Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, causing devastating flooding. It then moved on to bring surging water into Charleston, S.C., before heading toward North Carolina on Thursday. Volunteers and aid groups are working to help the affected communities. If you wish to help, here’s some guidance. First, do your research. When natural disasters…
When the coronavirus pandemic slowed business at Dana L. McIntyre’s already flailing Boston-area pizzeria in early 2020, he, like millions of other Americans, applied for pandemic relief. Mr. McIntyre received more than $660,000 from the federal government. But instead of spending it on the pizzeria, he used the majority of the money to buy a…
When the last American soldier flew out of Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, leaving the country to Taliban rule, the world braced for a human rights nightmare. In that sense, the Taliban have met expectations. The country’s extremist rulers, who seized power from an American-backed government of 20 years, have carried out revenge killings, torture…
Hurricane Idalia, the first major storm to pummel Florida this season, brought a surge of seawater on Wednesday that flooded neighborhoods along much of the state’s western coast and lacerating winds that cut power and leveled trees. Two people died in traffic accidents that the police linked to the harsh conditions. Rescuers pulled scores of…
Five anti-abortion activists, including one who was found to have kept five fetuses in her home last year, were found guilty of federal civil rights offenses on Tuesday after blocking access to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2020. Lauren Handy of Virginia, who prosecutors said directed the invasion and blockade of the abortion…
As he heads toward a re-election campaign next year, President Biden is betting that his success in pushing for policies intended to lower health care costs for millions of Americans will be rewarded by voters at the ballot box. In speech after speech, Mr. Biden talks about capping the cost of insulin at $35, putting…
Facing the prospect of a politically damaging government shutdown within weeks, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is offering a new argument to conservatives reluctant to vote to keep funding flowing: A shutdown would make it more difficult for Republicans to pursue an impeachment inquiry against President Biden, or to push forward with investigations of him and…
Testing. One. Two. Three. Every television, radio and cellphone in the United States is going to broadcast a message on Oct. 4 along the lines of: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The test alert will be sent out around 2:20 p.m. Eastern time. The test…
Hurricane Idalia will amplify what were already expected to be higher-than-usual high tides in Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., because the full moon is making its closest orbital pass to Earth, a rare phenomenon sometimes known as a ‘supermoon.’ A supermoon — this one is doubly rare because it a blue moon, or the second…
Why It Matters: The law was part of the struggle for control of Texas. The law, known as House Bill 2127, was set to go into effect on Friday. Its passage this year was among the most aggressive steps yet taken by the Republican-dominated Legislature to exert control over the state’s increasingly progressive, Democratic-led cities….
New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary is quickly becoming the leading edge for an unproven legal theory that Donald J. Trump is disqualified from appearing on the ballot under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A long-shot presidential candidate has filed a lawsuit in state court seeking an injunction to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot….
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader who suffered a serious head injury in a fall earlier this year, experienced another alarming freeze-up at a news conference on Wednesday in Covington, Ky., the second such episode caught on camera in recent weeks. Mr. McConnell, 81, was taking questions from reporters after an event…
Hours after the waters of the Gulf of Mexico swept through her house, Donna Knight emerged in a windbreaker and boots to try to get her Chevy SUV to higher ground. “It came through — the whole ocean,” she said, describing a night of howling wind, frightening bangs and flying debris as Hurricane Idalia blew…
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Rudolph W. Giuliani was liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by repeatedly declaring that they had mishandled ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election. The ruling by the judge, Beryl A. Howell in Federal District Court in Washington, means that the defamation case against…
Theodore McCarrick, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in the United States to face charges in the church’s sexual abuse crisis, is not competent to stand trial, a judge in Massachusetts ruled. The disgraced former cardinal, who is 93, was declared unfit by a Dedham District Court judge on Wednesday. Mr. McCarrick faced three counts of indecent…
In his breakout performance in the Republican primary race, Vivek Ramaswamy has harnessed his populist bravado while frequently and unapologetically contorting the truth for political gain, much in the same way that former President Donald J. Trump has mastered. Mr. Ramaswamy’s pattern of falsehoods has been the subject of intensifying scrutiny by the news media…
In an average year in California, roughly 40 percent of the state’s water supply comes from groundwater — the water that fills a well, naturally stored beneath our feet in aquifers. In a dry year, the share of the state’s water needs that are met from this hidden resource can exceed 60 percent. In other…
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is used to being a lightning rod. Since her election in 2018, she has been celebrated and vilified by both parties, sometimes simultaneously. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, though, is no longer the freshman outsider. Now in her third term, with a high-ranking position on a powerful House committee, she has learned to maneuver in…
Days after being sworn in as Florida’s governor in 2019, Ron DeSantis pardoned the Groveland Four, a group of Black men who had been wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting a white woman decades earlier. At the time, Mr. DeSantis’s decision seemed like it could serve as a vital olive branch to Florida’s wary African American…