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| Welcome to Wednesday, Daily Briefing readers! President Joe Biden is expected to announce plans for the United States to send half a billion COVID-19 vaccines to other countries at a virtual summit with world leaders. The case of Gabby Petito sparks a wider conversation about why some missing people get more attention than others. And, farewell summer, hello pumpkin spice! The autumnal equinox brings with it the beginning of fall. Before you ask, yes, there's even pumpkin spice toilet paper. |
| It's Steve and Jane with Wednesday's news. |
| 🔴 New this morning: Reporters across the USA TODAY Network retrace crucial moments from 1961 that set in motion a new era of civil rights. These stories show there is no single moment that topples tyranny: The fight for freedom must be fought each day. |
| 🔵 More from "Seven Days of 1961": 'You could be killed any minute': Civil rights veterans share the horrors of battling white supremacy. She helped integrate higher education in the South. And her classmates wanted her dead. |
| 🎡 "It's like you're climbing the gallows": There's a "walk of shame" many theme park visitors privately dread. |
| 🚔 "Something wasn't adding up": An 87-year-old retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sergeant was found dead in a freezer after her family couldn't reach her for months. |
| 📺 Actor Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch, the beloved pal to Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw on "Sex and the City," has died. He was 57. |
 | | Actor Willie Garson in 2017 | | Invision/AP file photo; USA TODAY graphic | |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, hear more about the Haitians seeking refuge in the United States. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
'Dose of hope': Biden to announce 500 million vaccines for other nations at summit |
| The United States plans to send an additional 500 million COVID-19 vaccines around the world, increasing the total doses donated to other nations to more than 1.1 billion. President Joe Biden is expected to announce the commitment at a virtual world COVID summit he's hosting Wednesday. In a speech Tuesday at the United Nations, Biden called on world leaders to step up vaccination efforts and expand access to treatments. He touted the U.S. COVID global response, which includes an investment of more than $15 billion, as a "dose of hope." Among the items to be discussed Wednesday are "solving the oxygen crisis, and making tests, therapeutics and PPE more available," according to a White House statement. |
Report: As flights go on, many Haitian migrants are being released in US |
| Many Haitian migrants camped in the small Texas border city of Del Rio are being released in the United States, two U.S. officials told the Associated Press . The move undercuts the Biden administration's public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion. Haitians have been released on a "very, very large scale" in recent days, according to one U.S. official. It comes despite the signaling of an effort to repatriate them on flights back to Haiti under a pandemic-related authority that denies migrants an opportunity to seek asylum. Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing after migrants has led to widespread and strongly worded criticism from experts, former officials and lawmakers. |
What else people are reading: |
| 🔵 The Facebook Logout: Civil rights groups are calling for a boycott over what they say are Facebook's and Instagram's destructive roles, from COVID to the Capitol attack. |
| 🔵 JCPenney is closing more stores after bankruptcy: Will your store shutter? See the closure list. |
| 🔵 The newest military branch, the U.S. Space Force, revealed prototypes of uniforms for its Guardians: The critics on Twitter only saw "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica." |
| 🔵 "That's your song now. Take it.": Ariana Grande disowns "pov" after one singer had the "audacity" to perform it during the second night of blind auditions on NBC's "The Voice." |
| 🔵 "Can you believe Gerard Butler doesn't know what 'Free Guy' is?" Ryan Reynolds put a spotlight on the ACLU and the NAACP after his fellow actor said he doesn't watch the movies that feature the "Deadpool" star. |
Coroner rules remains are Gabby Petito's, says manner of death is homicide |
| The remains found at a campground near Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park are those of Gabby Petito , an autopsy confirmed Tuesday. The Teton County coroner initially ruled her death a homicide. However, the official cause of death "remains pending final autopsy results," the FBI said in a statement. Meanwhile, authorities continued to search a swampy Florida preserve area near the home of Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, 23. Nothing of note was found at the Carlton Reserve and the search was expected to continue Wednesday. Laundrie has been labeled the sole person of interest in what began as a missing person case for Petito, 22. |
