Good morning.
The death in custody of an Iranian woman that has sparked widespread protests must be “steadfastly” investigated, Iran’s president has said, even as he lamented what he claimed were western “double standards” on human rights.
Ebrahim Raisi told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN general assembly that the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police “must certainly be investigated”.
“I contacted her family at the very first opportunity and I assured them we would continue steadfastly to investigate that incident … Our utmost preoccupation is the safeguarding of the rights of every citizen.”
Of Amini’s death, he said authorities were doing what they needed to do and that responsibility now lay in the hands of the judiciary.
What happened to Amini? She was detained for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an “improper” way. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish first name is Jhina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who maintain she died of natural causes. Her family, however, suspect that she was subjected to beating and torture.
Has anyone died in the protests? Yes. At least 31 people are feared by rights groups to have died in six days of protests, sparked by the death on 16 September of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
Judge asks Trump’s team for proof that FBI planted documents at Mar-a-Lago
A US judge reviewing records seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home asked the former president’s lawyers yesterday to provide any evidence casting doubt on the integrity of the documents. Trump has previously made unsubstantiated claims the documents were planted by FBI agents.
Senior federal judge Raymond Dearie, appointed by another judge to vet the documents to assess whether some should be withheld from investigators as privileged, also asked the justice department to certify by Monday a detailed property inventory of materials the FBI seized in the court-approved the 8 August search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Dearie asked Trump’s lawyers to submit by 30 September a list of specific items in that inventory “that plaintiff asserts were not seized from the premises”. Dearie also asked them to submit any corrections to the government’s list by that date, including items they believe were seized at Mar-a-Lago but not listed in the inventory.
What has Trump said about the documents? He has claimed presidents can declassify documents by the power of thought alone.
What did he actually say? Speaking to Sean Hannity of Fox News he said: “Different people say different things but as I understand it, if you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it. Because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it. There doesn’t have to be a process. There can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be. You’re the president – you make that decision.”
DeSantis to face trial for suspension of prosecutor who defied abortion ban law
A Florida prosecutor suspended by Ron DeSantis for defying a new 15-week abortion law says a federal judge’s decision to send his reinstatement appeal to trial means a reckoning is coming for the state’s Republican governor.
Andrew Warren, a Democrat, was removed as Hillsborough county state attorney on 4 August after saying he would not enforce the abortion ban or prosecute providers of gender transition treatment for young people.
DeSantis cited Warren’s alleged “woke agenda” in reasons for his decision.
At a hearing in Tallahassee on Monday, Judge Robert Hinkle denied motions from DeSantis to dismiss Warren’s lawsuit, and another by Warren seeking an immediate return to office, instead requesting their differences be settled at a trial in the coming weeks.
“The governor now has to answer it to a court of law where facts matter and where you have to tell the truth,” Warren said in an interview with the Guardian.
What does Warren say? He told the Guardian: “It’s a victory for the truth. A federal judge has ruled that the governor has to come into court to explain the reasons behind my suspension, to show that it wasn’t political, to show that it wasn’t in violation of my free speech rights, to show that it wasn’t in violation of the voters’ rights to have the state attorney of their choice.”
In other news …
Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, were exposed to potentially harmful radiation at the US ambassador’s residence in Moscow in 1959, according to declassified Secret Service documents. Nixon, who was vice-president at the time, was not informed of the threat, and the state department was only informed in 1976.
The murder of a Tennessee teacher who was forced into a car near the University of Memphis could have been avoided had police properly investigated an accusation of rape against the suspect, a lawsuit has claimed. Alicia Franklin said she was raped by Cleotha Abston in September last year.
Former Chinese justice minister Fu Zhenghua, who had headed several high-profile investigations into corruption, has been jailed for life for accepting bribes, state media say, as a purge of officials intensified ahead of a key Communist party congress. Fu, 67, was handed a suspended death sentence.
Residents of four areas of Ukraine controlled by pro-Moscow forces have started voting in so-called referendums on joining Russia, polls widely condemned by the west as illegitimate and a precursor to illegal annexation. Voting began today in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces of Ukraine.
Stat of the day: Boeing to pay $200m to settle charges it misled investors over 737 Max crashes
Boeing and its former chief executive have settled an investigation by the US’s top financial regulator into allegedly misleading statements the planemaker and its then boss made about its 737 Max jets, involved in two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Boeing will pay $200m to settle charges that it misled investors and the former Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg has agreed to pay $1m. The two fatal 737 Max jets took 346 people’s lives, led to the grounding of the Max fleet and investigations around the world.
Don’t miss this: Obsession. Fear. And ruined lives. What happened when a cyberstalker wreaked havoc?
It starts the same way … A seemingly innocent message from someone who appears to be a young woman: ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ But as this six-part podcast explores, people are rarely their true selves online – and one man took it much further. What happened when this cyberstalker wreaked havoc across the internet and ruined people’s lives? And why did he do it? In this new podcast, Guardian journalist Sirin Kale investigates the story of a cyberstalker who terrified people in his hometown and beyond for over a decade.
… or this: Say goodbye to the ‘tiger mom’. Welcome to the school of jellyfish parenting
“Americans invented the term ‘tiger mom’ – dads get off free in this scenario – to describe the overbearing parent who burnishes their five-year-old’s CV, a dynamic you can drift into without ever fully meaning to,” writes Emma Brockes. “In New York, where I live, if you want your child to swim, read music, or have exposure to a second language before high school, you have to pay for it yourself, and the sticker price can run into thousands. A result of this feverishness is to change the colour of the experience, both for parents and children. It’s time to change tack.”
Climate check: ‘Dramatic’ rise in wildfire smoke triggers decline in US air quality for millions
Millions of Americans are routinely exposed to unhealthy plumes of wildfire smoke that can waft thousands of miles across the country, scientists have warned. Wildfires cause soot and ash to be thrown off into the air, which then carries the minuscule particles that can be inhaled by people many miles away, aggravating a variety of health conditions. The number of people in the US exposed to unhealthy levels of these particulates from wildfires at least one day a year has increased 27-fold over the last decade.
Last Thing: Longest single-volume book in the world goes on sale – and is impossible to read
A limited edition, single-volume of the long-running manga One Piece is being billed as the longest book in existence. At 21,450 pages, it is physically impossible to read, making it less of a book and more of a sculpture. Priced at €1,900 (£1,640), the book isn’t credited to Eiichiro Oda, the writer and artist behind One Piece, which has been serialised in Japanese magazine Shōnen Jump every week since 1997. It is being sold instead as the work of Ilan Manouach, the multidisciplinary artist who has designed the limited edition volume, which is titled ONEPIECE.
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