Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that unsealing the affidavit used to justify searching former President Donald Trump’s Florida home could put FBI agents and the government’s case over any mishandled classified documents at risk. The Justice Department is fighting a demand from media outlets to make the document public. “This is not the time to be giving essentially the Trump lawyers a road map into how to intimidate witnesses or how to derail a legitimate investigation,” Schiff said on CNN’s State of the Union. A team of FBI agents recovered boxes they said contained top secret and highly classified documents during the Aug. 8 search. [The Washington Post]
A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily blocked a lower court order for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to testify before a Georgia special grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state. Graham had been expected to testify Tuesday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says she wants to ask him about his request for state officials to reexamine absentee ballots and his statements to state lawmakers about evidence of voter fraud, a claim election officials debunked. The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court to consider Graham’s claim that he is shielded from having to testify as a member of Congress. [The Associated Press]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, announced Monday that he will resign as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Biden’s chief medical adviser in December. Fauci, 81, told The Washington Post he is stepping down because he doesn’t “want to be here so long that I get to the point where I lose a step.” Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968 and has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He told The New York Times he is “not retiring in the classic sense,” but plans to use his experience to “advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders.” [The Washington Post, The New York Times]
Emergency responders conducted dozens of high-water rescues in and around Dallas on Monday after heavy rains caused widespread flooding in parts of Texas. Authorities received more than 450 pleas for help during and after the sudden storms, which weather experts say were fueled by climate change. The National Weather Service said some areas got more than 10 inches of rain — a whole summer’s worth — in less than 24 hours, and some parts of eastern Dallas got more than 13 inches, rates expected every 100 to 1,000 years. Authorities issued flood warnings that affected more than four million people in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington, and flood watches that covered nearly 15 million people in northeastern Texas and northern Louisiana. The flooding came amid a “flash drought” in an extremely dry year across Texas. [The Dallas Morning News, CNN]
House of the Dragon, aGame of Thrones spinoff set about 200 years before the original series, brought in 9.9 million viewers for its Sunday premiere episode, thebiggest series debut in HBO’s history, the network said Monday. The show also drew the largest audience for one night since the 2019 Game of Thrones series finale, which had 19.3 million viewers over all HBO platforms. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon follows members of House Targaryen, ancestors of Daenerys, and their civil war over dueling succession claims. It retains iconic imagery from the original fantasy series. Unlike the original series, House of the Dragon focuses on a single central storyline. [The Hollywood Reporter]
The Surface Transportation Board, which oversees U.S. freight railroads, is considering tough rules to make rail companies share tracks and address slowdowns of freight shipments, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The five-member board said something must be done to get needed shipments of raw materials to their destinations to keep the economy moving. STB Chair Martin Oberman says the railroads cut workers to boost profitability before the pandemic, and now need to catch up. The railroads have said they are doing everything they can hire more workers and upgrade equipment, but face the same staff shortages that have been hampering other industries. [The Wall Street Journal]
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine had “nothing to do with” the car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, a hawkish Russian commentator and the daughter of prominent Russian ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin, as she was driving back to Moscow from a festival Saturday night. “We are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation, much less a terrorist one,” said the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak. Denis Pushilin, who heads the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas, blamed the attack on the “terrorists of the Ukrainian regime.” The Kremlin called the attack a “pre-planned murder for hire” that targeted Dugin, an advocate of escalating Russia’s war in Ukraine. He took a different car at the last minute. [The New York Times]
Pakistani authorities on Sunday charged former Prime Minister Imran Khan with violating anti-terrorism laws a day after he criticized police and a judge over the arrest of his chief of staff, who was charged with sedition earlier this month for urging soldiers to disobey orders. At a Saturday rally, Khan, who is out of power but still has a significant political base, vowed to “file a case” against police and “take action” against the magistrate over the aide’s arrest. Police said in a charge report that Khan’s threats “led to fear and terror among the police, judiciary, and the common people.” Hundreds of Khan supporters gathered outside his Islamabad home to block any attempt to arrest him. [The Washington Post, CNN]
