Montana man threatened Kevin McCarthy over fury that US had not shot down Chinese balloon

A certain Polar Bear’s return from hibernation was high on the Mets wish list as they considered the task ahead of them Thursday night.

The lawyer for NYPD friendly fire victim Gregory Delpeche says the cops who hit the Brooklyn bystander while trying to subdue a career criminal were reckless during the Sept. 15 mishap.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end made a sweet reference to Pop-Tarts, which the singer has baked for her boyfriend and his teammates in the past.

The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend their strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract, a person briefed on the matter says

A judge unsealed the plea deal of the man alleged to have handed Trayon White envelopes of cash to help his company secure city contracts.

The strike had shut down 14 ports along the East and Gulf coasts since Tuesday.

A New Jersey man is facing charges after fabricating both mental health and fire concerns over someone lighting a scented candle indoors, according to police.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Western North Carolina lies hundreds of miles inland from any coast. The counties around the Blue Ridge Mountains sit at high elevations, away from the dense flood zones along the Atlantic. The idea that more than a foot of rain would rapidly overwhelm the region, sweeping up homes and ripping up vegetation, seemed almost unthinkable. But a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall, at least 200 people have died, and the death toll is expected to rise as the floodwaters recede and the debris clears. Many inland residents in North Carolina have never experienced flooding like this in their lifetime, and only a sliver have the flood insurance necessary to help them rebuild.Flood insurance isn’t included in homeowner’s insurance, and Americans are generally not required to buy it. (One exception is the homeowners who live in high-risk areas, who must purchase flood insurance to get a federally backed mortgage.) Without this special coverage, floods can be “a huge financial shock to households,” Carolyn Kousky, the associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, told me. Those living in storm-torn areas without coverage are looking at a massive list of expenses—home repairs, debris removal, temporary lodging—that they may have to pay for out of pocket after Helene. Still, just a tiny share of homeowners currently own flood insurance. Most of the North Carolina counties hit hard by Helene did not fall within high-risk areas on flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency; one estimate found that less than 2.5 percent of homeowners in the region have flood insurance—and that number is even lower in some counties.“In a perfect world, everyone with some degree of flood risk could and would carry flood insurance on their homes,” my colleague Zoë Schlanger, who covers climate change, told me. But the reality is that even some of the residents in flood-prone areas do not buy the plans because they are so expensive. The average premium cost $700 a year in 2019, but that number can reach the thousands for some coastal communities. Lower-income residents face an especially daunting situation: They are less likely to be able to afford flood insurance, and they also have less money on hand to rebuild.Many people assume that they face little risk if they aren’t living in an area included in high-risk zones on FEMA’s flood maps, Sarah Pralle, a political-science professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, told me. But FEMA’s maps don’t capture the full picture of flood risk. They are drawn “based on the assumption that the past will help us predict the future. In a rapidly changing climate, that’s not the case.” The maps can quickly become outdated as climate risks evolve, she noted, and don’t take into account fluvial flooding, or flooding from heavy-rain events, which is what North Carolina saw last week. Even people who have personally experienced flooding sometimes drop their policies, Pralle said, adding that “if people have lived in a place where it hasn’t flooded in decades, they lose that memory of what can happen and what kind of losses they might suffer.”Those who do buy flood insurance usually live in areas prone to flooding. The result is a system in which the risk is not evenly spread out, making flood-insurance premiums hugely pricey—Pralle likened it to a health-insurance system in which only the sick buy coverage. Some countries organize their disaster-insurance programs so everyone pays a flat rate, Kousky explained. In the United States, that would mean someone living on Florida’s coastline would pay the same premium as someone living on the top of a mountain. That’s a tough sell for many Americans, and overhauling the National Flood Insurance Program, which is saddled with debt, would be politically contentious.Those without flood insurance will need to rely on a “patchwork” system of federal aid, loans, and charity, Kousky said, as they recover from Helene. One option is accepting government loans, but she noted that many people are not in a position to take on more debt after a hurricane—and their applications may be denied too. FEMA disaster-assistance grants are another pathway, and most of them do not need to be repaid—but those are “just an emergency stopgap,” Kousky said. They’re not designed to fully help people recover, usually providing only a few thousand dollars for each household—a fraction of what residents would need to rebuild.The process of recovering from Helene is just beginning. Still, hurricane season is not over for the rest of the country, and FEMA currently does not have enough funding to make it through the rest of the season. Last week, President Joe Biden signed a short-term spending bill authorizing another $16 billion for the agency, but further funding would need to come from Congress, which is currently in recess until after the election.So much of the response following disasters can feel piecemeal and reactive, Pralle said. Insurance is important—but not the full story. “Every dollar we put into prevention is going to be a lot more efficiently spent,” she explained. In a world reshaped by climate change, “this idea that there’s safe places you can go hide is unrealistic.”Related: North Carolina was set up for disaster. Hurricane Helene through the eyes of a former FEMA chief Here are three new stories from The Atlantic: The rise of the right-wing tattletale America isn’t ready for the new reality of hurricane deaths. Gisèle Pelicot and the most unthinkable, ordinary crime Today’s News A court filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith was unsealed yesterday, revealing key evidence in his federal election-subversion case against Donald Trump. Israel will continue striking targets linked to Hezbollah in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military chief. Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a resident of Dearborn, Michigan, was killed by an air strike in Lebanon on Tuesday, his family said in a statement. Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was sentenced to nine years in prison for a data-breach scheme that involved tampering with voting machines used in the 2020 presidential election. Dispatches Work in Progress: In many domains, the conventional wisdom among progressives is mistaken, oversimplified, or based on wishful thinking, Rogé Karma writes. The economics of immigration is not one of them. Explore all of our newsletters here.Evening Read Illustration by Liana Finck Please Don’t Make Me Download Another AppBy Ian Bogost Fifteen years ago, an Apple ad campaign issued a paean to the triumph of the smartphone: There’s an app for that, it said. Today, that message sounds less like a promise than a threat. There’s an app for that? If only there weren’t. Read the full article.More From The Atlantic The EV culture wars aren’t what they seem. What conservatives mean by “freedom of speech” Georgia’s election-law problems aren’t legal ones. Health care is on the ballot again. For how much longer can life continue on this troubled planet? Culture Break Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Debate. When a friend’s in need and you’re at a loss for words, why not use ChatGPT?Read. In Olga Tokarczuk’s posthumously published novel, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, she champions a world governed by myth, not reason.Play our daily crossword.Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

