Today’s Big Story

Book Banning Is Still Big

A new report finds that over 10,000 books were removed in last school year

It’s hard enough to get kids to read, right? Let’s not give them less options. Then again, maybe the best way to get a young person interested in literature is to tell them that it’s off limits. That surely would’ve gotten my young mind curious about what the adults were keeping from me.

More than 10,000 books were banned in American public schools from 2023 to 2024, according to a new report—marking a stark increase over the year before as Republican-led states pass new censorship laws. The survey from PEN America suggested that bans of books nearly tripled nationwide, from 3,362 the previous year. The numbers refer to actions taken, not on individual books banned.

At least 13 titles were banned for the first time, including Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which describes the journey of an enslaved person from Africa to the U.S., and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, the acclaimed semi-autographical work set in Harlem, New York. The restrictions have impacted titles by other well-known and respected authors, from Agatha Christie and Alice Walker to Jodi Picoult and Toni Morrison. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, noted that about 50% of the challenged books were about or written by people of color or people who identify as LGBTQ.

PEN, the non-profit organization dedicated to freedom of expression, said that approximately 8,000 instances of book bans took place in Florida and Iowa, as both states enforced sweeping laws targeting classroom material. Republican-led efforts to pass legislation restricting access to certain materials have been seen this year in Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah and Tennessee. But lawsuits have also sprung up challenging book bans based on constitutional grounds.

But, as Banned Books Week begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide, NBC News points out that there were some glimmers of hope. The American Library Association recently found a substantial drop so far this year in complaints about books stocked in public, school and academic libraries, and in the number of books receiving objections. However, Caldwell-Stone also noted that book challenges may have declined slightly because targeted books have already been removed. And she added that these censorship efforts “significantly ticked up” again when most children returned to school after Labor Day.

Violence Escalates in the Middle East

Israeli strikes cause deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly 2 decades

Lebanon's health ministry said that around 500 people were killed and more than 1,600 wounded in a massive wave of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday. The barrage of strikes come with Israel and Hezbollah staring down the possibility of all-out war. They were the most wide-ranging and deadliest the Israel Defense Forces have launched inside Lebanon since the 2006 war between Israel and the militant group.

According to the Associated Press, thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006. In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”

Meanwhile, President Biden has warned (both publicly and privately) for a year about the need to avoid a regional war—one that could easily escalate into direct conflict between Israel and Iran. He even held on to hope for the transformative peace deal for the Middle East that he thought was within grasp, believing it could survive even as the war between Hamas and Israel tore at its foundations. Now, aides tell the New York Times, the president is beginning to acknowledge that he is simply running out of time. With only four months left in office, the chances of a cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas look dimmer than at any time since Biden laid out a plan at the beginning of the summer. And the risk of a wider war has never looked greater.

1 in 3 Former NFL Players Could Have CTE

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy has been linked to health problems and suicide

One-third of former professional football players reported in a new survey that they believe they have the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The research, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Neurology, represents one of the broadest surveys to date of former NFL players' perception of their cognitive health and how widely they report symptoms linked to CTE, which is thought to be caused by concussions and repeated hits to the head.

The study included nearly 2,000 former National Football League players who were part of the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. Researchers found that those who think they have CTE report many more cognitive problems than those who don’t think they have it. They also are more likely to report low testosterone, depression, headaches and chronic pain. Because those and other conditions can create cognitive problems even when there was no head injury, the symptoms may not be related to CTE.

The study was published amid the controversy surrounding Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who recently experienced another concussion in a game during Week 2. The 26-year-old already had a disturbing history of head injuries, this time seen curling his fingers while lying on the field in a manner associated with brain trauma. The NFL has come under fire for not doing enough to prevent concussions and other traumatic head injuries to its players. In response, the league revamped its concussion protocol so that athletes are now required to undergo neurological baseline tests before they can return to action if they are suspected of having suffered a concussion.

An Asteroid Is Headed Towards Earth

And it’s expected to spend about two months orbiting the planet as a “mini moon”

Well this is different that most movie depictions: An asteroid is headed towards our planet, but instead of crashing into Earth, it’s expected to spend about two months orbiting the planet as it gets temporarily caught in our planetary gravity, according to two astronomers in Spain who reported the discovery.

According to CNN, the asteroid is likely about 37 feet (11 meters) in diameter, but more observations and data are needed to confirm its size. The space rock, which has been named “2024 PT5”, will travel around the Earth in a “horseshoe” path for about two months, from Sept. 29 to Nov. 25. And as NPR points out, this isn’t the first time such a phenomenon has happened. In 2020, astronomers identified another mini-moon, 2020 CD3, which orbited the Earth for over a year. This also will not be 2024 PT5’s only visit—scientists predict it will be captured again by Earth’s gravity in 2055.

But the bad news? The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, and home telescopes likely won’t cut it. “The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the authors of the journal entry describing the asteroid, told Space.com.

The Long Read

The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives

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