Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including wildfires, drought and extreme heat are combining to turn many parts of Europe into a summer inferno; Uber agreed to compensate thousands of disabled riders who were penalized for keeping drivers waiting longer than two minutes; A new report digs into what delayed officers from confronting the Uvalde gunman, and more.

National

Uber skirts federal trial on overcharged disabled riders

Uber has agreed to compensate thousands of disabled riders who were penalized for keeping drivers waiting longer than two minutes, avoiding a federal trial set for November on disability discrimination claims.

An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Palatine, Illinois, on Feb. 10, 2022. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

Regional

California prison officials on hook for Covid outbreak at San Quentin

California prison officials must face claims that they callously disregarded inmates’ constitutional rights by orchestrating a prison transfer that caused a deadly Covid-19 outbreak at San Quentin.

Protesters hold a sign that reads "No execution by Covid-19" outside a prison. (Eric Risberg/AP Photo)

Wisconsin US Senate candidate pleads guilty to misconduct in office

A Milwaukee alderwoman who last summer entered the crowded Democratic primary race for a Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat pleaded guilty to felony misconduct in public office on Monday in a campaign finance case which seems to have effectively ended her career in elected office.

Milwaukee Alderwoman Chantia Lewis, lower left, appears in court remotely before Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Milton Childs along with her defense attorney Michael Chernin and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal for a plea hearing in her campaign finance violations case on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)

Texas lawmakers detail chaos in botched police response to Uvalde school shooting

Three hundred and seventy-six law enforcement officers responded to the Robb Elementary school shooting, but a new report digs into what delayed them from confronting the gunman and why some of the wounded were left without medical attention until it was too late.

Michael Brown holds protest signs as the Texas House investigative committee prepares to present it's full report on the shootings at Robb Elementary School, Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

International

Summer inferno: Europe suffers heat wave, wildfires and drought

Wildfires, drought and extreme heat are combining to turn many parts of Europe into a summer inferno.

This photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region shows a wildfire near Landiras, France, on on July 17, 2022. (SDIS 33 via AP)

UN chief pleads for countries to work together in climate change fight

Leaders from 40 nations are meeting in Berlin to talk about the climate crisis, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urging nations to take responsibility to save our “collective future.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center right, and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, center left, along with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt Sameh Shoukry, left, and Germany Annalena Baerbock, right, attend the Petersberg Climate Dialogue conference in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Zelenskyy orders internal purge, Russia may cut off gas to Europe

Political intrigue and suspicion hung over Kyiv on Monday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a purge of top officials, including a boyhood friend he’d made his spy chief, after he said his government was filled with collaborators working for Russia.

Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffin of a soldier killed by Russian troops during his funeral at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Science

Dormant black hole discovered in neighboring galaxy

A team that has gained a reputation for debunking possible black holes published a study on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy that concludes an unidentified discovery in a two-object system could only be a black hole.

This artist’s impression shows what the binary system VFTS 243 might look like if we were observing it up close. The system, which is located in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is composed of a hot, blue star with 25 times the Sun’s mass and a black hole, which is at least nine times the mass of the Sun. The sizes of the two binary components are not to scale: in reality, the blue star is about 200,000 times larger than the black hole. Note that the 'lensing' effect around the black hole is shown for illustration purposes only, to make this dark object more noticeable in the image. The inclination of the system means that, when looking at it from Earth, we cannot observe the black hole eclipsing the star. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

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