U.S. News

Organizers of a plan to adorn some trains with googly eyes said that if the trains could not be reliable, they could at least make commuters smile.

With countless calls and a rush of campaign events, the president’s team began a damage-control effort to pressure and plead with anxious Democratic lawmakers, surrogates, activists and donors.

Vice-presidential hopefuls are posturing as part of a bid to highlight their ties to wealthy donors.

A military lab found distinctive damage from repeated blast exposure in every brain it tested, but Navy SEAL leaders were kept in the dark about the pattern.

A growing number of scientists suggest that troops are getting brain injuries from firing heavy weapons. An old party trick involving a beer bottle explains the physics of what happens when a blast wave hits the brain, and the damage it can cause.

Direct cash payments are not imminent, but under the state’s new budget, the money could go toward other reparations-related proposals pending in the Legislature.

In Virginia, Donald Trump and his supporters reveled in the moment, and mused about a shadowy Democratic plan to shift candidates.

The ruling by a federal judge is the latest setback for G.O.P.-controlled states that have passed their own laws on immigration.

A former hippie who chafed at wealth, she married a Chicago real estate titan and, after his death, donated hundreds of millions in her adopted city and beyond.

Fruit may be a staple. It can also be a status symbol prized for flavor, rarity and appearance.

In another sign of Donald J. Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, his team wants the party’s platform to be a succinct pro-Trump document, not an “unnecessarily verbose treatise.”

Some floated interventions and wondered about how to reach Jill Biden. Others hoped the president would bow out of the race on his own. Many came to terms with the low chances that he will do so.

The WikiLeaks founder spent years in captivity in London before talks accelerated this spring, allowing him to go home to Australia as a felon, but a free man.

President Biden’s stumbling performance at the debate has spurred interest in replacements. Here’s a roster of some possible backup candidates.

If President Biden seriously considered departing the race, the first lady would be the most important figure other than Mr. Biden himself in reaching that decision.

The man, Othel Moore Jr., died of positional asphyxiation on Dec. 8 of last year at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in what the medical examiner’s office called a homicide.

A day after his falsehoods largely went unchecked amid an unsteady debate performance by President Biden, former President Donald J. Trump argued that the president was unfit for office.

President Biden’s allies can no longer wave away concerns about his capacity after his unsteady performance at Thursday’s debate as worries among Democrats grow.

Vice President Kamala Harris tried to calm Democratic fears as her allies wondered what could be next for her.

Donald J. Trump accused immigrants of stealing “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” during Thursday’s debate, prompting criticism from Democrats and other social media users.

The most loyal, longstanding Democratic voters were perhaps the most shaken by President Biden’s performance. Some blamed the national party.

A day after a shaky debate performance that led to talk of a new Democratic candidate, President Biden was forceful and confident while speaking to supporters.

It was the biggest stage yet for his effort to rewrite the story of Jan. 6, 2021.

The official also said President Biden was committed to attending the next presidential debate in September.

The former president faced a similar crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign after a bad debate performance in 2012, and he defended his former running mate in a social media post.

Bickering about their golf handicaps in Thursday’s presidential debate was panned as a petty exercise between two aging men trying vainly to outdo one another.

In finding that prosecutors misused an obstruction law to charge rioters, the justices highlighted the lack of an established legal blueprint for addressing an attack on the foundations of democracy.

In states that have banned abortion, hospitals have struggled to treat pregnant women facing health risks. A Supreme Court decision this week did not help.

Facing resilient Democratic incumbents, G.O.P. House and Senate nominees highlighted their opponents’ support for President Biden after he faltered in the presidential debate.

Two rulings this week by the Republican-appointed majority add to its steady pursuit of enfeebling the ability of the administrative state to impose rules on powerful business interests.

Stephen Bannon will have to begin serving four months in prison on Monday, after the court turned aside his request to remain free while he appeals his conviction for contempt of Congress.

The combination of President Biden’s debate performance and adverse Supreme Court rulings left Democrats reeling and in despair with elections not far off.

A jury convicted the driver of eight counts of intoxication manslaughter after he plowed into a crowd of migrants in Brownsville, Texas, last year.

The all-Republican court voted 8 to 1 to leave in effect a law enacted last year during a wave of legislation targeting transgender rights.

Successive successes reinvigorated Donald Trump’s campaign a month after he became the first major party nominee convicted of a felony.

While it is possible, it would most likely lead to political upheaval in the party unless the president decides to step aside on his own terms.

Poll respondents who had thought the president would perform well expressed disappointment. ‘His communication fell down,’ one voter said.

Former President Donald J. Trump continued to spread fear of immigrants, while the president did not define any broader strategy on the issue.

A range of despairing Democrats began to reconsider their nominee after his rough debate showing, but there was no agreement on how, or whether, to urge him to step off the ticket.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has made it easier to sue agencies and get their rules struck down.

President Biden tried to minimize concerns about his fitness for office, saying he would not be running if he didn’t think he was up to the job.

The president’s surrogates acknowledged his struggles in the debate but said that one night did not reflect his successes, or the dangers of a second Trump term.

The reduction was a sign of progress for Mayor Karen Bass, who started an aggressive new program to move people off the streets in 2022.

The Republican-led House loaded its funding measures with provisions that have no chance of becoming law, as both parties look toward a bigger fight later this year, most likely after the elections.

The decision overturning a longstanding precedent is likely to spawn challenges to dozens of tax regulations.

The MSNBC host Joe Scarborough urged him to consider dropping out. So did other pundits the president had long viewed as his strongest allies in the news media.

The decision overturning a precedent known as Chevron deference was celebrated by those who would target medication abortion and rights for transgender people.

Leaders of the anti-abortion movement sent a letter to Donald J. Trump amid worries he may try to weaken the anti-abortion language in the party platform.

The ruling will amplify a shift already underway in the lower courts, which have in recent years been receptive to lawsuits challenging financial regulators’ actions.

A recent flurry of diplomacy aims to head off a conflict that could pit the United States directly against Iran.

Experts in legal ethics have said that the activities of the justices’ wives raised serious questions about their impartiality.

Challenges could range from whether tainted spinach can be traced back to a farm to a decision on whether drugs are safe and effective enough to be sold in the United States.

The decision is expected to prompt a rush of litigation challenging regulations across the entire federal government, from food safety to the environment.

A joint investigation examined the role money plays in politics in Hawaii. Hear how journalists put the story together in a livestreamed event on July 10.

The ruling that the Justice Department misused a 2002 law in charging a pro-Trump rioter who entered the Capitol could have an impact on hundreds of other cases, including one against Donald Trump.

The court ruled in favor of a former police officer seeking to throw out an obstruction charge for participating in the riot on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The ruling sweeps aside a legal precedent that required courts to defer to the expertise of federal administrators in carrying out laws passed by Congress.

A foundational 1984 decision had required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes, underpinning regulations on health care, safety and the environment.

The case is likely to have broad ramifications for how cities across the country respond to homelessness.