Support independent journalism

First Thing: Trump ally Peter Navarro to begin prison term for contempt

Navarro begins four-month prison term for refusing to cooperate with House January 6 committee. Plus, the people who made a new start after turning 90

Peter Navarro at CPAC in February. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Clea Skopeliti

Good morning.

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, will begin his prison sentence on Tuesday, becoming the first ex-White House official to be imprisoned for contempt of Congress.

Navarro, who has been sentenced to four months in a minimum-security federal facility in Miami, has been convicted of refusing to cooperate with the January 6 committee. He appealed the ruling, unsuccessfully arguing he was covered by executive privilege.

Ahead of the historic moment, one of his lawyers, Stanley Brand, told CNN that his jailing should be a warning to “future White House aides who get subpoenaed by Congress”.

What about Trump? He faces 88 criminal charges, 14 related to election subversion. In addition, his lawyers on Monday said he was unable to post a bond covering the $454m civil fraud judgment while he appeals the ruling.

US government faces another shutdown

Congress has been forced to pass four stopgap bills since the fiscal year began in October. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Getty Images

Congress this week faces its third shutdown deadline of the month, with most of the federal government set to run out of money by Friday at midnight unless six bills are passed.

The packages represent funding for about 70% of the federal government, including the departments of state, defense, homeland security, education and labor. Demands for divisive provisions from hard-right Republicans in the House have delayed the passing of appropriations bills, with repeated clashes over homeland security.

Punchbowl News reported that a deal had been struck on Monday evening on homeland security funding, but doubts remain over whether Congress will be able to pass the proposal before the looming deadline.

Is this normal? Nearly half the fiscal year is over – it is very unusual to have disputes at this late stage.

Israeli delegation to visit Washington to discuss planned Rafah offensive

A boy inspects the damage to tents following overnight Israeli bombardment at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Photograph: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

Israel will send a delegation to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on Rafah, the White House has said, as the Biden administration tries to dissuade Israel from launching an assault on the southern town where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.

Announcing the visit, which is to take place this week or next, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also confirmed that Israeli forces last week killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza. Issa was one of the top figures behind the 7 October attacks.

Stressing the administration’s opposition to the Rafah offensive, Sullivan said it was “first and foremost” Israel’s obligation to ensure aid was reaching Gaza, which is on the brink of famine. He said Israel had not shown how it would move civilians or ensure their access to sanitation, food and housing.

What is the situation in Rafah? The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry has accused Israel of starting “to destroy Rafah without announcing [it], to avoid international reactions and without waiting for permission from anyone.”

In other news …

One person said he was promised photographs of his relative’s body in a police morgue. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Relatives of missing migrants have said they were asked to pay hundreds of euros for information about their families. The Guardian spoke to three families who said people purporting to be from a Spanish NGO had asked them for at least €200 for information. The NGO said the people were not affiliated with it. Experts say that these scams are fuelled by lack of official support for these families.

X has restored the account of a far-right Austrian who communicated with the Christchurch terrorist before the 2019 attack, and received funds from him. After his account was restored, Elon Musk replied to a tweet by Martin Sellner, the founder of the Identitarian Movement, who espouses European ethnic superiority.

Two 19-year-old twin sisters were stabbed, one fatally, near a deli in a Brooklyn neighbourhood early on Sunday morning. Sanyia Spain said her sister, Samyia, had been killed after an altercation with a man in Park Slope who attacked them after they rejected his advances.

Stat of the day: Only seven countries meet WHO air quality standard

Smog and pollution in New Delhi. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Only seven countries out of the 130 nations and regions surveyed meet a World Health Organization (WHO) air quality standard, according to a report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality organization. Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand are the only places under its limit for PM2.5 – the microscopic particles emitted by road vehicles and industrial processes. The most polluted country, Pakistan, had PM2.5 levels more than 14 times above the WHO standard.

Don’t miss this: ‘I was in the closet for 95 years. Then that door blew open!’

Maybelle Blair. Photograph: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Makers Conference

Maybelle Blair, a former baseball player in the postwar women’s league that inspired the film A League of Their Own, had gone her whole life without coming out publicly. That is, until one day, on stage at the 2022 Tribeca film festival in New York, when she “just blurted out: ‘I want everybody to know’”. Afterwards, she felt like “a new girl at 95”. In this moving feature, Emine Saner speaks to people who began a new chapter in their tenth decade.

Climate check: Court ruling erodes climate activists’ ability to defend themselves in England and Wales

Just Stop Oil Action At Manchester University Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The court of appeal on Monday further eroded the defenses available to climate protesters in England and Wales, ending the use of the ‘consent’ defense, where activists can argue the target of property damage would have consented had they known of the action and its circumstances – namely, the climate emergency. Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, warned that the excessive crackdown on climate protesters was undermining basic freedoms.

Last Thing: Saturn returns … amid high belief among Americans that astrology is scientific

Zodiac signs inside of horoscope circle Photograph: sarayut Thaneerat/Getty Images

Why are so many pop stars referencing astrology in their lyrics (and related merch) – and specifically “Saturn return”, the theory that in the 29-ish years it takes Saturn to orbit the sun from the point of our birth, a confronting initiation into adulthood ensues? Elle Hunt investigates, with a reminder: “There is no veracity to the Saturn return – despite one study suggesting that as many as 40% of Americans do not know that astrology is not scientific.”

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com

Dana Canedy

Managing editor, Guardian US

I’m the managing editor for Guardian US, and a big part of my role is overseeing our newsroom budget – in a presidential election year, we really stretch that budget as far as we can.
Because we don’t believe in covering elections like a game, reporting only on the latest polls and gaffes, we want to make sure we’re covering every important angle and part of the country – especially those neglected by other US media outlets.
That’s one of the great things I’ve come to learn about Guardian readers: you care deeply about the profound issues facing our country. We are right there with you, and our coverage will always have the American people at its heart, digging into how the outcome this November will affect people’s rights, lives and communities.
On top of ensuring we have the reporters we need to cover US news from coast to coast and border to border, it’s my job to ensure those reporters have everything they need to do their jobs effectively and safely.
It is an honor to do this important work, but I also know just how taxing it can be. In fact, the part of my role I take most seriously is overseeing the wellbeing of our reporters – especially in this political environment, where they can be subject to physical threats, and especially on beats that expose them repeatedly to trauma or violence.

If you can, please support us today – no amount is too small. Without readers like you stepping up to support us, we could not produce the bold, fearless journalism you read, and we could not equip our journalists to go out across this country and bring you those important stories. Thank you.

Support us

Manage your emails | Unsubscribe | Trouble viewing?

You are receiving this email because you are a subscriber to First Thing: the US morning briefing. Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396