Leif Ames

Ugh:

A tractor-trailer rollover sent a truckload of squid spilling into a Rhode Island roadway, leaving a stench as they sat in the road for hours in the summer heat. Local authorities have dubbed it the “Squidpocalypse of ’26.”

That would be twenty tons of squid.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

The Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Russian strikes in Kyiv, Israeli settlers in the West Bank and tributes to Dolly Parton – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Report: player posed as nearly two years younger

• Scheme allegedly included fake grave and records

• $2.8m agreement with Guardians was canceled

A once-prized prospect from the Dominican Republic has been suspended by Major League Baseball after a league investigation revealed the player was part of an elaborate plot to portray him ⁠as nearly two years younger than he actually was, ESPN reported Friday.

The age-fraud plot included extreme efforts by the player’s handler such as falsifying school and medical records, faking birth and death certificates ⁠and even staging a gravesite, per ⁠the report.

• Authorities say 26 women targeted across four states

• Suspect allegedly used dating apps, fake investments

• FBI believes there may be ‘many more victims’

Federal authorities claim a man posed as a San Francisco 49ers player and scammed more than ⁠two dozen women out of about $1.3m.

The FBI arrested Daejon Love, 35, and his alleged accomplice ⁠Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, on ⁠24 August in Boise, Idaho. They were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, according ⁠to the US attorney’s office in the District of Oregon. The men remain in federal custody in Boise.

Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital seeks to acquire land to construct private road to development outside park

The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to give a parcel of land inside Yosemite, the country’s first national park and one of its most popular, to a Nevada-based private developer.

Staff with the National Park Service have been exploring how the agency can give a quarter-mile parcel to a company operated by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the news outlet Notus reported on Friday, citing agency documents and unnamed sources “directly familiar with discussions”.

• Man claims he was coached extensively by authorities

• Pennsylvania says recantation is ‘highly suspect’

• Sandusky serving sentence after 2012 conviction

A judge has granted a hearing to explore claims that a man wants to recant allegations of sexual abuse years ago by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012. Eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly lost efforts to get a new trial, but Sandusky’s lawyers are trying again.

A former editor of Breitbart News, Yiannopoulos has also served as an intern for Marjorie Taylor Greene

Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right British political commentator, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In a statement on Friday, a DHS spokesperson said that Yiannopoulos was arrested on Thursday at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport (MSY). The spokesperson said Yiannopoulos “legally entered the country” in May 2019, but that “he chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws”.

Climber, stuck on 6in ridge, had veered off treacherous path and ‘any fall would almost certainly be fatal’

An ill-fated move left a man stranded on a 6in ledge over 10,000ft off the ground for hours in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, before a volunteer rescue team came to his aid.

The climber, who has not been publicly identified, had been scaling the Mendenhall couloir, a gully on the face of Laurel mountain, with a friend on Saturday.

National Park Service, which backs the 250ft arch, says it is likely to disrupt historical significance of dozens of sites

A new National Park Service report backs Donald Trump’s proposed arch, despite what it says are adverse effects to the sightlines of a host of landmarks in Washington, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.

The report released on Friday says the 250ft-tall (76-meter) memorial arch is likely to disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location adjacent to the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

Nearly 600 days after the devastating 2025 fires, thousands of Los Angeles residents are still waiting for more than $15bn in federal funds to rebuild their communities

As thousands of residents in Spokane, Washington, begin to grapple with a long recovery after a destructive set of blazes that consumed hundreds of homes in the state’s second most populated city this month, victims of the Los Angeles firestorm broke a grim record – they have faced the longest delay in modern history for federal aid.

Nearly 600 days since a historic firestorm roared into communities across Los Angeles, reducing more than 16,000 structures to ash and toxic debris, the Trump administration has failed to appropriate more than $15bn in long-term recovery funds that are crucial to rebuilding. The delay in supplying the badly needed funds is months longer than the last record set when victims of the Maui fires had to wait 500 days to receive the support, LAist noted this week.

US president says US will have ‘majority’ control of 65bn barrels of proven oil reserves

Donald Trump announced Friday a new US oil agreement with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez, saying the US will have “majority” control of 65bn barrels of proven oil reserves.

The terms of the agreement remain to be seen, but the US president said on his social-media platform that it had been brokered “through a partnership with ⁠private business” by his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.