Month: August 2019

After skirting by Puerto Rico on Wednesday, Hurricane Dorian is gaining intensity and has its sights set on the Bahamas and, possibly, both Florida and the Southeast coast of the United States. And, increasingly, there are risks of impacts through Georgia and South and North Carolina by the middle of next week.

The storm currently is sustaining 150 mph winds, which make it an extremely dangerous Category 4 “major” hurricane. (Major hurricanes are Category 3 and higher.)

A hurricane warning is currently in effect for the northwestern Bahamas (meaning hurricane conditions are imminent). The storm could hit late there this …

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Scientists reject the idea of a single “gay gene;” the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo grows bigger.

Many genes, not one, influence same-sex sexuality

• The findings of the largest study to date that analyzes the genetics of same-sex behavior suggest there is not a single “gay gene” in human organisms. [Washington Post / Lindsey Bever]
• The study of nearly half a

The Twitter account of the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey was hacked to send out multiple white supremacist tweets on Friday — in many ways, it was a perfect encapsulation of Twitter’s most fundamental problems.

On the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend, Dorsey’s 4.2 million followers began to see a series of messages with everything from racial epithets to anti-Semitic remarks about the Nazis to bomb threats. Dorsey’s tweets remained online for about half an hour before they were all deleted.

Twitter didn’t …

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The Trump administration wants to roll back regulations on dangerous methane emissions; Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte returns to his post nine days after he resigned.

The administration threatens progress on climate change again

Shutterstock

• The Trump administration is planning a major rollback on the regulation of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and pollutant whose emissions are often linked to climate change. [

After skirting by Puerto Rico on Wednesday, Hurricane Dorian is gaining intensity, and has its sights set on Florida. The storm currently is sustaining 85 mph winds, but the National Hurricane Center forecasts it will become a major hurricane (a.k.a. a Category 3 or higher, with winds in excess of 111 miles per hour), by Friday “and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend.”

Tropical storm-force winds might reach Florida by Saturday. It may even grow to a Category 4 storm (with winds in excess of 131 mph) before making landfall early next week.

Much of the impacts on …

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Facebook updates its rules on political advertising ahead of 2020; Boris Johnson moves to suspend the UK Parliament before the Brexit deadline.

Facebook tightens its regulations on false advertising

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

• Facebook updated its political advertising rules in the US on Wednesday in an effort to reduce online election disinformation before the 2020 campaigns ramp up. [NYT / Davey Alba]

Kirsten Gillibrand, a two-term senator and longtime advocate of the #MeToo movement, has officially dropped out of the 2020 race for the presidency.

A New York Democrat who’s known for taking on the military over its problems with sexual assault and for championing a 9/11 bill that helped first responders cover health care costs, Gillibrand struggled to translate that profile into a national campaign that polled above 1 percent.

Following middling performances at the June and July Democratic debates and a failure to qualify for the September debate, Gillibrand officially called it quits in an interview with the New York …

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What Oklahoma’s victory against Johnson & Johnson means for the opioid trials; in the latest attacks against Iran’s allies, Israeli drones bombed Lebanon on Monday.

A $572 million blow to Johnson & Johnson

Cristina Arias/Getty Images

• Oklahoma delivered a stinging blow to the drug manufacturing firm Johnson & Johnson on Monday, a landmark victory for the state that may help decide more than

No chickens were harmed in the making of the new KFC nuggets and wings going on the menu in Atlanta.

A single KFC franchise — near the SunTrust Park baseball stadium in Atlanta — on Tuesday began offering meatless chicken from the plant-based food company Beyond Meat. The deal makes KFC the first fast-food restaurant to serve plant-based chicken.

The early results? It sold out almost immediately. Customers posted pictures of hours-long lines as cars and pedestrians wrapped around the building, waiting to order.

KFC announced that the plant-based chicken sold out in less than five hours, and that the …