U.S. and world news for Aug. 23

Trump employee flips: The Justice Department has revealed that Donald Trump’s director of information technology at his Mar-a-Lago resort has flipped on Trump and changed his testimony in the classified documents case. Yucil Tavaris dropped the lawyer Trump had supplied and obtained independent counsel, then withdrew his previous testimony and told prosecutors a completely different story. Tavaris in his new testimony says that Trump and two others indicted along with Trump schemed to destroy evidence. He said Trump ordered security camera video footage deleted because it showed stolen government secret documents being hidden. A subpoena ordered Trump to return the documents to the government. The security camera video allegedly showed the documents being hidden from the FBI as well as Trump’s own lawyers who were searching for them.

Fulton County jailers ready for Trump: Donald Trump’s attorneys have arranged for Trump to surrender at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia during television’s prime time tomorrow night. Trump apparently hopes the major TV networks will interrupt their prime time programming to cover his surrender. Officials at the jail say that unlike at his previous arrests and arraignments, Trump will not receive special treatment. They say he will be treated just like any other person under arrest and will be searched, fingerprinted, have a mug shot taken and have his weight and height recorded.

India lands spacecraft on moon: India today landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. India’s moon explorer landed near the moon’s south pole where some scientists believe there could be a supply of frozen water. The spacecraft had been launched on July 14. India’s success comes a few days after a Russian spacecraft crashed into the moon.

Teamsters approve UPS contract: The Teamsters union reports that its members have ratified a new contract with UPS. The Teamsters, which represents 340,000 UPS workers, said that 86% voted in favor of accepting the new contract. The union said that the new contract goes into effect as soon as a supplemental agreement affecting workers in Florida has been finalized.

Europeans help fight Greece fires: Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and the Czech Republic have sent firefighting aircraft and manpower to Greece where wildfires continue raging out of control. At least 20 people have been killed in Greece. About 350 fires are burning. Fires also are burning across the border from Greece in northern Turkey and also on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Xi misses speech: The Chinese government has failed to provide an explanation of why Chinese President Xi did not make a scheduled speech at an economic forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Xi did attend meetings that took place before the scheduled speech and a dinner that took place afterward. There has been speculation that something very serious happened that kept Xi from making the speech but so far just what it might have been hasn’t been discovered.

Cover photo by Dati Bendo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons