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The Guardian
Queen Elizabeth II obituary
Queen Elizabeth II, who has died aged 96, became through the course of her long reign not only the oldest sovereign in the country’s history but also its longest serving. […]
As Queen, she was an integral part of the country and its institutions: one of the best-known women and national leaders in the world, photographed, painted, filmed, depicted, lauded – and occasionally ridiculed – from the time she became heir to the throne, at the age of 10, in 1936, to the end of her life. The nation – and the world – watched her change from being a callow princess to a glamorous young queen, a mother and grandmother, from a blonde, curly-haired child to a diminutive white-haired old lady, over many decades during which her role scarcely changed. Born a fortnight before the 1926 general strike, she lived well into the age of the internet.
The Washington Post
Operation London Bridge: The plan for after Queen Elizabeth’s death
It’s not every day a serving British monarch dies. There has to be a plan. And so, with the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96 on Thursday, the long-awaited “Operation London Bridge” swung into action.
Named after a former London landmark that was forever “falling down,” Operation London Bridge was the code word attributed to a formally choreographed sequence of events that would occur after the death of the British monarch. […]
Detroit Free Press
Michigan Supreme Court: Abortion amendment must appear on ballot
Tiny spaces and cries of gibberish are not enough to derail an effort to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, according to a ruling issued Thursday by the state's highest court. […]
By a 5-2 decision, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the Board of State Canvassers must certify a proposed constitutional amendment despite the alleged typographical issues. Chief Justice Bridget McCormack chastised board members and abortion rights opponents who suggested the space between words in a measure that garnered more than 750,000 signatures should be a fatal flaw.
Houston Chronicle
Young Democrats are flocking to register to vote in Texas after abortion ruling, data shows
In Texas, it’s not just women who are fired up about access to abortion and registering to vote in large numbers following this summer's historic Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade.
A new analysis from political data and polling firm TargetSmart found that while Texas’ new voter registrants are evenly split between men and women, they are younger and more Democratic than before the June ruling.
“It’s not that we’re not seeing a surge from women but that in Texas, we’re somewhat uniquely also seeing a surge from men, particularly younger, more progressive men, who are matching the surge from women,” said CEO Tom Bonier, whose firm works with Democratic and progressive candidates.
Vox
DOJ warns judge that delaying the FBI’s Trump investigation is a national security risk
On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee to the federal bench — issued a surprising order that effectively halted much of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into classified records it recovered last month from ... Donald Trump. Cannon’s legal reasoning has been widely mocked by lawyers from across the political spectrum.
Today, the Justice Department made its first attempt to regain control over the classified documents.
In a motion asking Cannon to stay parts of her order, the Justice Department warns that the order risks “irreparable harm to our national security and intelligence interests” by sabotaging the intelligence community’s efforts to determine whether any of the sensitive information contained in the seized records has leaked beyond Trump.
Los Angeles Times
‘Something horribly failed.’ How did so many of America’s secrets end up at Mar-a-Lago?
[…] “Something horribly failed... at Trump’s White House for him to have walked away with all these documents without somebody raising an alarm before he left,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a former high-ranking CIA officer in the George W. Bush administration and former senior director of the White House Situation Room in the Obama administration. […]
“The thing people may not realize is just how highly organized this process has become,” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who was staff secretary for the final months of President Clinton’s second term. […]
“The idea that there would be classified materials going into the Oval and no record of what happened to them is not a world in which I lived,” Maloney said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s irresponsible. It’s completely inconsistent with the way a White House should work.”
Politico
Steve Bannon charged with money laundering, conspiracy
… Stephen Bannon, who dodged federal charges in a charity fraud case thanks to a last-minute presidential pardon, must now face the music in New York state court.
Bannon, 68, arrived in handcuffs to a crowded arraignment in Manhattan’s New York County Supreme Court Thursday afternoon, hours after surrendering to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. […]
A six-count indictment charges Bannon with money laundering, conspiracy and scheming to defraud for his alleged role in We Build the Wall, a group that raised at least $15 million to construct a barrier along the border with Mexico but skimmed the donations.
