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| Good morning, Daily Briefing readers. Happy Wednesday! It's the last day of June, bringing a close to the official Pride Month. Have you seen this explainer on how President Joe Biden became the most pro-LGBTQ president in U.S. history? And, there's good news for Los Angeles residents – after holding the title for nearly 30 years, they can no longer say they have the worst traffic in the country. 🥳 |
| It's Jane, with Wednesday's news. |
| New this morning: Across the nation, state lawmakers supporting transgender athlete bans have painted a picture that girls' sports teams will be overrun by athletes with insurmountable physical advantages. But a USA TODAY investigation shows that narrative has been built on vague examples that have been overstated or outright fabricated. |
| 🌡 "Never seen anything like this." At least five people are dead as extreme heat scorches the Northeast and the Northwest and dozens more are dead in Vancouver, Canada. |
| 🚒 The Lava Fire in northern California exploded to more than 12,000 acres, triggering evacuations and threatening marijuana farms. |
| 🐍 'Pretty alarming': A zebra cobra snake is on the loose in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its venom can cause tissue damage or even death. |
| 🎾 Serena Williams' bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam women's singles title is over, for now, after she withdrew from Wimbledon due to injury. |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, hear how DNA testing has advanced in the years since 9/11. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
Crews at collapsed Florida condo face time, weather and other challenges |
| In addition to weather and debris, emergency responders are fighting time, heat and water as they continue their search Wednesday for the 149 unaccounted for victims of the condo collapse in Surfside, just outside Miami. The death toll stands at 12. On Tuesday, crews completed the sixth day of painstaking work since the incident. Officials say they consider it a rescue mission, not a recovery. However, no one has been found alive since the day of the collapse Thursday. Tomorrow, President Joe Biden will visit Florida to meet with affected families and thank first responders and others involved in looking for survivors. |
After a 30-year reign, new study reveals Los Angeles no longer has the worst traffic |
| They held the title for nearly 30 years, but Los Angeles residents can no longer claim they have the worst traffic in the country , according to a study on traffic trends in 2020. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute study had ranked the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region as the area with the country's worst traffic since 1982. But the institute's 2021 Urban Mobility Report showed the New York-Newark region now has the worst traffic in the nation. The rankings are based on the total amount of hours drivers were delayed. Even though Angelenos can no longer claim their traffic is the worst, they can blame the COVID-19 pandemic for it. With a stay-at-home order in place for much of the year, many California employees worked from home. |
What else people are reading? |
| 🔵 Why do we celebrate Independence Day on July 4? And when did fireworks become a tradition? |
| 🔵 Eric Adams had his lead narrow in the New York City mayor's race after the first calculation of ranked choice votes, amid a "discrepancy" in the elimination round tallies. |
| 🔵 The National Security Agency released a statement denying conservative TV host Tucker Carlson's claims that he is an intelligence target of the agency. |
| 🔵 The governor of South Dakota announced her intent to deploy State National Guard troops to Texas to assist in securing the U.S.-Mexico border from illegal entrants. |
| 🔵 The Atlanta Hawks ran away from the Bucks in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals to tie the series after Giannis Antetokounmpo left with a knee injury. |
House expected to vote on committee to investigate Capitol insurrection |
| The creation of a House committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol will be up for a vote Wednesday. The panel would have eight members appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and five more members selected "after consultation" with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi said the committee will seek the truth about Jan. 6, "one of the darkest days in our nation's history." The vote will come after Senate Republicans blocked an independent commission to study the insurrection, which would've been modeled after the panel that studied the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. |
NCAA board set to OK updated policy on athletes' use of their name, image and likeness |
| The NCAA's Division I Board of Directors is expected to approve a recommendation to temporarily "suspend amateurism rules" Wednesday. Under the guidance, schools in states that have passed laws related to name, image and likeness, or NIL, would be "responsible for determining whether" athletes' activities "are consistent with state law," an NCAA statement said. In states without an NIL law, athletes would be able to engage in NIL activities without violating NCAA rules. However, the new policy would leave intact the NCAA's "commitment to avoid pay-for-play and improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school." |
'Smallville' actress Allison Mack to be sentenced in NXIVM sex cult case |
| Former "Smallville" actress Allison Mack is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for her role in the NXIVM cult , a purported self-help group that groomed followers into sex slaves. According to reports, Mack's legal team is asking for no jail time, given she has recognized her wrongdoings and publicly denounced Keith Raniere, the group's founder. Raniere was sentenced last year to 120 years in prison for his role in leading the criminal enterprise where women were sexually exploited and branded with his initials. Days before Mack's sentencing, the actress apologized to those who she brought to NXIVM, claiming she believed she "was helping" them. |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories published yesterday |
| 🔴 'Significantly worse': The collapsed Miami condo's concrete deterioration was accelerating in April, according to a letter. |
| 😷 The World Health Organization urged fully vaccinated people to continue wearing masks indoors and practice social distancing as the delta variant surges. Read the latest coronavirus updates here. |
| 🔵 The House passed a bill that would remove Confederate statues from the Capitol, as well as a bust of the judge who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that denied enslaved people the right to be citizens. |
| 🎤 A high school valedictorian had his mic switched off during remarks about mental illness and his experience as a queer-identifying teen surviving high school. |
| ⺁ A 200-foot chunk of a cliff fell into Lake Superior. This guy captured the entire scene on video. |
University of North Carolina board meets amid controversy over Nikole Hannah-Jones' tenure |
| The trustees of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will hold a special meeting Wednesday amid reports it will vote on granting tenure to investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. A decision by trustees earlier this year not to grant tenure to Hannah-Jones, even though it had been given to those who preceded her as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, sparked criticism from inside and outside the university . Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the New York Times' 1619 Project examining the legacy of slavery. |
📸 Wimbledon 2021: Top photos from the grass-court Grand Slam 📸 |
 | | Frances Tiafoe of the US celebrates after winning the men's singles match against Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece on day one of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday June 28, 2021. | | Alastair Grant, AP | |
| Wimbledon is in full swing across the pond - and photographers are in on the action. Check out our gallery of some of the best shots from the British Grand Slam tennis tournament. |
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