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Kenya Glasgow and her toddler died after lightning struck in Margate, near Fort LauderdaleA mother and her toddler were killed recently by a lightning strike in south Florida, local authorities said.The tragedy happened in Margate, near Fort Lauderdale, on Sunday. The victims were Kenya Glasgow, 31, and her two-year-old daughter, named in media reports as Kennedi. Continue reading...

US president has been obsessed with restricting the ability to vote by mail, despite using it himself. Plus, why we are still fascinated with Meg from the White Stripes

At the sacred prairie of Pe' Sla in South Dakota, Indigenous and environmental groups banded together to halt drillingThis story was co-published and supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.When two Oglala Lakota scouts heard drilling was expected to begin on Pe' Sla, the sacred prairie in the Black Hills of South Dakota, they set out on back trails. They needed to find out where. That's when they saw a deer break ahead and a red-tailed hawk soar above them - less like a coincidence than being led, the scouts said. Over a rise, they came upon a road freshly cut to the dirt. They followed it, past a parked truck. Oh my god," one of them said, seeing a drill turning. They're drilling now!" Continue reading...

Mathematicians are raising concerns that the technology could kill their profession. But they still have abilities AI doesn'tEarlier this month, about 40 top mathematicians gathered at OpenAI's offices to discuss the future of their profession. The meeting was off-the-record, but if recent articles by mathematicians are any guide, it was mostly pretty glum. People fear for their jobs, their careers and the work they love.We think the contrary view is more likely, at least in the short-term. AI models are nowhere near as capable as experienced academic mathematicians. Continue reading...

Danish toymaker also scores success with KPop Demon Hunters, Star Wars and botanicals products

Trump administration proposes new rule to dismantle requirement for datacenters to publicly report air pollutionA new rule proposed by the Trump administration aims to kill public notification for datacenter air pollution, public health advocates warn, and allow emission permits to be issued behind closed doors.The datacenters are often sources of nitrogen oxide, which helps form ozone, carbon monoxide and heavy metals, among other pollutants. Continue reading...

Adam Hamilton, a liberal megachurch pastor, is challenging incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall in this year's midterm electionIn one of the first ads of his campaign to represent Kansas in the US Senate, the Democrat Adam Hamilton stands grilling steaks at a barbecue and attacks his opponent, Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, for supporting tariffs and war".If history is any guide, it is Hamilton who is set to get cooked. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and more than half a century has passed since one of their nominees even came close. But he and his supporters believe circumstances have conspired to end this streak - and potentially deliver Democrats control of the Senate. Continue reading...

A recent memo claiming executive privilege over communications with private advisers invites corruptionA recent office of legal counsel memo on executive privilege maintains that private advisers to a president can avoid responding to a subpoena by asserting the president's executive privilege. The ability of presidents to shield communications from public view through claims of executive privilege, whether their own or those of a senior adviser, was already a powerful tool for presidents to avoid accountability. But if courts accept the OLC's new interpretation of presidential privilege, it will be substantially harder to call witnesses to testify before Congress or in court proceedings regarding possible wrongdoing by the presidents.Equipping presidents with extensive power to block witnesses in legal proceedings is a dangerous practice that invites corruption by presidents and their advisers. Consider the former White House counsel Don McGahn's 2019 refusal to testify in response to a subpoena by the House judiciary committee in connection with the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump. McGahn didn't come up with that idea on his own. It was the Trump White House that sought to bar McGahn from testifying through an assertion of a type of executive privilege known as testimonial immunity." Ironically, Mueller was investigating whether Trump obstructed justice, among other things, by demanding that McGahn fire Mueller himself. Trump's insistence that McGahn not testify, backed up by a 2019 OLC opinion, effectively made the first Trump administration complicit in the very obstruction under investigation. Continue reading...

Nearly a decade after I watched him defy Erdoan at great personal cost, the ex-NBA player is using his hard-won freedom to turn transgender people into a punchlineNine years ago, I watched Enes Kanter ask America to take him in. It was May 2017, inside the National Basketball Players Association's offices in midtown Manhattan. Kanter had just returned from a frightening detention at Bucharest airport, where Romanian border police told him Turkey had canceled his passport. He'd just turned 25, an NBA center with a green card and no country he could safely call home.I'm open for adoption," he joked from the head of a table in a nondescript conference room, addressing a dozen reporters hastily summoned by his manager. Then he turned serious: My next move is to just become an American citizen." Continue reading...

