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Paramount to sell Simon & Schuster to private equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion 2023-08-08 - Paramount has struck a deal to sell Simon & Schuster to private-equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion. The agreement comes after a federal judge in November blocked the publisher's purchase by Penguin Random House, the country's largest publisher, over antitrust concerns. Simon & Schuster will become a standalone private company after the all-cash deal is completed, the media giant said in a Monday statement. (Paramount Global, which owns Simon & Schuster, is also CBS News' parent company.) "All of the executives at Simon & Schuster who met with KKR came away from those conversations impressed with the depth of KKR's interest in our business and their commitment to helping us grow, thrive and become an even stronger company," said Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, in a statement. Book publishing's "Big Five" Simon & Schuster, where authors include Stephen King, Colleen Hoover and Bob Woodward, is one of the so-called "Big Five" of New York publishing, with others including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishing, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan. HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, had reportedly been interested in buying Simon & Schuster. Paramount, formerly ViacomCBS, put Simon & Schuster on the market in 2020 as it prepared to enter a crowded streaming space. Later that year, it announced a $2.2 billion deal with Penguin Random House, the world's largest publishing house. However, that deal began to fall apart when the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the merger in 2021, contending that the new combination would stifle competition for best-selling books and lead to lower advances for authors. Paramount eventually scuttled the deal in 2022, a month after a federal judge ruled in favor the government's arguments and blocked the sale. With reporting by the Associated Press.

Back-to-school shopping could cost families a record amount this year. Here's how to save. 2023-08-08 - Back to school shopping tips Back to school shopping tips 00:43 Inflation is hitting parents' pocketbooks hard, with back-to-school shopping forecast to cost American families the most ever amid higher prices for everything from calculators to crayons. Spending on school supplies is expected to hit a record $41.5 billion this year, according to a recent survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That would mark an increase of 12%, or $4.6 billion, from the $36.9 billion consumers spent last year. It would also smash the previous high of $37.1 billion, set in 2021. Families are spending more on school supplies after a year of high inflation, but also due to evolving school-related needs. For instance, more big-ticket items, like electronics related to learning, are on shoppers' lists this year. A larger share — nearly 70% compared to last year's 65% — of back-to-school shoppers expect to buy computers and related accessories this year, according to the NRF survey. Prices for many classroom essentials have outpaced the 4% increase in other major goods, according to an analysis by Pattern. This is how much prices of back-to-school staples have increased compared to last year: Graph Paper - 18% Mechanical Pencils - 16% Folders - 13% Highlighters - 13% Index Cards - 12% Crayons - 12% Composition Books - 9% Rulers - 8% Scientific Calculators - 6% How to save on school supplies

The best strategies for winning the Mega Millions jackpot, according to a Harvard statistician 2023-08-08 - With the Mega Millions lottery prize reaching over a billion dollar heading into Tuesday's drawing, some Americans may be wondering what they can do to increase their chances of winning. To be sure, it all boils down to luck, but you can still try to increase your odds. Here are the best strategies for doing just that. Mega Millions latest The Mega Millions latest jackpot has risen to an estimated $1.55 billion — the largest in the game's history. How to increase your chances of winning? The unsurprising short answer is, buy as many tickets as you can within reason. That's according to Mark Glickman, a senior lecturer of statistics at Harvard University. "The best you can really do is just play lots and lots of times and that's the only way you're going to be able to increase your probability," Glickman told CBS News. Odds of winning The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are approximately one in 302.5 million. With odds that slim, Glickman said it's best to focus on picking numbers that are completely random. That will help ensure you're not making the same picks as someone else — and that you won't have to split the prize money with anyone, should you win. "You should just completely have patternless random numbers," he said. "No birthdays that have special meaning to you because other people are likely to make those same picks." Has anyone won the Mega Millions? No winning tickets were sold in Friday's Mega Millions drawing. Tuesday's drawing will most likely top the largest Mega Millions payout ever — which happened in October 2018 when a South Carolina resident won $1.5 billion. The jackpot from 2018 and today have grown bigger by design, College of the Holy Cross economics professor Victor Matheson said earlier this year. The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a not-for-profit that coordinates the Mega Millions, has transformed it into a national game, made it more difficult to win the jackpot and increased the price of each ticket from $1 to $2. As the Washington Post reported in 2018, the new rules gave participants more numbers to choose from, making it less likely they would guess the combination required to win the jackpot. Mega Millions is played in 45 states along with Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Four Americans have won a Mega Millions jackpot larger than $1 billion since the rule changes. Higher ticket prices and lower odds of winning make the jackpot grow faster from week to week, Matheson said. The eye-popping figures also induce more people to buy tickets, adding to the lottery pool. Americans are 15 times more likely to buy a ticket when the winnings inch toward $1 billion compared to when the prize winnings are just $20 million, he said. What day is the mega millions drawing? The next drawing is set for Tuesday at 11 p.m. Eastern time. The jackpot winner, should there be one, will be able to choose from a series of annuity payments across 30 years or a one-time cash option of approximately $757.2 million.

