Here's a look at trending content for today, Aug. 9:
Lil Tay
Lil Tay, a young social media star who went viral for her foulmouthed videos, is not dead as online posts reported Wednesday, her family said.
Her family said Thursday that the rising 14-year-old rapper's Instagram account was hacked.
Lil Tay (real name Claire Hope) rose to popularity in 2018 for her Instagram photos and posts where she flaunted designer clothes and luxury cars.
Find out more about her here:
Editor's note: A previous version of the story published Aug. 9 cited the false post reporting her death.
People are also reading…
People watch as smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. Maui officials say wildfire in the historic town has burned parts of one of the most popular tourist areas in Hawaii. County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said in a phone interview early Wednesday fire was widespread in Lahaina, including Front Street, an area of the town popular with tourists.
Maui fire
Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures in areas including historic Lahaina town, forcing evacuations and closing schools in several communities Wednesday, and rescuers pulled a dozen people escaping smoke and flames from the ocean.
The U.S. Coast Guard responded to areas where people went into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the County of Maui said in a statement. The Coast Guard tweeted that a crew rescued 12 people from the water off Lahaina.
The county tweeted that multiple roads in Lahaina were closed with a warning: "Do NOT go to Lahaina town."
Fire was widespread in Lahaina, including Front Street, an area of the town popular with tourists, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said in a phone interview early Wednesday.
Read more about it here:
Musician Robbie Robertson arrives Feb. 22, 2015, at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Robertson, the lead guitarist and songwriter for The Band, whose classics include “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” has died at 80.
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, The Band's lead guitarist and songwriter who in such classics as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" mined and helped reshape American music, has died at 80.
Robertson died surrounded by family, a statement from his manager said.
From their years as Bob Dylan's masterful backing group to their own stardom as embodiments of old-fashioned community and virtuosity, The Band profoundly influenced popular music in the 1960s and '70s, first by literally amplifying Dylan’s polarizing transition from folk artist to rock star and then by absorbing the works of Dylan and Dylan's influences as they fashioned a new sound immersed in the American past.
Get more info on him here:
***
Get more of today's trending topics here:
Dianne Feinstein
Tory Lanez
Top stories for Wednesday, Aug. 9
A single lottery ticket sold in Florida has won a $1.58 billion Mega Millions jackpot. The Florida Lottery says a Publix grocery store in Neptune Beach sold the ticket. No one had won the Mega Millions jackpot since April 18, enabling the prize to grow to the third-largest in U.S. history. The $1.58 billion payout is for a sole winner who opts for an annuity doled out over 30 years, although most winners usually prefer a lump sum option. For Tuesday’s jackpot, the lump sum was an estimated $783.3 million. The prize is nearly identical in size to the second-largest jackpot of $1.586 billion in 2016.
Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights
Ohio voters have resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would've made it more difficult to pass abortion protections. The vote sets up a fall campaign that'll become the nation’s latest referendum on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion last year. The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future changes to the Ohio Constitution, rather than requiring a 60% supermajority. Ohio Republicans placed the question on the summer ballot in hopes of undercutting a citizen initiative voters will decide in November that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution. Tuesday's result marks the latest setback for Republicans in a conservative-leaning state.
President Joe Biden says his policies of financial and tax incentives have revived U.S. manufacturing. The claim the Democratic president made Wednesday at a New Mexico wind farm plant is supported by a rise in construction spending on new factories. But factory hiring has begun to slow in recent months, a sign the promised boom has yet to fully materialize. Bringing back factory jobs is one of the most popular of White House promises — regardless of who happens to be president. Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush each pledged to boost manufacturing. But factory jobs have struggled to fully return after each recession.
French authorities say a fire ripped through a vacation home for adult people with disabilities in eastern France on Wednesday, killing at least three persons. Eight others are believed to have died. Rescue operations in the town of Wintzenheim, near the border with Germany, are still ongoing. The local administration of the Haut-Rhin region said 17 people have been evacuated. One person was sent to a hospital with serious injuries. The secretary general of the local administration said the group includes adults with “slight intellectual disabilities.” He said that 10 disabled people and one person accompanying the group are amid those believed to have died.
Russian officials say air defenses have shot down two drones aimed at Moscow overnight. They say the unmanned vehicles were Ukraine’s latest attempt to strike the Russian capital in an alleged campaign to unnerve Muscovites and take the war to Russia. Moscow's mayor said the drones were intercepted and there were no casualties. It wasn't clear where the drones were launched from, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment. Ukraine usually neither confirms nor denies such attacks. Meanwhile, at least 31 people were injured in a factory explosion north of Moscow on Wednesday, according to a regional official. The blast occurred on the grounds of a factory that makes optical equipment for the army.
Nagasaki marks 78th anniversary of atomic bombing with mayor urging world to abolish nuclear weapons
Nagasaki has marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S dropping an atomic bomb on the city, with its mayor urging an end to nuclear weapons. Mayor Shiro Suzuki made the remark Wednesday after the Group of Seven leaders at another summit in May adopted a nuclear disarmament document justifying atomic weapons for deterrence. Suziki said that also poses threat. The U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the attack on Hiroshima killed 140,000.
Eight Amazon nations have called on industrialized countries to do more to help preserve the world’s largest rainforest as they meet in a major summit in Brazil to seek to chart a common course on how to combat climate change. The leaders of South American nations that are home to the Amazon, meeting at a two-day summit that ends Wednesday, said the task of stopping the destruction of the rainforest can’t fall to just a few when the crisis has been caused by so many. The members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization are hoping a united front will give them a major voice in global talks.
Scientists are wondering if global warming and El Nino have an accomplice in fueling this summer’s record-shattering heat. The European climate agency Copernicus reported that July was one-third of a degree Celsius hotter than the old record. That’s a bump in heat that is so recent and so big, especially in the oceans, that scientists are split on whether something else could be at work. Researchers say by far the biggest cause of the recent extreme heat is human-caused climate change, with a smaller contribution from a natural El Nino. But some scientists are searching for an additional factor.
Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds have burned multiple structures, forced evacuations and caused power outages in several communities. Firefighters have struggled to reach some areas cut off by downed trees and power lines. Some homes have been evacuated on Maui and the Big Island and Hawaii's acting governor has issued an emergency proclamation. The National Weather Service says Hurricane Dora passing to the south of the island chain is partly to blame for strong gusts that toppled power lines and grounded fire-fighting helicopters. Fire crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes Tuesday concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region.
