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Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll in 2019 when he denied sexually assaulting the writer in 1996, a judge ruled. 

BACKGROUND: In a separate case, a jury in May held the former President liable for defaming her in 2022, as well as for sexually abusing (but not raping) her. 

WHAT'S NEXT: A trial in January will decide how much Trump owes for the 2019 comments on top of the $5 million awarded Carroll in May. Trump has appealed the May verdict and hopes to block the second trial, arguing that he is immune because he made the comments when he was president.

Federal prosecutors will ask a grand jury to indict Hunter Biden this month for owning a gun while still using illegal drugs. Lawyers for Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, said prosecutors are bound by a plea deal they made with him in July. That deal gave Biden two years' probation, but a judge rejected it.

The president's son is the subject of "a sprawling, 5-year investigation."

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande to a riverbank on the U.S. side, a federal judge ruled. The Biden administration said the barrier, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott placed in July, threatens the safety of those who try to cross from Mexico. U.S. District Judge David Ezra agreed, giving Texas until Sept. 15 to move the barrier made of wrecking ball-sized buoys interspersed with saw blades.

Spanish soccer player Jenni Hermoso accused her soccer federation's president of sexual assault. Luis Rubiales, currently suspended, kissed Hermoso on the lips without her consent after Spain won the World Cup last month. Prosecutors said Rubiales could be fined or imprisoned up to four years if convicted.

Hermoso says she "felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out-of-place act without any consent on my part."

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Some school districts are cutting after-school tutoring, expanded summer school and other programs funded by $190 billion in pandemic education aid that will run out September 2024. While the money is going away, the need for extra help is not. A study of third through eighth graders found that the average student was four months behind in reading and even more in math compared with students before the pandemic. 

Tourism businesses that survived the pandemic reaped some of the pent-up demand for vacations. But now many businesses are losing customers as extreme weather events get worse and happen more often. Meanwhile, resorts and attractions in temperate regions like northern Michigan (or even northern Arizona) are seeing a surge in visitors fleeing triple-digit heat waves.

Forget your phone or your smart speaker: The most invasive device you own is your vehicle, according to a new study from the Mozilla Foundation. One technology and human rights researcher called them "wiretaps on wheels," and it makes sense: Modern cars have microphones, cameras, GPS trackers — and most of the companies don't let us opt out of them selling the data they collect.

How much are advertisers paying to learn that we sing off key?

We always suspected.

(Giphy)

The U.S. Open is blowing cold air onto courts and partially closed the roof on one arena to protect players and spectators from the heat. While temperatures in New York City have reached the mid-90s this week, the tournament's hard blue courts absorb heat and raise the temperatures for players by as much as 15 degrees. During a nearly three-hour match on Wednesday, 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev looked to a camera and said a "player [is] gonna die" someday.

The U.S. Open uses about 100,000 Tennis Balls in just two weeks, a fraction of 330 million made each year. Nearly all of them will be thrown away when they're spent, because tennis balls can't be easily recycled. Until global tennis officials and ball makers come up with something that can be, some nonprofits are finding ways to turn them into mulch, furniture and even tennis court surfaces.

That's what they look like.

(Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Alaska crab fishermen are bracing themselves for officials to close the Bering Sea to most or all fishing for the third straight year as crab populations continue to plummet. Researchers think that warming ocean waters may be bringing in more predators, helping spread disease or accelerating crabs' metabolism so much that they can't catch enough prey to stay alive.

Ecological collapse makes us crabby.

A couple weeks ago, we mentioned that a zoo in Tennessee was holding a vote to name its new baby giraffe, the first in a half century born without spots. The votes have been tallied, and her name is appropriately unique.

Someone took a screenshot of one of my tweets and emailed it to my work demanding they fire me. It eventually ended up on the CEO's desk. After long discussion with me (the CEO), I chose to not fire myself.

—@mhdksafa

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