Electricity rates in Texas skyrocket amid statewide heat wave 2023-08-08 - The rate Texas residents pay for energy has skyrocketed in recent days, as hotter-than-usual temperatures cause demand for electricity to soaring across the state. Texans were paying about $275 per megawatt-hour for power on Saturday then the cost rose more than 800% to a whopping $2,500 per megawatt-hour on Sunday, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Prices so far on Monday have topped off at $915 per megawatt-hour. Demand for electricity hit a record-setting 83,593 megawatts on August 1, the energy provider said Friday, adding that there could be another record broken this week. The ERCOT power grid provides electricity to 90% of Texas. ERCOT issued a weather watch for Monday, warning customers that the state may see higher temperatures, which will in turn put heavier demand on its electrical grid. The energy provider assured customers "there is currently enough capacity to meet forecasted demand." Excessive heat warning A giant swath of Texas is under an excessive heat warning, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to reach between 108 and 102 degrees in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. Texas has seen 26 straight days of above 100-degree temperatures, CBS News Texas reported. This week's expected electricity demand will mark ERCOT's first big test since its grid crashed during a 2021 ice storm that caused a blackout and knocked out power to millions of homes. Since the blackout, Texas lawmakers say the grid is more reliable. Legislation passed this year that is designed to help the grid has still drawn criticism from Republicans in the statehouse, AP News reported. Hot weather has not caused rolling outages in Texas since 2006. But operators of the state's grid have entered recent summers warning of the possibility of lower power reserves as a crush of new residents strains an independent system. Texas mostly relies on natural gas for power, which made up more than 40% of generation last year, according to ERCOT. Wind accounted for about 25%, with solar and nuclear energy also in the mix. Solar power generation in Texas has increased significantly over the past few years, CBS News reported. Texas' grid is not connected to the rest of the country, unlike others in the U.S., meaning there are few options to pull power from elsewhere if there are shortages or failures. In May, regulators warned the public that demand may outpace supply on the hottest days.

Unlimited vacation can save companies billions. But is it a bad deal for workers? 2023-08-08 - Why unlimited vacation may not be as great as it sounds Why unlimited PTO may not be as great as it sounds Why unlimited PTO may not be as great as it sounds Amid the tightest job market in two decades, a small but growing number of U.S. companies are offering their workers a deal seemingly too good to be true: unlimited vacation. It sounds like a dream: Instead of being allotted a set number of paid days off per year, employees are told to take off however many days they'd like. No need for tracking; as long as they're getting their work done, their time off is unlimited. It's a message many Americans are eager to hear. A recent survey from The Harris Poll/Fortune found that workers wanted unlimited time off more than tuition reimbursement, subsidized child care or free office snacks. But a growing body of research indicates that the all-you-can-take vacation model is a much better deal for companies than it is for workers. No compensation for unused vacation days The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn't legally require paid time off for workers. That means that American companies that offer their employees vacation days, do so as a business expense, alongside workers' salaries, health care costs and coffee for the office. Many states also require businesses to pay out earned time off when a worker leaves, meaning workers' earned time off is a liability for companies. Today, U.S. companies are carrying hundreds of billions of dollars in liability for workers' unused vacation days. Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, estimates the national total is about $224 billion. Sorbet, an app that helps employees cash out their accrued vacation, puts that total even higher, at $318 billion a year. Under "unlimited" or "flexible" vacation policies, however, workers no longer have to earn a fixed amount of time off, which means they are not entitled to compensation for any unused vacation days. Companies that switch to flexible vacation policies therefore erase billions of liabilities from their budget. Huge cost dump for businesses "If you move from accrued vacation time — where you earn it and and the company owes it to you — to unlimited vacation time, it goes from an explicit contractual obligation to a kind of moral obligation, an informal obligation," Cappelli told CBS MoneyWatch. From a business perspective, "if you think about the fact that you might just be able to dump it at the stroke of a pen, that's an enormous number. If you say, just by changing a policy line you can dump $224 billion in liability, it's hard to imagine any other thing you could do that would have that kind of impact," he said. Between 2019 and 2023, the portion of job listings advertising unlimited PTO rose 40%, according to job-search site Indeed. For Cappelli, author of the recently published book "Our Least Important Asset: Why the Relentless Focus on Finance and Accounting is Bad for Business and Employees," the move to unlimited vacation is one of many bad policies brought on by excessive focus on corporate balance sheets. (The move from pensions, a long-term obligation a company carries on its books, to defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s is another example he cites.) Small wonder that these policies have been especially popular among tech companies: Neflix, Dropbox, Microsoft and Salesforce are all among companies offering free-form time off. But they're also growing in the non-tech sector, with companies like GE jumping on the bandwagon. Vacation deprivation Unlimited vacation also boosts the corporate bottom line in another way — by reducing the number of vacation days actually used by workers. All too often, the generous-sounding policies exacerbate the main reasons American workers cite for not taking vacation in the first place. A study from HR company Namely in 2018 found that workers on "unlimited" plans actually took two fewer days off a year than workers did on traditional plans. When Kickstarter went unlimited, the company found that employees actually took less time off — a reason the tech startup cited in dropping its freewheeling vacation policy in 2015. Even when workers earn a set number of days, they often don't use up all the vacation time they're allocated, citing reasons including guilt, fear of piling up unfinished work, and pressure from their manager. Last year, the average American worker took just 11 days off, according to Expedia — less than half of what counterparts took in the U.K., France or Hong Kong. Employers that eliminate a set vacation schedule remove "your administrative right to take time off," Cappelli said — making every vacation request subject to negotiaion and office politics. "Nothing prevents your manager from saying no, except for this moral promise from people at the top," he said. "Nothing prevents peer pressure and forms of coercion inside the organization." Inequities of "unlimited" In extreme cases, vacation advertised as "unlimited" may in fact have a limit — just not one the company advertises openly. Workers who take "too much" vacation can find themselves told to scale it back, or penalized in other ways. And if it's not managed well, it can create inequities, noted workplace consultant Alison Green "Conscientious employees aren't likely to take advantage of their access to unlimited time off, but less-motivated employees – the slackers who already aren't pulling their weight — can be far more inclined to take off as much time as they can get away with, leaving their harder-working colleagues to pick up the slack," Green wrote on her popular "Ask a Manager" blog. "Then, factor in that many jobs never have slow periods, so it can feel that there's never a good time to get away, and you start to see why many workers have ended up disillusioned by unlimited vacation time," she added.

