September 17 – The Most Fascinating News of the Day – NextDraft

Saving grace: “Grace Fischer survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre by remaining silent and huddled as her first-grade teacher quietly read ‘The Nutcracker.’ She then spent the rest of her childhood watching, mostly from the sidelines, as dozens of similar shootings devastated other schools across the country.” The first-graders who survived Sandy Hook will be casting their first ballots in the presidential election.

+ Demolition: “Last year saw the largest decline in credible elections and parliamentary oversight in nearly half a century, driven by government intimidation, foreign interference, disinformation and the misuse of artificial intelligence in campaigns.” Democracy declined across the world for the eighth consecutive year.

+ Play by: “Shortly after Donald Trump became president, authorities tried to warn him about the risks of playing golf on his own courses because of their proximity to public streets. Secret Service agents came armed with unusual evidence: not suspect profiles or fired bullet casings, but simple photos taken by news crews of him playing golf at his private club in Sterling, Virginia. They reasoned that if photographers with long-range lenses could get a shot at the president as he golfed, so could potential gunmen.” WaPo (Gift Item): Trump’s golf outings have long been a concern for the Secret Service.

+ Putin’s death toll: “The number of Ukrainians and Russians killed or wounded in the grueling 2½-year war has reached about a million, a staggering toll that two countries struggling with shrinking pre-war populations will continue to pay long into the future.” WSJ (Gift Item): One million people are now dead or wounded in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

+ Shot and harassed: Drugs like Ozempic that are used for weight loss are all the rage these days. But many people don’t like the idea of ​​giving themselves a shot. Well, GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight loss treatment.

+ Okay Loomer: “Republican politicians don’t like her proximity to the former president and have said so. ‘Laura Loomer is a deranged conspiracy theorist who regularly spouts disgusting nonsense designed to divide Republicans’ and is poised to ‘damage President Trump’s re-election chances. Enough,’ Republican Senator Thom Tillis tweeted on Friday. Other Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and even Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has embraced her own racist and conspiracy theories, made the rare move of implicitly challenging Trump in public.” The Atlantic Ocean (Gift Item): Laura Loomer is where Republicans draw the line. (Maybe they should draw the line at the other person in this duo, too?)

+ News Quiz: Try to guess which of our presidential candidates made this statement at a key rally: “I’m confident I’m going to win this… I want your support, but if I don’t get it, I’m going to treat you as if I did.” News from the New York Times: Tense Teamsters meeting with Harris ends with pending show of support.

+ Bad Chair Day: A Brazilian mayoral candidate attacked his opponent with a chair in the middle of a debate. (He still outperformed Trump in Philly.)