The Slovenian is one of the best players on the planet. But factors largely beyond his control have started to turn his career into a slogLuka Doni must feel as though, these past few months, he's been twirling in a washing machine. He announced a separation from his fiancee in March; reports followed of a prolonged custody battle over their two daughters. As Doni plays in the NBA and his children live in Slovenia, he doesn't see them much as is. But after the reports of the rift with his ex emerged, he started playing some of the best basketball of his life: he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 15-2 record in March, a stretch that included a torrential 60-point display against the Miami Heat. Behind Doni's brightening star, the Lakers seemed to be sharpening into a real contender. Then Doni tweaked his hamstring in April and the illusion shattered. He watched from the sidelines as the Lakers limped out of the playoffs with an inevitable second-round defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.Actually, Doni must feel as if he's been in turmoil for the past few years. He made his first - and so far only - NBA finals in 2024, leading the Dallas Mavericks there with a barrage of awesome shotmaking. As the best offensive player on the court while playing through multiple injuries, Doni and his Mavs lost to the far deeper Boston Celtics in five games. As thanks, the Mavericks traded Doni to the Lakers, citing defensive concerns, when what had really doomed them against the Celtics was that no one aside from Luka - who led his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals in that series - could play at the requisite level to win. Continue reading...

While Cavan and Quinn Sullivan star in MLS with the Philadelphia Union, brothers Ronan and Declan have connected with their South Asian heritageRonan Sullivan had tried a panenka twice in his life. Both attempts were at practice on the other side of the world, and one hit the crossbar. But his twin brother, Declan, was hardly surprised when Ronan turned to him and told him he'd chip the fifth penalty of a shootout that could win a scoreless tournament final, as millions tuned in online to see his Bangladesh side play against India in the Under-20 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship.He didn't even need to say it. I knew he was gonna do that the whole time," Declan remembered, sitting next to his brother on the couch of their dorm room at Saint Joseph's University. I knew that if he got the last pen to win it, he was gonna do that. That's just the him thing to do." Continue reading...

A fundamental rupture in the values that have united North America is not a problem that can be wished away: this is a warning to the western allianceThe Canadians are exceedingly angry. I realise this can sometimes be difficult for foreigners to deduce, given our national struggle to express the full range of human emotion outside ice hockey riots. However, let me assure you that the prime minister Canadians saw take the stage on Saturday morning in the wake of the collapse in trade negotiations with the US was a Mark Carney practically vibrating with fury.You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked," he said, in a rare press conference that was as candid and clear as he ever tends to be. That's fine ... We've got the reserves, we've got the resilience, we've got the plan, we've got the focus. We're gonna respond, we're going to focus on what we can control and what we're going to build."Jen Gerson is a Canadian commentator and co-founder of The Line. She lives in Calgary, Alberta Continue reading...

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The state department will revoke B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026, whose holders have sought or are now seeking asylumDonald Trump's administration said on Monday it planned to revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the US, marking its latest step in a sweeping immigration crackdown.A state department spokesperson said it was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and revoke the non-immigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently". Continue reading...

Tens of thousands are still under evacuation orders or warnings amid human-caused', wind-driven blazeThe Hawk fire is about 27% contained, authorities said on Monday afternoon, two days after the fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire sparked near Reno, Nevada.Authorities added that 23,000 people are under a go-now" order and 40,000 people are under a get-set" warning, an improvement from the 90,000 Nevadans under evacuation orders or warnings on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Arbitrator determined the Post improperly fired Karen Attiah, a union-protected employee, over social media postsAn independent arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire the high-profile opinion columnist Karen Attiah, abruptly fired by the news organization last September over comments she made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the then recently killed conservative activist.On Monday, an arbitrator ruled that the Post had violated her rights as a union-protected employee and ordered the newspaper to reinstate her and compensate her for lost wages. Continue reading...

