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Trump Selects Amy Coney Barrett to Fill Ginsburg’s Seat on the Supreme Court President Trump has selected Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the favorite candidate of conservatives, to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and will try to force Senate confirmation before Election Day in a move that would significantly alter the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court for years. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/us/politics/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court.amp.html

Trump Won’t Commit to Peaceful Transfer of Power if He Loses President Donald Trump on Wednesday again declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 presidential election. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said at a news conference, responding to a question about whether he’d commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.” https://apnews.com/8bb28627b03474a3a5ce2454ae3d1639

Police Officers Not Charged for Killing Breonna Taylor A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong, with prosecutors saying Wednesday that two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire. https://apnews.com/28a283922de8784f6fca5c42fe8e5bca

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Dies at Age 87 From Pancreatic Cancer Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1993, died on Friday at age 87, the court said, giving President Donald Trump a chance to expand its conservative majority with a third appointment at a time of deep divisions in America with a presidential election looming. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN269395

Astronomers See Possible Hints of Life in Venus’s Clouds Astronomers have found a potential sign of life high in the atmosphere of neighboring Venus: hints there may be bizarre microbes living in the sulfuric acid-laden clouds of the hothouse planet. Two telescopes in Hawaii and Chile spotted in the thick Venutian clouds the chemical signature of phosphine, a noxious gas that on Earth is only associated with life, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Astronomy. https://apnews.com/3c534346e6a312de118a34ab04b6c846

Massive Smoke Clouds, Thick Air Darken Western US Skies People from San Francisco to Seattle woke Wednesday to hazy clouds of smoke lingering in the air, darkening the sky to an eerie orange glow that kept street lights illuminated into midday, all thanks to dozens of wildfires throughout the West. https://apnews.com/dfb39a63c12522ec0b83207ad6c671fe

Ailing Abe Quits as Japan PM as COVID-19 Slams Economy Japan’s Shinzo Abe on Friday said he was resigning because of poor health, ending a tenure as the country’s longest-serving prime minister in which he sought to revive an economy stricken by deflation and push for a stronger military. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25O00F

Laura Makes Landfall in Southwestern Louisiana near Texas Hurricane Laura made landfall Thursday morning in southwest Louisiana as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, forecasters said. The National Hurricane Center said the storm made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana. It had maximum sustained winds of 150mph (240 kph), making it the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. so far this year. https://apnews.com/bac3a77342fb9d59ada088e9133cb748

Christchurch shootings: 49 dead in New Zealand mosque attacks Forty-nine people have been killed and 48 wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the nation's deadliest attack. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described it as a terrorist…

Sports Come to a Halt: NBA, WNBA, MLB Postpone Games as Players Protest Jacob Blake Shooting The NBA’s restart inside a restricted bubble at Disney World, which has proceeded smoothly for more than a month without any positive coronavirus tests, came to a screeching halt Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. The other two games scheduled for the day were postponed as well. The unprecedented decision to postpone the games was quickly followed by a similar decision by the Women’s National Basketball Association, which canceled its scheduled games across the state in Bradenton. In Milwaukee, the Brewers announced they would not play their game Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. The Seattle Mariners’ game against the San Diego Padres was also postponed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/26/bucks-boycott-nba-playoff-game/

Michigan to Pay $600 Million to Victims of Flint Water Crisis The state of Michigan is expected to pay about $600 million to victims of the Flint water crisis, according to two people with knowledge of a major settlement that is set to be announced this week. The money would largely be designated for children in Flint who were poisoned by lead-tainted tap water after officials changed the city’s water supply six years ago, setting off a crisis that drew national attention and remains a worry for many residents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/us/flint-water-crisis-settlement.amp.html

Mali President Resigns After Detention by Military, Deepening Crisis Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned on Tuesday and dissolved parliament hours after mutinying soldiers detained him at gunpoint, plunging a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN25E1AF