CNN US | The myths about slavery that still hold America captive

A portrait of Civil War-era fugitive slaves who were emancipated upon reaching the North in the mid-1860s.

(CNN) – At first, Clint Smith had trouble making out the objects beside a white picket fence in the distance. Then he drew closer; what he saw made him shudder.

Planted in a garden bed in front of the fence were the heads of 55 Black men impaled on metal rods, their eyes shut and jaws clenched in anguish.

Smith, a journalist and a poet, was visiting the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana as part of his quest to understand the impact of slavery in America. He had spent four years touring monuments and landmarks commemorating slavery across America and in Africa, but his stop at the Whitney, in his home state, stood out.  —read more—  

CNN US | Homeowners brace for more expensive flood insurance as FEMA launches changes to program

Flooding in Helmetta, New Jersey, after Tropical Storm Henri in August.

(CNN) – Homeowners in flood-prone areas are bracing for rising insurance rates as the Federal Emergency Management Agency launches a revamp of its flood insurance program.

The changes to the National Flood Insurance Program mean than three-fourths of existing policyholders will see higher flood insurance bills, as climate change increases the threat of flooding from storm surge, extreme rainfall and river flooding across the country.

One homeowner on the New Jersey shore told CNN she thinks the new changes could be disastrous for homeowners.

“It’s literally one step forward and five steps back,” said Amanda Devecka-Rinear, executive director of grassroots group New Jersey Organizing Project, a coalition of homeowners impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.  —read more—  

CNN US | Multimillion-dollar beach property taken from Black owners in Jim Crow era is cleared to be returned

A pedestrian walks past a historical marker in Manhattan Beach. California, for Bruce’s Beach, which was seized from the Black property owners in 1924 after threats by White homeowners and the KKK.

(CNN) – A stretch of prime Southern California beachfront real estate can now be returned to the descendants of its rightful Black owners, nearly a century after the parcel was taken by the city of Manhattan Beach.

Known as Bruce’s Beach, the resort had offered Black families a place to enjoy the California life and was a labor of love for owners Charles and Willa Bruce. But harassment from White neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan tore away at their dreams. The final blow came in 1924 when the city took the property through eminent domain and paid the couple a fraction of what they asked for. The city wanted the land for a park.

On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that will enable the county to return the beachfront property to their descendants. The two lots are worth approximately $75 million in total, officials confirmed to CNN earlier this year. The houses directly next to the property have hefty price tags of around $7 million each.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan has begun to prepare for potential US default

(CNN Business) – JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says America’s largest bank is once again preparing for a potential US default even though he expects Congress to avoid that “potentially catastrophic” event by lifting the debt ceiling.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Dimon said JPMorgan has begun scenario-planning for how a possible default would affect financial markets, capital ratios, client contracts and America’s credit ratings. That’s something Dimon has indicated the bank did during previous close calls with the debt ceiling.

“Every single time this comes up, it gets fixed, but we should never even get this close,” Dimon told Reuters. “I just think this whole thing is mistaken and one day we should just have a bipartisan bill and get rid of the debt ceiling. It’s all politics.”  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | The workers who keep global supply chains moving are warning of a ‘system collapse’

Container ships anchored by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles as they wait to offload on September 20, 2021.

London (CNN Business) – Seafarers, truck drivers and airline workers have endured quarantines, travel restrictions and complex Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements to keep stretched supply chains moving during the pandemic. 
 
But many are now reaching their breaking point, posing yet another threat to the badly tangled network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world. 
 
In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a “global transport system collapse” if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.  —read more—  

CNN US | These tiny homes in Los Angeles offer the city’s homeless a new lease on life

Los Angeles (CNN) – Jolinn Bracey slept in her Toyota Corolla for five years until she put homelessness in her rearview mirror by moving into a tiny home. 
 
Bracey, 48, is one of 41 residents of The Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village in North Hollywood, California, which provides transitional housing for the homeless. 
 
“This has given me a place to reconfigure myself and build up to my new home,” Bracey told CNN. “It put me back into practice of being consistent in the normal things that you do. It grounds you.” 
 
Bracey moved into the 64-square-foot home in February. It features a bed, air conditioner, racks to hang her colorful clothes and, most importantly, a door that locks.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | More men are abandoning college. Professor explains why this is dangerous

CNN – NYU Professor Scott Galloway says the drop in men going to college is part of a growing mating crisis in the US and that the country runs the risk of producing “too many of the most dangerous cohort in the world” if the trend isn’t reversed.  —watch—  

F1 | Hamilton takes 100th F1 victory after late rain shower denies long-time leader Norris at Sochi

.Lewis Hamilton took his 100th Grand Prix victory in a Russian Grand Prix that started in dry conditions and ended under rain, the Mercedes driver making a late switch to intermediate tyres to take the lead when pole-sitter Lando Norris agonisingly slid out of the lead with just two laps left. Max Verstappen made it from P20 to P2, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took third having started second. 
 
Grid penalties were the talk of the town on Sunday morning with Valtteri Bottas the latest to take the hit, Mercedes putting a new power unit into his car to see him start 16th with the knowledge that Max Verstappen would start 20th (having taken a new Honda engine earlier in the weekend) and Charles Leclerc 19th with a new Ferrari unit. 
 
As for tyres, there was a mix of mediums and hards on the grid with the first five drivers – Norris on pole, Sainz second, Russell third, Hamilton fourth and Ricciardo in P5 – on mediums, and only Fernando Alonso starting sixth, Sergio Perez (P8), Pierre Gasly (P11), Bottas, Antonio Giovinazzi (P17), Leclerc and Verstappen starting on the hard compounds.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | Biden official reveals the failure behind America’s epic chip shortage

New York (CNN Business) – The shortage of computer chips is raising the price of new and used cars, delaying shipments of electronics and holding back the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 
 
“It’s a huge problem,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNN ahead of leading a White House meeting with manufacturers and users of computer chips. “Everything in your life that has an on-off switch requires semiconductors. Your phone, your car, all of the electronics around you.” 
 
The chip shortage, along with other supply chain headaches, will likely cost the global auto industry alone a staggering $210 billion in lost sales this year, according to consulting firm AlixPartners. That’s nearly twice as expensive as the firm forecasted in May when many auto executives hoped the worst of the chip shortage would be over by mid-year.  —read more—  

CNN travel | The couple who fell in love in a Danish dungeon

(CNN) — Dorte Poulsen was sunbathing in her parents’ backyard in her home in Copenhagen. It was 1983, and she was 19, just back from a gap year where she’d backpacked solo around South America and Israel. 
 
Right then, she was enjoying doing nothing, but her sunny basking was interrupted by the phone ringing. 
 
Dorte reluctantly hauled herself off the ground and answered the call. It was a guy she knew, Henrik — his sister was dating Dorte’s brother — he wasn’t a close friend, but they moved in the same circles. 
 
“I’ve got these two Americans visiting me,” Henrik said. “They want to go sightseeing, do you want to join us?” 
 
“Absolutely not,” said Dorte, definitively.  —read more—