Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), a crucial vote in an evenly divided Senate, announced last night that she would support a key piece of Biden’s legislative agenda—with some caveats.

Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a longtime holdout, stunned his colleagues when he announced that he had struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” which “includes roughly $370 billion in energy and climate spending, $300 billion in deficit reduction, three years of subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums, prescription drug reform and significant tax changes,” per Politico.

But the bill was not going to move forward without the support of Sinema, who demanded that Democrats drop a provision that would place new limitations on the carried interest loophole—which many of her donors happen to benefit from—and garner roughly $14 billion in funding. Instead, the bill will reportedly include a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks—the practice of corporations repurchasing their own stock to drive up share prices—that’s set to garner $73 billion in federal revenue. Sinema also reportedly managed to win $5 billion in drought resiliency funding, a boon to Arizona.

NEW: DEMOCRATS REACH DEAL WITH SINEMA ON TAXES.

“We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate's budget reconciliation legislation." She will move forward after parl review.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration

The US is, following decades of political rancor and fossil fuel industry obfuscation, on the verge of its first significant attempt to tackle the climate crisis. Experts say it will help rewire the American economy and act as an important step in averting disastrous global heating.

Independent analysis of the proposed legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, shows it should slash America’s planet-heating emissions by about 40 percent by the end of the decade, compared with 2005 levels.

This cut would bring the US within striking distance of a goal set by Joe Biden to cut emissions in half by 2030, a target that scientists say must be achieved by the whole world if catastrophic global heating, triggering escalating heatwaves, droughts and floods, is to be avoided.

“This is a massive turning point,” said Leah Stokes, a climate policy expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “This bill includes so much, it comprises nearly $370bn in climate and clean energy investments. That’s truly historic. Overall, the IRA is a huge opportunity to tackle the climate crisis.”

After spreading baseless claims of election fraud in the Arizona gubernatorial primary, Republican Kari Lake has won her party’s nomination. The Donald Trump-backed candidate and former FOX 10 Phoenix anchor defeated real estate developer Karrin Taylor Robson, who received endorsements from former Vice President Mike Pence and current Gov. Doug Ducey and invested $15 million of her own money in the campaign. Lake, a steadfast proponent of the Big Lie, had been the frontrunner, building her campaign around Trump’s stamp of approval—and the support of election deniers like Rep. Paul Gosar, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and My Pillow’s Mike Lindell. Lake campaigned on election conspiracy theories, anti-immigrant and pro-border enforcement rhetoric, and her repudiation of the very media that gave her a platform. 

Lake announced she was running for governor three months after ending her 22-year career with the Fox affiliate. In a video making her resignation public, Lake said she no longer approved of the direction journalism was going and that media needed more balanced and diverse viewpoints. “Not everyone is dedicated to telling the truth, but thankfully many of you have figured that out,” she said. “I promise you: If you hear it from my lips, it will be truthful.” She has continued to call the media the “enemy of the people” and appeared in a campaign video smashing televisions while vowing to take a “sledgehammer to leftist lies and propaganda.” Her conversion from TV personality to media-basher seemed to be a strategy intended to turn a “potential liability with Republican voters to an asset,” as Melanie Mason writes in the Los Angeles Times. 

Kari Lake has been contending for weeks now their is fraud & irregularities in her *primary* election — yet, below, she’s unable to offer a single specific allegation & refuses to answer why she wouldn’t take such intel to authorities. https://t.co/wxi4z0X2Ha

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) August 2, 2022

On various occasions during the campaign, Lake has hinted at supposed attempts to steal the primary election, but she has refused to provide any evidence to support her claims. “I’m not going to clarify it,” she recently said on a radio show. “We are on to some things that are very suspicious and possibly illegal. We’re working on it. I don’t want to ruin the investigation.” The chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which oversees elections in the state’s largest county, called her allegations “beyond irresponsible.” As part of her election integrity platform, Lake has proposed a ban on ballot-counting machines. 

It’s here: the Fulham crisis has begun, your subscription isn’t working on your telly, and the Scott Sellars t-shirt is ON!

Pete, Andy and Luke preview the return of the Premier League! Mikel Arteta’s been revealing the state secrets on 'All or Nothing' ahead of the annual Arsenal Croydon capitulation, but there’s darker clouds and plenty of leaves in the pool over at Fulham as they welcome Liverpool. Plus, Cristiano Ronaldo's being replaced by an inflatable petrol station mascot and – watch your chins – Luke’s Game is back!

Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sign up for our Patreon before the end of August and get 15% off an annual membership! Plus exclusive live events, ad-free Rambles, full video episodes and loads more: patreon.com/footballramble

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Phoenix is America’s hottest city, and it’s getting hotter. The global climate crisis and decades of sprawling urban growth have turned this desert city into a hazardous heat island with dwindling water supplies and inadequate shade.

An assortment of programs to cool down Phoenix and help people survive the heat have not been working: in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, record high temperatures contributed to at least 662 deaths between 2020 and 2021, while thousands more people needed emergency medical treatment.

That’s where the city’s new Office of Heat Response and Mitigation comes in. The pioneering heat team was created last September amid pressure from activists, researchers, faith groups, and health experts for a dedicated team responsible—and accountable—for making Phoenix more livable.

David Hondula, a climate and health researcher at Arizona State University, was hired to lead the four-person team and coordinate the city’s immediate efforts to cut heat deaths and illness, and come up with ways to cool the city and make it more comfortable in the long term. It’s the first local government-funded heat team in North America, possibly the world. “It’s a long game—we’re fighting for small wins that we hope will accumulate into larger wins,” said Hondula. “We need to prepare for and recover from every summer, not occasional heatwaves.”

Before Celsius filed for bankruptcy last month, the company seemed optimistic about its future. In a June 7 blog post titled “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead,” the crypto-lending firm took aim at the “vocal actors” who were “spreading misinformation and confusion.” It assured its customers that it was “online 24–7” and said it was continuing to “process withdrawals without delay.”

Celsius—which offers bank-like services for crypto enthusiasts, including the chance to earn eye-popping interest rates by depositing digital assets and the ability to borrow using crypto as collateral—boasted that it had “one of the best risk management teams in the world.” 

“We have made it through crypto downturns before (this is our fourth!),” the company assured consumers. “Celsius is prepared.”

Five days later, Celsius paused all customer withdrawals—a move that essentially froze the assets of its hundreds of thousands of users. A month after that, Celsius filed for bankruptcy. During the bankruptcy proceedings, it became evident that the company did not offer the same protections that traditional banks do. Since 2019, “the Company has been clear” that it may have to temporarily or permanently pause withdrawals due to a variety of potential circumstances, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky wrote in a legal declaration. When customers deposit their savings with Celsius, they “transfer ‘all right and title’ of their crypto assets to Celsius,” he stated.

According to a presentation filed in court, Celsius now hopes to offer its customers a choice: accept a cash payment worth just a fraction of their investments, or opt to “remain ‘long’ crypto”—that is, continue to hold their digital currency on Celsius’ books in the hopes of eventually being able to recover their money.

On The Continent is back! Every Thursday, Dotun and Andy are joined by the best European football journalists to drill down into the biggest stories in European football.

This week, David Cartlidge joins us to discuss PSG’s new era under Christophe Galtier. Lionel Messi has impressed in pre-season, but is that driven by a desire to return to Barcelona? We also check in on Bayern – can the chasing pack capitalise on their reshuffle behind the scenes? Plus, why Marseille are one of the most chaotic clubs in Europe right now and after all the summer business, are Barcelona actually going to be any good on the pitch come next weekend?

Got a question for us? Find us on socials @footballramble.

Sign up for our Patreon before the end of August and get 15% off an annual membership! Plus exclusive live events, ad-free Rambles, full video episodes and loads more: patreon.com/footballramble

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

In 2018, two years before YouTube de-platformed “Dark Web philosopher” and alt-right star Stefan Molyneux for violating its hate speech policies, he was one of the big names featured at the first American Priority Conference in DC. The event was marketed as a free speech extravaganza of Trump-supporting activists and influencers not welcome at more traditional Republican confabs like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the oldest, largest, and most influential right-wing gathering in the country. But when Molyneux showed up, he discovered conference rooms mostly full of empty chairs. So he bailed.