Karen Solomon had been missing for six days after her husband Kurt Solomon was found dead at their homeA mental health advocate suspected of killing her police officer husband was found dead on Monday, six days after she disappeared from her Massachusetts home, authorities said.Karen Solomon, an advocate who called for improvements and greater awareness of police mental health issues, had disappeared after Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon was found dead at their home just before 5.30am on 18 August. Officials had named Karen Solomon a suspect and said she was believed to be armed. Continue reading...

Dr Kirk Heilbrun says he believes Clancy took children's lives so they wouldn't suffer' after she killed herselfWith just days to go before the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy concludes, a forensic psychologist called by the prosecution testified on Monday that he did not believe she was experiencing acute psychosis when she killed her three children.Kirk Heilbrun, who reportedly performed psychiatric tests on Clancy in April, told the court that he questioned her claims that a hallucinated voice commanded her to commit the act, and that he believed she took their lives so they wouldn't suffer" after she killed herself. Continue reading...

Justices' ruling comes after lower courts had blocked president's election order ahead of November midtermsThe US supreme court sided with Donald Trump on Monday in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it remains unclear if his administration can take action ahead of the midterm elections in November.Justices on the court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to lift an injunction from June that a judge in Massachusetts placed on an executive order issued by the president. But a second injunction remains in place and the ruling leaves room for legal challenges. Continue reading...

Retailer removes kid's clown costume after people said it resembled a racist caricature used in minstrel showsTarget, the US retail corporation, said it pulled a controversial Halloween costume off its shelves after criticism across social media that it resembled a racist caricature.The ad image for the costume, sold as the Kids' Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume," depicted a Black child in a bright orange and black top with solid black gloves and a mask with a wide, toothy smile. Both the child's pose and the costume's gloves and mask were likened to caricatures of Black people used in minstrel shows. Continue reading...

In Trump administration's plan, California, Arizona and Nevada face about a 20% cut to water supply over two yearsNevada filed a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging the Trump administration's new plan for the imperiled Colorado River, launching what could become the first of many court battles over the waterway that supplies 40 million people, dozens of tribes and 5.5m acres of farm land across the American west.The federal plan, issued Friday, cut roughly 20% from the water supplied to lower basin states - Nevada, Arizona and California - over the next two years, with a potential for harsher cutbacks in the future, based on conditions. Continue reading...

A child invaded the pitch and interrupted a Major League Soccer match between Minnesota United and San Jose Earthquakes on 22 August Continue reading...

Everything Sprouts recalls products after CDC says agency is aware of dozens of food-poisoning cases nationallyUS healthcare officials recently said a food-poisoning outbreak tied to alfalfa sprouts and involving multiple germs had sickened people in at least 15 states.Officials announced the outbreak after documenting more than three dozen cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin. On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the agency was aware of at least 55 cases nationally, including four people who had been hospitalized. Continue reading...

Move is latest deterioration in trade relations between neighbors with historically strong economic tiesDonald Trump announced a new 50% tariff on automobiles and crucial raw materials from Canada, the latest deterioration in trade relations between the two neighbors with historically strong economic ties.The US president said that the increased tariffs would start on 1 January 2027 on all cars, trucks, automobile parts and steel. He also derided the nation's tariffs on American farmers, writing on social media that Canada has been ripping off" the US for years". Continue reading...

Man, 68, was left searching for help in 116F weather after his car became stuck in mud along remote park roadA French tourist recently died in Death Valley national park after a car mishap left him stranded in 116F (47C) weather.The visitor, identified as 68-year-old Pierre Michel Formosa, was traveling with another French man along the park's remote West Side Road when their vehicle became stuck in mud near Queen of Sheba Mine Road. Continue reading...

Prime minister praised for rejecting US trade proposal as Trump shows little interest in retreating from dispute

Video posted on social media shows three people climbing out of sewer system at 4am, months after similar reportsNew York City's police department (NYPD) says it is investigating a recent video of three people emerging from a manhole in the latest such episode to cause mystery.Posted to TikTok on Friday, the video showed three people - one after the other - climbing out of a manhole at 4.19am on 18 August wearing headlamps and black overalls near Madison Square Garden. Continue reading...