| 🏜 Following the disappearance of Gabby Petito, a viral tweet reminded the public to keep 24-year-old Daniel Robinson in mind — the geologist went missing in the Arizona desert a little over two months ago. |
| 🚨 It's OK to want justice for Gabby Petito but also acknowledge that thousands are missing with no media attention, writes USA TODAY Opinion columnist Suzette Hackney. |
Newsmakers in their own words: The Gabby Petito conversation we need to have |
 | | Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy at the nonprofit Futures Without Violence, recently spoke to USA TODAY. | | USA TODAY graphic | |
| Bodycam footage and a 911 call before Gabby Petito's death have raised questions about possible domestic violence issues between her and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. This case has received significant attention from the media and public scrutiny, but experts say the coverage and conversation have lacked context on the broader dynamics that make violence against women a pervasive social problem. |
| One in three women has experienced intimate partner violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and over half of female homicide victims in the U.S. are killed by a current or former male intimate partner. |
'The Wonder Years': New version of beloved show follows a Black family |
| "The Wonder Years" returns to ABC Wednesday night (8:30 p.m. ET/PT), but the remake will look much different from the sitcom that aired from 1988-93. Both series start their stories in the late 1960s with significant events in American history like the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement as backdrops. But while the original followed white star Fred Savage as he grew up in the suburbs, the remake follows a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama. "Wonder" is "uniquely its own series, showcasing a thriving Black family in the South, a contrast to the usual pop-culture portrayal of Black strife and pain in this era," writes USA TODAY TV critic Kelly Lawler. The new show still revolves around a man reflecting on his childhood, this time from the perspective of 12-year-old Dean Williams (Elisha Williams), voiced in future narration by Don Cheadle. |
 | | Dulé Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Elisha Williams and Laura Kariuki from ABC's "The Wonder Years" | | Erika Doss, ABC | |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories Wednesday |
| 🔵 Del Rio migrant crisis: How did so many Haitians end up in Texas instead of entering the U.S. from Florida? |
| 🔴 A 20-year-old gas station clerk was fatally shot in Germany after asking a customer to wear a face mask. |
| 🔵 The Lincoln Project, a Republican group, is calling out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after a television ad showing a wall of COVID-19 coffins was pulled. |
Farewell flip-flops, hello pumpkin spice: It's the autumnal equinox |
| Our long, hot summer is finally coming to an end Wednesday with the autumnal equinox, which marks the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox refers to the moment when the sun is directly above the equator, which will arrive 3:20 p.m. EDT, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. In the Southern Hemisphere, the event is known as the vernal or spring equinox and marks the beginning of spring. The word equinox comes from the Latin words "aequalis" and "nox," meaning equal night. On the autumnal (and the spring) equinox, day and night are both roughly 12 hours long in most of the world. |
| ☕️ Starbucks has a deal for the first day of fall. Here's how to earn a free drink Wednesday. |
| 🍂 Pumpkin spice seltzers, cereal and ramen: The fall flavor is back with more weird products. |
📸 Photo of the day: Olympians model as London Fashion Week wraps up 📸 |
 | | British Olympic athletes (from left to right) Joseph Choong, Hannah Williams, Stephanie Twell and Marcus Mepstead stand backstage before the VIN + OMI show during London Fashion Week on September 21, 2021 in London. | | Gareth Cattermole, Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images | |
| London Fashion Week wrapped up Tuesday after a series of designers flooded the catwalk with their eye-catching creations. Athletes, including four prominent British Olympians, and celebrities also joined in on the high fashion fun. |
| Head here to see the best spring and summer 2022 looks at London Fashion Week 2021. |
| The Daily Briefing is free, but several stories we link to in this edition are subscriber-only. Please support our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today. |
| Contributing: The Associated Press |
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