An update from the link in #16

... Hurricane Helene formed strengthened as it entered the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday with the National Hurricane Center forecasting the storm to rapidly intensify and strike Florida as a major Category 4 hurricane.

As of the NHC's 5 p.m. advisory, Helene remained a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph sustained winds about 460 miles southwest of Tampa and 505 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola as it moved north at 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend out 25 miles and tropical-storm-force winds extend out 345 miles from the center. ...

5 o'clock (EDT) forecast from the Hurricane Center now expects intensification to a Cat 4 hurricane before it makes landfall.

More from the article...

... Nearly a year after FBI agents seized his phones, New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces an expanding constellation of federal inquiries involving his administration.

In recent weeks, the investigations have produced a drumbeat of subpoenas, raids and whiplash-inducing developments for the first-term Democrat. Federal investigators have visited more than a dozen members of his administration, taking devices from the police commissioner (who then resigned), the head of the public schools and other trusted confidantes both in and out of City Hall.

At least one high-ranking mayoral aide received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury.

Federal prosecutors have declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases have described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling at the police and fire departments.

Adams, a former police captain, has not been accused of wrongdoing and adamantly denies any knowledge of criminal activity.

Here's a look at what we know about the investigations: ...

Related?

More from the article...

... Software fixes are now responsible for more than 1 in 5 automotive recalls. That's the key finding from a decade's worth of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall data, according to an analysis from the law firm DeMayo Law. While that's a sign of growing inconvenience for drivers, the silver lining is that a software patch is usually a much quicker fix than something requiring hardware replacement. ...

... "You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected and I will be your protector. ...

Sounds rather creepy to me, even more so, considering the source.

More from the article...

... In a report released Monday, the GAO said that 51 of the FAA's 138 ATC systems " more than a third " were unsustainable due to a lack of parts, shortfalls in funding to sustain them, or a lack of technology refresh funding to replace them. A further 54 systems were described as "potentially unsustainable" for similar reasons, with the added caveat that tech refresh funding was available to them.

"FAA has 64 ongoing investments aimed at modernizing 90 of the 105 unsustainable and potentially unsustainable systems," the GAO said in its report. "However, the agency has been slow to modernize the most critical and at-risk systems."

The report said the seemingly perilous status of 17 systems was "especially concerning" as these are deemed to have critical operational impact at the same time as being unsustainable and having extended completion dates -- the first of them won't be modernized until 2030 at the earliest. Others aren't planned to be complete until 2035, and four of the 17 "most critical and at-risk FAA ATC systems" have no modernization plans at all.
faa-critical-atc-systems ...

@#2 ... V ...

Current forecasts say it will likely be a Cat 3 when it makes landfall.

The rapid intensification is due to the very warm (85 degree) waters in the Gulf the storm will be passing over.

More from the article...

... Nearly 500 miles away, in the border city of Eagle Pass, large groups of migrants that were once commonplace are rarely seen on the riverbanks these days.

In McAllen, at the other end of the Texas border, two Border Patrol agents scan fields for five hours without encountering a single migrant.

It's a return to relative calm after an unprecedented surge of immigrants through the southern border in recent years. ...

Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other elected officials often refer to the country's "open border" with Mexico. Immigration is a top issue in the presidential election, and most American voters say it should be reduced.

But conditions on the border often shift more rapidly than political rhetoric.

Arrests for illegal crossings plummeted nearly 80% from December to July.

Summer heat typically reduces migration, but on top of that Mexican authorities sharply increased enforcement within their borders in December.

Plus, President Joe Biden introduced major asylum restrictions in June. ...

Even before this latest revelation...

@#4 ... Whats wrong with that study in relating it to the real world? ...

What else does your current alias got besides unsubstantiated criticism?

Wow, amazing guitarists playing the blues ...

Yeah, I remain to be convinced that such a "convergence" exists, for two reasons ...

1) this is the UN. So pronouncements about goals that may not be attained seem to be the norm.

2) this is the biggie: US Capitalism. When politicians can be so easily purchased by the wealthy since Citizens United, possession of money seems to win out over logic or rationality.

More from the article...

... Inger Andersen, director of the UN Environment Program, said her team was "getting ready" for final negotiations in late November in South Korea's Busan.

There, countries are hoping to seal a potentially groundbreaking deal to tackle the gargantuan problem of plastic pollution.

"There are certain areas where I think we're beginning to see convergence," Andersen said from New York ahead of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. ...

