📌 Debate Is On, Meteor Shower, More

Former President Trump said he agreed to three debates on three networks against his new opponent, Vice President Harris.

ABC said he and Harris had agreed to a debate on Sept. 10. and Trump said he had proposed debates with Fox News on Sept. 4 and NBC on Sept. 25.

Harris said, “I hear that Donald Trump has finally committed to debating me on September 10. I look forward to it.” She did not mention the other two dates.

Trump had in recent weeks increasingly hedged about debating Harris, initially saying he would “absolutely” square off with the vice president but later saying he could think of reasons not to.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom helped clear a homeless encampment in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Alongside workers under a freeway, where over 1,400 encampments have been removed since January, Newsom said he would take away state funding from state counties that do not do more to curb homelessness.

Newsom issued an executive order on July 25 directing state agencies and departments to develop “clear policies” to address California’s thousands of homeless encampments.

“We’re going to double down. We have thousands of additional encampments not attended to throughout the region, not just here in Los Angeles County,” Newsom told reporters.

“If local government is not interested, we’re fine. We’ll redirect the money to parts of the state, cities, and counties that are.” The governor said he attended the cleanup for 40 million “fed-up Californians.”

Covid was the 10th leading cause of death in the US in 2023, down from 4th in 2022, researchers said.

Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries—a category of deaths that has surged in recent years mainly due to drug overdoses—remain the three leading causes of death. Stroke, which had ranked 5th before the pandemic, climbed to 4th.

Suicide remained in 11th place for 2023, said researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, 49,303 suicide deaths were reported, down slightly from 2022.

Covid was blamed as the “underlying” primary cause for 49,928 deaths in 2023—less than a third of the 186,552 deaths primarily blamed on Covid in 2022.

When including deaths where Covid was listed as "contributing" to another cause of death, the CDC says at least 76,446 deaths last year were "associated" with the virus.

The best-known meteor shower, the Perseids, should reach its peak late Sunday night into early Monday morning, Aug. 11–12.

For those intent on viewing the shower, an astronomist suggests finding “a spot with a wide-open sky view” and, if you can, “with no late-night lights nearby.” He said even city dwellers in moderate light pollution can catch the brightest of the Perseids.

The direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest, “probably straight up," he said. “Meteors should flash across all parts of the sky about one every minute or two,” he said. Other “sporadic” meteors occur once every 5 or 10 minutes.

The Perseids are the ionization trails made by little bits of debris from comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle, streaking into Earth's upper atmosphere at 37 miles per second.

The Perseids were especially dramatic in the early-to-mid 1990s surrounding Swift-Tuttle's most recent return in December 1992. The comet isn't due back until August 2126.

It was medal-mania Thursday at the Stade de France for Team USA, taking home three gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

Another big performance by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the 400-meter hurdles record. She had company on the podium in silver-medalist Anna Cockrell.

Tara Davis-Woodhall, who won the long jump competition, recounted talking about her win with McLaughlin-Levrone after the event. “I was like, ‘You did it.’ And she was like, ‘YOU did it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I did it.’ Is this real? Am I dreaming?”

Noah Lyles revealed he tested positive for COVID-19 and still captured bronze in the 200 meters. “It definitely affected my performance. I’m more proud of myself more than anything, coming out here to get a bronze with Covid.”

Grant Holloway, dominant in the 110-meter hurdles, winning three straight world titles, finally won his elusive Olympic gold. “Today, it was just my day,” he said.

Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of World War II at a ceremony today.

The ceremony was eclipsed by the absence of the American ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city's refusal to invite Israel.

Mayor Shiro Suzuk said his decision was not political. He said he feared that possible “unforeseeable situations,” such as violent protests over the war in Gaza, might disrupt the ceremony.

US Ambassador Rahm Emanuel disagreed, saying it was a political decision, “not one based on security, given the prime minister's attendance.”

Emanuel said excluding Israel drew "a moral equivalency between Russia and Israel, one country that invaded versus one country that was a victim of invasion.”

Suzuk, in a speech at Nagasaki Peace Park, warned that the world faces “a critical situation” because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and accelerating conflicts in the Middle East.

The atomic bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000.

Dubbed the “black belt of angling,” Lucy Moore, 12, won the Master Angler Award after a year of chasing catches with her dad.

Moore has been interested in fishing since age 3 when she earned the nickname the “Blue Gill Queen,” owing to an early childhood knack for catching the species.

The Master Angler Award, part of the FishMaryland program, celebrates the freshwater diversity of Maryland’s rivers, streams and lakes. To earn it, trophy-size fish of 10 species must be caught.

One fishing expert described the Master Angler Award as the “black belt” of fishing. He said Moore is “outfishing many adults that are older and more experienced.”

Moore is an official advocate at Kids Can Fish, a non-profit founded by another young girl who believed it should be encouraged more among children.