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Trump lied about Secret Service concerns to throw off New York AG

Trump lied about Secret Service concerns to throw off New York AG

The Daily Beast reports:In confidential court documents, former President Donald Trump tried to squirm his way out of taking a trip to the New York Attorney General’s office last month, telling a judge that the Secret Service had security concerns about the AG’s office, according to two sources familiar with the matter. In the days before his Aug. 10 deposition, according to those two sources and a third person familiar with the discussions, Trump’s legal team asked that the contentious…

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Is Ron DeSantis the future of the Republican Party?

Is Ron DeSantis the future of the Republican Party?

Matt Flegenheimer writes: For most of the last year, Ron DeSantis would not indulge the speculation. Yes, he made clear to donors, he might seek the presidency. But pressed with the obvious follow-up — would he still run in 2024 if Donald Trump does? — DeSantis, the governor of Florida, begged off. “He’ll be completely, completely open about whatever, but then the Trump stuff — he suddenly starts to act like he’s being recorded,” Dan Eberhart, a prominent Republican donor…

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King Charles inherits untold riches, and passes off his own empire

King Charles inherits untold riches, and passes off his own empire

The New York Times reports: King Charles III built his own empire long before he inherited his mother’s. Charles, who formally acceded to the British throne on Saturday, spent half a century turning his royal estate into a billion-dollar portfolio and one of the most lucrative moneymakers in the royal family business. While his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, largely delegated responsibility for her portfolio, Charles was far more deeply involved in developing the private estate known as the Duchy of…

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Putin has a new opposition — and they want to escalate the war

Putin has a new opposition — and they want to escalate the war

Alexey Kovalev writes: A new Russian protest movement is coalescing, but it’s neither pro-democracy nor anti-war. Instead, it’s the most extreme of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters, who have grown increasingly furious at the unfolding military disaster for Russia in the six-month-long war in Ukraine. They want Putin to escalate the war, use more devastating weapons, and hit Ukrainian civilians even more mercilessly. And they’ve openly attacked the Russian military and political leadership for supposedly holding back Russia’s full might—even…

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The critical moment behind Ukraine’s rapid advance

The critical moment behind Ukraine’s rapid advance

The New York Times reports: The strategy behind Ukraine’s rapid military gains in recent days began to take shape months ago during a series of intense conversations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials about the way forward in the war against Russia, according to American officials. The counteroffensive — revised this summer from its original form after urgent discussions between senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials — has succeeded beyond most predictions. Ukrainian forces have devastated Russian command and control, and appear…

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‘We will survive Russia’s blackmail and the long winter, but we need unity,’ Sanna Marin tells MEPs

‘We will survive Russia’s blackmail and the long winter, but we need unity,’ Sanna Marin tells MEPs

euronews reports: The European Union will survive “Russia’s blackmail” of energy supplies and the looming “long winter” but only if the bloc maintains its “unity, determination and courage,” said Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. “Russia may challenge us, blackmail us and threaten us, but we will not give in,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, speaking in Finnish. “Russia’s actions have unified the West as never before, while Russia is lonelier than ever.” During her speech before the plenary,…

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Graham’s abortion ban stuns Senate GOP

Graham’s abortion ban stuns Senate GOP

Politico reports: Lindsey Graham’s anti-abortion legislation once unified the Republican Party. The 15-week abortion ban he pitched Tuesday had the exact opposite effect. The South Carolina senator chose a uniquely tense moment to unveil his party’s first bill limiting abortion access since this summer’s watershed reversal of Roe v. Wade. It was designed as a nod to anti-abortion activists who have never felt more emboldened. Yet Graham’s bill also attempted to skate past a Republican Party that’s divided over whether…

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Trump’s not even pretending to hide his support for QAnon any more

Trump’s not even pretending to hide his support for QAnon any more

Vice News reports: Former President Donald Trump has now shared his most explicit endorsement of the QAnon conspiracy movement to date. Trump shared a picture of himself wearing a Q lapel pin, overlaid with the QAnon phrases “The Storm is Coming” and “WWG1WGA,” on his Truth Social account on Monday evening. The post was originally shared on Truth Social by an account called “Patriots in Control,” before Trump re-shared it. “How much more obvious can it get?” one QAnon follower…

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Brain fog: One of long Covid’s worst symptoms is also its most misunderstood

Brain fog: One of long Covid’s worst symptoms is also its most misunderstood

Ed Yong writes: On March 25, 2020, Hannah Davis was texting with two friends when she realized that she couldn’t understand one of their messages. In hindsight, that was the first sign that she had COVID-19. It was also her first experience with the phenomenon known as “brain fog,” and the moment when her old life contracted into her current one. She once worked in artificial intelligence and analyzed complex systems without hesitation, but now “runs into a mental wall”…

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‘Timber cities’ might help decarbonize the world

‘Timber cities’ might help decarbonize the world

Inside Climate News reports: Buildings constructed with more wood, and less cement and steel, would help decarbonize the construction and housing industries in line with global goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050, new research shows. The paper, published Aug. 30 in Nature Communications, explains that building mid-rise wood dwellings to meet the demand from rapidly expanding urban populations could avoid about 100 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2100—about…

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The Ukrainians wrote a script, and the Russians played their assigned role

The Ukrainians wrote a script, and the Russians played their assigned role

Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: What happens on the battlefield is rarely the thing that decides a war. Normally, the preparations beforehand determine what happens when the fighting begins—and these preparations are what settle the outcome of the war itself. This truth is playing out along the roads and in the towns of Kharkiv Oblast, the province that includes Ukraine’s second-largest city. The stunningly swift advance of Ukrainian forces, which started around September 1 and sped up soon after, has easily…

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Justice Department issues 40 subpoenas in a week, expanding its January 6 inquiry

Justice Department issues 40 subpoenas in a week, expanding its January 6 inquiry

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has issued about 40 subpoenas over the past week seeking information about the actions of former President Donald J. Trump and his associates related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to people familiar with the situation. Two top Trump advisers, Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman, had their phones seized as evidence, those people said. The department’s actions represent a substantial escalation of a slow-simmer…

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Trump fights back against DOJ in dispute over classified records

Trump fights back against DOJ in dispute over classified records

Politico reports: Donald Trump urged a federal judge Monday to keep in place her order that blocked the Justice Department from continuing its criminal investigation into the highly sensitive government records stashed in the basement of his Mar-a-Lago estate. The filing, a response to prosecutors’ warning that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s unorthodox directive— preventing FBI investigators from accessing the files seized in their Aug. 8 search — was harming national security, urges the Trump-appointed judge to stay the course….

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Man murdered wife, shot daughter after becoming obsessed with QAnon

Man murdered wife, shot daughter after becoming obsessed with QAnon

The Daily Beast reports: A Michigan man’s obsession with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory culminated in a Sunday incident in which he murdered his wife and badly injured one of his children, his daughter told The Daily Beast. Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old resident of the Michigan city of Walled Lake, was killed Sunday by police after he started shooting at them with a shotgun, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. Inside Lanis’ house, police found Lanis’ wife, Tina Lanis,…

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