National Dog Day is Saturday, Aug. 26, and with dogs in shelters currently being killed at a higher rate than years past, it’s an ideal time to talk about how people can help save the lives of homeless canines across the country.
Every day in the United States, more than 450 dogs are being killed in shelters simply because they don’t have homes. That’s about 20 dogs every hour at shelters across the country.

"Dogs bring joy and unconditional love to our lives, but the great paradox right now is that we are literally killing our best friends," said Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society. "We are on a trajectory to take the country no-kill and save the lives of homeless pets in every community and every shelter, but in order to do that, we need everyone who loves pets to get on board and help their local shelter right now."

According to data from Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of cats and dogs in America’s shelters by 2025, dogs entering shelters increased in 2022 by approximately 100,000. At the same time, dog adoptions have stalled at just under one million nationwide and industry data shows that dogs acquired from breeders and pet stores have been steadily increasing over the past few years.

After a jam-packed week that featured dual tropical storms affecting Texas and the Desert Southwest, another tropical threat may be brewing for U.S. soil. Meteorologists are tracking a disturbance organizing in the western Caribbean, with a growing likelihood that it could enter the Gulf of Mexico and move ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast around the middle of next week.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami estimates a 70 percent chance of eventual development. In recent days, weather models, namely the European model and the German ICON model, were hinting at a potential tropical storm for the midweek. The American GFS model, however, was stubborn, insisting no storm would form — until now.
At this point, confidence is growing that something will develop in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf waters are exceptionally warm, meaning anything that did come together would have ample fuel to draw upon. A bigger wild card will be high-altitude wind dynamics, which may work against the intensification of whatever nascent storm crops up.

Meteorologist are also keeping close tabs on Tropical Storm Franklin, which lashed Hispaniola earlier in the week with damaging winds, copious rainfall and mudslides. Now the system is charging northward and could attain Category 2 hurricane status southwest of Bermuda in the coming days.

SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida as Elon Musk’s company begins its 11th human spaceflight mission to date.

Known as Crew-7, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the space station for a six-month stay in orbit. The mission is SpaceX’s sixth operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the first of the additional missions the agency awarded SpaceX.

Crew-7 launched in the early hours of Saturday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, beginning a nearly one day journey to the ISS.

The mission brings the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 42, including both government and private missions, since its first crewed launch in May 2020.
Crew-7 consists of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli as the commander, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen from Denmark as the pilot, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov as mission specialists.

Trey Lance has played his final down with the San Francisco 49ers. Just two days after demoting him, the 49ers traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2024 fourth-round pick, as confirmed by CBS Sports Lead NFL Insider Jonathan Jones.
San Francisco receives draft capital for Lance, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The Cowboys get a 23-year-old quarterback to potentially back up starter Dak Prescott.

The writing was on the wall for Lance in San Francisco when the 49ers demoted him to third-string behind starter Brock Purdy and backup Sam Darnold. Lance was slated to play in the 49ers' third preseason game on Friday night against the Chargers prior to being traded to Dallas.

Lance, who suffered an injury after just two starts last season, started four games during his first two years with the 49ers, with mixed results. The 49ers went 2-2 in those games with Lance completing just 55% of his passes with five touchdowns and three picks. But Lance was essentially thrown into the fire last year when Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a season-ending injury.

India is working on a new electric vehicle policy that would slash import taxes for automakers that commit to some local manufacturing, following a proposal by Tesla (TSLA.O) which is considering entering the domestic market, people with direct knowledge said.
The policy being considered could allow automakers to import fully-built EVs into India at a reduced tax as low as 15%, compared to the current 100% that applies to cars which cost above $40,000 and 70% for the rest, said two of the sources, including a senior Indian government official./p>

Tesla's best-selling Model Y, for example, starts at $47,740 in the U.S. before tax credits.

"There is an understanding with Tesla's proposal and government is showing interest," said the official, who is familiar with the issue.
India's commerce ministry, which is working on the plan, and Tesla, did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked about the move, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters "there is no proposal in front of me" to reduce import duties on electric vehicles.
If such a policy is adopted, it could amount to a drastic reduction in the cost of imported EVs that local carmakers have been keen to avoid. It could also open the door for global automakers, beyond Tesla, to tap the world's third-largest car market where sales of EVs are less than 2% of total car sales, but growing rapidly.
The lower import taxes could help Tesla sell its full range of models in India, and not just the new car it wants to make locally, said a third source.