At the ballpark, a reporter roots for Lahaina
Recently, my colleagues and I at The New York Times were finishing up a package of articles tied to the anniversary of the devastating wildfire that wiped away the Hawaiian town of Lahaina, on Maui. We had pieces on how the town’s rich history was shaping discussions about rebuilding; the thousands of people who have left the island, forming a vast diaspora of Lahaina refugees; and the lessons learned by authorities as they tried to prevent another deadly fire.
Israel presses for Gaza border presence as part of cease-fire deal
JERUSALEM — Mediators plan to move ahead with a summit next week pursuing a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said Friday, after Israeli security chiefs sought to obtain Egyptian consent for a postwar Israeli presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Harris faces challenge of translating convention joy to fall momentum
CHICAGO — Joy cometh in the morning, but so do hangovers. The party in Chicago is done, the confetti has been swept up, the pictures have been posted to social media. But the real question as exuberant Democrats woke up Friday was whether they could channel the sheer intoxication of the United Center into a sustained, 74-day sprint to Election Day.
Fed Chair Powell signals ‘time has come’ for September rate cut
JACKSON, Wyo. — Speaking in his most closely watched speech of the year, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, clearly signaled Friday that the central bank was poised to cut interest rates in September.
16 Republican-led states challenge program to aid spouses in the US illegally
Texas and 15 other Republican-led states sued the Biden administration Friday seeking to halt a new program that could give legal status to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens but who also are in the country illegally.
5 Secret Service agents involved in Trump rally are reassigned
WASHINGTON — The Secret Service has assigned five agents to administrative duties as a result of its investigation into the failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13, according to two people familiar with the situation.
The war in Gaza is making thousands of orphans
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The boys are aching to see their parents again. They are convinced it will happen as soon as they can go back to Gaza City, where they were growing up before the war bulldozed that life.
Free booze, a lake cruise and selfies galore: How Democrats courted influencers at theDNC
CHICAGO — Last month, Kristin Brey, a podcaster, radio host and newspaper columnist, attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as a credentialed journalist. She set up shop in a dank hockey arena, jostled in scrums with reporters for interviews and often could not get access to the floor of the convention hall because there was not enough space.
She survived the Maui wildfires. She couldn’t survive the year after
LAHAINA, Maui — As a whirlwind of flames nearly encircled the Lahaina Gateway shopping center on Aug. 8, 2023, Edralina Diezon hid in a storage room, surrounded by mops, buckets and brooms. Terrified, Diezon, who worked 80 hours a week as a janitor, did not leave for two days and two nights. When she finally emerged, starving and disoriented, the neighborhood where she lived was gone.
Hard work and fizzy drinks: What it takes to live past 110
One of the oldest men in the world died in August at the age of 111. The man, John Farringdon, was born about a year after the Titanic sank.
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani remade himself as a base stealer, and now 40-40 is a possibility
On a sleepy morning at the Oakland Coliseum in early August, MLB’s biggest marvel was in study hall. Shohei Ohtani was tucked into a corner of the visiting clubhouse, sitting alongside his interpreter, Will Ireton, and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first-base coach, Clayton McCullough. Ohtani, the team’s two-way star, has swapped hitting and pitching for hitting and running this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, and he was coming off the first three-steal game of his career.
Jury in New Orleans awards $1 million to teen raped by police officer
The city of New Orleans must pay $1 million to a teenager who was groomed and raped in 2020 by a former police officer who presented himself as a mentor to the girl, a federal jury decided Wednesday.
Second Memphis officer to change plea in death ofTyre Nichols
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A second former Memphis police officer is set to change his not-guilty plea to federal charges connected to the beating and death of Tyre Nichols last year, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Russian attitudes about Putin might be shifting
WASHINGTON — Negative feelings about Russian President Vladimir Putin have appeared to increase across Russia since Ukrainian troops pushed into Russian territory two weeks ago, according to a firm that tracks attitudes in the country by analyzing social media and other internet postings.
Second-largest diamond ever found is discovered in Botswana
The diamond was so large that it obscured the face of Botswana’s president as he held it up for closer inspection Thursday.
At the border, Trump goes after Harris on immigration but continues personal insults
Former President Donald Trump called for the death penalty to punish sex traffickers during a campaign event Thursday at the southern border, where he said Vice President Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats had “unleashed a deadly plague of migrant crime on our country by not doing their jobs.”
‘Worst-case’ disaster for Antarctic ice looks less likely, study finds
For almost a decade, climate scientists have been trying to get their heads around a particularly disastrous scenario for how West Antarctica’s gigantic ice sheet might break apart, bringing catastrophe to the world’s coasts.
Consumers are still bargain shopping, Macy’s and Target reports show
As U.S. consumers navigate an economy still rocked by high inflation, they are guided by tight wallets and cheaper goods, a trend that’s hitting department store chains like Macy’s harder than discount retailers like Target and T.J. Maxx.
Why the Pirates face an added temptation to shut down Paul Skenes
With their odds of making the MLB playoffs below 1%, the Pittsburgh Pirates could easily justify shutting down their electrifying ace, right-hander Paul Skenes.
Families are going into debt for Disney vacations
Alyssa Leach and her husband have visited Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, every year since 2015. To them, the theme park feels like an oasis where they can escape the stress of everyday life.