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Sunday thatthe Southeast Asia city-state would decriminalize sex between men but continue to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. “I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” Lee said in his annual national day rally speech. LGBTQ groups praised the decision on repealing the British colonial–era law that made sex between men a crime, but expressed fear that continuing to bar same-sex marriage would nurture ongoing discrimination. Under Singapore’s Section 377A, those convicted of sex between consenting adult males can be imprisoned for up to two years, although the law has not been actively enforced. [Reuters]
A Massachusetts charter school where a teacher gave an 8th grader a uniform infraction for wearing a hijab says it understands its handling of the case “came across as insensitive,” The Associated Press reported Sunday. The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School said in a statement that it permits students to wear religious attire to express “sincerely held beliefs,” but requires a letter of confirmation from a clergy member. The student is now wearing a hijab, a Muslim headscarf, to school. Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the student should not “have to justify what she is wearing.” In 2017, the school faced criticism for a policy of banning hair braid extensions. [The Boston Globe, The Associated Press]
Home sellers are sharply cutting prices in former pandemic boomtowns as high prices and rising mortgage rates discourage buyers. The highest share of price drops came in Boise, Idaho, where 70 percent of sellers cut their asking prices in July, up from 30 percent in the same month a year earlier, according to online brokerage Redfin. “Individual home sellers and builders were both quick to drop their prices early this summer, mostly because they had unrealistic expectations of both price and timelines,” said Boise Redfin agent Shauna Pendleton. Prices skyrocketed in many housing markets earlier in the coronavirus pandemic as people able to work remotely fled larger cities seeking larger homes at lower costs. [Bloomberg]
Teachers at Ohio’s largest school district picketed outside schools on Monday after voting a day earlier to go on strike, just days before the start of the school year. The Columbus teachers are demanding smaller class sizes and safer, better-funded schools. The Columbus Board of Education called the move “incredibly disappointing.” It is the first strike since 1975 by the Columbus Education Association union, which represents more than 4,000 teachers, nurses, and other employees of the Columbus City Schools district. A day before the Ohio vote, a union representing about 2,000 employees of the School District of Philadelphia seeking higher wages and better training voted to authorize a strike aweek ahead of the start of classes. [The Columbus Dispatch, CNN]
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Monday that they have requested Food and Drug Administration authorization for an updated version of their COVID-19 vaccine designed to target theOmicron coronavirus subvariantsthat now account for more than 90 percent of new U.S. cases. The new “bivalent” booster, mixing two vaccine versions, has been shown in early tests to be effective against both the original and latest coronavirus strains, the drugmakers said. If authorized by the FDA, distribution could begin “immediately,” with widespread availability as soon as this fall, ahead of expected winter surges, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. [NPR]
Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, said in a whistleblower disclosure obtained by CNN and The Washington Postthatthe social media company has misled its board, investors, and government regulators about security vulnerabilities. Zatko sent the complaint to Congress and federal agencies last month, warning that Twitter has not come clean about “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in its defenses against hackers. Zatko, a widely admired hacker, depicted Twitter as a chaotic company that is vulnerable to foreign intelligence services. He also said Twitter’s leaders lack the resources to determine how many bots are on the platform, an issue Tesla CEO Elon Musk cited to justify his effort to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. [CNN, The Washington Post]
The Federal Trade Commission said in a court document filed Tuesday that it will drop Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a defendant in an antitrust lawsuit filed last month to block the company from buying a small virtual-reality firm, Within Unlimited. Zuckerberg agreed in return not to buy the company and its fitness app, Supernatural. The FTC sought to keep Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, from acquiring the startup on the grounds that it is already a force in the virtual-reality sector. The FTC said Meta, which is developing its “metaverse” VR project, would violate antitrust laws and reduce competition if it acquired the fitness app. [The Wall Street Journal]
The White House released a mid-year budget update Tuesday forecasting a record drop in the federal deficit this year as tax revenue rises more than expected while spending, including pandemic aid, falls. The Biden administration now expects the fiscal-year budget gap to be $1 trillion — $1.7 trillion less than last year’s deficit and $400 billion less than the Office of Management and Budget projected in March. The budget is expected to total $1.03 trillion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The deficit reached a record of $3.13 trillion in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shook the economy and prompted massive relief spending. The improved forecast came as the tight labor market pushed wages higher, in turn increasing tax receipts. [Politico, The Associated Press]
The United States on Tuesday urged Americans to leave Ukraine ahead of potential Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and government buildings around Ukraine’s independence day on Wednesday, when Ukraine will mark 31 years since it broke ties with the Soviet Union. The day falls exactly six months after Russia invaded Ukraine. “The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so,” the embassy said in a security alert. “The security situation throughout Ukraine is highly volatile and conditions may deteriorate without warning.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russian forces might intensify missile strikes and other attacks around independence day. His government has urged Ukrainians to be “especially careful.” [CNN]