In Ireland’s ‘Forgotten County,’ a Tiny Inn Does It Right 2023-08-08 - During pandemic-induced downtime, Mr. Campbell and Ms. Burke added a fourth room to the hotel, which they believe is the biggest they can become while still staying true to their ideal of a hotel run completely hands-on, by them. They have also added multiday chef-driven experiences to replace the one-night pop-up dinners they previously hosted. Breac House visitors can now meet guest chefs not just for a few words after dinner, but over the course of three days, visiting nearby farms together, eating meals and sharing drinks. (The cost for two nights lodging and breakfast, as well as two dinners and excursions, is 2,950 euros for two.) One dinner I had, cooked by the chef Cuan Greene, 30, who worked at Noma and was later head chef at a renowned Dublin restaurant, Bastable, focused on local products like oysters, turbot, ramson and rhubarb. Breac House’s success, so evident at this meal, presents a perhaps unsolvable dilemma: How to provide this level of engagement and intimacy to the many more guests who want it, without compromising the essence of what a place like Breac House has created. But, said Mr. Campbell, “After two years of Covid shutdowns and interruptions, there are much worse problems we can imagine.” Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023.

Whether You Call it ‘Skiplagging’ or ‘Hidden-City Travel,’ It’s Contentious 2023-08-08 - On the last day of June, American Airlines agents at Gainesville Regional Airport in Florida canceled a North Carolina teenager’s flight after realizing that he had used a booking tactic called “skiplagging” or “hidden-city travel,” forbidden by airlines but used by some travelers to net flight bargains. The teen’s father, Hunter Parsons, said it was his 17 year old’s first time flying unaccompanied and that both the timing and price of the booking made it appealing — for $150, his son was to fly from Gainesville to Charlotte, and not continue on the second flight to New York, a cost savings of roughly $300 if the family had simply purchased a direct flight to Charlotte. But Mr. Parsons’ son didn’t even make it past the check-in counter in Gainesville, where the airline agents questioned why the teen would fly to New York when his layover was in his hometown, Charlotte. He was forced to pay for a direct flight. Skiplagging is buying a ticket for a connecting flight, with a layover in the city that’s the real destination for the traveler. Flyers disembark after the first leg and simply fail to board the second. Often the fare is cheaper than if they’d actually bought a direct flight to their desired destination. At least two websites now help unearth these deals for consumers. Though it is not illegal, the practice is strictly prohibited by airlines in their contracts of carriage. And carriers have shown an erratic but heavy hand in administering punishment for those caught, eliminating a skiplagger’s frequent flier miles in one instance and suing a passenger in another. Mr. Parsons said that American banned his son from traveling with the carrier for three years.

