4 weeks out, senate control hangs in the balance in tumultuous midterms
Exactly one month until Election Day, Republicans remain favored to take over the House in November, but momentum in the battle for the Senate has seesawed as a multimillion-dollar avalanche of advertising has blanketed the top battleground states. For almost two decades, midterm elections have been a succession of partisan waves: for Democrats in 2006, Republicans in 2010 and 2014, and Democrats again in 2018. Yet, as the first mail-in ballots go out to voters, the outcome of the 2022 midterms appears unusually unpredictable. With a 50-50 Senate and a single-digit House majority, Democrats are seeking to defy not only history but President Joe Biden’s unpopularity.
How insurers exploited Medicare for billions
Kaiser Permanente urged doctors to add illnesses to the records of patients they hadn’t seen in weeks. And executives at UnitedHealth Group told their workers to mine old medical records for more illnesses. The strategies — described by the Justice Department in lawsuits against the companies — led to diagnoses that let the insurers collect more money from the Medicare Advantage program, which was designed by Congress to encourage insurers to find ways to provide better care at lower cost. But a New York Times review of dozens of lawsuits, inspector general audits and investigations shows how insurers exploited the program to inflate their profits by billions of dollars.
In California, one hardy pine has survived for 4,800 years
Ten thousand feet up in the White Mountains of central California, Great Basin bristlecone pines endure, some for nearly 5,000 years. In Bishop, California, Methuselah, the king of the hardy bristlecone pines, is believed to have sprouted 4,855 years ago. These trees face a number of challenges that stem primarily from a changing climate. But Constance Millar, an ecologist who for more than three decades has been studying the pines, said she was hopeful about the bristlecones’ survival chances. Which among them is actually Methuselah is kept secret by the U.S. Forest Service to protect the ancient specimen from vandalism, although visitors try their best to guess.
A distracted Russia is losing its grip on its old Soviet sphere
With the Kremlin distracted by its flagging war more than 1,500 miles away in Ukraine, Russia’s dominium over its old Soviet empire shows signs of unraveling. Moscow has lost its aura and its grip, creating a disorderly vacuum that previously obedient former Soviet satraps and China are moving to fill. In Kyrgyzstan, the result in just one village has been devastating: homes reduced to rubble, a burned-out school and a gut-wrenching stench emanating from 24,000 dead chickens. All fell victim last month to the worst violence to hit the area since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union: a brief but bloody border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
10 dead in gas station explosion in Ireland, officials say
Police in Ireland said 10 people were killed and eight people injured after an explosion Friday afternoon at a gas station in a small village near the Atlantic coast. David Kelly, superintendent of the Milford police district, said at a news conference Saturday that officials were still investigating the cause of the explosion in Creeslough, in County Donegal, but that the information obtained so far suggested it was a “tragic accident.” The explosion happened at an Applegreen gas station in Creeslough, which is about 105 miles northwest of Belfast and home to about 740 people. A search and recovery operation ended Saturday, police said in an emailed statement.
Oldest public library in the Americas has Catholic origins
According to UNESCO, the Mexican city of Puebla is home to the oldest public library in the Americas. Those who enter the Palafoxiana Library for the first time might think they have arrived at a chapel. There is a high, vaulted ceiling and a gold-framed painting of the Virgin Mary. The library owes its existence to one of Puebla’s early Catholic bishops, who in 1646 donated his private library of 5,000 volumes to a local religious college. He expressed hope that anyone able to read would have access to them. The library’s collection has grown steadily over the centuries. There are now more than 45,000 volumes and manuscripts.
NKorea launches 2 missiles toward sea after US-SKorea drills
South Korea says North Korea has fired two ballistic missile toward its eastern waters, the latest in a barrage of weapons tests in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launches were conducted from its eastern costal area early Sunday. The Japanese government also says it detected the suspected North Korean launches. The launches were the North’s seventh round of weapons tests in two weeks and came hours after the U.S. and South Korea wrapped a new round of naval drills off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.
By wire sources