News

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Tropical Storm Idalia is anticipated to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it enters the Gulf of Mexico, Florida’s emergency chief said on Monday morning as he urged Floridians to prepare for impacts. “People need to expect, even though they are well off outside of the cone, that we are going to have power …

Deutsche Welle reports: Russian investigators on Sunday confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin was among those who died in a plane crash in Russia earlier this week. Prigozhin was the leader of the Wagner private military group, which staged a mutiny against the Kremlin in late June. Russia’s Investigation Committee said that the results of genetic tests had confirmed the identities of …

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports: Bob Barker, the former longtime host of the popular TV game show “The Price Is Right” and an animal-rights activist, died Saturday morning. He was 99. Details of his passing and the cause of death were not immediately available. Barker was a winner of 19 Daytime Emmy Awards. Also received an Emmy Award for Lifetime …

The New York Times reports: For the first time, Maui County officials publicly blamed Hawaii’s largest electric utility for the wildfires that killed at least 115 people this month, claiming in a lawsuit filed that “intentional and malicious” mismanagement of power lines had allowed flames to spark. The lawsuit accused the utility, Hawaiian Electric, of failing to respond to ominous …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin said that Western suggestions Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie” while declining to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results. Russia’s aviation authority has said that Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was on board a private jet which crashed on …

CBS News reports: Wild monkeys spotted in parts of Florida have prompted authorities to issue warnings about the primates, urging people to not feed or attempt to capture the animals. One photo, shared by the Orange City Police Department on Wednesday, shows a monkey sitting on a green chainlink fence. The monkey was identified as a wild Rhesus Macaques monkey, …

Sky News reports: Ten people have been killed in a private jet crash north of Moscow – with the Russian Civil Aviation Authority saying Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list. Seven passengers and three crew were on board the Embraer aircraft, which was en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, TASS news agency reported. The jet is said to …

NBC News reports: India made history on Wednesday by becoming the first country to reach the lunar south pole. NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon, intends to land its Artemis III mission in the south polar region in 2025. An uncrewed robotic moon lander, operated by India’s space agency and known as the Chandrayaan-3, touched …

Reuters reports: A work of art created by artificial intelligence without any human input cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law, a U.S. court in Washington, D.C., has ruled. Only works with human authors can receive copyrights, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said on Friday, affirming the Copyright Office’s rejection of an application filed by computer scientist Stephen Thaler on behalf …

Tampa’s NBC affiliate reports: Five people are confirmed dead in the Tampa Bay area due to a rare, flesh-eating bacteria in the waters. According to Florida Health, Vibrio vulnificus is a bacterium that naturally occurs in warm, brackish seawater and requires salt. There are two confirmed deaths in Hillsborough County, one in Sarasota County, one in Polk County, and one …

The New York Times reports: While there have been no major U.S. plane crashes in more than a decade, potentially dangerous incidents are occurring far more frequently than almost anyone realizes — a sign of what many insiders describe as a safety net under mounting stress. So far this year, close calls involving commercial airlines have been happening, on average, …

The Weather Channel reports: H​urricane Hilary is spreading gusty winds and heavy rain through northwestern Mexico ahead of a rare California tropical storm strike. The remnants of Hilary will bring damaging wind gusts and potentially catastrophic flash flooding to the American Southwest this weekend. T​he National Hurricane Center warned that “in the Southwestern United States, the potentially historic amount of …

CBS News reports: As of early Friday, Hurricane Hilary was located about 400 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a “major” Category 4, the National Hurricane Center said, adding that it is “large and powerful.” The storm was moving west-northwest at 13 mph, with a turn toward the northwest expected …

Hawaii News Now reports: The Lahaina wildfire death toll increased by five on Wednesday — to 111 — more than a week after flames ripped through the historic town. Meanwhile, Maui continued to slowly release the names of those who have perished. Three more victims, all elderly, were identified on Wednesday and authorities said positive IDs were made on others. …

Cincinnati’s CBS affiliate reports: Ohio voters will decide in November if marijuana should be legal for recreational use. Sec. of State Frank LaRose [photo] announced Wednesday evening that the proposal to legalize weed gained enough valid signatures in their second go to make the ballot. The statute didn’t have enough valid signatures to make the ballot in July. The group, …

Florida Politics reports: Facing a deadline 169 days from now, abortion rights proponents say they’ve collected nearly three-fourths of the signatures needed to get a referendum on the 2024 ballot that could guarantee abortion rights in Florida. Galvanized by legislation that makes abortion illegal before most women know they are pregnant, officials with Floridians Protecting Freedom say the effort that …

Champaign’s CBS affiliate reports: For throwing a makeshift Molotov cocktail into Peoria’s Planned Parenthood clinic earlier this year, a Chillicothe man will go to federal prison for 10 years. Tyler Massengill, 32, clad in an orange jumpsuit of a Peoria County Jail inmate, showed no emotion as the sentence was read aloud. He stood before the judge and apologized, saying …

The New York Times reports: A far-right libertarian candidate won Argentina’s open presidential primary election on Sunday, a surprising showing for a politician who wants to adopt the U.S. dollar as Argentina’s official currency and embraces comparisons to Donald Trump. Javier Milei, 52, a congressman, economist and former television pundit, secured 30 percent of the vote with 96 percent of …

Politico reports: Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis have reached an impasse in their Fox News debate planned for November, a person with knowledge of the stalemate said Sunday. DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, is pushing for the faceoff to occur in front of a live audience, which Newsom prohibited in his proposal to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “This is …

Hawaii News Now reports: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancee Lauren Sanchez announced they’ll donate $100 million to Maui wildfire relief efforts. “Jeff and I are heartbroken by what’s happening in Maui. We are thinking of the families that have lost so much and a community that has been left devastated,” Sanchez wrote. The couple says the money will …