Giuliani assault, olive oil price surge, and an outhouse rescue.

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US News, Politics, & Government

Wildfire smoke is erasing years of progress toward cleaning up America's air

Pollution levels of health-damaging tiny particles have dropped by roughly 40% since 2000, mainly due to the country’s effort to improve air quality through the Clean Air Act. However, smoke from wildfires has erased nearly 25% of those air quality gains, according to a new study in Nature. The effects are more prominent in Western states, where smoke-heavy days are the norm in some areas. Finding a solution to this new issue will require limiting human behavior that exacerbates wildfires and creating forest and fire management policies that reduce high concentrations of smoke. (More)

Sacramento's leaders sued over failure to clean up homeless encampments

Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho is suing the city’s leaders for failure to clean up homeless encampments. His office had asked the city to enforce local laws around sidewalk obstruction and to create additional professionally operated camping sites, but the city ignored the requests. The lawsuit includes accounts from residents living near the 14 homeless encampments. Some homeowners retell being threatened with firearms at their front doors and having their properties broken into or vandalized. Sacramento’s mayor responded that the city is working on the issues. (More)

Ex-Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson accuses Giuliani of groping her on Jan. 6

Former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson has accused Rudy Giuliani of groping her on Jan. 6, 2021 in her new memoir. The incident allegedly occurred while they were backstage during former President Trump’s speech ahead of the Capitol Riot. Giuliani’s political advisor called the accusation “a disgusting lie.” Hutchinson’s memoir will be out Sept. 26. (More)

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World

Armenians surrender and agree to cease-fire in breakaway region after Azerbaijan offensive

Armenian separatist forces in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh surrendered and agreed to a cease-fire, 24 hours after Azerbaijani forces began an offensive to retake full control of its territory. Talks between the two sides will begin on Thursday to see whether Azerbaijan will integrate around 120,000 ethnic Armenians, or banish them and reclaim the territory. The US and some European countries criticized the operation. However, they didn’t provide assistance to the Armenians, who don’t have an active military presence in the region. (More)

Olive oil prices surge over 100% to record highs

Severe droughts in major olive oil-producing countries have shrunk supplies, driving the price to record highs. Global prices for olive oil surged to $8,900 per ton in September, 130% higher than the previous year. Spain, Italy, and Greece make up 98% of olive production globally and each country is experiencing a drop in production. The droughts have been unrelenting in the regions and prices show no signs of easing up. (More)

Tornadoes kill 10 people and seriously injure 4 others in eastern China

Two back to back tornadoes killed 10 people and injured four others in China on Wednesday. The first tornado destroyed 137 homes and damaged cropland and pig farms. The second tornado displaced 129 residents north of Shanghai. Tornadoes rarely occur at this time of year in the region. The country has grappled with multiple deadly weather events over the last few months, including severe floods and extreme heat waves. (More)

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Business & Economy

Daily stock market update

US stock markets closed lower on Wednesday (S&P -0.94%, Nasdaq -1.53%, Dow -0.22%). (More)

The Fed hits pause on interest rate hikes while it reviews more data

The Federal Reserve said that it will pause its rate hikes, a decision widely expected after the central bank said it would wait for more data to understand how previous rate hikes are affecting the US economy. However, at least one more rate hike will likely happen before the end of the year. Additionally, officials expect fewer rate cuts in 2024 than previously estimated, confirming fears that interest rates could remain higher for longer. (More)

Airbnb is cracking down on fake listings

Airbnb is using AI to crack down on fraudsters who are threatening to scare off customers. The company says it has removed 59,000 fake listings and prevented another 157,000 from joining the platform this year. Meanwhile, many listings on the site have lowered or removed cleaning fees, since Airbnb gave users the option to sort listings in order of all-in pricing. The change has discouraged hosts from promoting low prices only to add extra fees at checkout. (More)

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Sports & Entertainment

Messi leaves Inter Miami win early with first-half injuries

Lionel Messi was substituted with a leg injury in the first half of Inter Miami’s win over Toronto FC. He rested the previous two games due to fatigue. Messi looked lively at the start of the game but began laboring during the 35th minute of play. Miami are five points behind DC United for the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs with seven games to play. (More)

Alan Williams resigns as Bears' defensive coordinator

Alan Williams has resigned as the Bears’ defensive coordinator citing his health and family as the reason for his exit. The Bears hired Williams in Feb. 2022. Before that he spend four seasons as the Indianapolis Colts’ safeties coach. (More)

John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and other prominent authors sue OpenAI

A group of mainstream US authors including Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult, has sued OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement for using their work to train ChatGPT. The lawsuit claims that OpenAI copied the plaintiffs’ works without permission, then used the material to train their algorithms that give human-seeming text responses to users’ prompts and queries. (More)

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Science, Health, & Tech

FDA rejects first needle-free alternative to EpiPens

The Food and Drug Administration decided not to approve an epinephrine nasal spray that would have been the first needle-free alternative to epinephrine autoinjectors like EpiPen. The agency told the drug maker that it needed to conduct another study on the drug, called Neffy, to get approval. The decision is surprising because the agency usually approves drugs that are okayed by its advisory committee, which recommended approval in April. (More)

Amazon is set to supercharge Alexa with generative AI

Amazon will soon use a new generative AI model to power improved experiences in its new Alexa voice assistant. The new Alexa will be able to intuitively respond to conversational prompts like “I’m cold” by turning up the heat. It will also be able to carry out a series of commands with one prompt such as “Alexa, every morning at 8:00 am, turn up the light, play my wake-up music, and start the coffeemaker.” The new Alexa will test launch in the US and be available for anyone with an Echo device. Amazon hasn’t announced a date for the preview yet. (More)

Feds to restart mail-order COVID test program

The US government will begin offering free COVID-19 test kits through the mail again. The announcement comes amid an increase in COVID hospitalizations. More than 20,500 people in the US were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 during the week ending Sept. 9, an 8% increase from the week before. US households can order four free tests from Covidtests.gov starting Sept. 25. (More)

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Bonus Material

Bob Ross’ first on-air painting is on sale for $10 million.

A woman was recused from an outhouse toilet after diving in after her Apple Watch.

Outside online put 23 electrolyte drinks to a taste test so you don’t have to.

Check out the 2023 minimalist photography winners.