President Jair Bolsonaro, who has barely been seen in public since failing to win re-election, is holed up in his official residence because of a skin infection on his leg, a newspaper said Wednesday.

A new draft bill unveiled Friday aims to help spouses or children of religious group followers who have made excessive donations, leading families to financial ruin. Under the bill, such family members would be able to get some money back if the follower made the donation due to the entity's coercion or its creation of anxiety or circumstances that "confused" them. The outline of the bill was revealed in a meeting between the secretaries-general of ruling and opposition parties. The move comes after the Unification Church’s aggressive donation-seeking practices were put in the spotlight following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested on suspicion of shooting Abe, has reportedly told police that he held a grudge against the politician over his ties to the church. Yamagami’s mother was a church follower who gave away ¥100 million to the group, leaving her bankrupt, according to news reports.

Elon Musk sent a flurry of emails to Twitter employees on Friday morning with a plea. “Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 p.m. today,” he wrote in a two-paragraph message, which was viewed by The New York Times. “Thanks, Elon.” About 30 minutes later, Mr. Musk sent another email saying he wanted to learn about Twitter’s “tech stack,” a term used to describe a company’s software and related systems. Then in another email, he asked some people to fly to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to meet in person.

Police in Van Wert County said someone broke into a mink farm overnight and released more than 25,000 of the small animals from their cages. The incident happened early Tuesday at Lion Farms USA Mink Farm on Hoaglin Road in Hoaglin Township, six miles north of Van Wert, according to a post from the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office said the suspect or suspects destroyed fencing at the farm and released 25,000-40,000 mink from their cages. Many remained on property and were corralled by farm workers, the sheriff’s office said. Others escaped, though. Eddie Meyer, manager of the mink farm, told WANE 15 the break-in must have happened between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. On the wall near where the fence was cut, the letters “ALF” were spray painted alongside the phrase “we’ll be back.” Meyer said 95% of the minks will die within a few days due to being domesticated and not used to hunting in the wild. WANE 15 spoke with Joseph Buddenberg, a member of the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, who claims to have released animals from farms before, and Buddenberg provided insight into the mindset of those who break out animals from farms. “The only humane thing to do when you visit a fur farm is to open every cage and liberate all the animals,” Buddenberg said. Buddenberg, who spent two years in federal prison for breaking out animals, said he once traveled across the country with another person in an attempt to “liberate” fur farms and release animals. Buddenberg claimed people who commit these acts are attempting to free animals from poor conditions and “filthy, tiny wire cages.” In response to reports saying the mink will not survive in the wild due to domestication, Buddenberg said “they talk out of both sides of their mouth.” “They say these animals can’t survive, but then they also say they’re hunting and killing every animal within a 20-mile radius,” Buddenberg said. “So which one is it?” Meyer estimated the farm has been able to get back approximately 7,000 mink, and the rest are being hunted by the farm and locals.

Half the world could soon face dangerous heat. We measured the daily toll it is already taking.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's high office should shield him from a lawsuit over his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist , making a turnaround from Joe Biden's passionate campaign trail denunciations of the prince over the brutal slaying.

FIFA said in a statement: "Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing the sales points of beer from Qatar's FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters." While supporters can purchase alcohol at the official fan zones during the competition, the sale of beer at the matches themselves has been a controversial topic. It appeared an agreement was originally struck to allow FIFA to permit sponsors Budweiser to sell beer at the stadiums. This was then further clarified in the buildup to the tournament after The New York Times first reported that the beer tents would be less visible at the grounds on request of the hosts. But it emerged there was late pressure on FIFA to halt sales of alcohol at the stadiums themselves, two days before hosts Qatar kick off the tournament on Sunday against Ecuador. "There is no impact to the sale of Bud Zero which will remain available at all Qatar's World Cup stadiums," FIFA added.

Alabama's execution of a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife was called off Thursday just before the midnight deadline because state officials couldn’t find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs. Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57. Hamm said they established one line but were unsuccessful with a second line after trying several locations on Smith’s body. Officials then tried a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein. “We were not able to have time to complete that, so we called off the execution,” Hamm said. It is the second execution since September the state has canceled because of difficulties with establishing an IV line with a deadline looming. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Smith’s execution when at about 10:20 p.m. it lifted a stay issued earlier in the evening by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. But the state decided about an hour later that the lethal injection would not happen that evening.

The 36-year-old man was admitted to the ER with “breakthrough abdominal pain” after his “legendary” stunt.