Ammunition stored in southern Russia near the Ukrainian border burst into flames Tuesday. It was the second ammunition depot to catch fire in two weeks on the Russian side of the border. Russia said the fire, which forced people near the village of Timonovo to evacuate, was caused by high temperatures. No injuries were reported. Ukraine seldom claims responsibility for explosions in Russia or Russian-occupied territory, although it often mocks Russia and suggests it is careless or hiding the real cause of the incidents. “In a few months we will find out whether Russian ammunition can explode because of the cold,” Ukraine’s defense ministry tweeted Tuesday. “The five main causes of sudden explosions in Russia are: winter, spring, summer, autumn, and smoking.” [Reuters]
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin apologized Tuesday for a picture from a private party at her official residence. Following public debate over video that surfaced last week of Marin and friends dancing with Finnish celebrities, another photo circulated on social media showing two female influencers kissing each other and covering their bare breasts with a “Finland” sign from Marin’s official residence, Reuters reported. “The picture is not appropriate. I apologize for it,” Marin said. “That kind of a picture should not have been taken but otherwise, nothing extraordinary happened at the get-together.” Marin, 36, is one of the world’s youngest national leaders. Some Finns have defended Marin’s right to a private life, while others questioned her judgment. She took a drug test due to the controversy, and it came back negative. [Reuters]
Fritz Sam deserves all the stars for a recent ride through New York City, when the Uber driver stopped to rescue two people from a burning building and then got his passenger to the airport in time to make her flight. Last Wednesday, Sam was headed to LaGuardia Airport with Jemimah Wei when he saw flames and smoke coming out of a brownstone in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Sam asked Wei if he could stop to help, and they learned from a resident that at least one person was still inside the building. “I just knew something had to be done at that moment,” Sam told Today. He raced inside the brownstone, where he met a man who said he needed to grab something from another floor and a woman who didn’t want to leave. Sam convinced the woman to go and ushered her outside, then went back into the building to find the man. Once they were both out, firefighters were on the scene, and Sam and Wei felt the situation was stable and they could go. Wei tweeted about what happened, and Uber’s CEO surprised him with a call. “I try to keep things in a way where it’s like, you know, you did a good thing,” Sam told Today. “You’d be surprised what little things we do that can be impactful. Because trust me, those little things are going to make a big difference for somebody.” [Today]
The Justice Department on Wednesday released a secret 2019 memo detailing the DOJ’s reasoning for not charging former President Donald Trump with impeding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation. A federal appellate court had ordered the department to release the unredacted memo, written by two top DOJ political appointees for then-Attorney General Bill Barr. The memo says Trump’s actions, including firing his FBI director and pressuring his White House counsel to recant testimony, didn’t amount to obstruction of justice, particularly since Trump “reasonably believed” the investigations impeded his work as president. Legal experts criticized the memo. Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor, told The New York Timesthe document was a “get out of jail free” card for Trump. [The New York Times]
A federal judge in Florida gave former President Donald Trump’s lawyers until Friday to expand their arguments supporting Trump’s request for the appointment of a special master to oversee the review of boxes of highly classified and top secret government documents the FBI seized in a search of his Mar-a-Lago home. Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida ordered Trump’s legal team to explain precisely what Trump wants, and why the court can intervene. Cannon also asked Trump’s lawyers to explain how they believe the review by a special master would affect a magistrate judge’s order for the Justice Department to propose redactions of the FBI affidavit that was used to justify issuing the search warrant. [CNN]
Former President Donald Trump escalated his feud with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday, urging Senate Republicans to boot him as their leader “immediately.” Trump cited a story in The Federalist describing alleged ties between China and McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s transportation secretary. “Mitch McConnell is not an Opposition Leader, he is a pawn for the Democrats to get whatever they want,” Trump said in his statement. Trump has lashed out numerous times since the Kentucky Republican criticized him over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by a mob of Trump supporters hoping to reverse the former president’s 2020 election loss to President Biden. McConnell recently said the GOP might not take control of the Senate in November, as previously expected, because of the “quality” of some of its nominees, which was interpreted as a criticism of Trump’s hand-picked candidates. [The Hill]
A federal judge in Idaho on Wednesday blocked part of a state abortion law that would have let authorities arrest doctors for terminating a pregnancy that threatens a woman’s health. The Idaho law, scheduled to take effect Thursday, bans abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life, not just her health, is in danger. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the law violates a federal act requiring hospitals participating in the federal Medicare program to provide care in “emergency medical conditions,” giving the Biden administration its first victory in a post-Roe lawsuit. On Tuesday, a Texas judge blocked enforcement in the state of the administration’s guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions even in states that ban the procedure. [Idaho Statesman, Reuters]
