U.S. and world news for Sept. 12

House is back: The House of Representatives returned to Capitol Hill today after its August break. Extremist members of the far-right Freedom Caucus have been pressuring House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to authorize an impeachment inquiry of President Biden. McCarthy this morning came out in support of such an inquiry and announced appointment of a committee to begin an inquiry. Neither McCarthy nor any of the Freedom Caucus members have produced evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of President Biden. The Freedom Caucus also is expected to try to force a government shutdown at the end of the month by withholding agreement on a government funding bill.

Google on trial: The federal government is in court today to begin the anti-trust trial of Google. The government contends that Google has become too monopolistic and should be broken up. It also alleges that Google made payments to various entities to ensure that it would be the dominant search engine on the internet. The trial is expected to last about 10 weeks. If the judge rules that Google has violated the law there would be another trial to determine what steps should be taken to remedy the situation.

Storm record: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that the U.S. has broken the record for the number of storms each causing $1 billion or more in damage during a single year. NOAA says that so far this year there have been 23 storms that caused $1 billion or more in damage, surpassing the record of 22 such storms that was set in 2020. The U.S. has sustained 371 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The total cost of these 371 events exceeds $2.615 trillion, according to NOAA.

Dickey doing well: American researcher Mark Dickey is reported to be doing well at a hospital in Turkey today after being rescued from a cave. Dickey is a resident of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester. He became seriously ill while exploring a cave and was stuck about 3,000 feet below the entrance until rescuers were able to slowly bring him out.

Kim in Russia: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim traveled to Russia on a heavily-armored special train. Kim and Putin are expected to reach a new deal for North Korea to supply Russia with weapons and ammunition to use in its war against Ukraine. Kim is expected to ask Russia for economic aid and advanced military technology to help with North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile program.

Putin supports Trump: Russian President Vladimir Putin today came out in support of Donald Trump in Trump’s criminal cases. Putin said that the criminal indictments against Trump constitute persecution and political revenge. Putin did not specifically address any of the more than 90 charges filed against Trump that include attempting to overturn the 2020 election, illegally possessing classified government documents and bank, insurance and tax fraud. Putin said that the actions being taken against Trump show what he called the rottenness of the U.S. political system.

Cover photo by Kremlin.ru / Wikimedia Commons