Code Red: Touring the damage from Hurricane Ida yesterday in New York and New Jersey, President Biden declared a “Cod Red” for climate change. “The nation and the world are in peril,” the president said in New York City. “And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.”

  Biden plans to ask Congress for $26 billion in disaster relief. “Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, our economy, and the threat is here,” he said. “It’s not going to get any better. The question is: Can it get worse?”

Whole of Shakin’: A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck near the Mexican port city of Acapulco last night, also shaking Mexico City more than 230 miles away and killing at least one person. 

  As many as 1.6 million customers were left without power.

  Any quake in the seven range is really big. Mexico’s national seismological service recorded 92 aftershocks in the hours following the initial shaker. 

South of the Border: Just across the border from Texas, where abortion is now all but entirely illegal, the Supreme Court of Mexico has ruled that the procedure is legally acceptable in that country.

  The Mexican court unanimously threw out several provisions of a law from Coahuila, a state on the Texas border, that had made abortion a criminal act. Until this decision, only four Mexican states, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Hidalgo, have allowed abortion in most circumstances. The other 28 states penalize abortion with some exceptions.

  Mexico is a very Catholic country, so it is also significant that this decision was arrived at for secular legal reasons. The court’s president said, “From now on you will not be able to, without violating the court’s criteria and the constitution, charge any woman who aborts under the circumstances this court has ruled as valid.”

The Hard Road: The Taliban has announced a new interim government for Afghanistan indicating that they haven’t changed. Despite promises of  moderation, the new government includes no women or members of the country’s former leadership. The lineup of senior leaders includes former Guantanamo inmates, members of a designated terror group, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s “most-wanted” list, who will be the acting interior minister. 

  The Taliban have already used gunfire, arrests, and beatings against protesters marching against the new regime.

Free Britney: Britney Spears’ father filed a court motion to end the conservatorship through which he has controlled the pop singer’s life and money for 13 years.

  The motion filed by James Spears says, “As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter.” It says, “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.”

  His daughter had already filed suit to end her father’s control over her life. James Spears has repeatedly said there’s no reason to end the conservatorship. The singer’s troubles started 20 years ago when she had a string of romances, a 55-hour marriage, gave birth to two children, and had a public meltdown.

  By all appearances, she has stabilized. “I just want my life back,” Britney Spears said in a June court appearance. “And it’s been 13 years and it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.”

The Spin Rack: — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott yesterday signed into law the bill that creates strict new voting rules in the state and it already faces at least five challenges in state and federal courts — Congressional committees are expected this week to begin drafting tax increases for corporations and the rich to pay for a $3.5 trillion social policy bill. — Howard University has shut down all online and in person/online courses because of a ransomware attack.

The Obit Page: Adlai E. Stevenson III, a member of the family that produced generations of Illinois Democrats, who served 10 years in the Senate and lost two races for governor, died at home in Chicago at age 90.

  He was the son of Adlai E. Stevenson II, the Illinois governor who ran for president twice, losing both Dwight  Eisenhower.

  There is also an Adlai IV and V. Adlai III had been an Illinois state legislator and  treasurer before winning a special election to succeed Sen. Everett Dirksen, who had died in office. “It was ordained at birth that I would go into a life of public service,” Stevenson said after his election. “The question was never ‘whether’ — it was always ‘when’ and ‘how.’”

Food for Thought: NY Times columnist Brett Stephens offers this dim assessment of the current state of the country: “We are a country that could not keep a demagogue from the White House; could not stop an insurrectionist mob from storming the Capitol; could not win (or at least avoid losing) a war against a morally and technologically retrograde enemy; cannot conquer a disease for which there are safe and effective vaccines; and cannot bring itself to trust the government, the news media, the scientific establishment, the police or any other institution meant to operate for the common good.”

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