Good morning. It's Thursday, Aug. 15, and we're covering the latest in Ukraine's Kursk offensive, Puerto Rico's storm recovery, and much more. First time reading? Join over 3.8 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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Russia has reportedly recalled small numbers of troops from Ukraine to its southwestern Kursk region amid the Ukrainian incursion there. The cross-border offensive is Ukraine's largest since the start of the two-and-a-half-year-long war.
Since last week, Ukraine's military says it has captured 400 square miles of Russian territory, encompassing 74 towns and settlements (see maps, photos). Yesterday, Ukraine also said it had captured 100 Russian soldiers. Ukrainian officials say they will seek to create a buffer zone in the region, claiming to have been shelled from Kursk 2,000 times this summer. Separately, Ukraine said it launched a smaller-scale attack yesterday on Russia's neighboring Belgorod region, whose regional governor declared a state of emergency yesterday.
Ukraine's sudden offensive streak appears designed to disrupt Russian advances in the strategically important region of Donetsk in Ukraine's southeast. The goal may also be to extract concessions in future negotiations. See latest updates on the war here.
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Puerto Rico After Ernesto
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Hurricane Ernesto left over 730,000 utility customers in Puerto Rico—accounting for roughly half of the territory's 1.4 million customers—without power yesterday.
The storm, which did not make landfall but instead churned north, slammed the territory with tropical storm-level winds and rain before developing into a Category 1 hurricane. An estimated 235,000 people in Puerto Rico were left without access to water, with hundreds of people taking shelter. President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds for storm recovery efforts. US territories in the region are still at risk for flash flooding, according to warnings from the country's hurricane center.
Ernesto heads north toward Bermuda today and is not on track to make landfall in the continental US. The eastern US coast, however, could experience rip tides and 8-foot-tall waves in the coming days.
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Stonehenge's central Altar Stone originated from northern Scotland, roughly 450 miles from the ancient England site and over 300 miles farther than previously believed, according to new research yesterday. The discovery suggests significant collaboration among Neolithic peoples inhabiting the British Isles over 4,600 years ago.
The 14,000-pound, 16-foot bluestone lies mostly underground at the center of the sprawling rock complex in Wiltshire in southwest England (see virtual tour). For a century, researchers believed the rock was mined from nearby Wales, but research in October cast doubt on that theory. By using a global rock formation database, the researchers matched the Altar Stone to the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland (how they did it).
The monument was erected prior to the invention of the wheel, leading scholars to speculate the Altar Stone may have been transported by sea. Watch more here.
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
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> Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists signs deal with AI company Narrativ that will allow actors to license a digital replica of their voice for advertisements (More)
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> Wally Amos, founder and iconic spokesperson of Famous Amos cookies, dies at age 88 (More)
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> Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy, the No. 10 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, to miss regular season due to a knee injury (More) | PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs kick off today (More)
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> Humans undergo rapid biological changes around ages 44 and 60, study finds; thousands of molecules and microbes increase or decrease the most around those periods, causing changes to cardiovascular health and immune function (More)
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> South African lungfish species sets record for world's largest animal genome to be sequenced, with 90 billion base pairs of DNA, 30 times as many as the human genome (More)
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> Mouse study shows experiencing stress sends messages from the brain to the gut, reducing beneficial bacteria responsible for preventing inflammation (More)
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> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.4%, Dow +0.6%, Nasdaq +0.0%) after consumer price index rose 2.9% year-over-year in July, the lowest since 2021 (More) | Weekly mortgage applications for US home purchases hit highest level in 19 months; refinance applications hit highest level since May 2022 (More)
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> Candy giant Mars to acquire snack maker Kellanova in $36B all-cash deal; Mars owns brands like M&Ms and Snickers, while Kellanova owns brands like Pringles and Cheez-Its (More)
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> Activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management launches proxy fight at Southwest Airlines, seeks to replace 10 of 15 board directors (More) | Victoria's Secret taps CEO Hillary Super of competitor Savage X Fenty as its next chief (More)
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> World Health Organization declares a global health emergency over the spread of an especially virulent strain of mpox, formerly monkeypox, in Africa (More) | See previous write-up (More)
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> Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces he will not seek reelection next month amid decade-low approval ratings; announcement follows a series of corruption scandals plaguing the country's ruling party (More)
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> Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigns amid ongoing fallout over the handling of Israel-Hamas war protests on campus (More) | US judge rules UCLA must ensure Jewish students can access classes and campus amid protests (More)
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> The LockBit Hunt
TechCrunch | Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai. A cybersecurity analyst tracked down the head of a ransomware gang by infiltrating the group—then doxing its leader. (Read)
> Better Call Barry
Baltimore Magazine | Ron Cassie. Personal injury lawyer Barry Glazer is a local celebrity in Baltimore, famous for his flashy TV commercials and shocking catchphrase. Meet the man behind the larger-than-life persona. (Read)
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