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Overnight News Digest September 20, 2022 [1]
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Date: 2022-09-20
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago’s Puerto Rican community raises funds as storm-battered island remains without power by Elvia Malagon
Five years after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, leaders in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community are once again raising funds to help residents recover from another powerful hurricane. As of Tuesday, Hurricane Fiona has dumped more than 25 inches of rain in some parts of Puerto Rico, where more than 3,000 homes remain damaged from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, leaving residents without running water or electricity, according to the Associated Press . In Chicago, Puerto Rican leaders mobilized at Humboldt Park near one of the towering steel Puerto Rican flags to announce plans to raise funds that will go directly to local communities hit hardest by the hurricane. Jessie Fuentes, of the Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago, said the organizations have already received some funds, and they are aiming to raise at least $100,000 through a PayPal account. Fuentes said the groups want the funds to reach Puerto Rico within the next couple of weeks.
NBC News: 'Could not imagine': Puerto Ricans assess Hurricane Fiona devastation exactly 5 years after Maria by Nicole Acevado
Most people in Puerto Rico woke up Tuesday without access to power or water after Hurricane Fiona ravaged the island, a bleak reality that closely resembles what residents endured exactly five years ago with Hurricane Maria. "I could not imagine any of this," Raquel Oliver Lopez, a resident of Levittown, a community in the municipality of Toa Baja, said in Spanish. "This is a tough feeling." Up to 29 inches of rain have fallen in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Fiona, overflowing rivers and small streams. The persisting rains have resulted in landslides, destroying roads and leaving dozens of families stranded across many different towns, including Juncos, Bayamón, Coamo, Toa Alta and Caguas, among others. “More significant rains are expected, further increasing the risk of landslides,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a news conference Tuesday.
New York Times: Special Master Expresses Skepticism of Declassification Claims by Trump’s Lawyers by Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage
A federal judge expressed skepticism on Tuesday about the efforts by former President Donald J. Trump’s legal team to avoid offering any proof of his claims that he had declassified sensitive government documents that were seized from his Florida estate last month. The statements by the judge, Raymond J. Dearie, who is acting as a special master reviewing the seized materials, were an early indication that he may not be entirely sympathetic to the former president’s attempts to bog down the judge’s evaluation with time-consuming questions over the classification status of some of the documents. “My view is, you can’t have your cake and eat it too,” Judge Dearie said at a hearing called to determine the process he would use to do a sweeping review of materials seized from Mr. Trump. Judge Dearie, who had been suggested for the role by Mr. Trump’s legal team, was referring to a set of sometimes confusing arguments made by that team as it seeks to limit or delay the Justice Department’s criminal investigation.
Washington Post: U.S. charges ‘brazen’ theft of $250 million from pandemic food program by Tony Romm
The Justice Department charged 47 defendants Tuesday for allegedly defrauding a federal program that provided food for needy children during the pandemic, describing the scheme — totaling nearly $250 million — as the largest uncovered to date targeting trillions in government aid. Federal prosecutors said the defendants — a network of individuals and organizations tied to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit operating in Minnesota — in some cases obtained federal pandemic funds in the names of children who did not exist and then spent that money on luxury cars, houses and other personal purchases. To bilk the government, the Justice Department said, the defendants relied on a complex web of shell companies and bribes. One participant allegedly created a list of fake children to whom it had supposedly served meals, populated with names generated from the website “listofrandomnames.com.” Others fabricated spreadsheets with invented ages or faked their invoices, all in pursuit of federal cash, the government charged.
Guardian: This nine-year-old was enslaved in the US. Her story could help stop a chemical plant by Geoff Dembicki
At the age of nine, Rachel was one of many forced to live in enslavement on a plantation in southern Louisiana. As well as dozens of adults, there were other children, such as Susanne, age three, and Reuben, age 11. The details of Rachel’s existence have been lost to time. But historians say that even at that young age, enslaved children likely would have been expected to work in some capacity, possibly weeding, looking after chickens or bringing food and water to adults in the fields. It’s also likely that enslaved children such as Rachel would have lived in a small shack with a dozen other enslaved people and faced the constant threat of disease, insufficient food and rampant abuse, researchers with organizations such as Louisiana’s Whitney Plantation Museum explain. What we do know for certain is that Rachel passed away before her 10th birthday, thanks to a sobering document uncovered not long ago at a Louisiana archive. It lists Rachel among many others who died while enslaved. Nearly 190 years later, community members living near the same area where the Buena Vista plantation was once located are fighting the construction of a $9.4bn (£8.2bn) petrochemical plant proposed by Taiwanese industrial giant Formosa – and the document on Rachel is an important find.
