Heat wave continues: A wildfire broke out outside of Athens, Greece, as the effects of the unprecedented heat wave continue to be felt with other wildfires burning in France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. In the U.S., Fort Worth, Texas, hit 109 degrees yesterday, a new record for the city. In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont activated the state”™s extreme hot weather protocol that will ensure the availability of cooling centers throughout the state. In New York, Gov. Hochul encouraged New Yorkers to visit regional cooling centers if necessary, to stay indoors and to check on vulnerable neighbors, especially the elderly and children.
Secret Service confirms text messages erased: The Secret Service has sent its official response to the House Jan. 6 committee and acknowledged that many text messages from Jan. 5 and 6 were, indeed, erased. It had been hoped that at least some of the text messages could be recovered. The Secret Service pointed out that even with many text messages now gone, it has provided thousands of documents to the committee.
Biden plans climate change action: President Biden travels to a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, today to announce new actions to combat climate change. The power plant is being converted to generate electricity via wind power. West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has a history of involvement in the coal business, killed chances for getting legislation to combat climate change through Congress and Biden is seeking to use executive powers to put in place at least some climate measures.
Fatal shooting of TV show worker: A 31-year old man from Queens who was working on production of the TV series “Law and Order” was shot and killed as he was sitting in his car on a Brooklyn street. Johnny Pizarro was in charge of securing parking spaces for use by the production. The shooting took place early yesterday morning before the day’s filming at the Brooklyn location had started.
EU to cut natural gas use: The European Union is moving to get its members to cut their use of natural gas by at least 15% following a warning by Russia”™s President Putin that he”™ll make additional cuts in gas supplies to Europe. The EU members are expected to vote on formalizing reduced use of natural gas on July 26. Costs for natural gas in Europe have risen by more than 300% since economic sanctions were imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and Putin retaliated by cutting gas supplies.
House passes same-sex marriage protection: On a bipartisan vote of 267 to 157 with 47 Republicans joining the Democrats, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would protect the rights of same-sex couples to marry by codifying the right as federal law. Whether the bill can pass in the Senate is not yet known since at least 10 Republicans would have to join with all of the Democrats to prevent the bill from being killed by a filibuster.
