As search for Hawaii fire victims continues, power company faces criticism

So far 99 fatalities have been identified but number of dead is expected to rise as teams search devastated neighborhoods

As officials in Hawaii continue to work painstakingly to identify the 99 people confirmed killed in wildfires that ravaged Maui, a mobile morgue unit arrived to assist even as teams intensified the search for more dead in neighborhoods reduced to ash. Meanwhile, local power utility Hawaii Electric Company has been facing criticism for not shutting off power in an area at high risk for fire.

The wildfires, some of which have not yet been fully contained, are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Fueled through parched invasive grasses by strong winds that whipped flames across miles in mere minutes, the blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000.

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Janet Yellen inadvertently ate hallucinogenic mushrooms in China – and started a trend

‘I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later,’ the US Treasury secretary told CNN

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has started a craze in China for a magic mushroom-based dish called Jian shou qing, or “see hand blue”, after she was spotted eating the fungi, known for being hallucinogenic, while on a visit to Beijing in July.

“I went with this large group of people and the person who’d arranged our dinner did the ordering. There was a delicious mushroom dish I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later,” she told CNN.

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North Korea claims US soldier crossed over as he was ‘disillusioned by society’

Travis King entered the country while on tour of a border village on 18 July, becoming the first American detained in nearly five years

North Korea asserted Wednesday that a US soldier who bolted into the North across the heavily armed Korean border last month did so after being disillusioned at the inequality of American society.

It is North Korea’s first official confirmation of the detention of Private 2nd class Travis King, who entered the North while on a tour of a Korean border village on 18 July. He became the first American detained in the country in nearly five years.

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Trump co-defendant Mark Meadows files to move Fulton county election case to federal court – as it happened

This live blog has closed. Read our analysis of the Georgia indictment here

After Joe Biden won the presidential race, Donald Trump and his associates immediately went to work challenging the legitimacy of the election results, as special counsel Jack Smith outlined in his own indictment filed earlier this month.

After dozens of his election lawsuits failed, Trump then attempted to pressure state leaders to overturn Biden’s wins in key battleground states.

This indictment should serve as a warning to future anti-voter politicians that the will and voices of Georgia voters cannot be silenced, and there is no place for election-denying conspiracy theorists in our democracy.

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Denver officer fatally shot man thought to be holding knife – but it was a marker pen

Brandon Cole, 36, died after an officer fired at him twice after receiving a domestic violence complaint from a neighbor

A Denver police officer fatally shot a man who was holding a marker pen, which the officer mistakenly believed was a knife, officials said on Monday.

Newly released body-camera footage of the killing of Brandon Cole, 36, on 5 August shows an officer firing two shots at the man who was on the sidewalk. A young child and a woman were standing close behind the man as the officer fired at him and he fell to the ground.

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Georgia indictment lays out Trump election plot in all its shocking detail

Charging document, staggering in its breadth and ambition of its charges, may represent greatest legal peril for ex-president to date

There’s no other way to say it: the 98-page indictment handed down by a Fulton county grand jury on Monday represents the most aggressive effort to hold Donald Trump and allies accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The document is staggering in its breadth and the ambition of its charges. The 41 counts of crimes in it, including 13 against Trump, detail the lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public about fraud to try and keep him in power. It doesn’t back away from charging Trump’s attorneys and inner circle with crimes for coordinating a plan to create slates of fake electors and to stop Congress from counting votes. Some of the state’s 16 fake electors themselves also face charges. And it also casts a wide net, not letting those who breached voting equipment and intimidated poll workers off the hook.

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Governor Brian Kemp tells Trump Georgia’s 2020 election ‘was not stolen’

Republican says no one has produced evidence of fraud in court of law despite ex-president’s vow to present ‘irrefutable’ proof

Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, insisted on Tuesday that the 2020 presidential election in his state “was not stolen” in an apparent defense of the latest criminal indictment of Donald Trump.

Kemp, who has clashed frequently with the former president over his false claim the election was rigged, responded on Twitter to an earlier post on Truth Social from Trump announcing a press conference next week at which he promised to present “irrefutable” evidence of fraud.

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Global wealth fall cost 3.5m people ‘dollar millionaire’ status last year

UBS says assets dipped for first time since financial crisis as high inflation and struggling currencies took toll

More than 3.5 million people lost their “dollar millionaire” status last year during the first fall in global wealth since the 2008 financial crisis.

The number of adults with assets of more than $1m (£790,000) fell from 62.9 million at the end of 2021 to 59.4 million at the end of 2022, according to the UBS annual wealth report, published on Tuesday. The Swiss bank said global wealth was depressed by high inflation and the collapse of many currencies against the dollar.

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FDA approves new ‘spiral’ tampon shape

For the first time in decades, the products could get a significant update, which makers say better absorbs fluid

It’s been over 90 years since Tampax created the first modern tampons, and the product’s design remains mostly unchanged. But the FDA just approved a new design that could change the appearance of a product that’s looked the same for decades.

