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“It’s so wide open,” says Martina Navratilova on Sky Sports about the women’s draw, and I’m in total agreement with her – though I’m not sure even if I did disagree that I’d have the gumption to argue with Martina. Sabalenka, Gauff, Rybakina, Andreeva, Swiatek, Pegula, Anisimova … you really could take your pick. And that’s without even mentioning the Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, the two-time US Open winner Naomi Osaka, the ever-improving Marta Kostyuk and the rising Iva Jovic and Alexandra Eala. I think this year is too soon for Jovic and Eala – especially as the winner of their match later could face Gauff in the last 16 – but the strength and depth at the top of women’s game is seriously impressive.

The sun is out and two Americans, Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys, will get this Labor Day weekend under way at Flushing Meadows. Anisimova, last year’s finalist at the US Open and Wimbledon, plays the Russian-born Austrian Anastasia Potapova on Louis Armstrong, while Keys, after her great escape in round two, where she saved five match points, faces the 2024 Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen on Grandstand.

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Judge issued order as part of discovery process in lawsuit brought by non-profit into now defunct compensation fund

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reveal who set up the structure of a controversial $1.8bn “anti-weaponization fund” to recompense victims of political lawfare that was reportedly dropped by the justice department last month.

The US magistrate judge Ivan Davis for eastern district of Virginia issued the order compelling discovery materials from the government as part of a lawsuit brought by the Democracy Forward non-profit on behalf of plaintiffs including a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest against an immigration raid in California.

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Like France, the UK has always been centralised – and imposing a new political structure brings huge risks

Devolution in England is going to be messy and slow, and brings with it huge risks that Andy Burnham ignores at his peril.

The prime minister’s devolution push will be messy because Whitehall’s ingrained anxiety about handing over money and power will lead to piecemeal deals, starting with a deal for Cornwall that will lack the much-promised driving force of a newly minted mayor.

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Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said this week he's removing Flock cameras from state roadways. And according to a local news report, that led sheriff's departments in at least three other Florida counties to also "announce they're ending their own license plate reader programs." The same week in Texas, the Dallas Police Department announced it's also shutting down over 300 more Flock cameras, acccording to The Hill, after Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to halt funding.

And in Wisconsin "at least a dozen" law enforcement agencies announced they'd suspend use of Flock's cameras, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, joining Wisconsin cities like Appleton, Oshkosh and Kenosha that also cancelled their Flock contracts. But this week's cancellations had a new reason:

Officials said it was revealed [Flock] had been collecting five years of traffic data, which had been stripped of identifying information, from cities' Flock cameras, and repackaging that as a traffic analytics product to sell to cities.

All said they supported the effectiveness of the technology in investigations, but cited losing faith in the company's trustworthiness. "This is not what we agreed to, and it is not what the public was led to believe," said Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling in a news release announcing the removal of Flock cameras operated by the agency. "The Sheriff's Office will not participate in a system that appears to use public safety as a justification for mass surveillance and the collection and monetization of information about innocent people...."

[Racine County] officials were told the company believed if it stripped the data of any identifiable nature, it was then considered to be the company's property and no longer the city's. [Lt. Michael Luell, the sheriff's public information officer] said the sheriff's office has outside attorneys, along with the county's attorneys, investigating the company's move. "Our contract, from my reading of it is, it stated they agreed not to distribute or sell our data," Luell told the Journal Sentinel. "But they had this legal theory."


Thanks to long-time Slashdot readers MAurelius and schwit1 for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Decodaira, Asagimadara
デコ平のアサギマダラ

Here is another close-up of the Chestnut Tiger butterfly.
アサギマダラのクローズアップをもう一枚。

Kitashiobaramura, Fukushima pref, Japan

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Akagawa fireworks festival
赤川花火大会

I’ve taken a close-up shot of the colorful fireworks. The colors are becoming increasingly vibrant.

カラフルな花火をアップにしました。色彩はますます華やかになっています。

Tsuruoka city, Yamagata pref, Japan

peaceful-jp-scenery has added a photo to the pool:

Decodaira, Asagimadara
デコ平のアサギマダラ

Here is another close-up of the Chestnut Tiger butterfly.
アサギマダラのクローズアップをもう一枚。

Kitashiobaramura, Fukushima pref, Japan

LEYBURN (ANP/BELGA) - Wielrenner Cees Bol heeft de vierde en voorlaatste etappe in de Ronde van Groot-Brittannië op zijn naam geschreven. De 31-jarige Nederlander van het team Decathlon CMA CGM was in aankomstplaats Leyburn de snelste in een oplopende sprint.

De Belg Tim Wellens eindigde op drie seconden achterstand als tweede. Fabio Christen uit Zwitserland finishte op 21 tellen als derde.

De 35-jarige Wellens nam dankzij zijn tweede plaats de leiderstrui over van de Brit Lewis Askey, die zondag in de slotrit 21 seconden moet goed zien te maken. De Italiaan Matteo Trentin is derde op 40 seconden.

22e editie

De 22e editie van de Ronde van Groot-Brittannië eindigt zondag met een heuvelrit in en om het Schotse Earlston.

Vrijdag ging de etappezege in de ronde ook naar een Nederlander, Olav Kooij.