Authorities suspect Benjamin Charles Parker, 36, died by suicide after he was found in vehicle in Washington stateA man suspected of killing five people in rural Oregon was found dead in a suspected suicide, local law enforcement officials said on Sunday.The five homicide victims were found on Saturday at a home in a rural community near Forest Grove, Oregon, about 30 miles (48km) outside Portland, when authorities responded to a report of a vehicle fire. Continue reading...

The newspaper often uses the word to describe elections with progressive contenders, implying a previous whole destroyed by the leftEl-Sayed and Stevens Project Party Unity After Divisive Race," announced the New York Times on 5 August, the day the democratic socialist Abdul El-Sayed beat out his centrist Democratic rival, Haley Stevens, in the Michigan senatorial primary. Divisive" is now the Times's favorite attack word, deployed repeatedly to disparage and try to undermine the astonishing recent advances by self-identified democratic socialists and other progressive candidates.Four days after that first story, the Times again landed divisive" under Obama and El-Sayed Discuss Unity After Ugly Michigan Primary." El-Sayed, it asserted, had narrowly prevailed in a divisive primary after campaigning on a progressive and anti-establishment platform". Continue reading...

Gary mayor says 12 days is too long' for residents to go without power after storm downed trees on to power linesThe mayor of Gary, Indiana, has said it is unacceptable" that thousands of residents in the city are still without power nearly two weeks after an 11 August storm known as a derecho brought 90 mph, straight-line winds, downing trees on to power lines.We're at day 12, and 12 days is too long for families to be without power," Eddie Melton, Gary's mayor, said in a video address on Sunday, adding that he is continuing to pressure the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (Nipsco) to restore the city's power before the end of Tuesday. Continue reading...

Sean Grayson, who was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2023, was serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murderThe former Illinois sheriff's deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home after she reported a possible prowler to 911, has died, his attorney said Sunday.Sean Grayson died on Sunday, lawyer Daniel Fultz - who represented the ex-Sangamon county deputy at his trial - told NBC News and CBS News.The Associated Press contributed Continue reading...

Key speech to be delivered this week at Jackson Hole said to focus on productivity and demographics in the US. Plus, how do you vaccinate 1,000 little penguins in the wild?Good morning. The new US Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, faces a critical test this week amid anxiety in government bond markets over inflation and Donald Trump's tax and spending plans. As the world's most powerful central bank prepares for its annual Jackson Hole conference, analysts said bond traders would be looking for signals from Warsh over its commitment to fighting inflation.However, Warsh has signalled reluctance to use his speech on Friday for the more traditional setup" of dropping hints over how the US central bank may respond to inflationary pressures when its officials next meet to set interest rates in September and December. Instead, he has said his Jackson Hole speech could be focused on bigger questions", including concerns over productivity and demographics.Why is this a crucial moment for the Fed? The gathering of the world's most powerful central bankers in the Grand Teton national park is a blue riband event in the financial calendar. However, the meeting comes as selling pressure intensifies in the $30tn US government debt market despite efforts by the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to assuage investor worries after he committed to at least double Washington's purchases of US Treasury bonds.What did Joshua Aviles say about his father's arrest? I've been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything. I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE. We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting. This is heartbreaking for me. I don't know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal."How did the DHS respond? The DHS said Luis Manuel Aviles Roa entered the US illegally and would remain in immigration and customs enforcement detention pending removal proceedings. Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws," the DHS said. Continue reading...

The president's border wall plan could damage or destroy the oldest-known books in North America'On an overcast summer morning, Carolyn Boyd, an archeologist at Texas State University, stood at the foot of a cave in west Texas, looking up toward a series of towering murals painted on a rock wall. Three massive human-like figures soared toward an overhang that had sheltered the painting from the elements since they were drawn here perhaps 4,000 years ago.An artist herself, Boyd knows how hard it would have been to paint these long, crisp lines. Before starting, the bands of Indigenous hunter-gatherers who lived in this west Texas valley, where the Pecos River empties into the Rio Grande, would have spent weeks pulverizing gypsum, hematite, limonite and manganese to make paint. They would have gathered massive quantities of sotol stalks to fold its fibers into scaffolding. The painting itself would have required teamwork and precision, with people at the bottom guiding artists on the wall as they painted figures stretching up to 30ft tall. Continue reading...

