Operators of California's power grid called for statewide voluntary conservation of electricity on Wednesday and Thursday as a heat wave spread over the West and they warned that there could be energy shortages if conditions worsen.

The call for conservation between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on both days came as excessive-heat warnings expanded to all of Southern California and up into the Central Valley, and were predicted to spread into Northern California later in the week.

On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom discussed the heat wave expected to impact California and the West Coast, lasting through Labor Day weekend until next Wednesday.

He shared ways Californians can stay safe from extreme heat, the strain the extreme weather will place on the grid, and state actions to respond to the immediate emergency and accelerate the state's transition away from fossil fuels that worsen extreme heat.

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Trump's lawyers said they wanted the special master to decide questions of executive privilege, not just the limited question of attorney-client privilege. Some legal experts have said that executive privilege exists during a dispute between different branches of government, not the same one, as in this case.

In Wednesday's response, Trump's attorneys downplayed the Justice Department's concerns about the classified material found at Mar-a-Lago, saying in the filing that there was no "cause for alarm."

They added that the Justice Department "significantly mischaracterized" in their filing of a meeting in June between prosecutors and Trump's legal team. And, they added, that without a special master, prosecutors will "impugn, leak and publicize" details of its investigation.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in a special election to fill the state’s vacant House seat, Alaska officials announced Wednesday, more than two weeks after polls closed—thwarting Palin’s plans for a political comeback, at least for now.

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Former President Donald Trump was mercilessly mocked after demanding that he be retroactively declared the 2020 presidential election winner or be allowed to hold a "new election." 

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday that unspecified "conclusive" information proved the FBI had "buried" an investigation into a laptop previously owned by Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 election winner President Joe Biden. The former president claimed that the FBI's alleged "interference" into the election could only be remedied by him being declared the winner almost two years after he lost, or by the "minimal solution" of calling a new election that could lead to his reinstatement. 

"This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country," Trump wrote. "REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!"

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NASA scrubbed the much-anticipated first flight of its Space Launch System rocket on Monday after a series of problems with the rocket and the fueling procedures could not be resolved quickly.

John took this opportunity to discuss the numerous inventions employed daily to save lives, improve environmental sustainability, and keep humans healthy.

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A House oversight subcommittee asked regulators and industry leaders on Tuesday to explain what they are doing to stop cryptocurrency fraud and other scams perpetrated on consumers.

Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, head of the Economic and Consumer Policy subcommittee, asked leaders of the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission for more information on the steps they are taking to curb the growth of fraud and consumer abuse linked to cryptocurrencies.

The inquiries come as the cryptocurrency market has seen immense volatility, as bitcoin lost nearly half its value at one point this year and other cryptocurrencies fell even more.

“Despite these vulnerabilities, the federal government has been slow to curb cryptocurrency scams and fraud. Existing federal regulations do not comprehensively or clearly cover cryptocurrencies under all circumstances," reads one letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Five of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges were also sent inquiry letters, requesting documents on company policies regarding the removal of fake accounts.

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President Biden gave a forceful defense of the F.B.I. during a speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and called out allies of former President Donald J. Trump for failing to condemn those who attacked law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

During a visit to a key swing state, Mr. Biden took what have been political vulnerabilities for the White House — policing and rising crime — and cast them as strengths ahead of the congressional elections in November.

“It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the F.B.I.,” Mr. Biden said, referring to some congressional Republicans who have called to “defund” or even “destroy” the F.B.I. over its search of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8.

“I’m opposed to defunding the police,” the president added, speaking at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “I’m also opposed to defunding the F.B.I.”

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"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening. 

The man credited with introducing key political and economic reforms to the USSR and helping to end the Cold War had been in failing health for some time.

With his outgoing, charismatic nature, Gorbachev broke the mold for Soviet leaders who until then had mostly been remote, icy figures. Almost from the start of his leadership, he strove for significant reforms, so the system would work more efficiently and more democratically. Hence the two key phrases of the Gorbachev era: "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring).

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Human-driven climate change has set in motion massive ice losses in Greenland that couldn’t be halted even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gasses today, according to a study published Monday. The findings in the journal Nature Climate Change project that it is now inevitable that 3.3 percent of the Greenland ice sheet will melt — equal to 110 trillion tons of ice, the researchers said. That will trigger nearly a foot of global sea-level rise.

The predictions are more dire than other forecasts, though they use different assumptions. While the study did not specify a time frame for the melting and sea-level rise, the authors suggested much of it can play out between now and the year 2100.

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A U.N. nuclear watchdog team set off on an urgent mission Monday to safeguard the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine, a long-awaited trip the world hopes will help avoid a radioactive catastrophe.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for the International Atomic Energy Agency experts who will visit the plant in a country where the 1986 Chernobyl disaster spewed radiation throughout the region, shocking the world and intensifying a global push away from nuclear energy.

“Without an exaggeration, this mission will be the hardest in the history of IAEA,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Underscoring the urgency, Ukraine and Russia again accused each other of shelling the wider region around the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which was briefly knocked offline last week. The dangers are so high that officials have begun handing out anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.

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“The president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second largest health care bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.”— White House chief of staff Ron Klain

Klain cleverly framed his quote. He name-checks some of the most effective or popular presidents — and then does not say that President Biden topped their achievements, only that it’s the “largest” since then.

It’s important to keep in mind that comparing federal programs separated by decades is very difficult. A simple inflation adjustment can be misleading, given differences in the size of the U.S. population. Economists generally will compare as a percentage of the gross national product (GNP), the broadest measure of the economy, or the cost as a percentage of the nation’s output.

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