US Domestic News Roundup: The doctors, dentists and anthropologists striving to identify Maui's victims; Trump to skip Republican debate, interview with ex-Fox host Carlson -NYT and more

Jean Carroll case 'frivolous' A U.S. judge on Friday ruled that former President Donald Trump had filed a "frivolous" appeal of his decision not to dismiss the first of writer E.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

The doctors, dentists and anthropologists striving to identify Maui's victims

Inside a temporary morgue near the Maui County coroner's office, a team of specialists – including forensic pathologists, X-ray technicians, fingerprint experts and forensic dentists – labor 12 hours a day to identify the charred remains of the victims of this month's cataclysmic wildfire. They are members of the federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team program, or DMORT, deployed when a mass fatality incident overwhelms local authorities.

Trump to skip Republican debate, interview with ex-Fox host Carlson -NYT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump plans to skip the first Republican primary debate next week and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter. Trump has for months suggested that he would likely pass on Wednesday night's debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arguing that it did not make sense to give others a change to attack him given his sizeable lead among Republicans in national polls.

Bidens staying at Lake Tahoe home of climate activist Tom Steyer

President Joe Biden, his wife Jill, son Hunter and other family members have arrived at Lake Tahoe for a week of August vacation, and they are staying at a home rented from billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer. The Bidens arrived late on Friday in the Glenbrook community on the eastern shore of the lake, on the Nevada side. Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, own the home but are not present.

Hurricane Hilary barrels towards Baja California peninsula, southwest US

Hurricane Hilary hurtled towards Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Sunday, blanketing the region with heavy rain amid warnings of catastrophic and life-threatening flooding on the peninsula and in the U.S. Southwest. One man died in the Baja California Sur state when a family of five was swept away into the sea while crossing a stream, according to a Mexican official, who also shared images of flooding and roads that were swept away in the area.

US warns space companies about foreign spying

U.S. counterintelligence agencies on Friday warned the American space industry to guard against efforts by foreign intelligence entities to steal research and trade secrets as they try to boost their own countries' space programs. "We anticipate growing threats to this burgeoning sector of the U.S. economy," a U.S. counterintelligence official told Reuters, adding that "China and Russia are among the leading foreign intelligence threats to the U.S. space industry."

US CDC tracks new lineage of virus that causes COVID

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19. The lineage is named BA.2.86, and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel, the CDC said in a post on messaging platform X.

Judge finds Donald Trump's appeal in E. Jean Carroll case 'frivolous'

A U.S. judge on Friday ruled that former President Donald Trump had filed a "frivolous" appeal of his decision not to dismiss the first of writer E. Jean Carroll's two defamation lawsuits stemming from her claim that he raped her. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan also denied Trump's bid to put Carroll's case on hold while he appeals the June 29 decision, which found that Trump did not deserve absolute presidential immunity for calling her a liar.

The rise of anti-trans bills in the U.S.

Lawmakers in 37 U.S. states have introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans and gender-expansive people this year, nearly three times as many as last year. Four-fifths target gender-affirming care for trans children under 18, while the remainder target adults or anyone regardless of age. Reuters has reviewed the bills, taking stock of where they stand in the approval process, the treatments they seek to restrict and the penalties they would impose.