Trump administration finalized rule to end Medicaid support for care including hormones and speech therapyNew Mexico will continue funding gender-affirming care for minors after a federal rule ending Medicaid support for such care goes into effect.On 13 August, the Trump administration finalized a rule - set to go into effect on 13 October - that will end funding for gender-affirming care through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (Chip). Continue reading...

A fast-moving Nevada wildfire exploded to more than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) on Sunday, pushing from the Sierra foothills toward the centre of Reno and forced nearly 90,000 residents to evacuate as flames threatened neighbourhoods and reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus Continue reading...

Republicans who deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election are running for governor and secretary of state across the USElection deniers are back on the ballot.In most swing states, at least one major Republican candidate has questioned or outright denied the results of the 2020 US presidential election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Civil liberties groups decry plan to use gloves linked to death of Kentucky man allegedly shocked 27 times in county jailPlans to supply Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with special gloves that can deliver electric shocks have alarmed experts and drawn scrutiny amid some high-profile lawsuits over their use in local correctional facilities.In one extreme case, a 43-year-old man died after allegedly being shocked 40 times by officers with a combination of the gloves and a Taser in a county jail in Kentucky, and the man's widow is suing authorities. Continue reading...

Plans for gloves that can deliver electric shocks underline the homeland security department's sadistic practicesOn 11 August, the Associated Press reported that the Homeland Security Agency will spend up to $20m to equip its agents with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to the skin of a person deemed uncooperative. The conductive distraction and de-escalation devices"- branded Glove, for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter - will be supplied by their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, through a no-bid contract.News of the acquisition inspired the editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes to publish a cartoon of an ICE agent wearing the glove, underneath which are a branding iron, an iron maiden, a rack, and other compliance technologies. AKA, instruments of torture. Continue reading...

The Democratic and the Republican candidate each blame the other for the bungled recovery effort after storm struck regionTwo years after North Carolina suffered the worst natural disaster in its history when Hurricane Helene struck the state's western half, life in the hardest-hit areas appears back to normal. Downtowns are lively, blocked roads have been reopened and rivers are flowing below their banks.But the telltale evidence of the disaster's expensive impacts can still be seen - from for rent" signs in storefronts whose businesses never came back to debris from the storm still lurking in some waterways. And in the race for North Carolina's US Senate seat, it's almost as if the hurricane never left. Continue reading...

The WNBA has attracted grifters who care little for basketball - and whose latest stunt exposes the hollowness of their supposed concernI regret to inform you that yet another dildo has hit a WNBA court. The Chicago Sky v Golden State Valkyries game was sullied by sex toys being chucked on to the playing surface on Friday. Aren't we tired of all this yet? To paraphrase the Sky's Natasha Cloud, it takes a lot of effort to bother with such a juvenile act.This is yet another controversy for the WNBA, a league that up until a few years ago, most media observers ignored. The WNBA is full of incredibly talented players and has a rich history, but most sports fans treated all but ignored it for the majority of its 30-year existence. But when Caitlin Clark went pro, the league surged. Ratings, attendance, and interest exploded. But not all attention is good attention. Continue reading...

Joshua Aviles says he is on a nine-month Middle East deployment and learned his has father has been arrested while he was waiting for green card approvalThe father of a US sailor on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East during the Iran war has been taken into federal immigration detention, the sailor said.The border patrol arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, originally from Nicaragua, after conducting a vehicle stop in Key West, Florida, a spokesperson for the US homeland security department said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Investors will hope Kevin Warsh offers comfort blanket' at annual meeting of central banks amid bond market anxiety

Lillian Smart of Ruston infected with fatal Naegleria fowleri, likely after swimming in Lake Claiborne, health officials sayAn eight-year-old Louisiana girl has died after contracting a rare, typically fatal brain-eating amoeba after a swim in Lake Claiborne.Lillian Smart, of Ruston, died on Saturday, one day after celebrating her birthday, her family announced in a public Facebook post on the Love for Lillian" page. Continue reading...

US president, pushing on with Freedom 250 festivities, makes over nation's capital for Trump rally on wheels