5 things to know for Aug. 12: Paris Olympics, Presidential race, Middle East tensions, Brazil plane crash, Greece wildfires
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It’s a bird … It’s a plane … No, it’s a fireball. The Perseid meteor shower reached its peak before dawn today, lighting up the skies with up to 100 meteors per hour. If you were fast asleep, don’t fret: There are seven remaining meteor showers set to peak before the end of the year. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. After an exciting two-and-a-half weeks of competition, the Summer Olympics wrapped up on Sunday with a grand closing ceremony at the Stade de France. The celebration boasted an array of music, a parade of nations and even Tom Cruise rappelling from the roof. It was a fitting Hollywood finish as the Games were formally handed to 2028 host Los Angeles. Also on Sunday, the US women’s basketball team survived a scare and beat host nation France, 67-66. The victory sealed a US tie with China for most gold medals at the 2024 Games. Meanwhile, a saga is unfolding around American gymnast Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise bronze medal. US Olympic officials say they will appeal a ruling that stripped her of the medal and dropped her to fifth place. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are facing another busy week ahead in their quest for the White House. Harris delivered remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser Sunday while Trump said his weekend fundraisers in Montana and Wyoming raised $28 million for his campaign. On Saturday, Trump’s campaign said in a statement that it had been hacked by Iranian operatives that “intended to interfere with the 2024 election.” Politico reported that it had received emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s campaign operation but it’s not clear whether Iran was responsible for the hack. The White House condemned any attempt at foreign interference in American elections. A barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel on Sunday night has further heightened tensions in the Middle East. The latest salvo was fired in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and in retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, the militant group said in a statement. Rocket fire toward Israel by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has become a near-daily occurrence since the outbreak of war in Gaza as fears grow over a possible Iranian attack that could escalate into a wider regional conflict. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a submarine to the Middle East and accelerated the arrival of a carrier strike group to the region ahead of an anticipated Iranian attack against Israel, the Pentagon said on Sunday. All 62 bodies have been recovered from the site of the deadly plane crash outside São Paulo on Friday, according to the state government. Flight tracking data shows that the passenger plane dropped 17,000 feet in just one minute, but it is not yet clear why. The flight had left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Parana, and was en route to Guarulhos, in São Paulo state. Dramatic footage circulating on social media showed the plane’s fall and its destroyed fuselage in flames on the ground. Preparations are expected to begin today for a wake to be held in Cascavel, according to reporters in the region.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.