Two recent papers have shown that during a critical early period of brain development, the gut’s microbiome — the assortment of bacteria that grow within in it — helps to mold a brain system that’s important for social skills later in life. Scientists found this influence in fish, but molecular and neurological evidence plausibly suggests that some form of it could also occur in mammals, including humans.

Unapologetic awfulness is preferable to Silicon Valley hypocrisy. (What a day to publish this!)

A lake-effect snow warning is in effect through 1 a.m. Saturday for southern Erie County. (Let’s see your passing game now, Bills!)

Cable One: Fighting publicly funded rivals one of our "most important tasks."

John Jay Ray III helped manage the aftermath of some of the largest corporate failures in history, including the implosion of the energy trading firm Enron after an accounting fraud scandal in 2001. But the corporate dysfunction at FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange that he took over last week, is the worst he has ever seen. In a blistering court filing on Thursday, Mr. Ray described an astonishing level of disarray and said he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate control.” He listed a series of “unacceptable management practices,” including the use of an unsecured group email to access sensitive data, and said the financial information maintained by FTX was deeply untrustworthy.

New York City’s security companies are embracing a new tool in their mission to protect private property: public trees. In recent months, security contractors have quietly drilled electronic “tokens” into the trunks of city street trees. Guards scan the trackers with their phones, providing real-time data on the status of their patrols. Security providers touted the devices as an effective accountability tool — a way to assure clients they are keeping a close eye on their assets. But as the arboreal checkpoints gain popularity, both tree lovers and surveillance skeptics are raising concerns. “They’re totally wounding the tree,” said Justin Lawson, an arborist in Brooklyn. “Even if they can withstand it, no one should be doing this to city trees.” A spokesperson for the city’s parks department confirmed they were aware of the trackers, which violate the city’s law against defacing trees. But that hasn’t stopped private companies, some of whom are contracted by the city, from taking advantage of the urban forestry. And it appears unlikely the city will issue violations, according to the parks department.

House investigators reported Thursday that a federal contractor that provided identity verification services for the Internal Revenue Service exaggerated the amount of money being lost to pandemic fraud in an apparent attempt to increase demand for its product and that it also overstated its capacity to provide services. The investigation of ID.me, which uses facial recognition to verify identities in some cases, was launched in April after critics of the software company said it could be a target of cyberthreats and presented privacy concerns. Other advocates were critical of a private company taking on what should be a core government task of verifying people’s identities to receive benefits. The report found that in 14 states that contracted with ID.me for identity verification services — including California, Texas, and Florida — wait times for ID.me video chats reached an average of more than four hours, though the firm claimed it answered calls in far less time, potentially delaying pandemic relief funds to millions of Americans. The report said ID.me asserted that there were significantly higher levels of pandemic fraud compared to other assessments that were based on expert analysis in an apparent effort to boost interest in its services.

Republicans managed to make their victory in the House seem like a loss by underperforming so badly. But while they did not win control by anywhere near the margin that they anticipated, they did win. And in the House, even the barest majority can work its will if it can hold together to produce 218 votes. The main question going forward is whether Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who was nominated on Tuesday to lead the new Republican majority, can achieve the unity necessary to perform fundamental tasks such as funding the government, or whether unyielding far-right members will make the new speaker’s life miserable and the House an unmanageable mess. The likely single-digit-seat victory will allow Republicans to claim power — including subpoena power — set the agenda, run the committees and try to hold President Biden’s feet to the fire with a string of promised investigations. The only results that interest many in the House majority are those that inflict political pain on Mr. Biden and congressional Democrats, as demanded by their MAGA constituents. In a closed-door meeting of Republicans on Monday, right-wing lawmakers including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia extracted a promise that their leaders would investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Justice Department for their treatment of defendants jailed in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But the new leadership cannot do only investigations. They still have to find some “yes” votes to approve spending bills and other legislation that must pass to keep the government running, when many of their members are very accustomed to voting “no” on just about everything.

The realist political scientist explains why Russia’s move to annex four Ukrainian provinces isn’t imperialism. (Has John Mearsheimer gotten any smarter in nine months? No.)

The implosion of FTX could end up forcing the GOAT to sign a large check.Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who received a piece of FTX as part of a deal to become a brand ambassador, will now be paying the price in the aftermath of the company’s implosion.Via Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times, Brady [more]

When Officer James Beasley resigned from the Phoenix Police Department, his history of misconduct didn’t follow him to his new agency.