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Hurricane Dorian lowers in intensity as it travels through the US; Turkey’s president threatens to “open the gates” and let 3.6 million Syrian refugees into Europe.

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The latest updates on Hurricane Dorian

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

• Hurricane Dorian downgraded to a strong Category 2 storm on Thursday morning, grazing past the Carolina coasts and likely making landfall later today or Friday, according to the

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Hurricane Dorian hit Grand Bahama Island as an incredibly powerful Category 5 hurricane on Sunday night with howling 185 mile-per-hour winds. Then it basically camped over the island. For nearly two days, Dorian moved at just 1 mile per hour, subjecting Grand Bahama to intense hurricane conditions. Wind gusts blew in excess of 200 mph — strong enough to blow a roof off a house. The storm generated 18 to 23 feet of coastal flooding from storm surge. More than 3 feet of rain fell.

A satellite image from Iceye, a commercial satellite operator, shows the massive flooding on the …

One of the most striking moments of CNN’s forum on climate change Wednesday came when moderator Chris Cuomo asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren whether the government should be able to regulate the kinds of lightbulbs people can buy.

The question was timely because the Trump administration on Wednesday undid standards for lightbulbs’ energy efficiency. But moderators also asked candidates about other individual measures: Did they support banning plastic straws? Would they tell people to eat less meat?

Warren wasn’t having any of it.

“Oh come on, give me a break,” Warren said in response to the light bulb question, in one …

The UK Parliament has voted to block a no-deal Brexit, an attempt to prevent Prime Minister Boris Johnson from pulling the country out of the European Union without a plan in place.

Members of Parliament pushed the vote through Wednesday, a day after Parliament seized control to do exactly this.

Lawmakers are moving at a rapid clip, after Johnson decided to suspend Parliament for five weeks, starting as early as September 9. Johnson — who’s promised to leave the European Union on October 31, with or without a Brexit deal — effectively tried to limit the number of …

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

Conception ablaze

Santa Barbara County Fire Department

• The fire that erupted in the predawn hours Monday on a scuba diving boat near Santa Cruz Island in California has killed at least 25 people, with nine more still unaccounted for. [Reuters / Omar Younis]
• Mobilization for the search-and-rescue operation began after a distress call was made from the Conception, the flaming vessel,

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President Donald Trump lashed out against one of his frequent foils, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, again on Tuesday, this time pillorying Khan for a recent spate of knife attacks in London — even as the US reckons with three major mass shootings in a single month that have left 38 people dead.

Khan had criticized Trump’s handling of Hurricane Dorian while at an event in Poland commenting the 80th anniversary of the beginning of World War II. Trump was scheduled to be at that event as well, but sent Vice President Mike Pence in his stead, arguing that he had …

On Monday, Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas as an incredibly powerful Category 5 hurricane, with howling winds in excess of 185 mph and with gusts up to 220 mph. The storm brought with it a surge — coastal flooding — of 18-to-23 feet above normal tide.

Dorian is estimated to be the second-most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, and ties the record for the most powerful storm to make landfall, according to the National Weather Service. Preliminary reports from the Abacos Islands show extreme devastation.

The storm weakened slightly and was …

Labor Day 2019 comes in the midst of a crisis for the American labor movement.

In the mid-1950s, a third of Americans belonged to a labor union. Now, only 10.5 percent do, including a minuscule 6.4 percent of private sector workers; public sector unions took a hard blow in 2018 when the Supreme Court cut off a major source of revenue. The decline of union membership explains as much as a third of the increase in inequality in the US, has reduced voter turnout among low-income workers, and has weakened labor’s ability to check corporate influence …

(This week’s episode of Succession debuted two days early on HBO’s streaming platforms, due to the holiday weekend. Go watch it before you read this!)

Succession has gotten a lot of attention for how funny it is, and understandably so. The writers’ room is full of crack comedy writers, headed up by no less a brilliant comedy mind than Jesse Armstrong, a protégé of Veep creator Armando Iannucci (who also co-created the terrific Britcom Peep Show). The show’s dark sense of humor has become such a defining element that Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk recently wondered if its nomination for …

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended new gun laws that ease restrictions on gun owners in that state Sunday, hours after the laws went into effect and hours after a gunman shot at least 21 people, killing seven, in and around Odessa, Texas.

The new laws loosen restrictions on gun ownership and use in schools, foster homes, apartment buildings, and houses of worship. Proponents of the laws argue that they will offer people the opportunity to defend themselves from threats, while critics say expanding gun access makes people less safe.

Speaking at a press conference to discuss law enforcement’s response to …