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Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

20
Editors
·5 min read

Lawmakers ask for review of 'damage' to national security in Mar-a-Lago document storage

Democratic chairs of two House committees asked Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to review if former President Donald Trump's actions in storing documents at his residence damaged national security. In a letter to Haines on Saturday, House Oversight Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and House Intelligence Chair Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif said if media reports were true that Trump had documents containing information about nuclear weapons and other highly classified topics, "it is hard to overstate the national security danger that could emanate from the reckless decision to remove and retain this material."

Sen. Ed Markey leads US delegation to Taiwan, 12 days after Pelosi trip

A delegation of American lawmakers is visiting Taiwan just 12 days after a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered China. The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors. The Chinese government objects to Taiwan having any official contact with foreign governments, particularly with a high-ranking congressional leader like Pelosi. China responded to Pelosi’s Aug. 2 visit by sending missiles, warships and warplanes into the seas and skies around Taiwan for several days afterward, and Chinese warplanes have been crossing the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait on a daily basis even after the conclusion of the military exercises, with at least 10 doing so on Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said.

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In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from left, U.S. Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California, Democratic Rep. John Garamendi, Donald Yu-Tien Hsu of Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer from Virginia and Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, pose for a photo after arriving on Aug. 14, 2022, a U.S. government plane at Songshan airport in Taipei, Taiwan.

Real quick

Concerns for nuclear catastrophe rise at Ukraine's damaged Zaporizhzhia plant

Concerns that a nuclear catastrophe could take place at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant were on the rise Sunday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to target Russian soldiers using Europe's largest nuclear facility as cover to shell nearby cities. The two nations have blamed each other for rocket attacks near the Russian-occupied plant. Ukraine says Russia is shelling nearby regions from the plant and storing weapons there – and that Russia's latest attack last week damaged radiation-monitoring equipment at the plant’s fire station. Also Sunday, A UN ship loaded with more than 25,000 tons of Ukrainian grain destined for Ethiopia set sail from a Black Sea port near Odesa, the first shipment of its kind in a program to assist countries facing famine.

Friends gather Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022, at the damaged home of Ivan Fartukh, who was killed in a Russian rocket attack last night in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. According to the mayor, the strike killed three people and wounded 13 others. The attack came less than a day after 11 other rockets were fired at the city, one of the two main Ukrainian-held ones in Donetsk province, the focus of an ongoing Russian offensive to capture eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.

Author Salman Rushdie 'on the road to recovery' after stabbing attack, suspect held without bail

Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent Andrew Wylie confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in New York. Rushdie, 75, whose work has previously led to death threats, suffered wounds to the neck and abdomen when an assailant attacked him as he was about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. The author was taken off a ventilator Saturday, and was able to talk after suffering a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and injuries to an eye that he was likely to lose, Wylie said. The 24-year-old suspect arrested after the attack pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault charges and was ordered to be held without bail.

'Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie in surgery after suffering 'apparent stab wound to the neck'
'Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie in surgery after suffering 'apparent stab wound to the neck'

WHO plans to rename monkeypox over concerns name may be derogatory, have racist connotations

The World Health Organization says it's holding an open forum to rename the disease monkeypox, after some critics raised concerns the name could be derogatory or have racist connotations. The U.N. health agency said it has also renamed two families, or clades, of the virus, using Roman numerals instead of geographic areas, to avoid stigmatization. WHO said the decision was made following a meeting of scientists this week and in line with current best practices for naming diseases, which aims to "avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare." WHO said it was also opening a way for the public to suggest new names for monkeypox, but did not say when any new name would be announced.

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This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lawmakers in Taiwan, Mar-a-Lago updates, renaming Monkeypox: Weekend's biggest news