Category: World
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Hurricane Lowell’s centre is forecast to pass west of the main Hawaiian islands, and Kauai is still under a tropical storm warning with up to 14 inches of rain possible. Why the category number tells you little about what a storm does to a mountainous island — and why islands prepare differently.
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Petrol at $4.14 a gallon is a Labor Day record in cash terms. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 was the equivalent of $5.63, and 2005 and 2022 were also higher. Which measure is right depends on what you are trying to know — and both sides of politics can use the same number.
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A federal judge called it a cruel bait-and-switch, said the timing was bizarre — and ruled for the Pentagon anyway. Three Stars and Stripes journalists can be fired while their lawsuit proceeds, because speech made as part of official duties is not protected the way private speech is.
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A campaign group, not a public authority, is prosecuting alleged animal welfare offences at a Lincolnshire pig farm. A court deadline falls this week. Nobody has been found guilty of anything, and the case is as much a test of who enforces animal welfare law in England as of what happened on one farm.
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An aircraft touches down at up to 160 miles per hour with a fixed distance in which to stop. Water, wind, weight and a slightly long touchdown each eat into the margin. Why runway overruns almost never have a single cause, and what is meant to be waiting at the end of the pavement.
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Regular petrol averaged $4.14 a gallon over the Labor Day weekend and diesel hit a record $5.85. Analysts point to the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz. The reserve is emptier than at any time since the early 1980s, and none of the available policy levers reach the actual cause.
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A Boeing 767 freighter operating for Amazon left Runway 30 at Miami International Airport on Sunday, struck vehicles on a road outside the perimeter and caught fire. Five people were killed. Officials have not yet said whether the dead were aboard the aircraft or on the ground.
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US forces struck three Iranian crude carriers after the IRGC fired ballistic missiles at two American warships. Iran says it damaged a carrier and a destroyer; that is unconfirmed. What each side claims, what can be verified, and why the war has moved onto the water.
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Nigeria’s national generation fell to 1,132 megawatts on the night of 22 August, from more than 4,000 earlier that day, with twelve plants showing zero output. No cause was given. The country’s real electricity cost does not appear in the tariff at all — it appears in the generators people have to buy.
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Fighting broke out again in Baidoa on 3 September between Somali federal forces and militias loyal to the removed president of South West State. A hospital reported 71 wounded and one civilian killed. The dispute is about who runs a regional government — and al-Shabaab is the party gaining from it.