ABC News
Federal grand jury probing Trump PAC's formation, fundraising efforts: Sources
A federal grand jury investigating the activities leading up the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the push by … Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the result of the 2020 election has expanded its probe to include seeking information about Trump's leadership PAC, Save America, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News. […]
Trump and his allies have consistently pushed supporters to donate to the PAC, often using false claims about the 2020 election and soliciting donations to rebuke the multiple investigations into the former president, his business dealings, and his actions on Jan. 6.
The Kyiv Independent
Ukraine liberates 1,000 square kilometers, over 20 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast
Ukraine’s military reports that it had liberated over 20 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast within days of launching a surprise counteroffensive in the country’s northeast.
Ukrainian forces have advanced 50 kilometers deep into the Russian-occupied territories near Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, according to Deputy Chief of Ukraine's General Staff Oleksiy Hromov. Despite the military not naming the liberated settlements, the city of Balakliia was confirmed to be freed by Ukrainian troops.
“Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, is under (Ukrainian) control. The order is complete,” said soldiers in a Sept. 8 video published by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram.
EuroNews
US commits an additional €677 million in military aid for Ukraine
The US and European allies met at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany to discuss stepping up military aid for Ukraine.
Contributions of state-of-the-art artillery and other systems, mainly from the US, have helped turn the tide of the war. And today's meeting saw the US contributing an additional $675 million (€677 million) in heavy artillery for Ukraine.
The "Ukrainian Defence Contact Group" was set up after Russia invaded the country in February.
With Kyiv launching a counter-offence, the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin indicated the West would increase support to help it succeed.
Deutsche Welle
'Winter is coming' to Ukraine, warns NATO chief at Ramstein summit
… NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to call on allies to maintain their support as the war approached a "pivotal moment."
"We need at least to be prepared for this winter, because there is no sign of Russia giving up its goal of taking control of Ukraine,'' Stoltenberg told the Associated Press on the sidelines of the meeting in western Germany. […]
Stoltenberg also warned of a long winter ahead for Ukrainian soldiers. As the conflict turns into a grinding war of attrition, Ukraine used the summit to ask for cold weather equipment, on top of more weapons and ammunition.
NBC News
'Don't wait' to get the new Covid shot, White House says
The Biden administration is making a major push to get the updated Covid vaccine in arms ahead of what could be another fall surge of the virus as children head back to the classroom, and employees return to the workplace.
The plans include the acquisition of more than 170 million doses of the new boosters, which will be available to consumers without an out-of-pocket cost.
"We want Americans to know that the vaccine is here and that they shouldn't wait" to get it, a senior administration official told NBC News on Thursday.
CNN
Chinese metropolis Chengdu extends Covid lockdown, again, with no end in sight
China's mega city of Chengdu has extended its Covid lockdown for a second time, with no end in sight as authorities struggle to eradicate an outbreak that is continuing despite stringent restrictions that have upended businesses and daily life.
Home to 21 million people and the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, Chengdu was locked down on September 1, becoming the largest Chinese metropolis to come to a standstill since Shanghai's painful two-month lockdown in the spring. The city is also a major production hub for Apple.
On Sunday, when citywide testing was due to end, Chengdu extended the lockdown for most of the city, and ordered new rounds of mass testing through Wednesday. Late on Wednesday night, authorities announced that lockdown measures would be extended yet again in most districts, covering 16 million people.
The Atlantic
The Strongest Signal That Americans Should Worry About Flu This Winter
Sometime in the spring of 2020, after centuries, perhaps millennia, of tumultuous coexistence with humans, influenza abruptly went dark. Around the globe, documented cases of the viral infection completely cratered as the world tried to counteract SARS-CoV-2. This time last year, American experts began to fret that the flu’s unprecedented sabbatical was too bizarre to last: Perhaps the group of viruses that cause the disease would be poised for an epic comeback, slamming us with “a little more punch” than usual, Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Tennessee, told me at the time.
But those fears did not not come to pass. Flu’s winter 2021 season in the Southern Hemisphere was once again eerily silent; in the north, cases sneaked up in December—only to peter out before a lackluster reprise in the spring.
