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Voting records are on ICE in North Carolina; three natural disasters hit Japan in one week.

The Justice Department and ICE subpoena millions of North Carolina’s voting records

North Carolina’s state elections board called on the state attorney general to overturn a subpoena for eight years of the state’s voting records. The subpoena was issued by the US Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). [CNN / Tal Kopan]

ICE initially subpoenaed more than 20 million voting documents from two state agencies and 44 North Carolina elections boards. North Carolina Assistant US Attorney Sebastian Kielmanovich delayed the requirement to turn in documents until after November’s general election on the condition that the state election board preserve the documents in question (as opposed to destroying them). [NBC / Jane C. Timm]

Kielmanovich is willing to send the documents if “actual vote information be redacted” because he doesn’t believe that the Justice Department is looking for who voters chose on their ballots. He also said he doesn’t know why ICE wants the voting information. [Charlotte Observer / Brian Murphy]

The reasoning for the subpoena, which critics feel raises concerns about privacy and suppressing voter turnout, has largely been “shrouded in mystery.” Both the Justice Department and ICE declined to comment on the matter. [NYT / Richard Fausset and Michael Wines]

But it’s fair to presume that both the department and agency are looking into Trump’s claims that “millions” of undocumented immigrants voted in the 2016 election. The agency requested “any and all” documents that confirm voters’ citizenship. [CBS]

The subpoena comes after ICE confirmed that 19 foreign nationals had been indicted at the end of August for illegally voting in North Carolina’s 2016 election cycle. [ICE]

It also comes on the heels of a decision from a North Carolina district court that the state’s electoral map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The map is still being used for the November election because there is not enough time to redraw it. [NPR / James Doubek]

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Japan’s summer of natural disasters

Japan has been dealing with a summer of extreme weather and natural disasters. After months of heatwaves and flooding, a severe typhoon hit the entire country and was followed by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. The combined disasters then triggered landslides. [CNN / Euan McKirdy]

The typhoon hit the entire country on Tuesday. It came with wind-speeds reaching 130 mph and, along with subsequent flooding, killed at least 11 people. [Forbes / David Bressan]

Northern Japan was also hit by a major earthquake, followed by devastating landslides, on Thursday. More than 22,000 rescue workers have so far discovered 20 bodies and countless injured in the “difficult” mission. They expect to uncover many more. [Channel News Asia]

More than 2.9 million households are now without power, highlighting Japan’s vulnerable nuclear energy system that was severely damaged by another earthquake in 2011. [NBC / Arata Yamamoto and Alexander Smith]

The Japan Meteorological Agency says the typhoon was the strongest to hit the country in 25 years. [ABC / Jeff Costello]

Miscellaneous

Twitter banned Infowars and its founder, Alex Jones, once and for all. CEO Jack Dorsey finally deemed his actions on the website as “abusive behavior.” [Buzzfeed / Charlie Warzel and Ryan Mac]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a plan in the works for an electric plane. He announced his monumental idea during an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast while smoking weed and drinking some whiskey on camera (in the state of California, of course). Tesla stock fell by nine points as the smoke cleared. [The Verge / Thomas Ricker]

Ford has joined Nike in explicitly supporting National Football League players’ right to kneel during the national anthem. [The Grio / Kia Morgan-Smith]

Scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell made an important astronomical discovery in 1967, only to have her male counterpart take the credit and receive a Nobel prize for her work. Fifty years later, Bell Burnell has received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and an added three million-dollar bonus. [NPR / Laura Wamsley]

Verbatim

“While Jackson’s career was significantly damaged, Timberlake’s flourished. CBS insiders who spoke to me felt strongly that Moonves played a large part in how Jackson was perceived by the public.” [Yashar Ali has discovered that CBS CEO Les Moonves, who was recently accused of sexual assault, tried to destroy performer Janet Jackson’s career after her infamous flashing incident at the Superbowl/HuffPost]

Watch this: Why this Gucci knockoff is totally legal

Knockoffs are everywhere in fashion. So is the controversy they inspire. [YouTube / Cleo Abram]

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