Embarrassing turnout might have put an end to this event. Instead, AMPFest, as it’s now known, relocated to the Trump National Doral Miami hotel in 2019, added a golf tournament and a $75,000 sponsorship package, and scored appearances by Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Suddenly it became a top destination in the right-wing convention circuit, providing yet another platform for disgraced MAGA-world politicos like former national security adviser Lt. General Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, campaign operative George Papadopoulos, and right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, all of whom were pardoned by President Donald Trump for various crimes.

AMPFest is just one new entry on a right-wing event scene that has exploded in recent years. When I first started covering conservative conferences, in 2009, the options consisted mainly of the annual Values Voter Summit, sponsored by the evangelical Family Research Council, and the then-annual CPAC. Now there are dozens of events, and they reflect how the GOP marketplace incentivizes and rewards the worst actors the party has on offer, and distills it to a roux of disinformation and commercial opportunity for all who participate.

Just a small sampling of the summer ’22 offerings: In June, AMPFest held a new extravaganza in California, branded as a MAGA Coachella. That same weekend, former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Lara Trump were lighting up 2,500 conservative students in Dallas at the Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit. Two weeks later, Ralph Reed, one of the original whiz kids of the religious right, hosted his Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference at the Opryland Resort in Nashville, starring Donald Trump, with a roster of special guests that commingled Republican members of Congress with anti-vaccine activists such as Stella Immanuel (the Texas doctor who believes some gynecological problems are caused by having sex with demons), and, yet again, McEnany. In late July, Trump appeared at TPUSA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, with Don Jr., Gaetz, and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). McEnany was there too.

The September lineup offers the Truth & Liberty Coalition Conference in Colorado, starring Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and the Family Research Council’s new Pray Vote Stand event. Taking into account the various anti-vaccine conventions, Trump’s American Freedom Tour, and Flynn’s ReAwaken America tour—held at megachurches and showcasing conspiracy theorists, QAnon devotees, and MyPillow’s Mike Lindell—a partisan could attend a spectacle every other weekend.

The first time Loretta Chou drilled a hole in a bone, as a medical student in the mid-80’s, she thought it was the most fun thing she had ever done.

“I liked that you could actually make people better—almost immediately better—by operating on a fracture,” she recalls.

When she decided to specialize in orthopedic surgery, the branch of medicine that treats the musculoskeletal system, she knew that her chosen profession was a boys’ club. Just six percent of orthopedic surgeons are women. But it didn’t dawn on her that her job could be a health risk until the mid-2000s, when Chou, by then the chief of foot and ankle surgery at Stanford University, noticed that an alarming number of female colleagues were being diagnosed with breast cancer.

She got to wondering: Was this a fluke, or did female orthopedic surgeons have high rates of cancer? On some level, it wouldn’t be surprising if they did. Radiation exposure is a known carcinogen—the closer you are to the radiation source, the higher the risk—and orthopedic surgeons are often the closest in the operating room to x-ray beams. The surgeries typically involve the use of a technology called fluoroscopy, which shines an x-ray beam onto the patient during operations, providing the surgeon with real-time images over the course of the operation. The procedures can be lengthy, exposing surgeons to radiation over several hours. Yet surgeons aren’t always diligent about wearing the lead shields aimed at protecting from radiation, and, critically, the shields often leave the outer edges of the breast uncovered.

In the summer of 2007, Chou and her colleagues at Stanford mailed surveys to the women in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the field’s main professional association, asking if the surgeons had had cancer. More than eighty percent of the recipients, or 499 women, responded; 29 of them had a history of cancer. While the sample size was small, the results, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, were startling, suggesting that female orthopedic surgeons were nearly twice as likely to have cancer as women in the general population, and nearly three times as likely to have breast cancer. A follow-up study of similar sample size in 2012 had nearly identical findings. Another, in 2015, found significantly higher rates of breast cancer among orthopedic surgeons than plastic surgeons or urologists, both of whom generally use fluoroscopy less frequently than orthopedic surgeons. Chou’s latest study, a survey of nearly 700 female orthopedic surgeons published earlier this year, found that the surgeons have rates of breast cancer nearly four times higher than the general population.

Nothing’s better than the opening weekend of the season, eh? Until it very quickly goes catastrophically wrong for your club.

With the Premier League’s return this Friday, we tasked three Ramblers well-versed in suffering to discuss the rituals, the hope, and the anguish that is so unique to the opening weekend. Plus fry-up burps, Sol Campbell’s wire, and shocking revelations that Eddie Howe has been stealing Jonjo Shelvey’s food.

