U.N. nuclear team at work: U.N. nuclear safety inspectors have started their work at Europe”™s largest nuclear power plant, which is in Ukraine. They hope to help avoid a radioactive leak or other issue as fighting between the Russians and Ukrainians continues in the area. Russian shells have again hit the plant, this time forcing an emergency system to shut down one of the plant”™s nuclear reactors. The Russian military has occupied the plant while Ukrainians engineers, who have been held hostage there, operate it at the direction of the Russians.
Palin defeated in congressional bid: After all the ballots had been counted yesterday from the August 16th special congressional election in Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola was declared the winner over former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Peltola is the first Democrat to have been elected to Congress from Alaska since 1972. Democrats see that along with the election to Congress of Democratic Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and recent defeats of Trump-endorsed candidates as providing hope that the Democrats can retain control of the House and Senate in the November elections.
Educational scores hurt by pandemic: A new study from the U.S. Department of Education”™s National Center for Education Statistics finds that reading and math scores for nine-year-olds dropped from 2020 to 2022 as a result of school disruptions due to the Covid pandemic. The reading scores dropped five points on average while the math scores were down an average of seven points.
Trump makes admission: Donald Trump, in a post on his social media site, admits that he knew top secret government documents were in his office at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Trump”™s attorneys had represented to the FBI that everything had been returned to the government. And, in court filing yesterday responding to a filing by the Justice Department, his attorneys made no reference to previous claims that Trump had declassified documents before taking them from the White House. None of the documents shown in a photograph taken by the FBI that were marked Top Secret contained markings indicating that they had been declassified.
Death in Moscow: Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia”™s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, has died after either falling, jumping or being pushed out of a hospital window in Moscow. While Russian media did announce his death, their reports said it was following an illness and gave no specifics about what happened.
Williams wins again: Tennis star Serena Williams won the second round at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows last night, defeating the world”™s second ranked player Anett Kontaveit. Serena teams with her sister Venus in a doubles contest tonight, then plays another singles round tomorrow.
