Since he was installed at the 80,000-employee department in April by the White House, Mr. Caputo, a media-savvy former Trump campaign aide with no background in health, has worked aggressively to control the media strategy on pandemic issues. But over the weekend, he was engulfed in two explosive controversies of …...Read More

Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday. It’s that most central and chaotic of swing states, home to the hanging chad, the most recent statewide Senate recount, and already more than $200 million in television and radio political advertising in 2020. We’re talking, of course, …...Read More

Mr. Biden’s speech came as Mr. Trump paid a last-minute trip to California to meet with officials struggling with the catastrophe, and disputed their assertion that there was any connection between the fires sweeping the state and climate change. The developments suggest that an issue that has always been on …...Read More

Mercedes Figueruell, a Cuban-American Trump supporter, was not swayed. “Listen, he’s a jerk and says things that I don’t like and don’t approve of,” she said of the president whom she plans to support. But she expressed concern that more Democrats seemed to have grown accepting of socialism. “This is …...Read More

SEATTLE — The billowing wildfire smoke that has blanketed much of the West Coast with a caustic haze also began settling into the atmosphere thousands of miles away on Tuesday. While more favorable weather has allowed firefighters to make some progress against the devastating blazes in Oregon, the crisis was …...Read More

Mr. Kenan recalled thinking for a long time about how to bring the eccentric Hughes to Tims Creek, the type of odd juxtaposition that he reveled in. “I couldn’t have him come looking for the love of his life,” Mr. Kenan told the interviewer Jason Jefferies on his “Bookin’” podcast …...Read More

This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. Anthony M. Hopkins was adrift after graduating from high school, working odd jobs in rural North Carolina. So in 1970, knowing that he was likely to be drafted anyway as …...Read More

At a minimum, he said, that requires putting far more resources into fire prevention and preparedness, but also avoiding quick-fix changes to firefighting that could introduce unintended consequences and do more harm than good. “In this era,” he wrote, “we have to get it right.” This year, firefighting is complicated …...Read More

Climate change is making hurricanes wetter, because as the atmosphere warms it can hold more moisture. But Hurricane Sally is expected to dump as much as two and a half feet of rain on parts of the Gulf Coast over the next few days, and such enormous amounts cannot be …...Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s Africa Command is pressing for new authorities to carry out armed drone strikes targeting Qaeda-linked Shabab fighters in portions of eastern Kenya, potentially expanding the war zone across the border from their sanctuaries in Somalia, according to four American officials. The new authorities, which must …...Read More