What do you want us to talk about next? Find us @FootballRamble or email us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sign up for our Patreon before the end of August and get 15% off an annual membership! Plus exclusive live events, ad-free Rambles, full video episodes and loads more: patreon.com/footballramble

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

We’re back for a new season of the Ramble! Luke, Pete, Vish and Jim are riding high after England’s historic Euros win - due thanks must go to Charlie Kane and his motorbike.

Elsewhere, Liverpool won the Community Shield thanks to a ropey performance from Erling Haaland (#finishedplayer) and the EFL is back! Expect the fastest pair of yellow cards imaginable and predictable Pompey madness.

Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sign up for our Patreon before the end of August and get 15% off an annual membership! Plus exclusive live events, ad-free Rambles, full video episodes and loads more: patreon.com/footballramble

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

Curtains are being raised everywhere this weekend! But like Jens Lehmann, here at the Ramble instead of pulling it back we’re chainsawing our way through it instead.

Pete, Luke and Jim discuss what they’re rubbing thighs over this weekend, with one particularly troubling answer (ahem, Pete). Plus Man City initiate real-life Terminator 2, Alexandre Lacazette goes full Nicolas Cage and a non-league chairman picks up an ex-Serie A player while out walking his dog…

Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Flo, Rachel and Chloe have just about composed themselves after two cracking semi-finals, where Germany edged out France and England smashed Sweden in Sheffield.

We're here to get stuck into it all: Alessia Russo's backheel, that Alexandra Popp masterclass and the end of France's blistering tournament. 

Join us on Saturday over on Football Ramble Presents for our preview of the final!

Got a question ahead of the game? Tweet us @FootballRamble, @FloydTweet, @GirlsontheBall and @Morgie_89.

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

Have you ever wondered if Roy Keane is actually a psychopath? If so, you’ll absolutely love this episode of Eureka, a brand new science podcast from Stak! Every Wednesday, science enthusiast Rick Edwards and actual real life scientist Dr Michael Brooks get to the bottom of some of the universe’s most puzzling questions, with the help of world leading experts.

This episode tackles exactly what it means to be a psychopath, whether it’s possible to cure psychopathy and just how many psychopaths there are in the general population… If you enjoy it, head over to the ‘Eureka’ feed and hit subscribe to never miss an episode!

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re back for our final Football Ramble Presents showcase of the summer!

There's a different flavour to today's episode of Ramble Meets as Andy gets to know not just a single person, but one of La Liga's most beloved clubs.

Celta Vigo has had a rich but turbulent history, from impressive spells in La Liga and the Europa League to almost falling out of professional football altogether. Andy is joined by Celta players Nolito and Joseph Aidoo, who tell us just how special the city and their fanbase are. We also speak to Vigo residents, including renowned Swedish journalist Alexandra Jonson and Mexican-born fan Paula Anton, who explain just how this unique city and club became home.

Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***

Martin Odegaard has claimed that Oleksandr Zinchenko could play as a winger after joining Arsenal from Manchester City this summer.

The Ukraine international is the club’s fifth signing this summer, after Gabriel Jesus, Marquinhos, Matt Turner and Fabio Vieira’s arrivals, but there is some confusion as to where he is likely to play in north London.

Zinchenko played predominantly at left-back for Pep Guardiola’s side, but operates as a central midfielder for his country, and the latter is where he is expected to line up for the Gunners.

Odegaard has sung his new teammate’s praises, adding he could well feature as a winger also.

“I’ve seen (Zinchenko) play a lot and I really like his qualities, I think he’s a really great player,” Odegaard told The Athletic. “I think he can play both positions, sometimes as a left-back and midfield,

Nikolaj Moller has scored his fourth goal of the the pre-season campaign with FC Den Bosch, where he is set to spend the season on loan from Arsenal.

The striker spent a short stint with the Dutch side last term, but has really hit the ground running since returning to the club on loan ahead of the new season, adding his latest goal against fellow Dutch side Rosmalen.

The 20 year-old is yet to make his senior debut for Arsenal, but is rated highly in north London, and has been likened to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The striker has some way to go before breaking into the first-team at Arsenal, with Eddie Nketiah, Folarin Balogun and Gabriel Jesus ahead of him in the pecking order at present, but some crucial first-team football this season could help him to bridge the gap on his rivals.

