Trump asks to dismiss suit as Attorney General says he Inflated worth by $2.2 billion
In a court filing Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that a trial is not necessary in her lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. James, who seeks to bar Trump and three of his children from leading the Trump Organization, and fine him around $250 million, said Trump had falsely boosted his net worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion each year over the course of a decade. A motion from Trump’s lawyers argued the case should be thrown out, based largely on an appellate court decision that appeared as if it could significantly narrow the scope of the case because of a legal time limit.
Giuliani is liable for defaming Georgia election workers, judge says
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani was liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by repeatedly declaring that they had mishandled ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election. The ruling means that the defamation case against Giuliani can proceed to trial on the narrow question of how much, if any, damages he will have to pay the plaintiffs in the case. Judge Beryl A. Howell’s decision came a little more than a month after Giuliani conceded in two stipulations in the case that he had made false statements. Giuliani’s legal team has sought to clarify that he was not admitting to wrongdoing.
Many children may have lost Medicaid coverage because of state errors
Federal officials have discovered major errors in the systems and procedures some states have been using to verify eligibility for Medicaid, possibly leading to a substantial number of children losing coverage despite still being eligible. State agencies have been “unwinding” a pandemic-era policy that allowed people to keep their health insurance coverage through Medicaid without regular eligibility checks. Since that rule lapsed in April, at least 1 million children have lost coverage, researchers have found, despite having significantly higher eligibility limits than adults.
Idalia brings surge of seawater, but less damage than feared
Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm in a thinly populated part of Florida southeast of Tallahassee, pushed seawater into neighborhoods along Florida’s western coast. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the storm had knocked out power for 250,000 residents. And two people were killed in car accidents police linked to the harsh conditions. But the damage was much smaller than that of Hurricane Ian last year, which caused 150 deaths and more than $112 billion in damage. By evening, Idalia had been downgraded to a tropical storm and was charging across Georgia and South Carolina, where flooding threatened coastal cities and more than 200,000 customers were without power.
‘This is a test’: Nationwide alert will reach cellphones, TVs and radios
Every television, radio and cellphone in the United States is going to broadcast a message on Oct. 4 along the lines of: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The alert will be sent out around 2:20 p.m. Eastern time. The test will be conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, working in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. The test is intended to make sure that the alert system is ready to warn the public in the event of emergencies, particularly those with a national impact, FEMA said in a statement. A backup testing date was set for Oct. 11.
Cooling but persistent inflation may pose risks ahead
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures index, is expected to tick up to 4.2% or 4.3% in a report Thursday, after volatile food and fuel costs are stripped out. That would be an increase from 4.1% for the core measure in June. And while it would still be down considerably from a peak of 5.4% last summer, such a reading would underscore that inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% goal. Most economists are not hugely concerned: They still expect inflation to ease later this year and into 2024. But as price increases slow in fits and starts, they are keeping officials wary.
White House aims to expand eligibility for overtime pay
In a move that could affect millions of workers, the Biden administration announced Wednesday that it was proposing to substantially increase the cutoff below which most salaried workers automatically receive time-and-a-half overtime pay. Under the proposed rule, issued by the Labor Department, the cutoff for receiving overtime pay after 40 hours a week would rise to about $55,000 a year from about $35,500, a level that was set during the Trump administration. About 3.6 million salaried workers, most of whom fall between the current cutoff and the new one, would effectively gain overtime pay eligibility under the proposed rule, the department said.
Dueling aerial assaults hit Ukraine and Russia
A wave of exploding drones was launched in six regions of Russia overnight Wednesday, Russian officials said, damaging four military cargo planes at an airfield 30 miles from the border with Estonia, a NATO member, in an apparent sign that Ukraine was increasingly capable of striking back deep inside Moscow’s territory. Around the same time, Russia unleashed an aerial assault on at least three regions of Ukraine, officials in Ukraine said. Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 43 of 44 incoming missiles and drones.
Russia and North Korea in ‘actively advancing’ talks on weapons, U.S. Says
The United States has new intelligence that shows arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are advancing, as Moscow turns to pariah nations for weapons to fight the war in Ukraine, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday. Kirby said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had recently exchanged letters and that the Russian defense minister’s recent visit to Pyongyang included discussions on arms deals. He declined to explain how the United States obtained the intelligence, saying only that it had been monitoring the situation “through a variety of means.”
Pope says a strong U.S. faction offers a backward, narrow view of the Church
Pope Francis has expressed in unusually sharp terms his dismay at “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” opposing him within the U.S. Catholic Church, one that fixates on social issues such as abortion and sexuality to the exclusion of caring for the poor and the environment. The pope lamented the “backwardness” of some American conservatives who he said insist on a narrow, outdated and unchanging vision. They refuse, he said, to accept the full breadth of the church’s mission and the need for changes in doctrine over time.
Canada cautions LGBTQ+ citizens visiting U.S. over state laws
The Canadian government is warning LGBTQ+ travelers to the United States that they may be affected by a series of recently enacted state laws that restrict transgender and other gay people. Global Affairs Canada, the foreign affairs department, added a brief notice Tuesday to a long list of travel warnings involving the United States that had already included cautions about gun violence and terrorism. A department spokesperson said in a statement that the change was made because “certain states in the U.S. have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events” since the beginning of this year.
Bird flu raced through South America. Antarctica could be next.
Over the past three years, H5N1, a lethal form of avian influenza, has whipped around the world, felling birds in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. Last fall, the virus finally arrived in South America, killing wild birds and marine mammals in staggering numbers. Peru and Chile alone have reported more than 500,000 dead seabirds and 25,000 dead sea lions, according to a new report. Now, scientists are worried that the virus will make its way to Antarctica, one of only two continents — along with Australia — that have not yet been hit by the pathogen.
By wire sources