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Here’s a look at trending topics for today, Sept. 28:
Marilyn Monroe
“There is no meaning to life apart from the movie story,” writes Joyce Carol Oates in the opening pages of “Blonde,” “and there is no movie story apart from the darkened movie theater.” If it was inevitable that Oates’ novel about Marilyn Monroe would be made into a movie, it’s also a little ironic that that movie was made by Netflix — suffice to say that few who see “Blonde” will do so in a darkened movie theater.
Directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Ana de Armas as Monroe (née Norma Jeane Baker), “Blonde” is one of those movies that generates headlines, elicits controversy and inspires hot takes long before anyone has seen a single frame. How could it not?
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FILE – Katie Couric appears at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 27, 2022, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Couric said Wednesday that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and radiation treatment this summer to treat the tumor. Couric announced her diagnosis in an essay on her website, saying she hoped it would encourage other women to be tested.
Katie Couric
Katie Couric said Wednesday that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery and radiation treatment this summer to treat the tumor.
Couric, who memorably was tested for colon cancer on the “Today” show in 2000, announced her diagnosis in an essay on her website, saying she hoped it would encourage other women to be tested.
Couric, 65, was diagnosed on the first day of summer and wrote that she had her final radiation treatment on Tuesday.
“My left breast does feel like I’ve been sunbathing topless, but other than that, I’ve felt fine,” she wrote.
Starting October 3, McDonald’s is selling Happy Meals to adults — with a twist.
McDonald’s Happy Meals for adults
The Hamburglar is back at McDonald’s. But this time, it’s just for adults.
McDonald’s is bringing back its family of recognizable figurines in a new adult Happy Meal, which, yes, includes the toys. Beginning Oct. 3, customers can order a Cactus Plant Flea Market Box — a Big Mac or 10-piece chicken McNuggets, with fries and a drink. The meal is a collaboration between the streetwear brand and the fast food chain as it digs deeper into nostalgia.
The food will be served in a specially designed box that should trigger memories of Happy Meals from the old days. Toys include redesigned takes on McDonald’s famous mascots, including Grimace, Hamburglar and Birdie, plus a new one named Cactus Buddy.
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Hurricane Andrew
Pickleball
Jackie Walorski
Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida, flooding streets and buildings, knocking out power to 1.8 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was already getting a significant number of calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward the eaves of homes. The hurricane made landfall Wednesday afernoon near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. Though expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it marches inland, Ian’s hurricane force winds are likely to be felt well into central Florida.
Cuban officials say they’ve begun to restore some power after Hurricane Ian knocked out electricity to the entire island. The storm that hit with Category 3 force also devastated some of the country’s most important tobacco farms when it hit the island’s western tip and killed at least two people. The Energy and Mines Ministry announced Wednesday it had restored energy to three regions by activating two large power plants. But Havana and other parts of western Cuba remain without power. Ian hit a Cuba that has been struggling with an economic crisis and already has suffered frequent power outages
European companies are ramping up security around pipelines and energy prices are climbing again as the suspected sabotage of two pipelines that deliver natural gas from Russia underscored the vulnerability of Europe’s energy infrastructure and prompted the EU to warn of possible retaliation. Some European officials and energy experts have said Russia is likely to blame for any sabotage, while others cautioned against pointing fingers until investigators are able to determine what happened. Russia benefits from higher energy prices and economic anxiety across Europe. Moscow has sharply curtailed natural gas shipments to Europe in retaliation for sanctions the West put in place after its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has positioned itself to formally annex parts of Ukraine after occupied areas held a Kremlin-orchestrated “referendum” — denounced as illegal and rigged by Kyiv and the West — to live under Moscow’s rule. Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The results were widely ridiculed as implausible and characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership following embarrassing military losses in Ukraine. Russia is calling up 300,000 reservists to fight in the war and warned it could resort to nuclear weapons. The European Commission president urged the European Union’s 27 member countries to slap more sanctions on Russian officials and trade over what he called sham referendums.
South Korea says North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters a day before a visit by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff say the missiles were launched Wednesday from its capital region. They are the second round of missile tests by North Korea this week. Harris is to visit the demilitarized zone separating the rival Koreas during her visit to South Korea. The launch also comes as U.S. and South Korean navy ships are conducting drills off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.
President Joe Biden says his administration’s goal of ending hunger in the U.S. by the end of the decade is ambitious but doable, if only the nation would work together. It was the president at his most optimistic, sketching out a future where no child in the U.S. would go hungry, and diet-related diseases would diminish because of better, healthier food alternatives and access to vast outdoor spaces. Biden says, “Everyone, everyone has an important role to play.” According to federal officials, some 10% of U.S. households in 2021 suffered food insecurity, meaning they were uncertain they could get enough food to feed themselves or their families.
The Biden administration is asking that parents of children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border undergo another round of psychological evaluations to measure how traumatized they were by the Trump administration policy. The request outlined in court documents comes in a lawsuit filed by migrants seeking compensation from the government.
China’s yuan has fallen to a 14-year low against the dollar despite central bank efforts to stem the slide after U.S. interest rate hikes prompted traders to convert money into dollars in search of higher returns. A weaker yuan helps Chinese exporters by making their goods cheaper abroad but it encourages capital to flow out of the economy. That raises costs for Chinese borrowers and sets back the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to boost weak economic growth. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times this year to cool inflation that is at a four-decade high. Meanwhile, China’s central bank has cut rates.
President Joe Biden is formally keeping the nation’s cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the 2023 budget year, despite pressure from advocates to raise it even higher to meet the need after falling far short of that target this year. Refugees advocates had been pushing the Biden administration to do more to restore the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The program suffered deep cuts under the Trump administration, which slashed admissions to a record low of 15,000. Biden has raised the cap to four times that amount this year, but so far fewer than 20,000 refugees have been admitted.
The House Jan. 6 committee has postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday as a hurricane hurtles toward the Florida coast. The committee had planned to hold what was likely to be its final investigative hearing Wednesday afternoon.
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