📌 Gun Policy, Long-Range Strikes, More

The mass shooting at a Georgia high school brought the issue of gun violence back to the fore ahead of the presidential election.

A reporter asked former President Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, what his policies were on ending school shootings after this week's massacre, which saw a 14-year-old student charged with four counts of felony murder and his father facing charges including second-degree murder.

"If these psychos are going to go after our kids, we've got to be prepared for it," Vance said. "We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We've got to deal with it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said, “School shootings are not just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children — and we will.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Western allies to allow Kyiv to use long-range weapons for strikes in Russia.

As Washington pledged another $250 million in weaponry for Kyiv, Zelenskiy sought to present the long-range strike options as another way to pressure Russia to end its 2½-year invasion.

He spoke at a high-risk moment for Ukrainian forces, which launched a surprise offensive into Russia's Kursk region even as Russian forces are laser-focused on seizing the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, a key logistics hub for Kyiv's war effort.

“We need to have this long-range capability not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine but also on Russian territory, yes, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Zelenskiy said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pointed to the Kursk offensive as an example of how Ukraine was working to seize the battlefield initiative. "The Kremlin's army of aggression is now on the defensive on its own turf," Austin said.

Austin's remarks appeared more focused on the broader effort to sustain Ukraine's campaign to repel Russian forces from its territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has named China, India and Brazil as potential mediators and repeated his view that an initial deal reached in the first weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, could serve as a basis for talks.

Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level in two months last week.

Jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 227,000 for the week of Aug. 31, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the fewest since the week of July 6, when 223,000 Americans filed claims. It’s also less than the 230,000 new filings that analysts were expecting.

The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 1,750 to 230,000. That’s the lowest four-week average since early June.

During the first four months of 2024, claims averaged a historically low 213,000 a week. But they started rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, indicating high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot US job market.

Traders are forecasting the Fed will cut its benchmark rate by a full percentage point by the end of 2024, which would require it to cut the rate by more than the traditional quarter of a percentage point at one of its meetings in the next few months.

Covid has left almost 2,000 drug manufacturing plants overdue for FDA inspections, raising contamination risks and other issues.

The firms overdue for safety and quality inspections represent about 42% of the 4,700 plants registered to produce drugs for the US, and last underwent FDA review before May 2019. The plants make hundreds of critical medicines, including antibiotics, blood thinners and cancer therapies.

The FDA inspection workforce has 225 vacancies, nearly quadruple pre-Covid levels. Addressing the backlog may require hiring more investigators or extra work for current staff.

House Republicans have submitted numerous inquiries since 2023. A pilot program requested by the Department of Defense offers an alternative approach to monitoring the drug supply. The DoD is working with a private laboratory to evaluate 40 prescription drugs critical to military personnel.

Skin, muscle and connective tissues of living animals can be made temporarily transparent by using a common food dye.

Stanford University researchers discovered that applying the yellow food dye tartrazine (used in Doritos and SunnyD) changed how light bent inside tissue, reducing scattering and enabling red light to penetrate more deeply.

Applying the dye to a mouse's belly made its liver, intestines and bladder visible through the abdominal skin, while smearing it on its scalp enabled the scientists to see blood vessels in its brain. Treated skin regained its color when the dye was washed off.

Among the applications are diagnosing deep-seated tumors. Dr. Guosong Hong, a senior researcher, said doctors could examine a person’s tissue without requiring invasive surgery.

The procedure has not yet been tested on humans, and researchers will need to show it is safe to use, particularly if the dye is injected beneath the skin.

Two loggers were killed by bow and arrow after encroaching on the land of the Mashco Piro indigenous tribe in Peru's Amazon.

FENAMAD, a rights group that defends the rights of Peru's indigenous people, said tensions are on the rise, and more government protective action is needed.

Two other loggers in the attack were missing, and another was injured, FENAMAD said, and rescue efforts were underway. The incident occurred when loggers expanded their passageways into the forest and came into contact with the reclusive tribe.

FENAMAD said the attack happened just 15 miles from a July incident when the Mashco Piro again attacked loggers. The group said they advised the government of the risk of a rise in violence, but nothing has been done.

In January, Peru loosened restrictions on deforestation, which critics dubbed the "anti-forest law." Researchers have since warned of the rise in deforestation for agriculture and how it is making it easier for illicit logging and mining.

Cesar Ipenza, an Amazon-based lawyer who specializes in environmental law in Peru, said there has been “little commitment” by Peru's ministry of culture, responsible for the protection of indigenous peoples.

A cat turned up alive and well at home — four days after his family thought they had cremated him.

Nicci Knight, 43, had been on holiday with the family when neighbors got in touch to say her pet, Ted, had drowned in a garden pond. They showed her the body using a doorbell camera to confirm it was him.

Nicci got her cat sitter Elise Garbutt to arrange for Ted to be picked up by a pet crematorium. Nicci said: “They were holding what I thought was Ted. It was awful. There was nothing we could do about it, and it really affected the holiday.”

The family continued their break. Four days later, Elise went to their home in Newby, North Yorkshire, to feed Ted’s sister, Moosh. On cue, Ted bounded through the cat flap.

“One minute, we were devastated,” Nicci said. “Then we were elated but still sad for the cat which did drown. It was just crazy.”

Nicci paid for the mystery cat to be cremated, and its ashes are in a box marked “Not dead Ted” at their house. It was not wearing a collar, and Nicci is trying to find its owners through social media.