“Tanzania’s governing party expelled the vice president who resigned this week, in an act of retaliation that will further test the credentials of the East African nation as a place of relative peace and stability. A meeting of the Chama cha Mapinduzi, or CCM, party decided to punish Emmanuel Nchimbi for indiscipline, and it nominated Energy Minister Deogratius Ndejembi to become President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s deputy, CCM Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters late Wednesday. The maneuver is believed to be part of the ongoing fallout from Hassan’s contentious election in October, when the security forces were deployed to put down riots over the disqualification of the president’s main rivals. The internet was shut down for days, a move that Hassan later apologized for and promised would never happen again. Hassan’s main rival, Tundu Lissu, is jailed over treason charges he says are politically motivated.” (08/27/26)
“Meta’s decision to agree to an $18bn (£13.3bn) settlement on Wednesday, to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children, came as a surprise. I was expecting weeks of courtroom drama as 29 states – almost two-thirds of America – took on one US tech giant. Technically, the trial was about children’s online privacy. It was based on a US law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which is nearly 30 years old and predates all of today’s biggest social platforms. It centred around Meta’s historic gathering and use of data belonging to children under the age of 13 over a period of several years. In reality, it was a co-ordinated attack on the firm’s online safety credentials. Meta, alongside other social media apps, is under fire around the world as 2026 is shaping up to be a year of reckoning for the entire industry – perhaps our days of doomscrolling are numbered.” (08/27/26)
“A man in Taiwan who used a robot vacuum cleaner to gather evidence of his wife’s affair won a civil lawsuit but was subsequently sentenced to prison for invading her privacy. … he remotely activated the home’s robot vacuum cleaner via its mobile application, planning to use its built-in audio feature to communicate with his wife. However, the live feed captured his wife in an intimate encounter with another man. Seeking evidence for a legal claim, he began recording the footage. … the husband used the footage as evidence to sue his wife and her lover for infringing on his marital rights, seeking NT$2 million (US$68,000) in damages. The court determined that their relationship had surpassed the limits of ordinary friendship and ordered the pair to pay the husband NT$500,000 in compensation. However, this civil victory did not protect the husband from legal repercussions regarding how the evidence was obtained.” (08/27/26)
“[T]he state’s Republican nominee for governor detailed a proposal that, according to one public policy think tank, is wholly illegal. In an audio clip released Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, Bobby Charles, a lawyer and former Reagan administration staffer, boasted about his connections to the Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, a key figure in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation. ‘Here’s my secret. I have a friend named Tom Homan,’ said Charles, drawing applause from the GOP voters. ‘I’m going to ask Tom … three or four weeks before the election, maybe three, I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths.’ Charles was referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Marshals, both armed federal law enforcement officers whose presence at polling sites to intimidate voters would be against the law, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.” (08/27/26)
“The U.S. Army is moving forward with plans to bring nuclear power to five military installations as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to strengthen the military’s energy security and reduce its reliance on potentially vulnerable power grids. The Army announced Wednesday that its Janus Program selected five nuclear energy companies for awards of up to a combined $2.2 billion to own, build and operate nuclear microreactors at bases in North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia and New York. … Combined with expected private-sector investment, the Army said it expects more than 20 nuclear microreactors to eventually be built and operated across Department of War installations.” (08/27/26)
“Florida is becoming the first state to impose sweeping new limits on how welfare cash can be spent, blocking recipients from using cash-assistance benefits loaded onto EBT cards for purchases like tattoos, theme park tickets, video games, vaping products and other items not generally considered ‘basic needs’ under a plan the Trump administration is urging other states to emulate. Florida’s cash-assistance program, known as Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA), is funded through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. It is separate from SNAP, the food-assistance program, though families may receive both types of benefits through separate balances on the same EBT card. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) determined Florida’s updated TANF plan to be complete Thursday in a letter sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis and obtained by Fox News Digital.” (08/27/26)
“President Donald Trump said Thursday he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as ‘Lake America’ in the United States as he escalates his trade war with Canada. The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.” (08/27/26)_
“Rescue teams searched on Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border after a catastrophic and deadly torrent of floods and mud swept through several communities a day earlier following a glacier collapse. The disaster left at least 168 people dead and more than 1,300 missing, including foreigners and pilgrims, and displaced hundreds of people across the Himalayan region. Videos of the tragedy showed the flood swallowing up people as they tried to escape, and destroying buildings and bridges. On Thursday, drone footage from Nepal showed the scale of the destruction.” (08/27/26)
“Georgia prison officials plan to [kill] a man next month who was convicted of fatally shooting two real estate agents in Atlanta’s suburbs more than two decades ago. Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown. He is set to receive a lethal injection at the state prison near Jackson at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16, according to the Department of Corrections. Humphreys would be the first person [killed by state employees in this particular way] in Georgia this year. The death penalty in the state has largely been tied up in litigation over an agreement related to the coronavirus pandemic that defense lawyers contend temporarily shields many death row residents from execution. The last [killing of this type by state employees] in the state was in March 2024.” (08/27/26)
“A divided federal appeals court has ruled that Rep. LaMonica McIver is not immune from prosecution on charges stemming from a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside a federal [concentration camp] in 2025. The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three federal counts of impeding and interfering with federal immigration officers over alleged conduct on May 9, 2025, as they were attempting to [abduct] Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility. … McIver allegedly placed herself in front of Baraka and wrapped her arms around him to prevent his [abduction].” (08/27/26)
