Florida braces for Idalia

Florida braces for Idalia to hit as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, Russian mercenary chief Prigozhin is buried in a low-key funeral, and more [View this email in your browser]( [What makes a subscription to The Week so valuable now? Click the banner]( [The Week]( 10 things you need to know today 1. [Idalia expected to hit Florida as dangerous Category 4 hurricane]( Hurricane Idalia rapidly strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday, becoming an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of 130 miles per hour as it headed toward northwest Florida. Authorities warned of "catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds" as Idalia approached the Florida coast somewhere north of Tampa Bay in the Big Bend region. "One word: Leave," Cedar Key official Sue Colson [warned residents]( of the small island in Idalia's path. The 88- to 89-degree Gulf waters, some of the world's hottest, are "effectively rocket fuel" for the storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach told the Tampa Bay Times. Idalia is projected to churn into Georgia and coastal South Carolina after slamming Florida. [[National Hurricane Center]( [Tampa Bay Times]( 2. [Prigozhin buried in low-key funeral]( About 20 to 30 people attended Tuesday's funeral for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group who was killed when his plane crashed a week ago between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Prigozhin was buried in St. Petersburg, and the funeral was closed to the public, enforced by armed police. Prigozhin was known for his profanity-filled rants against Russia's military leadership as he led his forces in Ukraine. Prigozhin, two of his top lieutenants, four bodyguards and the plane's crew were killed in the crash. The cause remains officially unknown, but Western observers [presume that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prigozhin and Wagner's other leadership killed]( in retaliation for a brief, humiliating mutiny two months ago. [[Reuters]( [Institute for the Study of War]( Advertisement from BetterHelp [Get 25% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp]( 3. [Grad student charged with 1st-degree murder in UNC shooting]( Prosecutors on Tuesday charged a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate student, Tailei Qi, with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of his faculty advisor, associate professor Zijie Yan, in a science lab building on Monday. Qi, a 34-year-old applied physics student with an undergraduate degree from Wuhan University in China, also is accused of illegally having a 9mm handgun on campus. The shooting, which occurred after students returned to North Carolina's flagship public university for the fall semester, prompted administrators to impose a three-hour lockdown while police searched for the suspect. [[The News & Observer]( [The Associated Press]( 4. [Medicare drug negotiations begin]( The Biden administration on Tuesday released its list of the first 10 prescription medicines subject to [price negotiations by Medicare]( as directed under last year's Inflation Reduction Act. The law allows Medicare, which covers health care for 66 million people, to negotiate lower prices for some of its most expensive medications. The list of covered medicines includes popular blood thinner Elequis from Bristol Myers Squibb and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel from Amgen. Up to nine million seniors paying as much as $6,497 per month are expected to benefit from price reductions. "Today is the start of a new deal for patients," Biden said. [[Reuters]( Advertisement from BetterHelp [Get 25% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp]( 5. [Meta says it stopped major Chinese influence campaign]( Meta said in a report released Tuesday that it had taken down thousands of fake accounts used in a Chinese influence campaign that was the largest such covert operation it had ever seen. Meta said it removed 7,704 Facebook accounts, 954 Facebook pages, 15 Facebook groups and 15 Instagram accounts linked to the campaign. The Chinese effort — which also used YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest and X, formerly Twitter — dated to 2019 and was known as "Spamouflage" because it involved the frequent posting of spam messages. Meta said the campaign had little success spreading pro-China messages. "We have not found evidence of this network getting any substantial engagement among authentic communities on our services," the company said. [[The Wall Street Journal]( [The New York Times]( 6. [Greece wildfire becomes largest recorded by EU]( A wildfire that continued to burn out of control in Greece on Tuesday is now the largest single blaze recorded since the European Union began keeping track in 2000. Ongoing fires have now burned 310 square miles in Greece. The E.U. has responded with the economic bloc's biggest aerial firefighting operation ever. Balazs Ujvari, a spokesperson for the E.U.'s executive branch, said Tuesday that the bloc was sending 11 firefighting planes, a helicopter and 400 firefighters to help Greece fight to contain the flames. The fires have been fueled by record-setting summer heat that also contributed to wildfires across other parts of Europe and North Africa. [[The Washington Post]( 7. [Raimondo warns Beijing it is making China 'uninvestable']( Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Chinese officials Tuesday that the United States wants to maintain ties with China, but concerns about Beijing's policies are scaring international businesses away. Raimondo, who is in the middle of a four-day trip seeking to ease tense relations between Beijing and Washington, met Tuesday with Premier Li Qiang, China's No. 2 government official, and Vice Premier He Lifeng, who leads on economic matters. She said afterward that she had pressed her Chinese counterparts on American businesses' concerns about crucial matters, including intellectual property theft, capricious fines and raids on businesses. "Increasingly, I hear from businesses China is uninvestable because it has become too risky," Raimondo said. [[The New York Times]( 8. [Miami mayor ends GOP presidential bid]( Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced Tuesday that he was ending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Suarez made the decision after failing to qualify for the first GOP primary debate last week. His campaign lasted just 76 days. "While I have decided to suspend my campaign for president, my commitment to making this a better nation for every American remains," Suarez, 45, posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Suarez had polled around 0.2%, according to FiveThirtyEight's national polling average. He raised millions of dollars to fund his effort, but never caught on with Republican voters as he was overshadowed by two other candidates from Florida: former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis. [[The Miami Herald]( 9. [Gabon soldiers seize power, cancel election result]( Mutinous soldiers in Gabon said Wednesday they had removed President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has been in power for 55 years, to overturn an election marred by fears of violence and allegations of fraud. Crowds celebrated in the streets of the capital, Libreville. Gabonese activist Scheena Donia, who lives in France, told BBC News the coup was "frightening" but better than continuing leadership by Bongo, who has held office since 2009. This is the latest in a series of coups and coup attempts against governments with ties to France, the region's former colonizer. Mutinous soldiers seized power from Niger's democratically elected government a month ago. [[The Associated Press]( [BBC News]( 10. [August ends with rare super blue moon]( A rare super blue moon — the second full supermoon of August — will light up the sky Wednesday night. It will be one of the brightest and largest-appearing moons of the year. A blue moon is the second full moon of the calendar month. The Aug. 1 full moon was the second in a string of four supermoons, the last of which will be a harvest moon on Sept. 28. Supermoons are 16% brighter than a typical full moon, and appear bigger because they occur when the moon's orbit brings it closest to the Earth. NASA has compared the difference in the appearance from the ground to the size disparity between a quarter and a nickel. [[CBS News]( [Space.com]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Share via email](mailto:?Subject=August ends with rare super blue moon&body=Read the story here utm_campaign=10_things_newsletter_20230830&utm_source=10_things_newsletter) [Read more things you need to know at theweek.com]( [Play The Week's daily puzzles]( Popular reads [Is the era of robotaxis over before it ever really started?]( [What to watch over Labor Day weekend]( [Could the 14th Amendment be Trump's undoing?]( [Read more on theweek.com]( [What makes a subscription to The Week so valuable now? Click the banner]( © Future US, Inc • [theweek.com]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Privacy Policy]( The Week is published by Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036.