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1. Family freed
They’re away from their captors, but this family doesn’t exactly feel free yet. Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children are safe at home in Canada. But the gravity of the five years of captivity they endured in Afghanistan at the hands of terrorists is just beginning to sink in. Boyle said their captors raped his wife and authorized the killing of their infant daughter. One of his sons had never seen daylight until they were freed. “We’re pretty broken,” Boyle said.
Boyle and Coleman were kidnapped in Afghanistan by terrorists in 2012. Coleman was pregnant at the time. Their three children were born in captivity. They were freed last week in Pakistan after a firefight between their captors and Pakistani rescuers.
2. Somalia bombings
No group has yet claimed responsibility for a double vehicle bombing that killed at least 277 people over the weekend in Mogadishu. It was one of the deadliest such incidents in the country’s history. Hundreds were injured. Suspicion immediately fell on Al-Shabaab, the terror group that has carried out several car bomb attacks in the city. Mogadishu has endured lots of violence over the years. The country’s President called for three days of mourning.
3. California wildfires
The tide may finally be turning for the better in the fight against the Northern California wildfires, some of the deadliest in the state’s history. Dozens of fires are still burning, but the 11,000 firefighters are starting to contain some of the bigger blazes. The huge Atlas fire in Napa and Solano counties is more than half contained. Evacuation orders were lifted for the city of Napa, and they might be lifted soon for folks in Sonoma County.
People who’ve been able to return home are coming back to a grim new reality, with some finding nothing left but ash. The death toll is at least 40 and more than 200 people are still missing. So far the fires have torched an estimated 217,000 acres.
4. Puerto Rico
Things are so desperate in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria that some people are drinking water pumped from a hazardous-waste site. More than three weeks after the storm slammed the US territory, 35% of residents still don’t have safe drinking water. CNN watched late last week as a water utility distributed water from a well at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, which was listed in 2016 as part of the federal Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup.
It’s not clear if there’s a risk to the public from the well’s water. The local water utility said it didn’t know the well was in a Superfund site. The EPA said it would start tests. Electricity’s still out in a huge part of the island too, but Puerto Rico’s governor plans to restore 95% of power by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, another storm that was born in the Atlantic is racing toward Ireland and the UK. The former Hurricane Ophelia will strike as a post-tropical storm, bringing with it strong winds, heavy rain and a big storm surge.
5. Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick is fighting back. The former NFL QB has filed a grievance against the NFL, claiming team owners have colluded to keep him out of the league. Kaepernick was the first NFL player to take a knee as a form of protest during the National Anthem. He has yet to be picked up by another team since opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers back in March.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over”
A statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board, which kicked disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein out of the group that presents the Academy Awards.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
In the nick of time
Good thing that retired security guard in New Jersey checked an old shirt stuffed with unchecked lottery tickets. One of them was worth $24 million.
Out of the office
Tech companies are known for their outrageous perks, but Microsoft may have topped them all with three treehouses that its employees can work out of.
Help is on the way
Victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have not been forgotten. They’ve got everyone from a 9-year-old Florida girl to Texas inmates raising money for them.
Stranger things
The wildfires in Northern California have produced much misery, but also strange sights like fire burning inside a tree and a boiling river of red wine.
A big drop
What’s more terrifying than dropping 20,000 feet in a plane? Listening to the flight crew scream as it plunges.
NUMBER OF THE DAY
31
The age of Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s next chancellor. Kurz, a conservative, will be Europe’s youngest leader and is expected to put the far-right in an Austrian governing coalition for the first time in more than 10 years.
