Good morning.
In 2014, a year before entering politics and two years before winning the White House, Donald Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2bn, lawyers for the attorney general of New York state alleged in court filings recently made public.
Letitia James, a Democrat, is seeking summary judgment in her multimillion-dollar civil suit against the Trump Organization over its financial affairs.
Her office said in the documents: “Mr Trump’s net worth in any year between 2011 and 2021 would be no more than $2.6bn, rather than the stated net worth of up to $6.1bn, and likely considerably less if his properties were actually valued in full-blown professional appraisals.”
According to the state filing, corrections to financial statements for the 10-year period in question would reduce Trump’s stated net worth by “17% [to] 39% in each year, or between $812m to $2.2bn, depending on the year”.
When is the trial due to start? The trial is set for October. James’s lawyers argued no trial was needed “to determine that defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values … and then used those … repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers”. James is seeking $250m and for Trump and his sons to be disqualified from running businesses in New York.
How has Trump responded? He did not immediately comment on the New York estimation of how much he inflated his net worth. But he has regularly accused James of being motivated by politics, including in a failed countersuit. Lawyers for Trump were due to file a response.
Hurricane Idalia batters south-eastern US causing storm surges and power outages
Hurricane Idalia plowed into Florida’s Gulf coast yesterday with howling winds, torrential rains and pounding surf, then weakened as it turned its fury on south-eastern Georgia, where flood waters trapped some people in their homes.
The powerful storm, which the National Hurricane Center (NHC) called “an unprecedented event”, made landfall shortly after daybreak with 160mph (257 km/h) gusts near Keaton Beach.
Idalia grew from a tropical storm into a hurricane early on Tuesday, a day after passing west of Cuba, where it damaged homes and flooded villages.
In Florida, it pushed inland a storm surge of up to 16ft (4.9 metres), submerging the small coastal community of Steinhatchee and setting record high water levels across a wide area stretching 200 miles south to Tampa. The afternoon high tide was heightened by a rare blue “supermoon”.
Has anyone died? Yes. The hurricane turned deadly, officials said, when a 40-year-old motorist in Pasco county, north of Tampa, lost control of his vehicle and collided with a tree. Another 59-year-old man died further north in Gainesville, also while driving.
At least 73 killed as fire engulfs five-story building in Johannesburg
At least 73 people, including seven children, have died in a fire in a multistory building in Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city, emergency services have said.
In one of the country’s worst such tragedies in living memory, emergency management services said a further 52 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out early on Thursday.
People had been evacuated from the building, and the emergency services spokesperson said a search and recovery operation was under way. It was likely the death toll would rise, Robert Mulaudzi said, and it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.
“Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” he added.
What do we know about the building? A local television station, Newzroom Afrika, said the building had been abandoned previously but was inhabited at the time of the fire. There was an “informal settlement” inside the five-story building, Mulaudzi said. “So there [are] a lot of informal structures inside the building. There is a lot of debris that we have to remove.”
In other news …
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service. He said an investigation had exposed corrupt practices in different regions and by officials in different positions, involving bribes ranging from $3,000 to $15,000.
The Republican leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, experienced another public health scare on Wednesday when he appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds while speaking to reporters in his home state, Kentucky. McConnell, 81, was eventually escorted away by staff, footage showed.
The embattled Chinese developer Country Garden reported a 48.9bn yuan ($6.7bn) loss for the first half of the year in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, adding to worries of a potentially catastrophic default. Its tenuous state has sparked fears of a collapse that could have far-reaching consequences for the Chinese financial system two years after the fall of Evergrande.
A California elementary school was evacuated yesterday in response to a bomb threat, days after the school was targeted online by rightwing extremists over a playdate event. “The email had some racial undertones in it and we’re currently investigating that,” said Lisa Ausmus, a captain with the Oakland police.
Stat of the day: Vietnamese collector revealed as buyer of world’s biggest bottle of whisky
The previously anonymous buyer of the world’s largest bottle of whisky, which at 5ft 11in is taller than the average human, has been revealed as a Vietnamese businessman who already owns a spirits collection valued at more than £150m. Viet Nguyen Dinh Tuan bought the 311-litre bottle filled with 32-year-old Macallan single malt for £1.1m at auction in Edinburgh last year. Viet added the bottle, called the Intrepid, to his collection in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday alongside a certificate from Guinness World Records authenticating it as the world’s largest. The final purchase price worked out at almost £92 a dram (25ml). A longtime investor in rare spirits, Viet owns many of the world’s rarest and oldest cognac and whisky bottles.
“I was enticed to acquire the Intrepid for three main reasons: the fact it’s the world’s biggest bottle, it contains Macallan and because I was inspired by the record-breaking achievements of the 11 explorers depicted on the bottle’s label.”
Don’t miss this: midnight runners – the athletes up late to beat the scorching heat
Summers in Texas have always been brutal. But this summer was among the most extreme the state has ever experienced, and scientists say July was Earth’s warmest month ever. Trying to exercise in these sweltering temperatures can feel impossible. At high temperatures, muscles tire much more quickly and fatigue is common. Committed athletes have taken to leaving their homes in darkness – exceptionally early or late at night – just to train, writes Abby Carney.
Twice a week, Jeff Cunningham’s alarm has him up and at ’em before the sun rises. It’s still pitch black when the 25 or so runners in attendance start their watches and hit the city’s streets. Despite the occasional dead-inside feeling of waking before the roosters, Cunningham’s runners benefit from training at the coolest time of day. Even then, the temperatures are in the high 70s, though the humidity is what you’ve got to keep an eye on: it can make the air feel hotter still, meaning heart rates can still soar.
Climate check: why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis
Alone in the Arctic, surrounded by disappearing sea ice … few fables of the climate crisis are better known than the plight of the polar bear. The marine mammals are heavily dependent on sea ice for hunting, and as the Arctic warms, scientists warn they will become extinct across much of the region. Long-term declines have already been recorded in three of the 19 polar bear subpopulations found across the Arctic, including those in the western part of Hudson Bay in Canada – among the most southerly populations – whose numbers dropped from an estimated 842 to 618 between 2016 and 2021. But some researchers warn that this “accidental” symbol of the climate crisis is unhelpful and not universally true so far, and can undermine conservation efforts by driving mistrust with some Indigenous communities in the Arctic. They say other species are better suited as symbols of wildlife threatened by a warming world.
Last Thing: 5 million bees escape after crates of hives fall off truck in Canada
Police near Toronto have warned drivers to keep their car windows closed after a truck spilled crates carrying 5 million bees on to a road. Halton regional police said they received a call about 6.15am on Wednesday reporting the bee crates had come loose from a truck and spilled on to a road in Burlington, Ontario. “We’re not sure how or what exactly took place but at some point the boxes containing bees or beehives slid off the trailer and spilled all over the road,” Ryan Anderson, a police constable, told CBC News. It was “quite the scene”, Anderson said. “Crates were literally on the road and swarms of bees were flying around,” he said. By about 9.15am, police said most of the bees had been safely collected and the crates were being hauled away. Some crates had been left behind for the uncollected bees to return to on their own.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