What Cuisine Means to Taiwan’s Identity and Its Clash With China 2023-08-08 - Taiwan is a self-ruling island of 24 million people that is officially known as the Republic of China. About only a dozen countries recognize it as a nation because China claims it as one of its provinces. Taiwan is called “Chinese Taipei” by international organizations and at the Olympic Games. The ambiguity of Taiwan’s nationhood contrasts with a growing Taiwanese claim of identity. More than 60 percent of the people living on the island identify as Taiwanese, and roughly 30 percent identify as both Chinese and Taiwanese, according to the latest results of an annual survey conducted by National Chengchi University in Taipei. Only 2.5 percent consider themselves Chinese exclusively. But what makes them Taiwanese, not Chinese? How will they create a cohesive narrative about their identity? And how do they reconcile with their Chinese heritage? For many people, it’s through food, one of the things the island is known for, aside from its semiconductor industry. In the past decade or so, restaurateurs, writers and scholars have started to promote the concept of Taiwanese cuisine, reviving traditional fine dining and incorporating local, especially Indigenous, produce and ingredients into cooking.

Don’t Be So Picky About a Job, China’s College Graduates Are Told 2023-08-08 - Government policymakers struggling to address the problem are now leaning on colleges to do more to find jobs for graduates. The job performance of school administrators was already tied to the percentage of their students who find employment after graduation. Now top school officials are being encouraged to visit companies to unearth opportunities. In some cases, the scrutiny is so intense that students resort to fabricating job offers to placate school officials. Over the last three decades, as China’s economy grew by leaps and bounds, more people attended college, seeing it as a pathway to promising careers. The number of students enrolling in colleges and universities increased to 10.1 million in 2022 from 754,000 in 1992, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This year’s estimated graduating class of 11.6 million students is expected to be the largest ever, and future classes are expected to be even bigger. At the same time, the economy is not growing like it once did. The problem of youth unemployment may not abate for a decade, carrying potentially bigger ramifications for the country’s leadership, said a June report from the China Macroeconomy Forum, a think tank with Renmin University of China.

TN Dem Justin J. Pearson vows to fight for gun safety after winning reelection 2023-08-08 - The two Democratic state representatives in Tennessee who were expelled after protesting in support of gun safety, Justin J. Pearson and Justin Jones, have won their seats again. Now, Republicans in the state are pressuring Tennessee’s governor against moving forward on gun reforms. Tennessee Democratic State Representative Justin J. Pearson joins MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss.Aug. 8, 2023

Judge sets deadline to decide on protective order restraining Trump on evidence, witnesses 2023-08-08 - Rachel Maddow reviews the rapid exchange of filings between the DOJ special counsel Jack Smith's prosecutors and Donald Trump's defense team and newly breaking response from Judge Tanya Chutkan on the question of issuing a protective order restraining Donald Trump from disrupting the course of the trial with evidence the Justice Department shares with Trump's defense. Aug. 8, 2023

‘No, thanks’: GOP voters, major donors losing interest in the DeSantis ‘war on woke’ 2023-08-08 - Mehdi Hasan: “DeSantis says he wants to ‘Make America Florida’ with all the culture war bigotry he's pushed there. And so far, America has responded, ‘No, thanks.’”Aug. 8, 2023

You lost: See Trump co-conspirator’s lawyer confronted over coup charges on live TV 2023-08-08 - MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber interviews Charles Burnham, lawyer for Trump “co-conspirator” John Eastman. Burnham faces questions on his dealings with Special Counsel Jack Smith; the sedition and violence on Jan. 6; the winner of the 2020 election; and evidence regarding Eastman’s conduct and honesty. This is an excerpt of the longer interview that aired on “The Beat with Ari Melber.” (Check out The Beat's playlist: https://msnbc.com/ari Connect with Ari Melber: https://www.instagram.com/arimelber) Aug. 7, 2023

'A security issue': FBI vet warns of Trump’s track record of inciting violence 2023-08-08 - Former FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi discusses with Ayman Mohyeldin, in for Nicolle Wallace, the risks Donald Trump poses as he continues to attack and threaten legal officials associated in the January 6th case. Aug. 7, 2023