President Biden on Wednesday announced his long-awaited plan for cutting federal student loan debt, saying he would forgive $10,000 for borrowers earning under $125,000 a year, or couples making under $250,000. Biden also said recipients of Pell Grants who make less than $125,000 annually would be eligible for another $10,000 reduction. Biden said the plan will help middle-class Americans “saddled with unsustainable debt.” He also announced the extension of a pandemic-era pause of student loan repayments through the end of the year. Advocacy groups praised the plan, although some had called for erasing more debt. Republicans opposed the program, independently estimated at $300 billion over a decade. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called it a “debt transfer scam.” [The Wall Street Journal, White House]
Germany on Wednesday launched what it called the world’s first fleet of hydrogen-powered passenger trains. The 14 new trains, manufactured by French company Alstom, are powered by hydrogen fuel cells and are emission-free. They will replace 15 diesel-powered trains operated by regional rail company LNVG on routes in the state of Lower Saxony. The new trains will save more than 422,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year. Alstom says the Coradia iLint trains have a range of 621 miles and a top speed of 87 miles per hour. The hydrogen used to fuel the new trains is a byproduct in chemical processes, but German specialty gas company Linde has plans to start manufacturing it locally using renewable energy within three years. [The Associated Press]
President Biden on Wednesday announced another $3 billion in security aid for Ukraine. The latest round of military assistance came as Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day, and as Russia’s invasion entered its seventh month. “Over the past six months, Ukrainians have inspired the world with their extraordinary courage and dedication to freedom,” Biden said in a statement as he announced the package, which includes six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, laser-guided rocket systems, Puma drones, “Vampire” counter-drone systems, and mortar and artillery rounds. Officials from the U.S. and Ukraine have warned of Russian attacks on or around the holiday, which marks Ukraine’s declaration of its independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991. [The Hill]
A Russian rocket attack killed at least 21 people at a Ukrainian train station as Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day on Wednesday, marking the country’s formal break from Soviet Russia in 1991. About two dozen others were wounded. President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned for days thatthe Kremlin might try “something particularly cruel” around the holiday, and the U.S. Embassy had urged Americans in the embattled country to leave if they could. The rocket barrage hit Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. Zelensky’s office said rocket fire earlier in the day killed an 11-year-old child in the same area. “Chaplyne is our pain today,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. [The Associated Press]
T-Mobile has reached a deal to use SpaceX satellites to expand its cellphone coverage to remote areas that lack cell towers, the companies said Thursday. T-Mobile, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, said SpaceX’s Starlink satellites would allow it to serve more than 500,000 square miles of the country that currently don’t get any connection. “This partnership is the end of mobile dead zones,” T-Mobile chief executive Mike Sievert said at a Thursday news conference with SpaceX’s Elon Musk. T-Mobile plans to use Starlink satellites to test messaging services in remote areas by the end of 2023, then add data and voice coverage to its most popular plans at no extra cost. [The Washington Post]
California air regulators on Thursday approved rules that will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 after a series of measures to phase out the vehicles. The policy is expected to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, because California is the biggest U.S. auto market and several other states typically follow its lead on vehicle emission regulations. “This is monumental,” California Air Resources Board member Daniel Sperling told CNN. “It’s important not just for California, but it’s important for the country and the world.” The new rules call for yearly increases in quotas for zero-emission vehicles, going from 35 percent for 2026 models to 51 percent in 2028 and 100 percent in 2035. [CNN]
A three-judge federal appellate panel on Thursday barred Arkansas from enforcing its ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, upholding a lower court decision temporarily blocking the 2021 law. “Because the minor’s sex at birth determines whether or not the minor can receive certain types of medical care under the law, Act 626 discriminates on the basis of sex,” the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals judges said. The lower court will hold an October trial on whether to permanently block the law. Arkansas was the first state to prohibit doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers, or surgery to people under 18. The state’s Republican attorney general said his office will ask the full appeals court to review the “dangerously wrong decision.” [The Associated Press]
Restrictive abortion laws, triggered by the Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, took effect in Idaho, Tennessee, and Texas on Thursday, banning abortions in the states with few exceptions. A similar “trigger law,” passed previously and designed to be enforced only after Roe was struck down, takes effect in North Dakota on Friday. An Oklahoma law imposing higher criminal penalties for performing illegal abortions goes into effect Saturday, tightening an existing state ban. The changes in these five states will sharply restrict access to abortion for about 10.1 million women of reproductive age, between 15 and 49, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health policy organization. Some of the laws face court challenges. [CNN]
