McCarthy, laboring to adjust to life after the speakership, eyes exiting Congress
At an emotional news conference immediately after he was removed as speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy gave an inconclusive answer about whether he would remain in Congress: “I’ll look at that.” Over the past two months, McCarthy has given the life of a rank-and-file member a hard look and discovered it to be a painful existence after having been at the pinnacle of his party in the House for more than a decade. These days, McCarthy, famous for his preternaturally sunny California disposition, has been hard to cheer up. As California’s Friday filing deadline to run for reelection draws near, his colleagues expect him to leave.
In and out of the courtroom, O’Connor inspired a generation of women
The death of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Friday at 93 stirred reflections nationwide. Elected officials throughout government lauded her intelligence and influence. Former clerks recalled her mentorship and guidance. Analysts considered her judicial legacy as a moderate Republican whose decisions often supported women’s rights. O’Connor was a powerful justice who sat in the middle of the court’s ideological spectrum. But she made a series of influential rulings on matters, including abortion, sexual harassment and sex discrimination, that were crucially important to women. Outside the legal community, many Americans simply remembered her as an extraordinarily powerful, respected figure who had shattered one of the biggest glass ceilings.
The plan to save a California island? Shoot all of the deer.
Santa Catalina Island, a biodiverse archipelago off Southern California, is home to over 60 plants and critters found nowhere else on Earth. Plump quails and miniature foxes unique to the island scurry across the dirt roads that wind through scrubby hillsides. Pillows of fog roll onshore and coat the leaves of rare plants with dew. Bald eagles swoop far above the Pacific. But the habitat is suffering because much of the native flora has been ravaged by animals shipped there over the past century for ranching, hunting and filming movies. To the island’s lead conservationist, there is only one way to save Catalina for future generations: Kill all the deer.
d office, then on reality TV or the big screen.
Desperate families search for affordable home care
There is little assistance from the U.S. government for families who need a home health aide unless they are poor. The people in these jobs are often woefully underpaid and unprepared to help a frail, elderly person with dementia to bathe and use the bathroom, or to defuse an angry outburst. Usually, it is family that steps into the breach — grown children who cobble together a fragile chain of visitors to help an ailing father; a middle-aged daughter who returns to her childhood bedroom; a son-in-law working from home who keeps a watchful eye on a confused parent; a wife who can barely manage herself looking after a faltering husband.
The deep roots of Ireland’s support for Palestinians
Under the light drizzle of a Tuesday morning last month in front of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, Ríonach Ní Néill and a group of friends took turns reading out thousands of names — each one a person killed since Israel started bombarding the Gaza Strip in the war, according to a list released by health authorities in Gaza. It was an attempt to convey the enormity of the loss of life, Ní Néill said. In Ireland, support for Palestinian civilians runs deep, rooted in what many see as a shared history of British colonialism and the experience of a seemingly intractable and traumatic conflict.
Crossing the Dnieper: What a Ukrainian military operation might mean
Bands of Ukrainian soldiers fighting to take back territory on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River have been bombed by Russian warplanes, assaulted by infantry and stalked by drones. Still, the Ukrainian forces have managed to hold onto a handful of positions across the river for more than a month. If Ukraine is successful in establishing enduring positions, its forces would be within 30 miles of Crimea — putting a vital transit hub on the peninsula in range of Ukrainian artillery, reshaping the geography of the battlefield and making it even harder for Russia to bring food, fuel and ammunition to tens of thousands of soldiers over the winter.
Ex-Chilean army officer Is expelled from U.S. to face charges in singer’s killing
A former Chilean army officer has been deported from Florida to Chile to face charges in the kidnapping and killing of a popular folk singer and a prison director days after the 1973 military coup that deposed President Salvador Allende. Pedro Barrientos, 74, who was expelled Friday, was formally informed of the charges in the killings of the folk singer, Víctor Jara, and the former prison director, Littré Quiroga, and temporarily detained in an army base while the investigation against him concludes. Barrientos is the last of eight Chilean officers charged in the killings.
By wire sources