Joe Biden’s brand is being tested like never before 2023-08-08 - WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s brand as a family-oriented public servant has been a signature political asset that for more than 50 years has helped him win the argument that, when judged against “the alternative” rather than “the Almighty,” he stacks up pretty well. He’s never lost to a general-election opponent in a political career that’s taken him from Delaware’s New Castle County Council to the Oval Office. But the burnish on Biden’s brand is being tested like never before, ahead of a close 2024 election. Some of the president’s Democratic allies are worried about potential fallout from a confluence of family drama that’s spilled into public view and from Republican attacks that cut at the bedrock of Biden’s longtime political appeal. The GOP-led House is investigating the extent of Biden’s role in helping his son Hunter Biden earn millions of dollars from foreign business interests during his time as vice president. Republicans also say Biden’s Justice Department tried to give Hunter Biden a “sweetheart” plea deal on federal tax and firearm possession charges — a deal that fell apart last month after a judge questioned its terms. At the same time, a federal special counsel is investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents following his two terms as vice president. In a matter of a much more personal nature, Biden recently acknowledged for the first time that he has a seventh grandchild — Navy Joan Roberts, the 4-year-old daughter of Hunter Biden, who wrote in a memoir that he doesn’t remember his “encounter” with her mother. “The recent revelations with Hunter Biden really are in conflict with the current perception of his image of being squeaky clean,” Mike Noble, the CEO of the nonpartisan Noble Predictive Insights and a preeminent pollster in the Southwest, said of the president. Noble said that in his firm’s trackers — including in the key 2024 states of Arizona and Nevada — Biden’s image regularly tests better than his job approval. “I think this potentially impacts his image,” he said of the various criticisms of Biden and his family. Democrats who are concerned about the possible political damage to Biden’s reputation are more reticent, and they privately note that this GOP narrative is different from criticism of the president’s age — 80 — or his handling of the economy because it’s so central to the type of leadership he’s offering voters. “There’s a reason why his numbers are the way they are,” said one Democratic strategist, referring to the president’s low approval rating among Americans. Like other Democrats, the strategist requested anonymity to avoid retribution from fellow partisans. “It’s not just the economy,” the strategist said of possible reasons behind Biden’s low job approval. “It’s not because people are just concerned about inflation. It’s not just because people are concerned about his age. His brand has been damaged by him and those around him.” Nodding to the fear Democrats have of being blamed for weakening their own candidate — or incurring his wrath — the strategist emphatically declined to put his name to his remarks: “On the record? F--- no! Are you crazy?” he said. In June, an NBC News poll found that 48% of those surveyed held a negative view of the president and 39% had a positive view. Another 12% were neutral. Earlier this year, a Pew Research Center poll showed 65% of Americans feared Republicans would spend too much time in Congress talking about Hunter Biden and not enough on kitchen table issues. Still, Republicans plan to spend the next 15 months trying to diminish Biden’s powerful political asset as much as possible. On Monday, the political action committee of former President Donald Trump — the current front-runner for the Republican nomination — released a new ad that casts the president as dishonest about his role in Hunter Biden’s lucrative foreign business dealings. The PAC, Make America Great Again, is spending $1.9 million on the ad, according to a spokesperson. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said recent data collected by Campaign Nucleus, a platform that measures public opinion, show at least a glimmer of weakness where Biden has long found strength. Parscale, a partner in the firm that runs Campaign Nucleus, said while Biden’s personal approval is at 43%, positive sentiment about issues involving his family is lower — at 40%. “This net negative sentiment of 3% is a notable drag on his overall appeal,” Parscale said. In the 2024 election, Biden will have to rely on voters to look past any discomfort with the nicks in his narrative when they compare him to the alternative — which current polling shows is likely to be Trump, who has been indicted three times and impeached twice. Though Biden and Trump are effectively tied in recent national polling, Democrats say they are confident Biden’s record — both in terms of policies and character — stands up much better to scrutiny than Trump’s. “Republicans have spent four years and millions of dollars spreading lies about President Biden and his family because it’s easier than talking about their deeply unpopular and extreme agenda,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee. “It hasn’t worked, and it never will, because Americans know that Joe Biden is a fundamentally decent person who loves his family and whose devotion to his country has made him one of the most effective presidents in a generation,” Moussa said. Yet there is some concern within the party that the Hunter Biden storylines are creating a distraction from Trump’s character and the substantive policy issues the president’s team believes will ultimately decide the election. Felisia Martin, vice chair of the state Democratic Party in electoral battleground Wisconsin, said there is growing frustration among Democrats in her state about the focus on Hunter Biden over issues like inflation. “We voted for Joe Biden to be president of the United States, not Hunter Biden,” said Martin, who also is a member of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. “Hunter Biden doesn’t have a position in the Biden-Harris administration, therefore, I’m not concerned unless there is proof that the president has something to do with some nefarious dealings.” Republicans, and news organizations, have not found evidence that Biden received money from any of Hunter Biden’s business relationships. In 2019, Joe Biden wrote a post on X — then called Twitter — claiming, “I’ve never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” But late last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shifted that stance amid revelations that House Republicans had uncovered evidence of Hunter Biden talking to his father while meeting with business associates. “The president,” Pierre said, as she recalibrated the White House response to questions about whether the two Bidens had spoken about business ventures, “was never in business with his son.” Last week, Devon Archer, who was one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, testified in a closed session before the House Oversight Committee about the importance of the Biden “brand” — specifically Hunter Biden’s proximity to his father — in securing and maintaining business, according to a publicly released transcript of his meeting with House investigators. Indeed, the power of the Biden name likely helped Hunter Biden at nearly every turn of his career: from consulting for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank whose employees were a major source of campaign money for the elder Biden, and lobbying Congress while his father was a senator; to winning an appointment to Amtrak’s board from President George W. Bush and earning large sums from foreign business dealings when his father was vice president. Archer recounted two dinners with Hunter Biden’s foreign associates that Joe Biden attended at a Washington, D.C., restaurant when he was vice president. The dinners included a Russian real estate magnate and a top executive at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that hired Hunter Biden as a consultant. Archer testified that he is unaware of any official U.S. government action taken on behalf of Burisma. In general, he testified, the younger Biden “would sometimes make it apparent that he spoke to his dad” or put his father on speaker phone when interacting with investors and business contacts. The conversations were casual, according to Archer’s testimony, but gave the impression of closeness between father and son. Archer also said he had no knowledge of wrongdoing by the president. Democrats say there’s no comparison between Trump and Biden when it comes to self-dealing — and that they hope that is obvious to the electorate. Trump was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith on various charges related to his alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and wrongfully retaining classified documents after leaving office. He was also indicted by the Manhattan district attorney on charges of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The special counsel investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after his time as vice president has not announced any conclusion to the probe, but one is expected in the coming months. Biden has said he unwittingly possessed classified documents after leaving the vice presidency. Whether the “family man” brand issue becomes a problem for Biden in the 2024 campaign, there may be little he can do at this point to affect it, in the view of some of his allies. And Biden allies hope voters will see his decisions as him being a caring father and won’t penalize him for that. “What is he supposed to do, cut his son off because he wants to be president?” said former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill. “You don’t stop being a dad because you want to be vice president or president.” Democrats close to Biden said Republicans will be hard-pressed to tear down a brand that has been built over decades. Biden’s reputation for empathy also is one reason that Democrats are reluctant to publicly criticize his handling of his relationship with Hunter Biden. In many cases, that empathy is something they’ve experienced themselves. Bill Houlihan, a Democratic strategist and longtime aide to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recalled how years ago when he told Biden that his mother was turning 90, Biden told Houlihan to get his mother on the phone and then wished her a happy birthday. “My mom told that story until she died,” Houlihan said. “You don’t do that to make a name for yourself; you do that because you love people.” Yet in some ways, the most prominent aspect of Joe Biden’s political brand — that he’s a family man — has recently taken the biggest hit. Biden has held Hunter Biden — his only surviving son and a recovering drug addict — so publicly close that some Democrats have privately raised concerns that doing so hurts him politically. Yet it wasn’t until last month, amid Republican criticism and some friendly admonishments, that Biden acknowledged he has a seventh grandchild. The president was waiting until after Hunter Biden resolved his legal disputes with Navy’s mother, Lunden Roberts, before opening his arms to his granddaughter, according to people close to him. That legal settlement, however, reportedly precludes Navy from using the Biden family name.

