Europe’s killer heat this summer claims 50,000 lives. Climate change blamed for two-thirds of deaths

San Francisco health officials are warning the public about misrepresented supplements sold in gas stations and smoke shops after a man overdosed on a supplement portrayed as “cat’s claw” that contained a potent, laboratory-created opioid-like chemical. Health officials warned about the dangers of dihydro-7-hydroxymirtragynine, also known as MGM-15, a chemically modified form of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), an opioid-like chemical found in trace amounts in the kratom plant, according to the Coleman Institute for Addiction Medicine. The modified MGM-15 was detected in a 37-year-old man who overdosed and died in late September, according to the office of the chief medical examiner in San Francisco. The chief medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be an accident caused by the “toxic effects of kratom alkaloids,” according to a coroner’s reported obtained by The Times.

To the region’s employers and workers besieged by Trump’s policies — universities, hospitals, biotech and life sciences entrepreneurs, as well as sectors that rely on immigrant workers — that may sound naive at best, and disingenuous at worst. Healey named Trump dozens of times during the hourlong debate as the first-term Democrat tried to lay the state’s economic woes at the feet of the president, whom Minogue has backed. Get TrendlinesA business newsletter from Globe Columnist Larry Edelman covering the trends shaping business and the economy in Boston and beyond. Enter Email“Donald Trump is driving costs up every single day with his tariffs, with his war, which is raising the cost of everything from gas to groceries,” Healey said in response to WBZ-TV moderator Jon Keller’s first question on what the candidates would do to bring down the cost of living. “And also, he’s gutting funding, gutting health care, and making life more expensive and more difficult for everyone.”Minogue did his best to steer clear of the president. Near the end of the debate, he called himself an “independent for 19 years.” He blamed Healey for the dark picture he paints of Massachusetts.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A powerful storm swept across Southern California on Thursday, bringing heavy rain, hail, damaging winds, flooding and even a dusting of snow in some mountain areas. In Victorville, strong winds sent trash, dirt and other debris swirling through the air, startling drivers. Jolina Broady captured video of the conditions while stopped at a traffic light. "This was the most intense, scary thing I've seen in person in regards to wind," Broady told Eyewitness News. Video showed bushes being torn apart as debris filled the air. A trash can was launched airborne, and tree limbs were blown across a roadway. "It was strong enough to tear things apart. Trees were getting ripped out, the fences were gone," Broady said. "I don't know what it was that it was tearing through, but you could just see it in the air and pieces everywhere. "In Hollywood, several vehicles were crushed when a tree fell during the storm. Across the region, residents also reported heavy hail and rain. Heavy downpours flooded some neighborhoods and underpasses, leaving drivers stranded. "The water started coming over the hood, and my car stalled.

There’s often a bit of a calm period before the end of the regular season. Or maybe that chill in the air is because of the Ghosts. It is October, after all. The biggest riser in this week’s Globe Top 20 girls’ volleyball poll is Westford. Now with 10 straight victories, including the last three against Cambridge, Newton South, and Lincoln-Sudbury, those Ghosts appear at the top of the Dual County League. It’s the time of the year in which league/conference titles are being clinched (congrats to Chelmsford, Central Catholic, Winchester, et al.) and the tournament picture is coming into focus via the MIAA power rankings. The Middlesex League is only requiring each team play each other once this season. Merrimack Valley teams are just now getting to their nonconference battles. Not much changed this week, but from Thursday on, this regular-season finish should be a fun one. Records based on scores reported to the Globe. The Globe’s Top 20 girls’ volleyball pollThe Globe poll as of Oct. 23, 2026. Teams were selected by the Globe sports staff. AJ Traub can be reached at aj.traub@globe.com. Follow him on X @aj_traub and Instagram @ajt37.

Because I follow Stewart Brand — writer, futurist, cool cat — on social media, I saw this announcement: “All my work online for a guaranteed 100 years. It’s a new service being offered by WordPress. I think it’s great.”It’s true. For $38,000, WordPress is offering a stepped-down version of digital immortality, “A FULL CENTURY [their emphasis] ensuring that what you create today remains accessible for the future.” Their plan includes LOCKSS — Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe — technology, which “stores all of your data in at least three separately mirrored data centers to ensure access and redundancy in the event of failures or disasters.”On the one hand it’s great to see this homage to Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and woolgatherer extraordinaire. On the other hand — a website that lasts 100 years? Really? When best-selling books by computer geniuses, such as “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies,” are predicting the AI apocalypse in (checks watch) two or three years? Online critics dunking on WordPress have noted that domain names can be registered for only 10 years, or, per one headline: “This assumes …

It’s precisely this scenario that is sending Europe into a panic as it watches a similar situation unfold in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Ukraine was caught by surprise with internet speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield, its military-grade satellite communications provider. This significantly impaired the ability of Ukrainian drones to operate. Get College TownA weekly newsletter packed with insights about higher ed from Globe journalist Hilary Burns. Enter EmailSince the night of Oct. 13, when Ukrainian military units first started experiencing communication issues, the crisis has unfolded like a dark comedy routine. President Trump said he didn’t cause the outage. Musk pointed the finger back to Washington. (Reports in the Wall Street Journal and other outlets have attributed the restrictions to Musk, who first consulted with the Trump administration. Then, the Journal reports, Trump called Musk and asked him to restore it.) The controversy highlights a new reality for global security: Musk is part of a small but growing number of tech titans who have privatized key parts of national security by developing commercial technologies essential to modern warfare.