The design, patented by the independent startup Sequel, has diagonal grooves that spiral down the product. The brand’s founders say the product’s helical shape better absorbs fluid, which leads to less leakage and a more reliable experience.

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‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing

When a pregnant Black woman was falsely arrested, she fought back. Here’s what happened next. Plus, the week in AI

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Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented her with an arrest warrant. She thought it was a prank.

“Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?” the lawsuit Woodruff filed against Detroit police reads. She sent her children upstairs to tell her fiance that “Mommy’s going to jail”.

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Donald Trump indicted in Georgia over 2020 election | First Thing

Former president is accused of planning a criminal enterprise in his attempt to reverse his defeat

Good morning.

Georgia prosecutors have indicted Donald Trump and some of his closest allies on state racketeering and conspiracy charges over efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

What is this case about? Some details into Trump and his allies’ aggressive push to invalidate the election results in Georgia.

Prosecutors charged 18 people in addition to Trump, including lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff.

Who is the Georgia district attorney preparing to face off with Trump? The office of Fani Willis, the first Black woman to serve as district attorney in Fulton county, spent more than two years investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.

Residents and historians are still processing the full scope of destruction in historic Lahaina, an 18th-century coastal town that once served as the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom and was designated a national historic landmark in 1962.

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‘Time to grieve and heal’: historic Lahaina prepares to rebuild after wildfire devastation

Residents hold on to hope for historic town that ‘represents transformation’ and is central to Indigenous culture

A week after wildfires ripped through western Maui and killed at least 99 people, residents and historians are still processing the full scope of destruction in Lahaina, an 18th-century coastal town that was, for a time, the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Designated a national historic landmark in 1962, Lahaina is a place of incalculable importance for Native Hawaiians. In 1810, King Kamehameha I unified all the Hawaiian islands and made the town his royal residence for the next three decades.

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US publisher of pro-fascist books revealed as military veteran

Bailey Ross, reported air force reservist and former Coast Guard service member, linked to Agartha Publishing in South Dakota

The Guardian has identified a trainee nurse and reported US air force reservist called Bailey Ross as the proprietor of a white nationalist publisher in South Dakota.

Ross was also a paid-up member of a white nationalist organization that marched at Charlottesville while enlisted in the United States Coast Guard.

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Trump election investigation: Georgia grand jury witnesses called early as prosecutors ‘moving faster’ than expected – live

Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi to testify on Monday; court publishes then removes docket of charges against Trump

Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.

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Girl, 13, gives birth after she was raped and denied abortion in Mississippi

The nearest abortion clinic – in Chicago – was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedure

A 13-year-old girl in Mississippi gave birth to a boy after she was raped as well as impregnated by a stranger – and then was unable to get an abortion, according to a Time magazine report published on Monday.

The mother of the girl, who uses the pseudonym Ashley in the report, was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago – a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Threads app usage plummets despite initial promise as refuge from Twitter

Social media app, launched in the wake of Twitter chaos, recorded 576,000 active users in August, down 79% from 2.3 million in July

The daily usage of Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, continues to slump after a strong start in its first weeks of existence.

Engagement with the social media app is down 79% from a high of 2.3m active users in early July to 576,000 as of 7 August, according to Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform.

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Former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges for torturing Black men

Group of six white Mississippi police officers had tortured two Black men for an hour and a half during a house raid

In late January, a group of six white Mississippi police officers raided a house in Rankin county, a suburb outside of Jackson, and tortured two Black men for an hour and a half. The following month, the justice department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin county sheriff’s department, and since then, the officers have either resigned or been fired. Activists have also called for the resignation of Rankin county sheriff Bryan Bailey.

On Monday, the former officers pleaded guilty to state charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy from the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. The former sheriff’s deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, along with Joshua Hartfield, a former police officer in nearby Richland, had already pleaded guilty to federal charges on 3 August.

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Hunter Biden lawyers say collapsed plea deal on gun charge remains valid

Response to federal prosecutors’ move to render plea deal moot comes days after appointment of David Weiss to special counsel

Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who has been under a years-long federal investigation over failing to pay taxes and, separately, illegally possessing a gun, said that part of the plea deal which unexpectedly fell apart in July remains “valid and binding”, in a Sunday court filing.

Federal prosecutors, led by US attorney David Weiss, had on Friday asked the court to cancel its request that the two sides reach a renewed agreement on the deal “since there is no longer a plea agreement or diversion agreement for the Court to consider”.

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Election-interference charges loom for Trump as docket posted then removed

Georgia court appears to publish then take down key document, while ex-president lashes out against perceived persecutors

The indictment of Donald Trump over his attempted election subversion in Georgia loomed closer on Monday amid an apparent false alarm about charges being filed and a series of angry statements from the former president punctuating a day of prosecution presentations in court.

At about midday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.

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UK should embrace foreign students or lose them to rival countries, warns Ucas chief

Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs

Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said.

The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students.

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