Hey there! It’s Thursday, and boy am I swamped, dear reader. But don’t worry, I’m taking it “W-B-Easy!” (Is this thing taking off? Because I just ordered a crate of shirts for my bootleg WBEZ merch.) Anyway, here’s what you need to know today.

(By the way, if you’d like this emailed to your inbox, you can sign up here.)

1. New COVID-19 variant is added to WHO watchlist

The World Health Organization added a COVID-19 variant called “mu” to its watchlist as preliminary data suggests it may be able to evade protections from previous infections and vaccinations.

The mu variant, first detected in Colombia in January, has been found in 39 countries, including the U.S. As The Guardian reports, the variant accounts for 0.1% of worldwide cases, but it’s becoming more prevalent in South America, making up 39% of cases in Colombia and 13% in Ecuador.

Scientists say more research is needed to confirm whether vaccinations and previous infections are strong enough against the mu variant. And it’s also unclear if the variant is more contagious than the delta variant. [Guardian]

Meanwhile, vaccines cut the risk of “long COVID” in half, according to a major study of more than a million adults in the U.K. [Washington Post]

2. Chicago Teachers Union stops short of calling a strike over “dangerous” conditions in schools

The Chicago Teachers Union is warning it may take “escalating actions” if the city’s public school system doesn’t improve safety precautions aimed at preventing widespread COVID-19 infections.

The news comes as students and teachers are just four days into the new academic year. And infections are already emerging within schools. Chicago Public Schools reports that 28 adults and 11 students have tested positive, and about 150 close contacts are in quarantine, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials say schools are safe and students need to be back in classrooms. But photos of packed hallways circulating on social media have caused some parents to question sending their children back to schools. [Trib]

Meanwhile, the number of new cases in Chicago remains flat. City officials are reporting a seven-day average of 460 cases per day as of Aug. 28. That’s a 2% decrease from the previous week. [COVID Dashboard]

The situation, however, is more dire in southern parts of Illinois, where hospitals have either run out of beds for COVID-19 patients or soon will. [Chicago Tribune]

3. Biden blasts Supreme Court’s decision to not block Texas abortion law

President Joe Biden today criticized the high court for allowing the nation’s most restrictive abortion law to remain in place, saying it “unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts.”

In a 5-to-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court late last night refused to block a Texas law that bans most abortions. The move boosted hopes from conservatives and stoked fears from abortion rights advocates as the high court hears a separate case this fall that seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s three liberal members in last night’s decision, saying he would have prevented the Texas law from going into effect as courts consider its legality.

Roberts described the structure of the law, which empowers private individuals to enforce it, as “not only unusual, but unprecedented,” and it deserves more scrutiny from the judicial system. [Washington Post]

4. Biden’s approval rating slides after the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan

The president’s approval rating hit a new low of 46%, sliding 6 percentage points since July, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. The survey also found that a majority of crucial independent voters now disapprove of his performance.

When it comes to Afghanistan, 61% disapprove of how Biden handled the withdrawal of American troops. But 71% think the war in Afghanistan was a failure, and Americans are split on whether some troops should have remained or been pulled out completely.

An overwhelming majority — 73% — said they support Afghan refugees coming to the U.S. [NPR]

5. Closure of nuclear power plants threatens to derail Illinois’ ambitious green energy plan

State lawmakers face more pressure to forge an agreement over a green energy plan after the operator of three nuclear power plants says one will permanently close on Sept. 13, reports WBEZ’s Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold.

The operator, energy company Exelon, has long said it needs state subsidies to keep open the financially struggling nuclear plants, which play a crucial role in the state’s efforts to address climate change.

If two of the plants close this month as scheduled, “air pollution will immediately increase by the equivalent of adding 4.4 million cars to the road as fossil plants ramp up production to replace their carbon-free energy,” an Exelon spokesman said in a statement.

The news comes as Gov. JB Pritzker and Senate President Don Harmon, both Democrats, are at odds over how far the green energy bill should go. The governor wants a firm date to close fossil-fuel burning plants, but Harmon and his Senate colleagues approved a bill this week giving some concessions to the plants. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• Chicago experts on inflation: “Either this is a blip and the economy is recalibrating 17 months into a pandemic or it’s a worrisome sign of what’s to come.” [Chicago Tribune]
• New York extended its eviction moratorium until the end of the year. [NPR]
• Virginia’s Supreme Court today ruled the state can remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. [AP]
• Six men have been charged in a 2019 jewelry heist at a Dresden museum, but the $135 million in treasure is still missing. [AP]

Oh, and one more thing …

The hilarious FX series What We Do In The Shadows returns today for its third season, and I’m literally counting down the minutes until I’m finished with this newsletter to start watching it.

If you haven’t seen it, the show follows a group of centuries-old vampires in Staten Island who battle with werewolves, other vampires and their own incompetence in a quest to become legendary.

The New York Times has a profile on the charming Harvey Guillén, who plays Guillermo, a human familiar who dreams of one day becoming a vampire. As the newspaper reports, Guillermo was originally intended to be a minor character, but writers kept giving him more lines and scenes as he became a fan favorite. [NYT]

Tell me something good …

The new school year is here, and I’d like to know: What is one of your favorite memories of going to class, either grade school, high school or college?

Mark B. from Northlake writes:

“A cold winter’s evening in Northern Minnesota behind the junior high school building with our earth science teacher, peering through a 6-inch reflector telescope at Saturn to see it’s rings. I’m sure we looked at other objects, but that one sticks in my memory. Sparked an interest in amateur astronomy. When I was 16, my Dad and I ground and polished our own 6-inch mirror for a telescope. (Amazingly, it turned out quite good.) We used it to look at the planets, the moon, the Andromeda Galaxy and just random stars. Good memories. I still have that telescope and shared it with my kids.”

Feel free to email me at therundown@wbez.org or tweet me at @whuntah.

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