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree increasing the country’s military by 137,000 troops to replenish Russia’s forces, which have suffered extensive losses since the country invaded Ukraine six months ago. The move is designed to increase Russia’s combat forces by 10 percent to 1.15 million soldiers, giving its military a total of 2.04 million personnel. The order also directed the Russian government to provide funding for the increase. A day earlier, Putin’s defense chief conceded that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine had stalled. Russia gave up early plans to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, but its forces have taken control of large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, focusing on the industrial Donbas region. [NBC News]
Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant was briefly disconnected from the country’s power grid after a fire damaged its last working transmission line, triggering a broad blackout, Ukraine’s nuclear power company said Thursday. Backup generators kicked in and power to the facility was later restored, narrowly averting a “radiation accident,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine’s nuclear energy company, Energoatom, blamed “the actions of the invaders” for the incident. Ukrainian and Russian officials have accused each other of recent shelling that has threatened the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. The outage intensified fears thatthe fighting could cause a nuclear disaster. United Nations experts and world leaders have called for allowing inspectors to visit Zaporizhzhia. [The Washington Post]
A federal judge in Fort Worth on Thursday struck down a Texas law barring most adults ages 18 to 20 from obtaining a license to carry a handgun outside their homes. Two people within that age group and the Firearms Policy Coalition filed the lawsuit challenging the law, saying it prevented the plaintiffs from traveling with their weapons between counties where they lived, worked, and attended school. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman wrote in his ruling that “the Second Amendment protects against this prohibition,” because its guarantee of the right to bear arms does not specify an age limit. Pittman stayed the ruling pending appeal. [The Texas Tribune]
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a member of the Senate Commerce and Armed Services committees, arrived in Taiwan on a U.S. military aircraft on Thursday, in the third visit by U.S. lawmakers this month. China, which considers the self-governing democratic island part of its territory, launched military exercises near Taiwan after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited in early August. “Taiwan is our strongest partner in the Indo-Pacific Region…. I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island,” said Blackburn, who met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen early Friday. A spokesperson for China’s Embassy in Washington said Beijing would respond with “resolute countermeasures” to such U.S. “provocations.” [Reuters]
President Biden on Friday scoffed at former President Donald Trump’s claim that he had declassified the sensitive documents removed from his residence at Mar-a-Lago. “President Trump said that he declassified all these documents. Could he have just declassified them all?” a reporter asked. Biden responded by mocking his predecessor. “I’ve declassified everything in the world! I’m the president! I can do it all,” he said, paraphrasing Trump, though without attempting to mimic the former president’s voice or cadences. “C’mon!” Biden added, telling the reporter he would not comment further and would allow the Justice Department to handle the investigation. [CNN, The New York Post]
The Justice Department on Friday released a redacted version of both the affidavit and memo related to the recent FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida mansion. The DOJ even redacted portions of the documents in which it explained the rationale behind the redactions. As a result, many of the pages didn’t reveal much information. Critics of the Mar-a-Lago raid mocked the redactions on Twitter, sharing screenshots of almost completely blacked-out material, especially sections where the eliminated text rendered clauses like “for example” or “as explained in the affidavit” completely moot. [TheWeek, The Associated Press]
Moderna is taking Pfizer and BioNTech to court, accusing the rival drugmakers of patent infringement over their COVID-19 vaccine. The company said Friday it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech in Massachusetts and in Germany, alleging the companies copied its mRNA technology to develop their own coronavirus vaccine and thereby infringed on patents filed by Moderna between 2010 and 2016. “We are filing these lawsuits to protect the innovative mRNA technology platform that we pioneered, invested billions of dollars in creating, and patented during the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said. [The New York Times, TheWeek]
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was reconnected to the country’s power grid on Friday after being temporarily disconnected the previous day. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said thatthe plant’s backup electrical system kept it running safely while it was disconnected, but that “[e]very minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster.” Ukrainian authorities have reportedly begun distributing potassium iodine tablets, which can help block the absorption of radiation, to civilians living in the vicinity of the Russian-held plant. [CNBC, Bloomberg]