China floods, drought hit farmers and crops 2023-08-08 - BEIJING — First, temperatures soared for weeks on end, baking the Chinese capital in triple-digit temperatures. A month later, flooding from Beijing's worst storm in 140 years killed at least 20 people in and around the city. Summer in China so far has been a season of extremes, with the country lurching between stifling, unrelenting heat and heavy, monsoonal rainfall. The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said on Aug. 4 that 147 people were dead or missing because of natural disasters in July. The bouts of extreme weather have taken a toll not just on China’s 1.4 billion population but also on the size of harvests in the world’s biggest food-producing country. As the world warms, extreme events like those unfolding in China — and in the United States and other countries around the world — are expected to become more common. With that prospect comes the worrying potential for widespread crop failures in major food-producing regions. Most of China’s farming regions are under the monsoon influence, making them susceptible to meteorological disasters such as floods and drought. Farmers say the situation is getting worse as extreme weather events occur more often. Vehicles stuck in floodwaters in Chongqing on July 14. Huang Wei / Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images file Flooding in Chongqing, a metropolis in China’s southwest almost 1,000 miles from Beijing, is not unprecedented in summer. But the intensity of the flooding in July prompted the nation’s highest emergency alert as it killed at least 15 people, affected more than 13,000 others, and damaged tens of thousands of acres of crops, including rice and corn. Ran Chaoyin, a Chongqing farmer in his 30s, said that only about one-fifth of the 1.3 acres of corn he had planted survived the deluge. “I’ve worked as a farmer all my life, and this is not the first time I’ve had damage from floods,” he said. “But the damage this year is the worst.” Ran also experienced extreme weather last summer, as persistent heat and drought swept through a large swath of southern China, almost drying up the country’s largest freshwater lake and taking a huge toll on crop yields. “The drought here was very bad last year,” he said. “The crops almost reached harvest time and then they all dried up.” The central province of Henan, China’s top wheat producer, was hit by unexpected torrential rainfall right before harvest time in May. The prolonged downpours flooded wheat fields, causing pre-harvest sprouting and blight. Wang Guirong, director of the rural division of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said in July that summer grain yield had fallen 0.9% compared with last year, the first such decrease in years, though he said the 146 million tons were still a “bumper harvest.” He said continuous rainfall in the northern wheat region, including Henan province, was to blame. The opposite is happening in some parts of northern China, which have been gripped by scorching heat this summer. The record-breaking temperatures and dry spell have compromised the quality and quantity of crops suitable for harvest and sowing in summer, which is an important season for agriculture in these areas. Chen Shutao, a straw purchaser whose family plants corn in the northern province of Hebei, said the stalks were a foot shorter than usual “and won’t be fully grown.” “The corn we grew in spring will have little or zero harvest this year, depending on if we have any rain in the upcoming two weeks,” the 32-year-old said. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Aug. 2 that eight provinces, including Hebei, would receive 432 million yuan ($60 million) in flood relief funds to support agricultural output. It earlier said that drought conditions had been eased by recent rainfall and that China had enough wheat stock to last almost a year. “A slight reduction in production will not have a major impact on the grain market,” Pan Wenbo, director general of the ministry’s crop production department, said on July 21. “The current market price of wheat is also basically stable.” The ‘new normal’ The extreme weather in China, the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, was on display in July as U.S. climate envoy John Kerry arrived in Beijing the same day China’s hottest-ever temperature — 126 degrees Fahrenheit — was recorded in the western region of Xinjiang. Kerry’s visit restarted U.S.-China climate talks that had been suspended since last year but did not produce any breakthroughs. As the planet warms, China’s droughts and floods will become more frequent and intense, said Liu Junyan, manager of the climate and energy program at Greenpeace East Asia. A security guard wipes off sweat in Beijing in July. Andy Wong / AP file “Drought will dry up crops in their key growing period,” Liu said. “Flooding will not always cause 100% damage to the crops because it will recede, but the impact will last longer if it’s compounded by mudslides.” The extreme weather events lashing China this summer are in line with what scientists have predicted if global warming continues unchecked. Prolonged heat waves, severe storms, intense flooding and widespread drought are all becoming part of the “new normal” of climate change, said Cascade Tuholske, an assistant professor of climate change, urbanization and food security at Montana State University. “As we warm our climate, what was once viewed as extreme happens more frequently,” he said. The impacts of climate change can also overlap as compounding hazards, making it even more challenging for countries to mitigate the consequences. In China, for instance, parts of the country were being deluged while others suffered oppressively high heat and humidity. The two extremes, however, are related. “As we heat up the air, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, so storm systems are pulling more moisture off the ocean,” Tuholske said. “It’s not surprising then that we’re getting heat waves at the same time with extreme precipitation events.” Extreme weather events around the world are expected to be exacerbated by the return this spring of El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern. El Niño conditions are characterized by changes in the strength or direction of trade winds that cause waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean to become warmer than usual. These shifts typically have significant and far-ranging effects on global temperatures, rainfall patterns and severe storm systems. A woman shielding herself from the sun during hot weather conditions in Beijing in June. Wang Zhao / AFP via Getty Images file Rising global temperatures could also change the agricultural landscape in China, as some crops grown mainly in southern China move northward, according to Liu. “But it’s not all good, because a warmer winter will bring more pest infestations,” she said. In addition to being the world’s biggest food producer, China is also the biggest food importer, with key imports including soybean, corn, wheat and sorghum. The country imported more than 140 million tons of grains last year, which was equal to 21% of its annual domestic grain production. China has increasingly turned to countries such as Brazil and Argentina for food imports amid tensions with the U.S., which was its biggest agricultural supplier before a trade war began in 2018. Faced with global uncertainties, China has in recent years been ramping up efforts to ensure food security, striving to increase crop yields and carrying out a high-profile campaign against food waste. But extreme weather is a wild card for agriculture and a headache for farmers, who are very dependent on climate. “The drought in my area used to happen every eight to 10 years,” Chen said. “But it happened in 2021 and 2023, too close.” “The future is hard to predict for us,” he added. “Many of us don’t dare to contract land anymore.” Dawn Liu reported from Beijing, and Denise Chow reported from New York.

