deconstruct

Rightwing PM Giorgia Meloni has demanded councils register only biological parents on birth certificates, leaving partners in legal limbo

Expectant parents could soon have another new option this fall to protect their newborns from RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, the most common cause of hospitalization in American infants, after the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it has widened its approval for Pfizer's Abrysvo vaccine to include expectant mothers.

Pregnant women would receive immunity from the shot during pregnancy then pass that along to their baby before birth, offering protection in the infant's earliest months of life.

The Nice Matin newspaper quoted unnamed insiders as saying that some restaurants in St-Tropez, a favoured summer haunt of celebrities and the international jet set for more than half a century, had taken to checking customers’ names against their database and refusing reservations if a previous visit was not felt to have resulted in a big enough bill – or tip.

An increasingly common technique was to say there was availability, but at a price. “They’ll say: ‘Sure, we have a table at €5,000. Is that OK?’” a customer said. Another cited a minimum spend of €1,500 a head.

The summertime gas price spike has been driven by a combination of easing recession fears, production cuts by Russia and Saudi Arabia and extreme heat that has knocked offline some refinery activity.

The historic heatwaves could cause even more trouble by potentially setting the stage for powerful hurricanes.

The Louisiana Republican said he thinks the charges related to the former president’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office are “almost a slam dunk."

Five people are confirmed dead in the Tampa Bay area due to a rare, flesh-eating bacteria in the waters.

According to Florida Health, Vibrio vulnificus is a bacterium that naturally occurs in warm, brackish seawater and requires salt.

3 deaths attributed to the bacteria were also reported in New York and Connecticut. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vibrio-vulnificus-3-dead-rare-bacterial-infection-new-york-connecticut/

Messi may be coming into the final on an absolute tear (nine goals and an assist in six matches) but the defending Major League Soccer MVP, Hany Mukhtar, has been playing at an elite level for his team as well (two goals and six assists in six matches).

The two players may not have to come into direct contact much on the pitch, but their gravitational pulls as the most dangerous attacks for their teams will largely determine who ultimately wins on Saturday night.

Americans’ credit card balances rose briskly in the second quarter, hitting a sobering milestone of more than $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported this month. Credit cards are the most prevalent type of household debt, New York Fed researchers wrote in a blog post, and saw the biggest increase of all debt types. More than two-thirds of Americans had a credit card in the second quarter, up from 59 percent roughly a decade earlier, the researchers found. And, they noted, card balances were more than 16 percent higher in the second three months of this year compared with a year earlier.

Alternate: https://archive.ph/5bdz1 (NYT)

Alternate: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/credit-card-debt-hits-new-high/

Two gangs, “Yoda” and “DZ Mafia” are vying for control of the drugs market in the notorious northern neighbourhoods of France’s second biggest city.

Since the start of the year, 36 people have died in the gang war, according to an AFP news agency count, already five more than in all of 2022.

Water bombers flew low over Yellowknife as thick smoke blanketed the capital of the vast and sparsely populated Northwest Territories. Officials say the fire, which is moving slowly, is now 15 km (10 miles) northwest of the city and could reach the outskirts by Saturday if there is no rain.

Alternate: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66526554

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.09% in the week ending August 17, up from 6.96% the week before. Rates have been above 6.5% since the end of May and climbing higher since mid-July. This week’s average rate is the highest the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has been since April 2002 when it was 7.13%.