Balogun is likely to leave on loan also, but his next destination is yet to be decided.

Oleksandr Zinchenko – Everything Arteta wanted Xhaka to be for Arsenal.  by Victor

With Mikel Arteta clearly sold on the idea of being tactically unpredictable for opposition teams, he needed the crop of players he inherited from Unai Emery to be tactically flexible in unlocking opposition defenses, while maintaining a balanced tactical shape between defense and attack.

One of those he very much entrusted with such tactical flexibility is Granit Xhaka; a player who many Arsenal fans believed was never really good enough and should be escorted out the exit door at the Emirates Stadium. The gaffer, however, upon his return to the Arsenal saw what many couldn’t see in the Swiss, especially from a tactical point of view. Having modeled his coaching style after that of his mentor – Pep Guardiola, the Spaniard knew exactly the kind of football he wanted his team to play and Xhaka was of course integral to the system to be implemented.

Firstly, Arteta wanted to build a team capable of playing from the back while utilizing players that are naturally comfortable in possession under pressure, and also occupying positions where they can carry-out the aforementioned style with their preferred foot. Playing a left-footed Centre Back in Gabriel was one, with a left-footed Left Back obviously the second, while a left-footed Centre Midfielder was the third piece of the puzzle. The latter is where Xhaka comes in. Instead of a right-footed Centre Back or Left Centre Midfielder playing straight and short passes to a team-mate hugging the lines; but always coming deep to receive a pass, a left-footer occupying the same position on the pitch can easily curl a pass unto a team-mate in an advanced position on the lines to beat the opposition’s press.

Secondly, talking about tactical flexibility, we have seen from the manager’s first full season at the helm, the various tactical shifts he loves to employ during the course of a match: from full backs playing inverted roles which allows box-to-box midfielders take up more advanced roles, to the left-sided midfielder (usually Xhaka) taking up a role I personally call ‘the half-centre midfield role’ where he covers for the overlapping left-back.

Arsenal have been extremely busy so far in this transfer window with five new arrivals already here, and now Edu has given an interview, ostensibly talking about the arrival of Oleks Zinchenko, but he has already given a deep insight into the planning that has gone into making this window a success. “…Our main focus in the beginning of the transfer window is try to get the players that we target as soon as we can to enjoy and to be here and to be together and to start the season the way we planned it as well.”

The Arsenal general director also told us that there is still a long way to go, to find solutions for the players that are not likely to get any game time if they remain at the club, and also to keep their eyes on targets that are on our list to fill the positions that are still in need of reinforcement. “We have a plan for every single player in the squad, and that’s why I said there’s still a lot to do in this transfer window because we have to balance the squad in the best way possible. For the players who probably aren’t going to have a lot of minutes here, we have to expose the players to have minutes in another place to keep developing the player, keep the player’s valuation et cetera, so that’s the way we plan it.”

Edu was then asked about his impression on the way we have done our biusines so far in this window, and he replied: “I’m pleased, but to say how close is difficult because there’s still a lot to do, we are in the middle of the transfer window and things can happen. What we have to be is really focused and be prepared for every single situation, opportunities maybe can happen, clubs can sometimes come to us to see if there is a possibility to get players on loan or buy players. We just have to be prepared and I think we are very much prepared for almost everything.”

Considering the deals that have already gone through, and the promise of more to come, surely Arsenal fans should be excited that we are going to end up with a much improved and well-balanced squad for our assault on trophies this season.

I, for one, am VERY excited about our new season…..

Mikel Arteta has made it clear that, having secured a good amount of our incoming transfer targets, it is now time to start thinning out the squad, which has grown drastically over the summer with our new signings and our returning loanees.

We already know that Arteta has given a contract extension to Mo Elneny, who everyone expected to leave, and Rob Holding doesn’t sound like he expected to be leaving any time soon, and now we have the Portugese defender Cedric Soares making it clear that he has no desire to leave his “dream club”.

“Arsenal was always my dream club since I started to play in Southampton,” Cedric told ESPN. “I always had the goal to move to Arsenal, and this didn’t change.

“Of course you are more happy when you are involved.

“Being involved here in a massive club like this, with the project we have and the goals the team is fighting for, I want to be here.