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The IRS said Friday that it has recovered $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from high-income Americans who had either failed to file their returns or who hadn't fully paid what they owed. 

The announcement, made jointly with the U.S. Treasury Department, is aimed at highlighting the agency's ramped-up enforcement efforts against tax cheats, which have been funded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. 

That IRS funding has proved controversial, with some Republican lawmakers falsely claiming the money would be used to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to "to audit Walmart shoppers."

Robinson, who is running for governor as a Republican, has publicly backed the current ban in the state, which restricts abortion after 12 weeks.

A Democratic group has released new audio of North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor, saying that he wants to get abortion restrictions down to “zero” weeks. 

In the audio, which the group said was recorded on Sept. 3 at a Robinson campaign event in Troy, N.C., a woman asked Robinson about his stance on abortion and why he was supporting North Carolina’s current 12-week ban on the procedure. 

Robinson replied by saying, “That 12 weeks, exceptions for rape and incest … I’m not going to say it’s reasonable. But my faith allows me to live with that, because that’s where the consensus is. Do I want to continue to lower it? You better know it. I would love to get down to six weeks. And I’d like to get down to zero. I would like to push it back as far as we could and eliminate as many abortions as we can.”

Former President Donald Trump vowed to change the 25th Amendment to allow for the removal of the vice president if they hide the “incapacity of the president.”

During a Saturday rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, Trump offered a new proposal to modify the 25th Amendment. Trump and his supporters have often attacked Joe Biden by alleging he is mentally unfit to serve as president while claiming Kamala Harris has hid this fact from the public.

The 25th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is designed to set up a line of succession if the president dies or becomes incapacitated. It allows the vice president to become president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office by impeachment.

Users say harmful content from accounts they do not follow appears even after requests to block it

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The Observer has uncovered seven further groups, with a combined total of almost 200,000 members, openly sharing content that promotes ­eating disorders. All of the groups were ­created after Twitter was bought by the billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded as X.

Eating-disorder campaigners said the scale of harmful content ­demonstrates serious failings in moderation by X. Wera Hobhouse MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on eating disorders, said: “These findings are most concerning … X should be held accountable for allowing this harmful content to be promoted on its platform, which puts many lives at risk.”

The internet has long been a breeding ground for content that promotes eating disorders – sometimes called “pro-ana” – from ­message boards to early social media sites including Tumblr and Pinterest. Both sites banned posts promoting eating disorders and self-harm in 2012 after an outcry over their proliferation.

Debbie said she remembers the pro-ana internet message boards, “but you’d have to search to find them”, she said.

This kind of content is now more accessible than ever and, critics of social media companies argue, is pushed to users by algorithms, which serve people more – and sometimes increasingly extreme – posts.

Also first time for someone with H5 virus to be hospitalized, and CDC says it is studying patient specimen more

A person in Missouri with no known animal contact has tested positive for H5 bird flu, the state’s department of health and senior services said Friday.

It’s the first time a patient in the US outbreak has had no known exposure to sick animals. And it is the first time someone has been hospitalized with bird flu – though it’s not clear yet whether influenza was the reason for hospitalization or it was incidental.

The patient, who has underlying health conditions, was hospitalized on 22 August and tested positive for flu A. Doctors sent a sample to the Missouri state public health laboratory, where it was found to be of the H5 subtype, which is also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza – or bird flu.

The United States has informed allies that it believes Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter.

They did not offer any details about how many weapons have been delivered or when the transfers may have occurred, but they confirmed the U.S. intelligence finding. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been publicly disclosed.

The White House declined to confirm the weapons transfer but reiterated its concern that Iran is deepening its support of Russia. The White House has been warning Iran for months not to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia.

Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns did not list examples but there has been a spate of mysterious sabotage and arson attacks on infrastructure in the UK, Germany and in the Baltics.

Russia is waging a "reckless campaign of sabotage" across Europe, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned in their first-ever joint remarks.

Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns also said the UK and the US faced an "unprecedented array of threats", and said the entire world order was under the most serious strain since the Cold War.

In a newspaper article, the spymasters pointed to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, while also describing China as "the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century".

New court documents reveal that Russia is keeping a very, very long list of influencers to spread its propaganda.

The Russian disinformation plot revealed in a Justice Department indictment this week may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to newly unsealed court documents.

On Wednesday, the DOJ announced it would seize 32 internet domains linked to a larger Kremlin scheme to promote disinformation and influence the 2024 election. The Russian campaign, known as Doppelganger, uses AI-generated content to create “fake news” boosted through social media with the aim of electing Donald Trump. 

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Of particular note, the documents released Wednesday included an affidavit that noted a Russian company is keeping a list of more than 2,800 influencers world wide, about one-fifth of whom are based in the United States, to monitor and potentially groom to spread Russian propaganda. The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers, but is still a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes.

US health officials have confirmed a human case of bird flu in a patient that had no immediately known animal exposure.

The patient, in the state of Missouri, was treated in hospital and has since recovered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

It is the 14th human case of bird flu in the US in 2024 and the first without a known occupational exposure to infected animals, according to the CDC.

Ruling, which may be reviewed by appellate court, could strike reproductive rights measure off November ballot

A Missouri judge has ruled that a ballot measure asking voters whether abortion rights should be enshrined in the state constitution is invalid, potentially jeopardizing an election scheduled for November.

In a ruling issued on Friday, Cole county circuit judge Christopher Limbaugh said that the reproductive rights petition – also known as Amendment 3 – led by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom did not comply with state law.

Abortion rights activists are hopeful an appellate court could reverse Limbaugh’s decision, but for now it remains unclear whether voters will be able to decide the issue as scheduled on 5 November, the same day as the presidential election.

Police said an argument between groom James Shirah and groomsman Terry Lewis Taylor Jr. after the wedding allegedly led Shirah to hit Taylor Jr. with an SUV at high speed.

A bride and groom were arrested in Flint, Michigan, last week after the groom allegedly ran over and killed one of his groomsmen hours after the wedding, according to police.

The City of Flint Police Department responded to the 1400 block of E Hamilton Avenue on Aug. 30 for a report of a "pedestrian injury crash," the department said Wednesday in a Facebook post. 

The victim was identified as 29-year-old Terry Lewis Taylor Jr., who was found with severe injuries and taken to a nearby medical center where he later died.