Category: Daily news
Simone Biles is the greatest female gymnast ever
With (another) world-title win to her name Thursday in Stuttgart, Germany, Simone Biles is now the winningest female gymnast at the World Championship level in history. If she wins another medal at the World Championships — individual events will take place this weekend — she will tie the record for the most world-title medals won by anyone, male or female.
It is extremely difficult to quantify “greatness” in a sport where generally, female athletes may only compete for two to five years before retirement.
Consider the female gymnast third on the list for most World Championship medals won by a …
Trump may soon ban Russian observation flights over US military bases. That’s a bad thing.
The United States is on the verge of leaving a decades-old treaty that has helped it gain intelligence on the militaries of potential foes, especially Russia. If the Trump administration goes through with the decision, the US will lose a valuable intelligence-gathering method and potentially make the world less safe.
According to multiple reports, the White House wants to pull the US out of the Open Skies Treaty, one of the most wide-ranging arms control pacts in the world. Originally an idea by President Dwight Eisenhower and made reality by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, it allows …
Vox Sentences: Only 800,000 can prevent forest fires
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.
California goes dark to prevent wildfires
- California’s largest electricity provider, Pacific Gas & Electric, started shutting off power early Wednesday, eventually planning to throw about 800,000 customers in the Bay Area into darkness in an attempt to prevent more wildfires. [LA Times / Joseph Serna, Jaclyn Cosgrove, and Patrick McGreevy]
- Forecasts for the week predicted strong, dry winds (known colloquially as
PG&E’s power shutoff in California shows the inequities of climate risks
Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility serving more than 16 million people across California, shut down power to more than 500,000 customers early Wednesday morning with more outages scheduled in the coming days.
As of Wednesday evening, PG&E’s website was overwhelmed with traffic and the company was directing customers to an alternative site for more information about the outages. (Our sister site Curbed has a list of all the areas affected by the power shutdown).
The forced blackout is a blunt response to the growing risks of disastrous wildfires brought about by a complex combination of suburban sprawl, …
9 things everyone should know about the impeachment process
For the fourth time ever in American history, the House of Representatives has launched an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president.
What had been a plodding, tedious process in the House suddenly turned into a whirlwind as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially announced the House’s plans to dial up its investigations into President Donald Trump after the president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business ties of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son — and allegedly withheld federal military aid from Ukraine in order to make it happen.
“The president must be held accountable,” Pelosi told reporters. “No …
The White House argues the impeachment inquiry is “constitutionally invalid.” They’re wrong.
On Tuesday night, the Trump administration sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her committee chairs an eight-page letter refusing to comply with their impeachment inquiry — a letter as constitutionally dubious as it was defiant.
“Your inquiry is constitutionally invalid and a violation of due process,” the letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone states. “Your contrived process is unprecedented in the history of the nation and lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding.”
The letter raises a number of procedural complaints, chief among them that the House hasn’t conducted a formal vote to authorize impeachment yet. …
5 reasons why 3 STDs are roaring back in America
We don’t talk much about chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis, in part because it can seem like they’re not big health issues anymore. But it turns out more and more Americans may be quietly suffering from these once nearly eliminated STDs.
According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were nearly 2.4 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reported in the United States in 2018 — the highest cumulative number ever recorded.
The leap in cases over the last few years is truly eye-popping. Between 2017 and 2018, the rate of:
- Gonorrhea cases increased
How remote work is quietly remaking our lives
From their ersatz offices in coffee shops, coworking spaces, and living rooms, a growing number of remote workers are quietly remaking the way we work and live.
Take Eden Rehmet, who was able to parlay her wages working in trade services at a New York City commodities broker into buying a home and opening a small business upstate.
Rob Osario, a web developer, works remotely from Brooklyn half of the week to skip a commute to his Manhattan office.
And interior designer Meg Lavalette gets the best of both worlds by living and doing the majority of her work in …
Vox Sentences: Sitting out impeachment
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.
The White House tries to stonewall impeachment
- The Trump administration is refusing to cooperate with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry: “Put simply, you seek to overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the President they have freely chosen,” the White House counsel wrote. [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez, John Wagner, and Colby Itkowitz]
- Democrats see an
Trump just refused any cooperation with the House impeachment inquiry
The Trump White House announced Tuesday night it would not cooperate in any way with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry — a remarkably broad blanket refusal that will set up high-stakes legal battles.
“President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a blustery letter to top House Democrats. The letter also claims the impeachment inquiry is an attempt “to overturn the democratic process.”
Gregg Nunziata, a lawyer and former staffer for Sen. Marco Rubio (R), tweeted that the letter was “bananas” and “a middle finger to …