📌 Big UN Meeting, Adoption Fraud, More

From Sunday, world leaders will descend on the United Nation's New York HQ for the organization's annual signature gathering.

Soaring Middle East tensions, famine conditions in Sudan's civil war and the grinding conflict in Ukraine are among the rancorous issues on the agenda of the presidents and prime ministers attending the General Assembly's high-level week.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insisted this week that the world would be able to "avoid moving to World War Three.” It is unclear what the grand gathering can achieve for the millions mired in conflict and poverty globally.

Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian are due to attend.

“Gaza will obviously be the most prominent of these conflicts in terms of what leaders are saying," said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group. He suggested the set piece diplomatic speeches and posturing would "not actually make a great deal of difference to events on the ground.”

The leaders of China and Russia will be absent as in past years. Still, Britain's Keir Starmer, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be present.

An investigation found 200,000 South Korean children adopted by parents overseas were procured questionably or deceptively.

The AP/PBS investigation was based on interviews with more than 80 adoptees in the US, Australia and six European countries, parents, agency employees, humanitarian workers and government officials. It also drew on over 100 information requests and thousands of pages of documents.

In dozens of cases, children were kidnapped off the streets. Parents claim they were told their newborns were dead or very sick, only to have them shipped away.

Government officials declined to answer questions about past governance. But in a written statement, the Health Ministry acknowledged that skyrocketing adoptions in the 1970s and 1980s were possibly driven by an intent to reduce welfare spending.

South Korea’s adoption program grew from the 1950–53 Korean War, when Americans took in the unwanted biracial children of Korean women and Western soldiers. It expanded to include the children of unwed mothers and poor families.

One adoption worker said agencies did not verify children’s backgrounds and invested “zero effort” in confirming the child was orphaned. Records from 1980–1987 show over 90% of the children sent to the West almost certainly had known relatives.

This year's resurgence of whooping cough cases has accelerated to the fastest pace on record in nearly a decade.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 291 cases for the week ending Sept. 14. New York reported the most cases, with 44 infections. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma reported at least 38 cases each.

This marks the most infections reported to the CDC in a week since 2015. Whooping cough disease, caused by the pertussis bacteria, typically starts around a week after exposure.

Symptoms can last for weeks to months, typically with the disease's infamous "whooping" as patients struggle to breathe after facing a burst of coughs.

Officials in Pennsylvania, which has seen one of the country's most significant pertussis outbreaks this year, say that high school students have fueled many outbreaks. In New York, 40% of cases this year outside New York City have been in teens aged 15–19, according to the state health department.

The resurgence comes as the Food and Drug Administration considers human challenge trials – studies intentionally infecting vaccinated volunteers with the bacteria – hoping to accelerate the development of more effective shots.

House sales in August fell 4.2% annually, three straight months below the 4 million mark.

The National Association of Realtors based its figures on closings — contracts likely signed in late June and July when mortgage rates started coming down but were not as low as they are now.

According to Mortgage News Daily, the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan was slightly over 7% in mid-June and then fell steadily to 6.7% by the end of July.

“The recent development of lower mortgage rates coupled with increasing inventory is a powerful combination that will provide the environment for sales to move higher in future months,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Tight supply is keeping prices high. The median price of an existing home sold in August was $416,700, up 3.1% from the same month in 2023. That is the highest price ever for August.

First-time buyers made up just 26% of August sales, matching the all-time low from November 2021. All-cash sales came in at 26%, down slightly from a year ago but still high historically.

A Kentucky sheriff has been accused of fatally shooting a district judge at a courthouse Thursday afternoon.

Judge Kevin Mullins was in his district office when he was shot. Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines has been detained in the slaying, Kentucky State Police said Thursday night.

Stines, a two-term sheriff, is expected to be charged with first-degree murder, state police said. No motive in the shooting was disclosed.

Investigators are "trying to get answers to what led up to the actual shooting," State Trooper Matt Gayheart said. Mullins, a judge in the 47th Judicial District, was shot multiple times. Stines turned himself in to authorities at the scene, Gayheart said.

The Letcher County Courthouse is in Whitesburg, about 200 miles southeast of Louisville. The small community was shaken by the deadly violence, the trooper said.

Officials in the French Caribbean island of Martinique imposed a 9–5 p.m. curfew to quell violent protests over living costs.

Radio France International reported at least 14 people, including 11 police, have been injured – some by firearms – as social media showed vehicles in flames, gutted buildings and riot police.

The office of Martinique’s France-appointed prefect, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, said the curfew will last until September 23 to protect the population and restore law and order.

French national statistics show marked disparities between the cost of living in mainland France and overseas territories, with Martinique residents paying an estimated 30%–42% more for food. Residents say they struggle to make ends meet.

A California man discovered he mistakenly paid his neighbor's power bill for 18 years.

Ken Wilson, who has lived in the same apartment since 2006, said he recently noticed his Pacific Gas and Electric bill was going up, so he took steps to reduce his energy usage. He reached out to PG&E when his bill failed to go down.

“I thought there was a leak, or someone was stealing my electricity, or the meter was faulty because something wasn't right,” he said.

A utility company employee examined Wilson’s meter and discovered the company charged him for the unit next door instead of his apartment, which may have been happening for the 18 years he lived there.

“We acknowledge an error occurred in this instance, and we are fully committed to rectifying the situation,” PG&E said.