BBC News: Tremor shakes Mexico City on quake anniversary
A powerful earthquake has rocked Mexico's western coast on the same day the country marked the anniversaries of two devastating quakes which killed thousands of people. The 7.6 magnitude quake hit the coastal states of Michoacan and Colima shortly after 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT). So far, one person is known to have been killed, officials said. But on Monday night, US officials issued a tsunami warning for parts of Mexico's western coastline. The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said that waves reaching up to 3m (up to 9ft) above the tide level could hit coastal areas overnight. The tremors originated at a depth of 15km (9.32 miles), near the town of La Placita de Morelos. A mandatory evacuation order was issued in Mexico City after the quake, but Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that so far there had been no reports of damage.
DW: Giorgia Meloni, Italy's far-right favorite for prime minister, appeals to disgruntled voters by Alexandra von Nahmen
A video of the candidate runs in a loop on a screen next to the stage. Smiling nonstop and shaking hands, Giorgia Meloni's voice booms over the Piazza del Carmine as it fills with people. They have come to Cagliari, Sardinia's largest city, to hear the politician with the best chance of becoming Italy's next prime minister and the first woman to hold the post. Polls ahead of the September 25 general election have shown her as the favorite for the role. Mercedes Usai arrived well ahead of the event, which took place on September 2, to nab a seat as close to the stage as possible. She is standing in the front row, her eyes shining. "I believe in Giorgia! I trust in her strength," the 49-year-old says. Usai is a member of the right-wing nationalist Brothers of Italy ("Fratelli d'Italia"), which Meloni leads. Usai says she firmly believes Italy is at a turning point — one in favor of workers, students and Italian business. Meloni has promised always to put Italians first.
DW: Opinion: How the UK's monarchy keeps the country from coming apart at the seams by Sertan Sanderson
Following the queen's death, there have been renewed calls for republicanism and revolution reaching from Perth, Australia to Perth, Scotland. These kinds of thought experiments are healthy exercises for democracies around the world. I'd like to argue that a constitutional monarchy is indeed the only way forward for the United Kingdom — and perhaps even for other countries. It is evident that we have lost the kind of leader you hardly come across these days: A woman who has for decades influenced political events as head of state; a lady who redefined the power of soft diplomacy. Queen Elizabeth II traveled to over 100 countries in her lifetime, and with every hand she shook, the queen extended her welcoming smile to all realms of the Commonwealth and beyond in an attempt to start addressing — and redressing — the past.
I found many levels of irony in this editorial because, of course, the last Kaiser of Germany was Queen Victoria’s grandson.
AlJazeera: Joint investigation finds Abu Akleh’s killing ‘deliberate’
A joint investigation by a London-based multidisciplinary research group and a Palestinian rights group has uncovered further evidence that refutes Israel’s account that the killing of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was a mistake. Forensic Architecture and Al-Haq said that Abu Akleh’s killing was deliberate. Abu Akleh, who was with Al Jazeera for 25 years and known as the “voice of Palestine”, was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces on May 11 while she was covering an army raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The probe examined the Israeli sniper’s precise angle of fire, and concluded that the sniper was able to clearly tell that there were journalists in the area. It also ruled out the possibility of confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin at the time of the attack.
Washington Post: How a solitary monk, known for his soup, united a community by Kristen Hartke
As dusk began to fall on Jan. 10, 2001, Ray Patchey just wanted to get home to his family for his birthday dinner. A lineman with Verizon, Patchey had been sent out to repair telephone lines following a snowstorm in rural Dutchess County, N.Y. Chilled to the bone, Patchey and another technician were just packing up to leave when the door to the nearby farmhouse swung open and a voice called out, “Don’t go, I’ve made some soup for you!” Looking up, Patchey saw a Benedictine monk, clothed in traditional habit and sandals, standing in the doorway, and thought, “How can I say no?” Little did he know that the monk was a best-selling cookbook author with legions of fans around the world. That bowl of soup, like so many others that Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette has shared with friends and strangers alike over the course of several decades while living mostly alone at Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery, was just the beginning.
x 🚨AP POLL TOP-10 WEEK 4🚨 pic.twitter.com/r04dj7dpPh — PFF College (@PFF_College) September 18, 2022
Have a good evening, everyone!
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