Niger coup leaders refuse to let senior U.S. diplomat meet with nation’s president 2023-08-08 - A senior U.S. diplomat said coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet Monday with the West African country’s democratically elected president, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.” Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland also described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to U.S. pressure to return the country to civilian rule. “They were quite firm about how they want to proceed, and it is not in support of the constitution of Niger,” Nuland told reporters. She characterized the conversations as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult.” She spoke after a two-hour meeting in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with some leaders of the military takeover of a country that has been a vital counterterrorism partner of the United States. Victoria Nuland. Alex Brandon / AP file In speaking to junta leaders, Nuland said, she made “absolutely clear the kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored.” If the U.S. determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid. She said she also stressed U.S. concern for the welfare of President Mohamed Bazoum, who she said was being detained with his wife and son. The meeting was with Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, a U.S.-trained officer, and three of the colonels involved in the takeover. The coup’s top leader, former presidential guard head Abdourahamane Tchiani, did not meet with the Americans. In other developments Monday, leaders of West Africa’s regional bloc said they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the president. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc. Meanwhile, the junta’s mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack. State television reported the junta’s latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if Bazoum is not returned to power. A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country,” and said Niger’s airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.” The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger’s population to defend the nation. The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence. Niger had been seen by the United States and others as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence. Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbors of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them. Mohamed Toumba, one of the leading figures of the junta, at a rally of coup supporters in Niamey. Balima Boreima / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Regional tensions have mounted since the coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Tchiani as head of state. Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him. It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger’s border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land. Nigeria’s Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria’s president, the bloc’s current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states. Guinea and neighboring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal’s government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc’s efforts to restore constitutional order. The junta has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center. However, Nuland indicated that coup leaders did not seem receptive to welcoming Wagner mercenaries into the country, as has happened with several surrounding unstable West African countries. “I will say that I got the sense from my meetings today that the people who have taken the action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited,” Nuland said. The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts. On Monday, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended almost 500 million euros ($550 million) in aid to Burkina Faso. It’s not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 U.S. military personnel also in Niger. Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention. “While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn’t intervene. Is it now that they will intervene?” said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday’s rally. “Shame on ECOWAS.”