@#9 ... "My only question is why haven't more non-irrational, non-conspiracy-aligned Republicans not stopped supporting Trump?" ...

Alex, I'll take, "Things I wished I Had Said" for $200, please.

:)

@#9, #10 ... I haven't heard about anybody jumping ship yet. ...

imo, it is not about anyone jumping ship.

It is about who is asked to serve.

In my view, VP Harris does not seem to be wanting to keep the Biden advisors on board.

She seems to have differing goals.

More from the article...

... Fungal infections are also adapting beyond the means of our medicine, causing a "silent pandemic" that needs to be addressed urgently, according to some researchers.

"The threat of fungal pathogens and antifungal resistance, even though it is a growing global issue, is being left out of the debate," explains molecular biologist Norman van Rhijn from the University of Manchester in the UK.

This September, the United Nations is hosting a meeting in New York City on antimicrobial resistance, which includes discussions on resistant bacteria, fungi, viruses, or parasites.

Ahead of this event, van Rhijn and an international team of scientists are urging governments, the research community, and the pharmaceutical industry to "look beyond just bacteria."

Fungal infections, they write in a correspondence for The Lancet, are left out of too many initiatives to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Without urgent attention and action, some particularly nasty fungal infections, which already infect 6.5 million a year and claim 3.8 million lives annually, could become even more dangerous.

"The disproportionate focus on bacteria is concerning because many drug resistance problems over the past decades were the result of invasive fungal diseases, which are largely under-recognized by the community and governments alike," write van Rhijn and his colleagues, who hail from institutions in China, the Netherlands, Austria, Australia, Spain, the UK, Brazil, the US, India, Trkiye, and Uganda. ...

@#6 ... Every time Trump tries to harm the nation kust to guve Trump talking points to attack Harris for not preventing a crises he cauaes his chances of winning go down. He has sold his personna as a tough guy ...

Yeah, but it seems that fmr Pres Trump is more of a wimp than a tough guy.

VP Harris showed that during the debate.

So, yeah, i agree with the gist of your comment. Especially the ~Republicans are igboring him his Personna is rapidly being seen more that of a crazy old man losing his cognitive faculties~

@#7 ... They probably can't unless the advertising venue cancel the contract. ...

Yeah, I get that same impression after a trip through the results returned by search engines.

... But that's not to say Google, Walmart, CVS, Travelers Insurance, Amazon, Deloitte, Charter Communications, Oracle, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, The Motion Picture Association and Wells Fargo might start to feel a little antsy over their name associated with an admitted sexual pervert. ... [emphasis yours]

Yup.

To repeat those companies are apparently sponsoring (directly or indirectly) Lt Gov Robinson's bid for the Governorship...

Google, Walmart, CVS, Travelers Insurance, Amazon, Deloitte, Charter Communications, Oracle, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, The Motion Picture Association and Wells Fargo[emphasis mine]

@#12 ... I'm sure LFTHNDTHRDS was just speaking figuratively. ...

Based upon the rhetoric I see from the MAGA folk, and the threats of violence against those they disagree with, I am not convinced of that at this point.

I would hope what you say to be the case in this instance.

More from the article...

... "We're willing to put all our weapons aside so long as Israel is willing to do the same," Pezeshkian told reporters Monday ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York. "We're not seeking to destabilize the region."

Pezeshkian is in the US for his first appearance at the UN's annual gathering, where he's scheduled to speak on Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address the same summit two days later, though his travel itinerary hasn't been finalized. ...

And, I do have to ask, the cited article is an OpEd.

Why wasn't that indicated as such in the summary?

More from the cited OpEd...

... In November 2022, my editors asked me to be careful about what I ate and stop ordering takeout. Initially, I didn't think much of it. But I soon realized the importance of their advice when, just one month later, my colleague Elena Kostyuchenko discovered she had been poisoned in Germany, in a probable assassination attempt by the Russian state.

Such stories have become routine. Last year, an investigative journalist, Alesya Marokhovskaya, was harassed in the Czech Republic; in February, the bullet-riddled body of a Russian defector, Maxim Kuzminov, was found in Spain. In both cases, the Kremlin was assumed to be involved. Russian opposition figures know well that even in exile they remain targets of Russia's intelligence services.

But it's not just them who are in danger. There are also the hundreds of thousands of Russians who left home because they did not want to have anything to do with Vladimir Putin's war ...

Pres Putin seems to be fmr Pres Trump's idol, or overlord. My current opinion is the latter.