Politics
The Georgia chemical fire, explained: Why chlorine is in the air and what to do about it
Amid the devastation and mass flooding wrought by Hurricane Helene, the Atlanta metropolitan area had yet another disaster: A chemical fire released a massive plume of potentially toxic gasses into the air. And it’s spreading. Early Sunday morning, a fire erupted at BioLab, a chemical plant specializing in pool and spa water care, in Conyers,…
Maya Rudolph as Harris and Dana Carvey as Biden open 50th season of ‘Saturday Night Live’
NEW YORK — “Saturday Night Live” began its 50th season with a parade of former co-stars, including Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as her husband Doug Emhoff and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden. “We’ve got to stay focused,” Rudolph-as-Harris said at a mock rally in the show’s cold open. “If…
Opponent of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna charged with threatening her in 2022 primary
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A former Republican candidate for Congress in Florida has been charged with threatening to send a hit squad to kill an opponent in the race, federal authorities said Friday. William Braddock claimed in a recorded call with a local activist that he would send a Russian and Ukrainian hit squad to kill…
Yuval Noah Harari’s new book is a warning about democracy and AI
If the internet age has anything like an ideology, it’s that more information and more data and more openness will create a better and more truthful world. That sounds right, doesn’t it? It has never been easier to know more about the world than it is right now, and it has never been easier to…
Republicans have a message for Zelenskyy: Stay out of US politics
Volodymyr Zelenskyy hasn’t lost Republicans — but he’s on notice. Even some Republican supporters of Ukraine on Capitol Hill said that the Ukrainian President had made a strategic error when he visited a weapons plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, over the weekend and separately waded into the presidential race by calling JD Vance “too radical” in…
Hurricane Helene: Why it could rapidly intensify as it nears Florida
An enormous tropical storm named Helene, now a Category 1 hurricane, is churning across the Caribbean near Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasters predict the hurricane — which as of Wednesday morning has maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour — will rapidly intensify in the next 24 hours before ramming into western Florida…
‘A perfect storm of stunning failure’: Senate probe finds huge Secret Service errors at Trump rally
Sweeping failures by the Secret Service directly contributed to a gunman’s ability to carry out an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his July 13 rally, according to an interim Senate report released Wednesday. The bipartisan report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pointed to multiple critical failures by the…
Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, explained
More than 450 people were killed and 1,500 injured in Israeli airstrikes targeting southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as the country’s capital, Beirut, on Monday. The airstrikes mark a significant and threatening escalation of hostilities following an apparent Israeli attack that used explosive pagers (and other electronic devices) to kill members of the Shia…
Lobbyists exploit massive loophole to wine and dine lawmakers, aides at fancy getaways
In 2007, after one of the biggest scandals in K Street history, Congress cracked down on lobbyists’ ability to wine and dine lawmakers and aides with a host of reforms — including limits on extravagant, all-expenses-paid trips. In the nearly two decades since, the influence industry has blown a hole through those rules, according to…