In case you missed ’em—here are some of the stories making headlines this week.
Musk Details Twitter Plans Ahead of Election Day
Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk issued a statement explaining how the social media site would handle election integrity and content moderation, including hate and harassment, heading toward Election Day.
In a series of tweets to his 113 million followers, Musk said he was looking into establishing a “content moderation council,” adding, “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.”
Musk went onto explain that the moderation council would include “representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence.”
He also said he has spoken with leaders at several civil organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Asian American Foundation and the NAACP.
Police: Cameras at Pelosi Home Not “Actively Monitored”
U.S. Capitol Police said Wednesday that their security cameras for the San Francisco residence of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were not actively being monitored on Friday, when her husband was the victim of a violent break-in that left him with a fractured skull.
Capitol Police said in a statement that the cameras “are used to actively monitor the speaker’s San Francisco residence around the clock when she is there” but acknowledged that when she’s in DC with her security detail, which was the case Friday, they are not.
On Friday, a private security guard noticed a man dressed in all black and walking with a backpack near the Pelosis’ California home around 2 a.m. Authorities say that man was 42-year-old David DePape, who had zip ties, a rope and hammer in the backpack, which he planned to use to kidnap and torture Speaker Pelosi.
But Paul Pelosi was the only person home at the time. Police say DePape bludgeoned his skull with a hammer.
Law enforcement sources further told The Los Angeles Times a police cruiser that was kept parked in front of the California home after the January 6, 2021, insurrection had been withdrawn sometime last year.
Fed Chair: Rate Hikes May Slow but Inflation Not Over
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested Wednesday that the Fed may decide in coming months to slow its aggressive interest rate increases, but at the same time he stressed that the fight to curb inflation from its nearly 40-year highs is far from over.
At the end of its latest policy meeting, the Fed announced it would be boosting its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a point for a fourth straight time. The rate now stands at a range of 3.75% to 4%, the highest in 15 years.
It was the central bank’s sixth rate hike this year.
Powell further addressed recession fears following the meeting. He kept the door open to descending to a half-point hike when the Fed next meets in December. And early next year, the central bank could step down even further to a more typical quarter-point increase.
Ukraine Nuke Plant Disconnected
Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station was operating on back-up diesel generators on Thursday after being disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid by Russian shelling, according to the Ukrainian nuclear energy company, Energoatom.
The facility in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest, has 15 days’ worth of fuel to run the generators, Energoatom said. Even while they’re shut down the facility’s six reactors need a constant supply of electricity to keep its nuclear fuel inside cool and prevent disaster.
Zaporizhzhia had provided about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion in February. It has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times since Russian forces took it over soon after the war began.
Court: Beauty Pageant Can Exclude Transgender Contestants
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision Wednesday that the beauty pageant operator Miss United States of America LLC cannot be forced to allow transgender women to compete.
Miss United States of America is a separate pageant from Miss USA and operated by a different company.
In rejecting a lawsuit brought by Oregon-based transgender activist Anita Green, who had asserted the pageant’s policy of only allowing “natural born” women to compete violates an Oregon anti-discrimination law, Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump appointee, wrote, “It is commonly understood that beauty pageants are generally designed to express the ‘ideal vision of American womanhood.'”
VanDyke was joined by Circuit Judge Carlos Bea, a George W. Bush appointee.
The ruling affirmed a 2021 decision by a federal judge dismissing Green’s lawsuit.
