College board pushes its tests that many will fail
For the past two decades, the College Board has moved to expand the number of high school students taking Advanced Placement courses and tests — in part by pitching the program to low-income students and the schools that serve them. Left out, however, is a sobering statistic: Some 60% of AP exams taken by such students this year scored too low for college credit. But as revenue from its other signature product, the SAT, plummeted as more colleges dropped testing requirements for admissions, expanding AP’s reach has helped the College Board generate almost $500 million in revenue in 2022.
SpaceX makes progress in 2nd launch of giant Moon and Mars rocket
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s spaceflight company, launched its Starship rocket from the coast of South Texas on Saturday, a mammoth vehicle that could alter the future of space transportation and help NASA return astronauts to the moon. Saturday’s flight of Starship, a powerful vehicle designed to carry NASA astronauts to the moon, was not a complete success. SpaceX did not achieve the test launch’s ultimate objective — a partial trip around the world ending in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. But the test flight, the vehicle’s second, did show that the company had fixed key issues that arose during the earlier test operation in April.
Nikki Haley says she would have signed six-week abortion ban as governor
Former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has tried to carve a more moderate path on the contentious issue of abortion than many of her rivals for the Republican nomination for president. But Friday, speaking to conservative Christians in Iowa, Haley was challenged on whether she would have signed a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy had it been passed by the Legislature when she served as governor of South Carolina. “Yes, whatever the people decide,” Haley replied. The gesture of support for a ban at six weeks after conception, when many women don’t yet know they are pregnant, could pose a political risk.
Pardon recipients seek to sell Trump on his own sentencing law
In early July, former President Donald Trump received a somewhat unlikely visitor at his golf club and estate in Bedminster, New Jersey. Michael Harris, the founder of Death Row Records, who had been imprisoned for drug trafficking and attempted murder, came to meet privately with the man who had pardoned him. Harris is the type of high-profile Black celebrity that some Trump associates hope will next year highlight the former president’s signature criminal justice reform law, the First Step Act, as they think highlighting the law — which Trump later soured on — could help increase support among Black voters and potentially swing the election.
Ohio priest who sexually abused boys is sentenced to life in prison
An Ohio priest who coerced three boys into engaging in sexual acts as children and abused their addiction to opioids as teenagers and adults, paying them money that funded their drug habits in exchange for sex, was sentenced to life in prison Friday, the Justice Department said. The priest, Michael Zacharias, 56, was found guilty in May of five counts of sex trafficking by a federal jury in Toledo, Ohio. Federal prosecutors said Zacharias had targeted financially vulnerable boys without fathers or steady lives at home.
With U.S. aid in doubt, Europe seeks to fill weapons gap for Ukraine
Faced with growing American reluctance to send more military aid to Ukraine, European leaders are moving to fill the gap, vowing new support for Ukraine as it battles Russia in a war in Europe’s backyard. Several countries — including Germany, Britain and Norway — are increasing production of weapons, especially the artillery ammunition that Ukraine so badly needs. Germany announced a week ago that it planned to double its support to $8.5 billion in 2024 and would deliver more crucial air defense systems by the end of this year. And European Union states are gearing up to train an additional 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers, bringing the total so far to 40,000.
Colombia to sterilize some of Pablo Escobar’s hippos
When Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993, most of the animals he had imported as pets — zebras, giraffes, kangaroos and rhinoceroses — died or were transferred to zoos. But not his four hippopotamuses. They thrived. Perhaps too well. Officials estimate that about 170 hippos, descended from Escobar’s herd, roam Colombia, and the population could grow to 1,000 by 2035, posing a serious threat to the country’s ecosystem. This month, Colombian officials announced a plan to sterilize some, possibly euthanize others and relocate some to sanctuaries in other countries. On Friday, an official said that four hippos — two adult females and two juvenile males — had already been surgically sterilized.
French senator accused of drugging fellow lawmaker
A French senator is under investigation on accusations he spiked the drink of a fellow lawmaker with drugs this past week with an intent to sexually assault her, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Saturday. Sen. Joël Guerriau, 66, a centrist for the Loire-Atlantique region, denies the charges. He is accused of trying to drug Sandrine Josso, 48, who belongs to a different centrist party in the National Assembly and who represents the same area as Guerriau. The prosecutor’s office was investigating Guerriau on charges of using and possessing illegal drugs and of giving someone a mind-altering substance without their consent “in order to commit rape or sexual assault against them.”
Fan dies at Taylor Swift concert in Rio’s extreme heat
One fan died and many others fainted at Taylor Swift’s concert Friday in Rio de Janeiro, where temperatures felt like nearly 140 degrees Fahrenheit, a record for the city, and fans said they struggled to get water. Ana Clara Benevides, 23, lost consciousness at the concert and later was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest after being taken to the hospital, according to city officials and the Brazilian company organizing the show, Time for Fun. Hours before she was set to take the stage for her Saturday night concert, Swift announced on social media that the show was being postponed because of the extreme temperatures in Rio.
Anxiety over bedbugs is crawling across Asia
It’s a good time to be a professional bug killer in Asia. Fears of major bedbug outbreaks have been palpable across the Asia-Pacific region for weeks, amplified by news media coverage of an outbreak in France earlier this year and a smaller, more recent one in South Korea. Those cases, along with a rise in post-pandemic travel, have stoked fears that airline passengers will inadvertently seed outbreaks in other places. In Hong Kong, recent reports of a bedbug sighting on an airport train led to several days of feverish news coverage. In Seoul, South Korea, workers in white hazmat suits have fanned out across an airport looking for possible infestations.
By wire sources