Now, as the weather once again chills in this hemisphere and the winter holidays loom, experts are nervously looking ahead. After skipping two seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, flu spent 2022 hopping across the planet’s lower half with more fervor than it’s had since the COVID crisis began. And of the three years of the pandemic that have played out so far, this one is previewing the strongest signs yet of a rough flu season ahead.
The Christian Science Monitor
In Jackson, a crisis of water – and a broken social contract
This isn’t how Marie McClendon envisioned her Friday afternoon. Ahead of her vehicle is a long line of cars, idling in an abandoned mall’s parking lot in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s a dystopian scene, albeit with National Guard members scurrying about the open space to offer aid. Each car receives two cases of bottled water. She fans herself, shakes her head, and moves up in line.
Ms. McClendon grew up in Meridian, a city about an hour and a half away from the Mississippi capital here in Jackson. Ms. McClendon, her fiancé, and her daughter relocated to Jackson six years ago. Access to clean, safe drinking water has become a defining issue during their family’s time here. In fact, residents have been under a citywide boil-water notice since at least late July. As their family learned, the city’s boil-water notice was just a hint of the challenges to come.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Trump posted private photo with Pa. troopers without authorization
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is “looking into the matter” after … Donald Trump published a photo of himself posing with dozens of uniformed state police troopers on his social media website when the picture was supposed to be private.
Mr. Wolf’s press secretary Elizabeth Rementer said “according to PSP, this was a private photo opportunity with the former president and it was not approved for use by the former president for public purposes.” […]
It was shared thousands of times on Twitter after a former federal prosecutor posted it, sparking outrage from people who questioned the propriety of troopers posing in the same photo with Mr. Trump on the campaign trail. Most police departments have policies forbidding political activity.
ProPublica
St. Louis’ Private Police Forces Make Security a Luxury of the Rich
[…] The City’s Finest is no mere security firm. With about 200 officers moonlighting for it, it’s the biggest of several private policing companies that some of St. Louis’ wealthier and predominantly white neighborhoods have hired to patrol public spaces and protect their homes and businesses.
These neighborhoods buy patrols from … private police companies because, they say, they do not get enough from a city police department that struggles to provide basic services.
Under [St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department] rules, officers have the same authority when working for these companies that they have while on duty, one reason their services are in such demand. They can investigate crimes, stop pedestrians or vehicles and make arrests. And the police department requires that they wear their police uniforms when they’re working in law enforcement or security in the city, creating confusion about who they’re working for.
AP News
Study: Four major climate tipping points close to triggering
Even if the world somehow manages to limit future warming to the strictest international temperature goal, four Earth-changing climate “tipping points” are still likely to be triggered with a lot more looming as the planet heats more after that, a new study said. […]
The study said slow but irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, more immediate loss of tropical coral reefs around the globe and thawing of high northern permafrost that releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases trapped in now frozen land are four significant tipping points that could be triggered at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, which is three-tenths of a degree (half a degree Fahrenheit) warmer than now. Current policies and actions put Earth on a trajectory for about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, according to some projections.
“Let’s hope we’re not right,” said study co-author Tim Lenton, an Earth systems scientist at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom
CBC News
Europe experienced record heat this summer, but also record solar power
Europe smashed previous temperature records this summer, with long periods of sunshine causing sweltering conditions and droughts across much of the continent while also helping boost much-needed solar power, according to data published Thursday.
The European Commission said average temperatures from June to August were 0.4 C higher on the continent this year than the previous record set in 2021. In August alone, the previous monthly record from 2018 was exceeded by 0.8 C this year, it said. […]
Separately, energy think-tank Ember said the European Union set a new record for solar power this summer, reducing the need for natural gas imports.
USA Today
Rising seas fueled by climate change to swamp $34B in US real estate in just 30 years, analysis finds
Higher high tides, supercharged by rising sea levels, could flood all or parts of an estimated $34 billion worth of real estate along the nation’s coasts within just 30 years, a new report concludes.
Within the span of a 30-year mortgage, as many as 64,000 buildings and roughly 637,000 properties along the ocean and its connecting waterways could be at least partially below the tidal boundary level, the nonprofit Climate Central stated in a report released Thursday morning.
