DeSantis suspends second elected prosecutor in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Monique Worrell, the top state prosecutor in Orlando, on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. It is the second time that DeSantis, a Republican running for president, has taken the drastic and exceedingly rare step of removing an elected state attorney. Both have been Democrats. The governor appointed Andrew Bain, a judge from the same judicial circuit, to take Worrell’s place. Worrell, who was elected in 2020 with 66% of the vote, said she would seek reelection to the post next year.
Special counsel obtained search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account
Prosecutors working for Jack Smith, the special counsel who has twice brought indictments against former President Donald Trump, obtained a search warrant early this year for Trump’s long-dormant Twitter account as part of their inquiry into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, according to court papers unsealed Wednesday. The warrant was signed by a federal judge in Washington in January. The papers indicate that prosecutors received permission not to tell Trump for months that they had obtained the warrant for his account, underscoring how much of the special counsel’s work may have taken place out of public view. The court papers did not reveal what prosecutors were looking for in Trump’s account.
Kansas harvest scorched, soaked and scrambled by war
As the war between Ukraine and Russia scrambles the global grain market, farmers in Kansas are bringing in the state’s smallest wheat crop in more than half a century. The main culprit is extreme drought. More recently, intense rain has eased the drought, but it came too late for much of Kansas’ winter wheat, which was planted in the fall for harvest in late spring and early summer. And too much rain brings its own challenges: delays and soil too soggy to support the weight of harvesting equipment. The weather extremes have raised long-term climate questions about the future of the Great Plains wheat crop.
A woman was attacked by a snake that fell from the sky. Then a hawk dove in.
On July 25, Peggy Jones and her husband were finishing a day of yard work on their property in Silsbee, Texas. Then, a snake fell from the clear blue sky, wrapping itself around Jones’ right forearm. It lunged at her face, at times striking her glasses. But soon, Jones realized, the snake itself was a victim. A hawk flying overhead had fumbled its dinner, which it swooped down to wrench from Jones’ arm. The hawk snatched, scratched and jabbed at her arm to reclaim its meal, Jones recalled. At the hospital, Peggy Jones was bandaged and given antibiotics. Doctors said her wounds were caused by the hawk’s talons, not a snake bite.
After Russian attack in Ukraine, broken glass and rattled nerves in Romania
His shack on the bank of the Danube River just 200 yards from Ukraine has no running water. Last week, however, Gheorge Puflea’s home became attention-grabbing real estate thanks to its unwanted status as the first property in NATO territory damaged in a Russian attack aimed at Ukraine. The Aug. 2 drone missile assault hit a Ukrainian cargo port across the river, but it was so close that explosion shock waves shattered windows in Plauru, a tiny hamlet with just a dozen tumbledown homes on the Romanian side of the Danube. The attacks were aimed at severing what has been a shipping lifeline provided to Ukraine by river ports.
Dozens of migrants die after boat sinks in Strait of Sicily
Dozens of migrants died after their boat capsized in the Strait of Sicily, with just four rescued, survivors reported Wednesday, as yet another perilous attempt to cross the Mediterranean in a rickety, unsuitable vessel ended in disaster. Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesperson with the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency, said the migrants were from Guinea and the Ivory Coast, and had departed from the Tunisian city of Sfax before being rescued by a commercial boat. They arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, on Wednesday. Survivors told the U.N. migration agency that 41 had drowned out of a total of 45 onboard.
No more coups in West Africa, Nigeria’s leader vowed. Niger called his bluff.
When Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the helm of the West African regional bloc of countries last month, he thundered before his presidential peers that he would show no tolerance for military coups in an area that had faced five in less than three years. Two weeks later, mutinous generals took power in neighboring Niger, prompting Tinubu and the regional bloc to draw a line in the sand: The mutineers in Niger had a week to relinquish power and release the president or face consequences. Now, the deadline has passed, Niger’s president is still held hostage in his residence and Tinubu is facing a backlash in his own country.
Russia destroys drones near Moscow, as attacks far from the front line intensify
Russia shot down two drones near Moscow overnight, officials said Wednesday, the 12th time in the past three weeks they have reported intercepting such assaults in the capital. The attacks suggest the effort to push Russia’s war deep into its own territory was picking up pace amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Ukrainian officials did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, but in the past they have made clear that the war’s devastation would not be limited to Ukrainian soil. The attacks came the same day that an explosion ripped through a warehouse outside Moscow, killing one person and injuring at least 60 others, according to a Telegram post by local officials.
Presidential candidate in Ecuador is shot dead during rally
A presidential candidate in Ecuador was killed Wednesday evening when gunfire burst through a political rally at a local high school in the capital, Quito, just days before an election that has centered around the country’s increasingly dire security situation. The death of Fernando Villavicencio was confirmed by President Guillermo Lasso. Villavicencio, 59, was a former journalist who was among the most outspoken candidates on the link between organized crime and government officials. His death provoked immediate alarm in Ecuador, a once relatively safe nation that has been consumed by violence related to narcotrafficking.
By wire sources