Monday, September 14 top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. It is Monday, September 14. Here are today’s top news briefs.
Hurricane Sally
There is another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, a Category 1 storm named Sally. It has 90 mph wind speeds. It is forecast to make landfall Tuesday evening in the range from New Orleans to Pensacola. A major concern is storm surge and the hurricane’s slow movement, which may result in flooding rainfall.
Sign of life on Venus
Scientists say there may be life on Venus because they have detected a specific chemical called phosphine (PH3) that, on Earth, is produced by bacteria. Scientists said they have not found life (bacteria) itself, but they can’t explain another reason why there would be phosphine. The planet is very hot, but it has a thick atmosphere that could sustain life. How can we find more? We’ll have to send robots to our neighbor Venus. Earth is between Venus and Mars.
Two LA police officers shot
On Saturday evening in Compton, California, two police officers were shot in the head by a gunman who was seen in a surveillance video walking up to a police SUV and firing several times through a rolled-down window. The suspect ran away and there is a manhunt for him.
Both officers were deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. One was a 31-year-old woman and another was a 24-year-old man. Both were shot multiple times and are in a hospital. Both are expected to recover.
There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
Wildfires kill at least 35, Trump visits
The death toll from the wildfires in western U.S. states have gone up to 35. 24 died in California, ten died in Oregon, and one died in Washington.
The sky in many western states are orange. A scientist told USAToday that the color is from the sun’s reflection of the smoke.
President Donald Trump visited California today. Trump said the state needs to do a better job of cleaning up natural debris on the forest floors, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the fires were a result of climate change and pointed out that the federal government owns and manages 57% of the forests in the state, while the state owns 3%.
A California official told Trump that we had very high temperatures this summer. Trump said it would be cooler. The official said “I wish science agreed with you.” Trump said, “I don’t think science knows.”
Joe Biden, in a speech today from Delaware, called Trump a “climate arsonist.”
Deputy fired for using excessive force
In Clayton County, Georgia, a sheriff’s deputy was fired after he was filmed punching a Black man named Roderick Walker during an arrest on Friday night. CBS News explained that deputies pulled over a car for having a broken taillight. Walker was in the rear seat with his girlfriend, a baby girl, and a stepson. Deputies asked him for his ID and he asked why he had to show his ID since he was a passenger. It escalated from there and that’s where videos show two deputies on top of Walker, with one deputy punching him in the face. Attorneys for Walker released an image of him with his left eye swollen shut. The county sheriff said the deputy was fired for excessive use of force.
Walker is still in jail because he had outstanding warrants, one of them felony cruelty to children. His attorneys said there should be criminal charges against the deputies and that he is in jail because he was illegally arrested, not because of anything he did that time or in the past.
Criticism and controversy over Netflix’s “Cuties”
Netflix is being criticized by many for releasing a film called “Cuties,” which is a French film that has scenes of a group of girls who twerk while wearing revealing outfits as a part of a story about a Senegalese immigrant girl who is trying to find her place in Paris.
The creators of the film said it is aimed to show the negative effects of sexualizing young girls, but critics said the film does just that. It’s sparked a controversy.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the film should be banned and for the Department of Justice to investigate it for child pornography. Several other lawmakers have criticized the film.
The director’s name is Maïmouna Doucouré. She said the film is loosely based on her own life and that she got the idea for the film after seeing a real-life group of 11-year-old girls doing a sensual dance and seeing the dangers in it. After she did interviews, she released the film.
Lancaster man with knife shot and killed by police
In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, there were protests and property damage after a 27-year-old man was shot and killed by a police officer on Sunday night. The man’s name was Ricardo Munoz. A body camera video shows Munoz charging at the officer with a knife in his right hand before he was shot in the chest. He fell immediately and died. Police said they were called to the scene after Munoz’s sister called 911 because Munoz was acting aggressive and tried to break into his mother’s home. The sister said he had serious mental illnesses and made a call to police’s non-emergency number to try and get him help. Munoz was supposed to appear on trial next month for a stabbing in 2019.
Digging graves as punishment for not wearing masks
I read an article that said in East Java, Indonesia, local authorities have come up with a penalty for those who don’t wear face masks in public — they have to dig graves for people who died from the coronavirus.
A official said there are not enough gravediggers so he came up with the idea. The gravediggers work in pairs — one person digs the dirt while another places a wooden board inside of the grave to support the body. They can only dig and they do not work with the bodies. That’s a unique penalty.
There have been over 220,000 cases of coronavirus in Indonesia. Almost 9,000 have died while 158,000 people have recovered.
That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!