Energy Department awards $2.2B to strengthen the electrical grid

(AP) — The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced $2.2 billion in funding for eight projects across 18 states to strengthen the electrical grid against increasing extreme weather, advance the transition to cleaner electricity and meet a growing demand for power. The money will help build more than 600 miles of new transmission lines and upgrade about 400 miles of existing lines so that they can carry more current. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the funding is important because extreme weather events fueled by climate change are increasing, damaging towers and bringing down wires, causing power outages. The department says the investments will provide more reliable, affordable electricity for 56 million homes and businesses.

Man known as pro-democracy activist convicted in US of giving China intel on dissidents

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese American scholar has been convicted of U.S. charges of using his reputation as a pro-democracy activist to gather information on dissidents and feed it to his homeland’s government. A federal jury in New York delivered its verdict Tuesday in the case of Shujun Wang. He helped found a pro-democracy group in the city. Prosecutors say that at the behest of China’s main intelligence agency, Wang lived a double life for over a decade. Wang had pleaded not guilty. His lawyers portrayed him as a gregarious academic with nothing to hide.

Slow-moving Tropical Storm Debby bringing torrential rains and flooding to southeastern US

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby has brought prolonged downpours to the southeastern United States and could hover over the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, then boomerang back onto the mainland. The storm was forecast to move relatively slowly across some of America’s most historic Southern cities with the potential of dropping record-setting rain. The center of Debby was just southeast of Savannah, Georgia, by 2 p.m. Tuesday. The latest forecast says Debby could restrengthen in the ocean and then move inland again near Charleston, South Carolina, by Thursday. Debby made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast early Monday as a hurricane. At least five people have died.

Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged in plot to carry out political assassinations

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil. Prosecutors in Brooklyn announced criminal charges Tuesday against Asif Merchant, accusing him of traveling to New York to try to hire a hitman. The plot was disrupted before it could be carried out. Court documents don’t identify any of the potential targets. But the case was unsealed just weeks after U.S. officials disclosed that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally last month in which Trump was injured by a gunman’s bullet.