First Thing: Christian ‘hate group’ funds US anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion organizations

Alliance Defending Freedom distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to fringe groups attacking trans, gay and abortion rights. Plus, Ketanji Jackson’s impassioned affirmative action dissent

Good morning.

A rightwing Christian “hate group” that is behind a host of legal efforts to roll back abortion rights, remove anti-LGBTQ+ protections and demonize trans people has had a huge increase in its funding and funneled some of that money to a slew of smaller anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion groups across the US, the Guardian can reveal.

Revenues of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a registered nonprofit behind the continuing 303 Creative supreme court case that could chip away at LGBTQ+ rights, surged by more than $25m between 2020 and 2021, a period in which a rightwing obsession with transgender rights and sexual orientation led to almost 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills being introduced in states around the US.

The increase in funding to the ADF, which has been termed an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, resulted in record revenues of $104.5m in 2021, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

The ADF has handed over hundreds of thousands of dollars of that newfound wealth to fringe organizations that have sought to diminish the rights of trans students in schools and the right of trans people to participate in sports, an investigation by the watchdog group Accountable.US has found.

What is the ADF? “Alliance Defending Freedom is a recognized anti-LGBTQ hate group working to build a movement of far-right legal groups to force a dangerous, unpopular agenda on Americans,” said Kyle Herrig, the president of Accountable.US, a progressive organization that researches the finances and activities of special interest groups. From ADF’s involvement with a supreme court case contesting critical LGBTQ rights to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding ADF has granted to anti-democratic organizations, “ADF’s goal is to strip Americans of their rights and undermine democracy.”

France riots: Macron to hold crisis meeting as 667 arrested and violence spreads

Emmanuel Macron is to head another crisis meeting of ministers as the French government struggles to contain an escalation of unrest that has spread from housing estates across the country to the centre of major cities after the police shooting of a teenager earlier this week.

A total of 667 people were arrested across France into the early hours of Friday morning, officials said, as violence continued into a third night of riots triggered by the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop.

Fireworks and projectiles were thrown at police, bins were set alight and buses and bus depots torched in towns and cities across the country. In some towns, public buildings were targeted. There was unrest in Dijon and several towns in Burgundy, clashes in the centre of Marseille in the south and in and around Lille in the north. There were also disturbances in cities including Rennes and Lyon. Protesters clashed with police in Paris, burning bins and for the first time there was looting of shops in the centre of the capital.

On the Pablo Picasso housing estate in Nanterre – where the 17-year-old boy, Nahel, who was shot by police had grown up – clashes with police continued through the night.

Who was Nahel? The teenager was a “well-liked” only child raised by a single mother, who had been studying for an electrician’s certificate. Jeff Puech, the president of the Ovale Citoyen association, which aims to help local youths on to the job market through sport, said he was not “a kid who lived from drug deals or fell in with petty crime”. Nahel played rugby league and was spoken of warmly by all who knew him at the club, Puech told FranceInfo, adding: “He did all he was asked. He had real potential.”

What are the protesters saying? “We’re marching peacefully against police racism,” said Radia, a student in her 20s, who had travelled from Versailles. “We’re constantly seeing Black and Arab people targeted by police. This is one death too many.”

Key document may be fake in LGBTQ+ rights case before US supreme court

The veracity of a key document in a major LGBTQ+ rights case before the US supreme court has come under question, raising the possibility that important evidence cited in it might be wrong or even falsified.

The supreme court is expected to issue a ruling on Friday in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, which deals with a challenge to a Colorado law prohibiting public-serving businesses from discriminating against gay people as well as any statements announcing such a policy.

The suit centers on Lorie Smith, a website designer who does not want to provide her services for gay weddings because of her religious objections.

In 2016, she says, a gay man named Stewart requested her services for help with his wedding. “We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website,” says a message he apparently sent her through her website.

What has the man said? Stewart, who requested his last name be withheld for privacy, said in an interview with the Guardian that he never sent the message, even though it correctly lists his email address and telephone number. He had also been happily married to a woman for the last 15 years, he said. The news was first reported by the New Republic. In fact, until he received a call this week from a reporter from the magazine, Stewart said he had no idea he was somehow tied up in a case that had made it to the supreme court.

In other news …

Travelers in the US faced a chaotic week leading up to the Fourth of July weekend as increasing flight delays and cancellations were seen across the country. From Monday through Wednesday, at least 28,000 flights were delayed each day, and at least 1,200 were canceled.

A third week of a record-breaking heatwave has placed at least 40 million people in the US under heat alerts. Many workers in Texas and throughout the southern US have no heat protection while working outdoors, exposed to the sun and intense, prolonged heat.

Survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima have reacted angrily to an agreement that links the city’s peace park with a memorial in Pearl Harbor. The sister-park agreement, signed this week is designed to promote peace and friendship between the former Pacific war enemies.

A woman’s leg was amputated in a Thai airport after it became trapped by a movable walkway on Thursday, officials said. The 57-year-old Thai passenger was caught by the walkway in Terminal 2. A medical team there eventually had to remove her left leg from above the knee, according to the airport’s officials.

Stat of the day: 100m people in US under air quality warnings as wildfires spread

The US has faced severe weather conditions in the past week, with air quality warnings issued across the midwest and north-east, affecting more than 100 million people. Smoke from more than 450 Canadian wildfires spread across the US, resulting in poor air quality, with some states labelled as having “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” conditions. New York expanded the air quality advisory to include the entire state. Nearby Pennsylvania issued a code red for western parts of the state, indicating that vulnerable people with respiratory issues, young children or the elderly people should avoid prolonged exposure outside. Meanwhile, southern states, including Texas, are experiencing a dangerous heatwave with nearly 60 million people under heat alerts. Across the North Atlantic, a record-breaking marine heatwave continues, pushing temperatures up to 5C higher than normal raising fears about the potential impact on marine life.

Don’t miss this: ‘A tragedy for us all’: Ketanji Jackson’s impassioned affirmative action dissent

“Gulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens,” writes Ketanji Brown Jackson. “They were created in the distant past, but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles – the “self-evident” truth that all of us are created equal. Yet, today, the Court determines that holistic admissions programs like the one that the University of North Carolina (UNC) has operated, consistent with Grutter v Bollinger (2003), are a problem with respect to achievement of that aspiration, rather than a viable solution (as has long been evident to historians, sociologists, and policymakers alike) … Time will reveal the results. Yet the Court’s own missteps are now both eternally memorialized and excruciatingly plain.”

Full story: US supreme court rules against affirmative action in Harvard and UNC cases

Last Thing: Blonde v bombshell – get set for the Barbie-Oppenheimer smackdown

We live in divisive times. Opinion is more tribal and entrenched than ever, the value of reasoned argument and willing compromise plummeting by the day. This volatility could spread to the multiplex next month, where a battle of the blockbusters is destined to make previous cinematic standoffs – Mothra v Godzilla, Alien v Predator, Kramer vs Kramer – look like games of playground pat-a-cake. Get ready, then, for Barbie v Oppenheimer. Directed by celebrated auteurs (Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively), and hyped by multiple trailers over the past year, both movies are scheduled to open on the same crowded day. Forget your QR codes: this is one time to buy a physical ticket and save the stub to show your grandchildren. Future generations will want to know where you stood on 21 July 2023 when Barbie met the bomb.

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