Ukraine narrowly escapes nuclear catastrophe as plant loses power, Zelenskiy says

Friday, August 26, 2022

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

The Fed's 'raise and hold' inflation gamble is in the spotlight, SpaceX and T-Mobile plan to connect mobile phones to satellites, and it's eat or heat this winter for shocked Europeans

Today's biggest stories

An overview of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fires in Ukraine, August 24, 2022

WORLD

The world narrowly escaped a radiation disaster when electricity to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was cut for hours, Ukraine's president said, urging international bodies to act faster to force Russian troops to vacate the site. Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now.

For nearly 70 years an imagined line running down the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China has helped keep the peace, but the so-called median line is looking increasingly meaningless as China's modernized navy asserts its strength. Recent visits by guests from the United States have reinforced Taiwan's determination to defend itself, President Tsai Ing-wen said as she met the latest U.S. lawmaker to arrive on the island.

Japan will spend $1.83 million on a state funeral for slain former leader Shinzo Abe, the government said, despite growing opposition from a public angered by revelations of the ruling party's ties to the Unification Church.

Mediated talks over the status of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have failed to ease tensions - fueled by a dispute over car number plates - between Belgrade and authorities in Pristina, Serbia's president said. After a bloody war in the late 1990s, predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, something Belgrade - with the backing of China, Russia and five EU member states - refuses to recognize.

French European lawmakers are urging the European Union's executive to take measures to end British discharges of raw sewage into shared waters, part of what they say is an unacceptable lowering of environmental standards since Brexit. Britain and its people will always be allies of France, President Emmanuel Macron said, after the frontrunner to be Britain's next prime minister said she had yet to decide if he was a friend or an enemy.

President Joe Biden speaks at a Democratic National Committee rally at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, August 25, 2022

U.S.

The U.S. Justice Department is expected to make public today a redacted version of the affidavit that led to the August 8 FBI search of former president Donald Trump's Florida home, a move that could shed more light on the evidence that led to the unprecedented search.

President Joe Biden had harsh words to describe Trump-allied Republicans, as he held his first political rally in the run-up to November elections, accusing the group of embracing violence and hatred, and saying they edged toward "semi-fascism" at an earlier fund-raising stop.

A federal judge in Texas threw out the state's ban on people between 18 and 20 years old carrying handguns in what appears to be the first major judicial decision since a landmark ruling on weapons rights by the Supreme Court in June.

The E.coli bacteria outbreak in four Midwest states from an unknown source has affected 47 more people, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, with a majority of the total 84 reported to have sandwiches at Wendy's.

Spanking is staging a comeback this school year in the classrooms of one small town in southwestern Missouri, where the district will now allow corporal punishment for any unruly student whose parents give their blessing.

BUSINESS

No more ironing, limited oven use and showering at work – Europeans are trying to keep their energy use down but the bills keep climbing. As wholesale gas and electricity prices surge, millions of people in Europe are now spending a record amount of their income on energy - with British energy bills set to jump 80% from October.

If 'raise and hold' sounds like a poker strategy, that may in fact sum up the all-in approach to fighting inflation that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to lay out in a highly anticipated speech to the Jackson Hole central banking conference.

Inflation-weary U.S. shoppers have been skimping on clothing purchases, prompting retailers to slash prices to clear inventory off the racks. Gap was the latest retailer to report a slump in apparel shopping for the second quarter, saying that net sales fell 8% from a year earlier.

California moved to require all new vehicles sold in the state by 2035 to be either electric or plug-in electric hybrids, a landmark move that could speed the end of gasoline-powered vehicles.

U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile will use Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Starlink satellites to provide mobile users with network access in parts of the United States, the companies announced, outlining plans to connect users' mobile phones directly to satellites in orbit.

Shares of Micro Focus soared more than 90% after Canadian software company OpenText agreed to buy the enterprise software maker in an all-cash deal valuing the British company at $6 billion including debt.

Quote of the day

“You’re layering intimate familial bonds over professional relationships. There is always the worry that someone with greater power will use their professional power in ways that are inappropriate.”

Gabriel Rauterberg

Corporate law professor at the University of Michigan

Musk tests limits of governance by having children with aide

Video of the day

AI lets a woman address her own funeral

What would you say at your own funeral? Thanks to AI-powered technology it is now possible to ask questions to someone who has passed away.

And finally…

Rock-hunting NASA rover reveals Martian crater's surprising geology

Core samples drilled by the Perseverance rover are revealing the geology of a gaping crater scientists suspect may have harbored microbial life billions of years ago.

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