“The Department of Justice is suing six additional states to compel them to share their statewide voter registration lists with the federal government, an unusual request that has drawn pushback from election officials in both parties in the past. DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed federal lawsuits Thursday against election officials in California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Hampshire claiming the states violated federal law by refusing to share voter rolls with the Trump administration. Access to voting rolls varies state by state, but the rolls are generally released to the public and government agencies with voters’ private data — like driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers — redacted. The DOJ’s lawsuits demand the rolls with that data included.” (09/25/25)
“Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a two-week low of $108,865 on Thursday, and while an assortment of entities have shown interest in buying the range lows this week, selling during the Asia trading session has chipped away at the gains accrued through each rebound rally in the US session.” (09/25/25)
“Poland’s Andrzej Bargiel has become the first climber to ski down the world’s highest mountain without supplemental oxygen, his team and expedition organizer said Thursday. Bargiel glided down Mount Everest’s snowy slopes after reaching the summit of the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) mountain on Monday. … Everest has seen a handful of ski descents but never a continuous downhill without additional oxygen. In 2000, Slovenian Davorin Karnicar made the first full ski descent from Everest’s summit to base camp using bottled oxygen. Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, which organized the latest expedition, said Bargiel skied down to Camp 2, spent a night and then reached the base camp on skis the next day.” (09/25/25)
“Denmark says drones flown over its airports appear to be the work of a ‘professional actor’ but there was no evidence of Russian involvement, after such activity disrupted its airspace for the second time in a week. Aalborg airport was forced to shut down for several hours on Wednesday evening after green lights were spotted overhead, while Billund airport also briefly closed. Three smaller airports also reported drone activity. On Monday, Copenhagen airport temporarily closed due to a drone incursion. Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a news conference that the ‘hybrid attack’ was part of a ‘systematic operation,’ but said the devices had been launched locally. … Suspicious drones have also been sighted over Germany and Sweden. All are suspected — but not proven — to be part of Russia’s indirect aggression towards Nato states supporting Ukraine.” (09/25/25)
“An Arizona jury convicted a man Thursday on eight murder charges for carrying out a string of shootings in metro Phoenix over a three-week span in 2017. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Cleophus Cooksey Jr. The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale included Cooksey’s mother and stepfather, a security guard walking to his girlfriend’s apartment and a woman whose body was found in an alley after she was sexually assaulted. Cooksey, described by police as an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but wasn’t acquainted with others, authorities said. He has said the allegations against him were false. The first of the eight killings occurred four months after Cooksey was released from prison on a manslaughter conviction for his participation in a 2001 strip club robbery in which an accomplice was fatally shot.” (09/25/25)
“Amazon.com will pay $2.5 billion in [bribes] and redress to Prime subscribers to settle the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s case alleging the retail juggernaut signed users up for the subscription without their consent and made it difficult to cancel, the FTC said on Thursday. Of that, $1.5 billion will go into a fund to repay eligible Prime subscribers and Amazon will not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the FTC said. … At a trial in Seattle federal court, the FTC accused Amazon of duping tens of millions of Prime customers by signing them up without consent and locking them in with overly complex cancellation methods. The FTC started probing Amazon’s subscription practices during President Donald Trump’s first term and the case was filed during Joe Biden’s presidency.” (09/25/25)
“Microsoft blocked an Israeli military unit from using some of its technology after finding it was used to surveil Palestinians. … Microsoft’s move to revoke access is extraordinary given its decades-long relationship with the Israeli military, which has ramped up its use of US-made AI models and cloud computing services during the war in Gaza.” (09/25/25)
“A Vatican appeals tribunal put an end to prosecutors’ efforts to salvage their claims of massive fraud in the Holy See’s ‘Trial of the Century,’ in which a once-powerful cardinal and nine others were accused of fleecing tens of millions of euros from the church before being acquitted on many charges. The tribunal declared inadmissable the prosecutor’s requests to overturn acquittals on dozens of charges, saying they had failed to provide specific reasons for their appeal within the right timeframe. The court agreed with the defense that prosecutors had cut and pasted the same arguments they used in lower courts to argue for convictions on appeal. … The trial court convicted [the defendants] on some charges, while largely rejecting prosecutors’ overarching thesis of a grand plot to defraud the Holy See and acquitting the defendants of many of the dozens of charges against them.” (09/25/25)
“Early voting started Thursday across Seychelles as concerns over a drug crisis and environmental challenges facing the nation weigh heavily on the minds of many as they choose a new president and parliament. President Wavel Ramkalawan hopes to hold on to the top post in this tourist haven and Africa’s smallest country, both in land area and population. Ballots papers were flown to the outer islands and special polling stations opened for the elderly and essential workers for early voting, said election commission’s chief, Manuella Amesbury. The presidential and parliamentary election will be held on Saturday.” (09/25/25)
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the military’s top officers — hundreds of generals and admirals — to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to two people familiar with the matter. The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, confirmed that Hegseth ‘will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week.’ Across the military, there are 800 generals and admirals of all ranks.” (09/25/25)
