Water temperatures in and around Australia's Great Barrier Reef have risen to their warmest in 400 years over the past decade, placing the world's largest reef under threat, according to research published on Thursday. The reef, the world's largest living ecosystem, stretches for some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) off the coast of the northern state of Queensland. The research is rare in putting the effects of man-made climate change into historical context, as other surveys on damage to the reef...

According to polls, Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) would not have improved 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ chances of securing the Pennsylvania vote.  The New York Times found that Shapiro would not have given Harris an advantage despite Walz governing the Keystone state. Pennsylvania is one of seven crucial states believed to determine the outcome of the 2024 election.  The polling convention claimed Harris would have secured the state’s vote with...

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, introduced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for the first time at a rally in Philadelphia on Aug. 6. We found some misleading claims and assertions that required context in their remarks, which featured more hopeful pronouncements than pointed attacks on the Republican ticket. Walz made the unsupported claim that Trump will “gut Social Security and Medicare.” Trump has not released any detailed proposals to cut...

When Alabama’s high court earlier this year ruled that frozen embryos are people, temporarily halting in vitro fertilization treatments at some clinics, Democrats turned it into political gold. Tim Walz gives them an opportunity to do it again. At a Tuesday rally in Philadelphia, the Minnesota governor for the first time on a national stage shared how he and his wife, Gwen, struggled to conceive. And by Wednesday, he had cemented the story as part of his stump speech. “This is very...

She didn’t earn it. How did Kamala Harris become so good at this? How does a sub-par vice president get transformed nearly instantaneously into a joyful performer who can do no wrong? It’s easy. One of James Burnham’s laws was, “Where there is no alternative, there is no problem.” Since there was no alternative to pumping up Harris to star status — or the only alternative would be to sub out Joe Biden for a barely replacement-level politician — she’s now...

The return of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 prosecution to District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has ignited a flurry of activity in the once-dormant case, reviving a high stakes court battle after a series of legal wins for the former president. The case is back in Chutkan’s hands after the Supreme Court formally sent the case back to the lower courts after handing Trump a victory in determining that as a former president he maintains broad immunity from criminal prosecution.  That...

In recent weeks, national Democrats and surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris have settled on a pretty simple strategy: calling former President Donald Trump, his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, and MAGA-aligned Republicans “weird.” One of its original purveyors, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, used it again Tuesday evening, during his first appearance with Harris as her running mate. “You know it. You feel it. These guys are creepy and, yes, just weird as hell!” Walz said, after telling a joke...

The 19-year-old Austrian who masterminded a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift fans at a concert in Vienna with a bomb or knife had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, authorities said on Thursday. The main suspect, who has North Macedonian roots, made a full confession in custody, Austria's general director for public security Franz Ruf told a news conference. He swore loyalty to the IS militant group's leader on the internet and kept chemicals and...

Both suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows in Vienna appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, Austrian authorities said Thursday, and investigators found bomb-making materials at one of their homes. Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.” Three sold-out concerts were canceled a day earlier because of the plot, devastating Swifties from across the globe....

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