Meta may launch a Threads web version early this week

Illustration: The Verge

Meta will launch the web version of Threads, its competitor to X (formerly known as Twitter) early this week, reports The Wall Street Journal. A web version has been frustratingly missing since the short-form posting service began.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is working on adding the feature along with better search (well, search at all, really — right now, you can only search for usernames on the platform) earlier this month, and that it would be ready in “the next few weeks.”

However, WSJ says, its sources say the feature’s “launch plans aren’t final and could change.” Mosseri posted on Threads last week that Meta had been testing “an early version internally for a week or two,” but that it “needs some work” before wide...

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Trump confirms he will skip Republican primary debate

Ex-president is said to believe counter-programming would benefit his campaign and humiliate Fox News

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will not attend the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, amid reports that he is weighing several options in an attempt to upstage the opening event in the party’s nominating contest.

The former president confirmed on his social media platform that he would be attending no primary debates. “New CBS poll, just out, has me leading the field by ‘legendary’ numbers… I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES.”

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Qantas faces class action over pandemic travel credits treated as ‘$1bn in interest-free loans’

Proceedings against airline ‘on behalf of hundreds of thousands’ of customers aims to force refunds for flight credits and compensation due to lost interest

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Qantas is facing a class action lawsuit over its refund policy for flights cancelled due to the pandemic, with lawyers alleging the airline’s use of travel credits allowed them to treat their customers’ money as more than “$1bn in interest-free loans”.

On Monday, class action firm Echo Law announced it had lodged proceedings against Qantas in the federal court “on behalf of hundreds of thousands” of pandemic-affected travellers with an aim of forcing refunds for all remaining flights credits and compensation due to lost interest on customers’ money held by Qantas.

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Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

First lunar attempt since Soviet era ends in катастрофа

Russia’s rushed attempt to land a probe on the Moon has failed.…

My milkshake brings all the boys to the graveyard [Followup]

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Canada wildfires: Trudeau deploys military to tackle blazes across British Columbia

More than 35,000 residents under evacuation orders across province, while flames are being held at bay 15km from Yellowknife in Northwest Territories

Canada will send in armed forces to tackle fast-spreading wildfires in British Columbia, prime minister Justin Trudeau has said, as more than 35,000 people were put under evacuation orders in the western province.

British Columbia imposed a state of emergency late on Friday, giving officials more power to deal with fire risks. The main fire was centered around Kelowna, a city 300km (180 miles) east of Vancouver with a population of about 150,000.

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Tropical Storm Hilary brings flash-floods and tornado warnings to southern California – follow live

National Hurricane Center warns of torrential rains and high winds from Mexico to Nevada, as Los Angeles hit by earthquake

• Tropical Storm Hilary brings flooding to California

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Tropical Storm Hilary with me, Helen Livingstone.

The storm made landfall in Mexico’s Baja California on Sunday, causing torrential rains and flooding and killing one person; it’s now on its way to southern California, packing winds of 80mph.

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Diving platform collapse injured several at water park in Rust. Alec Baldwin questioned about wetsuit and hacksaw [Scary]

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Photoshop these prodigious panels [Photoshop]

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Looks Like the Website for Trump's Patriot Legal Defense Fund Just Got Hacked

The website for former President Donald Trump’s legal defense fund appears to have been hacked and defaced over the weekend. As of the writing of this blog, the defacement is still live on the site and has not been taken down.

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Author very upset that city of Seattle tries to keep cars from speeding through school zones when children are present [Dumbass]

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Fine airlines if they fail in legal duty to customers, urges Which?

Consumer rights group and travel agents call for regulator to be given powers to act amid flight cancellations

Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said.

In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations.

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The death of Yodel-oh-ee-dee diddly-odel-oh-ee-dee diddly-odel-oh-ee-dee-ing [Strange]

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Jimmy Carter getting close to shelling his last peanut [Sad]

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Because a hurricane isn't enough, a 5.1 hits Southern California [News]

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Australia news live: coal power station operator joins huge offshore wind project

The Elanora Offshore project off Gippsland would provide enough clean energy for 40% of Victoria’s present-day needs. Follow the day’s news live

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And happy Monday! Welcome back to another week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you today. Here’s what’s making news early this morning, before we get into our rolling coverage:

AAP is reporting that a consortium of energy companies will bid to build an offshore windfarm off the coast of Victoria’s Gippsland region, which could provide enough clean energy to meet 40% of Victoria’s power needs when fully operational. EnergyAustralia, which operates the Yallourn coal power station in Victoria, is part of the consortium.

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It may be time to reevaluate your life if you're 29 years old and get arrested on 14 charges after driving a go-kart [Stupid]

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There are those who record themselves committing crimes and then there is this guy [Facepalm]

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Ecuador heads to the polls amid high security after candidate’s murder

After the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, voters are hoping the next president can overturn rising violence and economic turmoil

Ecuadoreans are choosing a new president in early elections amid a powerful display of security after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio less than two weeks before the vote.

Voters are heading to the polls in the backdrop of rising crime, violence and economic turmoil.

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Russia’s Luna-25 space craft ‘ceased to exist’ after colliding with the Moon.

Luna-25 launching from Russia earlier this month. | Photo by Xinhua via Getty Images

Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft failed to land on the Moon, Roscosmos, Russia’s state-run space corporation, announced today. In a statement, the organization reported that the lander “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.” It would’ve been the country’s first Moon landing since 1976.

Luna-25 entered orbit around the Moon last week, and was meant to orbit for just five days before landing on Monday, August 21st, but over the weekend, Roscosmos said it was analyzing a “technical glitch” that occurred as it was preparing the craft to move to a pre-landing orbit. Now the organization says Luna-25 has been lost.

Russia was pushing to beat India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to land on the Moon. That spacecraft also...

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Louisiana school district moved to a 4 day school week. You better believe some parents have a problem with that [Obvious]

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Court records detail basis for police raid on Kansas newspaper

Reporter Phyllis Zorn and editor Eric Meyer said no laws were broken in their investigation of local restaurateur Kari Newell

The police chief who led the raid of a Kansas newspaper alleged in previously unreleased court documents that a reporter either impersonated someone else or lied about her intentions when she obtained the driving records of a local business owner.

But reporter Phyllis Zorn, Marion County Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer and the newspaper’s attorney said on Sunday that no laws were broken when Zorn accessed a public state website for information on restaurant operator Kari Newell.

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CPAC Australia defends comedian who referred to traditional owners as ‘violent black men’

CPAC Australia, an organisation chaired by Warren Mundine, calls speaker’s comments a ‘comedy’ skit

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The anti-Indigenous voice campaign leader Warren Mundine’s organisation, CPAC Australia, has defended a comedian who referred to traditional owners as “violent black men” and called the Indigenous leader Bennelong a “woman-basher” at a conservative political conference.

It came hours after another no campaign spokesperson, Gary Johns, claimed some people in Indigenous communities lived in a “stupor” and recommended they “learn English”. Those claims were described as “nasty rubbish” by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

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Photoshop this secret code [Photoshop]

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Ten-year-old Sara Sharif known to Surrey authorities before her death

Council is conducting rapid safeguarding review after death that has sparked international manhunt

A 10-year-old girl whose death sparked an international manhunt was previously known to the authorities, Surrey county council has confirmed.

Sara Sharif was found dead at her home near Woking on 10 August having suffered multiple and extensive injuries, which Surrey police said were likely to have been caused “over a sustained and extended period of time”.

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