing that the fire meant it was too dangerous to proceed, was preparing to reverse the train, and some passengers panicked.
Don’t miss this: A neurologist’s tips for fighting memory loss and Alzheimer’s
In the neuroscientist Dr Richard Restak’s latest book, The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind, he homes in on the great unspoken fear that every time you can’t remember where you put your reading glasses, it’s a sign of impending doom. “In America today,” he writes “anyone over 50 lives in dread of the big A.” He says memory lapses are the single most common complaint that over-55s raise with their doctors, even though much of what they describe turns out to be nothing to worry about.
… or this: How private is your period-tracking app? Not very, study reveals
After the fall of federal abortion protections in the US, pressure has mounted on apps that collect pregnancy-related data to preserve people’s privacy. A study has found many of them do not hold up to scrutiny. Experts at the internet research non-profit Mozilla studied more than 20 pregnancy and period tracking apps for privacy and security features and said the results were grim. “Most of these products collect vast amounts of personal data, and then share it widely,” said Ashley Boyd, the vice-president of advocacy at Mozilla.
Climate check: US issues western water cuts as drought leaves Colorado River near ‘tipping point’
After western US states failed to reach agreements to reduce water use from the beleaguered Colorado River, the federal government stepped in yesterday, issuing cuts that will affect two states and Mexico. Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation declared a tier 2 shortage in the river basin as the drought continues in the American west, pushing its largest reservoirs to new lows. The waning water levels continue to threaten hydroelectric power production, drinking water provision, and agricultural production.
Last Thing: Ants can be better than pesticides for growing healthy crops, study finds
Ants can be more effective than pesticides at helping farmers produce food, according to research. They are better at killing pests, reducing plant damage and increasing crop yields, the first systematic review of ants’ contributions to crop production found. Ants are generalist predators and hunt pests that damage fruits, seeds and leaves, leading to a drop in crop yields. A greater diversity of ants generally provides more protection against a wider range of pests, the study found.
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