South Korea begins evacuating Scouts as Tropical Storm Khanun nears 2023-08-08 - Buses began moving tens of thousands of Scouts to inland venues Tuesday ahead of a tropical storm, bringing an effective end to a World Scout Jamboree that had already struggled with heat, hygiene and land use controversies. Known for its insatiable desire to host international events, the South Korean government scrambled to keep the Jamboree going as thousands of British and American Scouts departed over the weekend because of an extreme heat wave that caused some attendees to be hospitalized. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that officials announced the decision to abandon the coastal campsite in the southwestern town of Buan, after forecasters raised alarms that Tropical Storm Khanun was heading toward the Korean Peninsula. Critics have argued the decision to host the Jamboree at a site known as Saemangeum was part of an effort to justify further investment in a controversial swath of reclaimed land. More than 1,000 vehicles are being used to evacuate 37,000 Scouts from 156 countries, mostly teenagers. Most will be accommodated in Seoul and the surrounding area, where officials have secured university dormitories, government and corporate training centers, and hotels.

Deadly Russian missile strikes destroy hotel and apartments, Ukraine says 2023-08-08 - Russian missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk twice on Monday night, destroying a popular hotel and apartments, killing at least seven people and wounding scores, officials said on Tuesday. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said seven people, including five civilians, were killed. Overnight, regional officials said that eight people had died. Witnesses told a Reuters cameraman that responders to the first strike were killed and injured in the second strike. Ukrainian Emergency Service / AP “We are resuming clearing the rubble. At night, we were forced to suspend work due to the high threat of repeated shelling,” Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.Two missiles hit the center of Pokrovsk within 40 minutes of each other, witnesses said. Pictures posted by officials showed that the hotel, in the center of the city, suffered a direct hit, with several floors missing. Residents said the Druzhba (Friendship) Hotel was popular with journalists, aid workers and the military. It was one of the few still operating in the eastern Donetsk region, close to the frontline. In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia used Iskander ballistic missiles to attack “usual residential buildings” in Pokrovsk. Witnesses told a Reuters cameraman that responders to the first strike were killed and injured in the second strike. Two rescuers were among the dead, they said. The interior ministry said that 29 police officers and seven rescuers were injured. Two children and 29 civilians were also among the wounded. Video footage showed rescuers sifting through rubble. Anatolii Stepanov / AFP via Getty Images Kateryna, a 58-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, was at home when she heard the first blast. She told a relative who called to check on her that she was all right but then the block was hit in a second blast. “That’s it, bang — and that’s all. A flame filled up my eyes. I fell down on the floor, on the ground. My eyes (hurt) a lot,” Kateryna told Reuters, pointing at multiple scratches around her eyes. She had bandages on her forehead. Video footage showed rescuers sifting through rubble, wreckage of a car and an apartment building with balconies torn away from the wall. Another resident, 75-year-old Lidia, said she was on the phone when the second blast hit. She had just picked up a torn white curtain covered with broken glass from the first blast. “Suddenly this flew out and wrapped me up. Then the window fell on me,” she said from her sofa. “My back has cuts. I just got back from the hospital... My knee and my thigh have cuts.” Pointing at her head, she said: “I had glass here.”

Record $1.55 billion Mega Millions jackpot is on the line 2023-08-08 - The odds are long, but Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing could yield a record-setting jackpot if estimates of a $1.55 billion top prize are correct. The game’s previous largest jackpot ever won was the $1.537 billion won in October 2018. The new jackpot is estimated to be $1.55 billion, which it reached after no one won the top prize in Friday night’s drawing, game officials said. The potential record-setting jackpot has been months in the making. The last time someone won the jackpot was on April 18. In Mega Millions, as in the Powerball lottery game, jackpots roll over when no one wins. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. The game is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.