A Louisiana woman 15 weeks pregnant with a fetus doctors say cannot survive outside the womb demanded Friday that Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and the state legislature call a special session to clarify the state’s abortion restrictions. Louisiana’s abortion ban, which took effect at the beginning of August, outlaws the procedure except in cases where the mother faces substantial risk of death or impairment or the pregnancy is deemed “medically futile.” Doctors who perform illegal abortions face up to 15 years in prison. Davis said the doctors who denied her an abortion “seemed confused about the law” and told her “I had to carry my baby to bury my baby.” [The Associated Press]
Flooding in Pakistan has killed nearly over 900 people since mid-June, the country’s National Disaster Management Authority said Friday. Pakistani authorities say more than 30 million people have been affected by the floods, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warning Friday of “unprecedented damage and devastation.” Sharif’s government declared a national emergency on Thursday and deployed Pakistan’s military to impacted areas, but continued rains and damage to infrastructure have hampered relief efforts. [BBC, The Washington Post]
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed classifying certain so-called “forever chemicals” — which are believed to have serious health effects, and can be found in hundreds of household items — as hazardous substances. Though polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, will not be banned as a result, the proposed new designation would make it easier for the government to mandate polluters pay fines for violations, as well as clean up their own hazards. Forever chemicals take a long time to break down, and have been known to bleed into water and soil, as well as the blood of people and animals [CNN, TheWeek]
Former President Donald Trump’s social media platform is in financial trouble, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Truth Social, which launched in February, is still struggling to attract a large audience, drawing around 300,000 daily active users compared to Twitter’s 37 million. Trump, by far the most followed person on Truth Social, has around four million followers. Former President Barack Obama, the most followed person on Twitter, has over 132 million. Digital World Acquisition, the firm planning to acquire the media company behind Truth Social, warned last weekthat those numbers could slide even further if Trump “becomes less popular or there are further controversies that damage his credibility.” [The Washington Post, Axios]
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a two-page order on Saturday signaling her “preliminary intent” to grant former President Donald Trump’s request thatthe court appoint a special master. The special master, a third-party attorney, will be tasked with reviewing the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago and returning to Trump any records that fall outside the scope of the search warrant that prompted the raid. Cannon also told the Justice Department to provide her with more information about the classified records taken from the former president’s residence. [The Associated Press, TheWeek]
Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal lent his voice to an effort to amend the Australian Constitution, appearing at a press conference in Sydney alongside Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday. The proposed amendment would create an indigenous “Voice to Parliament” to ensure that Australia’s Aboriginal communities were consulted on issues affecting them. A date for the referendum has not yet been set. To succeed, an Australian referendum needs the support of a majority of voters nationwide and the support of a majority of voters in a majority of states. The last Australian referendum, which would have cut the country’s ties with the British monarchy and established a republic, failed in 1999. [The New York Times]
A series of clashes between rival Libyan militias left at least 23 people dead and 140 injured in the capital city of Tripoli, the country’s Ministry of Health said Saturday. The country’s Government of National Unity, which has the backing of the United Nations, said the fighting was triggered by “a military group firing randomly at a convoy.” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Guterres “urges the Libyan parties to engage in a genuine dialogue to address the ongoing political impasse and not to use force to resolve their differences.” [CNN]
French President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day visit to Algeria on Saturday, signing a joint declaration with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in which the two leaders agreed “to open a new era … laying the foundation for a renewed partnership.” Macron also announced that he would admit an additional 8,000 Algerian students to French universities. Algeria gained its independence from France in 1962 following 132 years of colonial rule and eight brutal years of war, a history that strains relations between the countries to this day. Last year, Macron accused Algeria’s government of promoting “hatred towards France” [France24, Al Jazeera]
Some 180,000 Pakistanis fled their homes on Saturday after ongoing floods destroyed a major bridge in the country’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan’s government has called in the army to assist in disaster relief, with army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa promising not to “spare any effort to assist them in this difficult time.” The flooding, which began in mid-June due to heavy rainfall, has killed over 900 people in Pakistan and nearly 200 in neighboring Afghanistan. [Reuters]
A joint effort of several authors who do find that nobody can keep standing at the side and that “Everyone" must care about what is going on in today’s world.
We are a bunch of people who do not mind that somebody has a totally different idea but is willing to share the ideas with others and to be Active and willing to let others understand how "today’s decisions will influence the future”. Therefore we would love to see many others to "Act today".
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One thought on “The Week: looking at the 4th week of August 2022”