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Pre-debate brickbats, Vietnam typhoon and 'Terrorgram' arrests

 
Today's politics story

Trump ups threatening rhetoric before debate

What happened
Vice President Kamala Harris has been keeping a low profile in Pittsburgh while preparing for Tuesday's debate. Donald Trump, on social media and in speeches, has "escalated his vows to use the raw power of the state to impose and maintain control and to intimidate and punish anyone he perceives as working against him," The New York Times said.

Who said what
Over the weekend, Trump's rhetoric "turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who 'cheats' in the election," The Associated Press said, repeating his false claims that he won in 2020 but was robbed of a second term by fraud. He also urged local police to "watch for the voter fraud," an "apparent attempt to enlist law enforcement that would be legally dubious."

Trump "believes anyone who breaks the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including criminals who engage in election fraud," campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. Strikingly, Trump himself "has been convicted of 34 felonies" in New York and "charged in both federal and state court with conspiring to fraudulently alter the outcome of the 2020 election," the Times said. And while some of his recent comments "could be discounted as his usual hyperbolic, norm-busting rhetoric, his record in office suggests" they "cannot be treated as unserious or figurative."

What next?
Journalists aren't going to suddenly start calling Trump an "emotionally unstable" would-be autocrat who's "running because he wants to stay out of prison, get revenge on his enemies, exercise untrammeled power and gain access to even more money," Tom Nichols said at The Atlantic. "But if Trump's comments this weekend are not the first questions at the debate — if his threat to democracy is not the only question — then there is no point in debates at all."

 
 
Today's international story

Typhoon Yagi leaves dozens dead in Vietnam

What happened
A powerful typhoon has left at least 58 people dead and hundreds missing in Vietnam. Rains and heavy flooding from Typhoon Yagi triggered landslides and yesterday's collapse of the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province. A bus carrying nearly two dozen people was swept into a stream following a landslide in Cao Bang province. 

Who said what
Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday with wind speeds of more than 120 miles per hour and gusts up to 155 mph — the "equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane," The Washington Post said. Yagi is "the worst typhoon in probably three decades in Vietnam," Thanh Vu of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council told the Post. "For the northern part of Vietnam, we've never seen this."

More than 700 people have been reported injured from the storm and "at least 46,500 homes were damaged," along with "hundreds of thousands of acres of crops," The New York Times said. Yagi has cut power to "millions of households and companies" and "brought economic activity in many industrial hubs to a halt," Reuters said. 

What next?
Super typhoons like Yagi are "getting stronger due to climate change," as warmer oceans "provide more energy to fuel the storms," Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, told The Associated Press. 

 
 
Today's Crime Story

DOJ indicts 2 in 'Terrorgram' race war plot

What happened
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment yesterday against two Americans it accused of running an online "transnational terrorist group" dedicated to fostering attacks on public officials and infrastructure "in the name of violent white supremacist ideology," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. The indictment identified Dallas Humber, 34, and Matthew Allison, 37, as leaders of the "Terrorgram Collective," a network of channels and group chats on Telegram.

Who said what
Humber and Allison were arrested Friday in California and Idaho, respectively, on 15 counts including soliciting murder and providing material support to terrorists. The DOJ said the pair took over Terrorgram in 2022 and urged followers to kill certain "high value targets," including a U.S. senator and a federal judge. The alleged goal of the violence was to ignite a "race war" and bring about a "white ethnostate." The hit list included names, addresses and photos, the indictment said, and the pair distributed detailed instructions on how to carry out a terrorist attack, including how to make bombs.

"These are not mere words," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said. "Terrorgram users have carried out, or planned, attacks," including the stabbing of five people in Turkey last month, an attempt to destroy an electrical substation in New Jersey in July and a 2022 fatal shooting outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia.

What next?
Humber pleaded not guilty on Monday and Allison is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

 
 

It's not all bad

Researchers in Switzerland have developed a method to use the husk and flesh of cocoa bean pods to create a sugary syrup, potentially revolutionizing chocolate production. The innovation could eliminate the need for adding sugar and reduce waste, as most of the cacao pod is traditionally discarded, said Kim Mishra from Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology. Poverty is endemic among cocoa farmers, and with more of the pod being used, farmers would also receive a higher income.

 
 
Under the radar

Russian President Vladimir Putin has two secret sons he keeps hidden from sight, according to an online investigation project. The boys, Ivan, 9, and Vladimir Jr., 5, live mostly in isolation, with "companies owned by friends of the Russian leader" taking care of their needs, said the Dossier Center, which "tracks the criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin," according to its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 

The boys' mother is said to be former Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, although both she and Putin have denied any romantic ties for more than a decade. Dossier says their relationship began "as early as 2008." 

The "pampered boys" are being "groomed" to succeed Putin, The Sun said, and are being taught English as well as German. Putin, who has publicly acknowledged having daughters with his ex-wife, Lyudmila, keeps a "tight grip" on information about his personal life, said The Telegraph. The boys reportedly have not just private tutors but also personal trainers, and Ivan has competed in several artistic gymnastics competitions, The Moscow Times said, adding that his results were "not promising." 

Khodorkovsky — a "former oligarch" jailed for accusing Russian officials of corruption, according to The Times — founded the Dossier Center in November 2017, almost four years after he was released from prison. Its aim, Khodorkovsky's website says, is to uncover the "criminal organization that operates from within the Kremlin" and bring it to justice.

 
 
On this day

September 10, 2008

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator, became operational near Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC, often described as one of the most complex science experiments ever, took 10,000 scientists a decade to build and has been upgraded several times. It remains a key tool for analyzing protons.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

It is "fight night" in Philadelphia as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off for their "big debate," the Philadelphia Daily News says on Tuesday's front page. "Harris, Trump look to seize moment," USA Today says, though their only scheduled "faceoff is unlikely to upend race." The candidates "face different tests in crucible of TV debate," The New York Times says: Trump now faces the question, "Too old?" while "Harris aims to offer change while not forsaking Biden." The Tampa Bay Times has a front-page pre-debate "fact-checks of Trump, Harris talking points." Most newspapers remember James Earl Jones, the "award-winning" actor and "voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa" who died at age 93, the New York Daily News says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Bring Your Child to Work fail

An Austrian neurosurgeon is under criminal investigation for allegedly allowing her 13-year-old daughter to drill a hole in a patient's skull during an operation. The patient, a 33-year-old man, was flown to University Hospital Graz in January after suffering severe head injuries. The neurosurgeon allegedly allowed her daughter to "actively participate" in the emergency procedure, including "drilling the patient's skull," The Telegraph said. Although the surgery was a success, an anonymous complaint led to an investigation by the Graz public prosecutor.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Scott Olson / Getty Images; Stringer / AFP via Getty Images; Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images