Democrats and Republicans in Congress started far apart on negotiations over the latest coronavirus stimulus bill last month. They haven’t closed the gap much since — even though extended unemployment benefits expired Friday. What’s getting in the way of a deal? The gulf between the two sides’ proposals is one …...Read More

Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world. The virus rippled out to the students’ homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Other …...Read More

WASHINGTON — It took only 24 hours after President Trump attacked New York City in his State of the Union address for the president’s man at the Department of Homeland Security to act. Chad F. Wolf had joined the department nearly two decades before as a midlevel staff member to …...Read More

As the coronavirus pandemic shuttered bars and restaurants in March, Phil McDaniel’s craft distillery in St. Augustine, Fla., stopped producing bourbon. Then he realized there was one alcohol-based product he could make that people would still clamor for: hand sanitizer. His St. Augustine Distillery soon churned out the first of …...Read More

Ms. Bass said she had made a mistake calling Castro “Comandante en Jefe,” a description widely detested by Cuban exiles. “Wouldn’t do that again,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Talked immediately to my colleagues from Florida and realized that that was something that just shouldn’t have been …...Read More

Minneapolis’s North Side, with a majority Black population, has decidedly mixed opinions on the City Council’s effort, following the police killing of George Floyd, to significantly reduce the size and scope of Minneapolis’s police force. Residents complain of rampant police mistreatment, but also of out-of-control crime and violence. That reality …...Read More

As Caribbean tourism exploded and got cheaper, local tour operators raked in money, but faced unexpected problems. Tropical infrastructure, local police and medical systems were overwhelmed on some islands even before the virus. One island friend, a divemaster at a major site, who asked that his name not be used …...Read More

Two G.O.P. Senate primaries offer — what else? — a test of loyalty to Trump. There are, as a once promising Democrat memorably said, two Americas. In one, President Trump is sagging in the polls, his ineffectual handling of the coronavirus and incendiary response to racial justice protests having alienated …...Read More

“What is the hottest ‘room’ temperature at which a human body can, by sweating, keep itself cool enough to avoid health damage?” — Matt B., Etterzhausen, Germany It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. Your body avoids overheating by taking advantage of a bit of physics: When water evaporates from …...Read More

For 45 minutes, Clinton Phillips and his family soared in a hot-air balloon Monday morning, high above Jackson Hole, a bucolic mountain valley in Wyoming that is popular with tourists. “This is the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a family,” he recalled thinking. Then, a strong gust of wind …...Read More