Seas are forecast to rise from 8 inches to 23 inches along the nation’s coasts by 2050, with the higher increases along the northern Gulf Coast and mid-Atlantic. As the oceans rise, every inch of additional water is expected to move farther inland making flood events worse and putting more properties at risk.
Gizmodo
Facebook Agrees to Settle 4-Year Lawsuit Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal
[…] Court filings show that, at least in principle, a deal has been struck in San Francisco federal court between lawyers defending the company now called Meta and the two law firms that represent millions of users burned in the 2018 data-privacy disaster now known simply as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Both sides have requested 60 days to finalize the terms of the settlement, and financial terms of the proposed deal have not been disclosed. […]
Carole Cadwalladr, the British journalist in whom the whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, confided, framed the settlement on Saturday as an 11th hour attempt by Zuckerberg to avoid being deposed.
“It is a measure of how desperate Zuckerberg is to avoid answering questions about Facebook’s cover-up of the Cambridge Analytica data breach that Facebook has settled this case just days away from him being cross-examined under oath for six hours,” Cadwalladr told the Guardian, adding the company seemed prepared to pay “almost any sum of money” to avoid its executives being questioned under oath.
CNET
Meta Reportedly Disbands Team Studying Potential Negative Impacts of Facebook, Instagram
Facebook parent company Meta has reportedly disbanded an internal team dedicated to studying the potential negative impacts of the company's products, including Facebook and Instagram.
Around two dozen engineers, ethicists and others made up the Responsible Innovation team, as it was called, which until now had assessed potential concerns about new products and changes to Facebook and Instagram, according to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. A Meta spokesman told the Journal that most of the former team's members would keep doing similar watchdog work elsewhere in the company, though they weren't guaranteed jobs.
The Washington Post
Thousands allegedly bilked U.S. for free internet — in one child’s name
More than 1,000 households in Oklahoma used the identity of a single 4-year-old to obtain free or discounted internet service from the U.S. government, part of a broader wave of suspected fraud now raising new questions about Washington’s attempts to close the digital divide.
The apparent plot targeted the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides up to $30 each month toward millions of Americans’ mobile phone or home internet bills. Similar suspicious activity also surfaced in Ohio and Texas, according to the inspector general for the Federal Communications Commission, a watchdog that uncovered the alleged scam.
In total, the potentially fraudulent activity may have resulted in about $1.4 million in misspending, according to federal investigators. The government sent that money directly to telecom carriers, which under law accept federal benefits on their subscribers’ behalf and apply the discounts to customers’ bills. None of the companies that processed the suspect applications and received federal funds are named in the report.
Science
‘Breakthrough’ finding shows how modern humans grow more brain cells than Neanderthals
We humans are proud of our big brains, which are responsible for our ability to plan ahead, communicate, and create. Inside our skulls, we pack, on average, 86 billion neurons—up to three times more than those of our primate cousins. For years, researchers have tried to figure out how we manage to develop so many brain cells. Now, they’ve come a step closer: A new study shows a single amino acid change in a metabolic gene helps our brains develop more neurons than other mammals—and more than our extinct cousins, the Neanderthals.
The finding “is really a breakthrough,” says Brigitte Malgrange, a developmental neurobiologist at the University of Liège who was not involved in the study. “A single amino acid change is really, really important and gives rise to incredible consequences regarding the brain.”
Ars Technica
Leaked Oath Keepers’ list includes hundreds of cops, dozens of elected officials
[…] As reports tracked a string of violent events leading up to Oath Keepers' involvement in the Capitol riots, it remained difficult for outsiders to discern just how effective the nonprofit group's recruitment really was at targeting people with real power. Then in fall 2021, the Distributed Denial of Secrets published a massive data leak, revealing names and addresses of 38,000 Oath Keepers and donors. […]
In a report published this week, [the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism] identified 373 people in the Oath Keepers database believed to be active law enforcement officers, 117 people who seem to be currently serving in the military, and 81 public officials who either currently hold or are running for public office in 2022.