The National Women's Soccer League has fined Angel City FC $200,000 and has suspended their president and general manager from making player transations.

“I thank God for looking over us," the police chief said.

The Wall Street Journal reported the budget carrier is in talks with bondholdersand other creditors to support a Chapter 11 filing.

In an interview with CBS News, the head of the Department of Justice's National Security Division said the U.S. is facing a multi-pronged offensive from Russia, Iran and China.

Garcia submitted a sworn declaration to a California court, detailing how Chigvintsev allegedly attacked her inside their Napa Valley home.

More than 400 national security and foreign policy officials who have worked in previous GOP administrations endorsed Donald Trump for president on Thursday.

Trump attorneys filed a memo Thursday in support of their motion to dismiss all charges brought against the former president by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The dystopian saga unfolded hours after a Northern California mom gave birth to her fifth daughter.

Striking dockworkers reached a tentative agreement with port operators on Thursday for a 62 percent wage increase and have extended their contract through Jan. 15 to bargain over remaining issues.

Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says civilian drone activity near Hurricane Helene disaster sites impedes emergency response.

From Canada, would be terrorists are streaming south as illegal crossing jump 50 TIMES -- you read that right -- since Kamala Harris and Joe Biden opened the northern border.

Former Memphis police officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were convicted Thursday in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, but cleared of the most serious charges.

US dock workers and port operators have reached a tentative deal that will immediately end a three-day strike that has shut down shipping on the US East Coast and Gulf Coast, the International Longshoremen's Association union said on Thursday.

AB 2839 aimed to label AI-generated content in political ads as "manipulated." A federal judge says the law violates the 1st Amendment.

FIFA intends to launch an investigation against the Israel Football Association over allegations raised by the Palestinian Football Association.

The hour-long debate in Virginia’s battleground 7th Congressional District was short on policy details and heavy on partisan attacks.

The union representing East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers was seeking higher wages and a ban on the use of some automated equipment.

Did "Flipper" just leave someone a voicemail? Just kidding. It was the NYPD.

Barrymore told her live studio audience Wednesday that she and Sevigny shared a special moment in a bathroom at the Los Angeles Sunset Marquis Hotel.

Willy Adames confirmed he did offer to meet Jesse Winker in the parking lot to settle differences after an on-field "chirping" match in Game 1.

Music legend Bruce Springsteen offered a full-throated endorsement to the Harris-Walz ticket Thursday in what he called "one of the most consequential elections in our nation's history."

Antonio Pierce was handed an eight-year show-cause order over violations that happened during his time as an assistant coach at Arizona State.

The images could be a stumbling block for Lawler in his close re-election race against former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is black, to rep the 17th Congressional District.

Not content to hold out hope for help some fear might not arrive in time, a handful of grassroots rescue operations have sprung up to render assistance by air, land and even on four legs.

Mario Anzuoni/ReutersOne of country music’s biggest stars was slapped with horrific rape and sexual assault allegations on Thursday. A longtime hair and makeup artist for Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, alleged in a lawsuit that the musician raped her so brutally in a Los Angeles hotel room that it felt like he was “breaking her in two.”The musician was also accused of forcing the woman to touch his erect penis, groping her, pushing his sexual fantasies on her, and sending her “explicit” texts in separate incidents.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Paul Skenes may be just as good at gift-giving as he is on the mound. 

Simu Liu joins the cast of the animated prequel, which stars Izaac Wang, James Hong, Ming Na-Wen, BD Wong, A.J. LoCascio and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green.

The issue isn’t Trump’s choice of words, but the loss of life caused by Harris’ open border.

The jury returned the verdict the same day in the trial of three former Memphis officers charged with civil rights violations in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.

Body camera audio captured in the aftermath of the arrest of Tyre Nichols in Memphis showed officers laughing with one another as they recount the beating.

Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield will be bitter rivals Thursday night, but the Falcons and Buccaneers quarterbacks will both be donating $50,000 to Hurricane Helene victims.

Las novedades musicales de esta semana incluyen temas variados en las diferentes plataformas digitales

Fighting between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group have displaced some 12 million people in one of Africa's biggest countries. Our correspondent travels to Sudan and gives us a glimpse of the devastation the war has caused.

The former officers were acquitted of the most serious charge in the case — violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights by causing his death.

At least 11 people were killed and two people seriously injured on Sunday after the roof of a church in northern Mexico collapsed, officials said.

Two people are dead after a suspected grizzly bear attack in Canada's Banff National Park, officials said.

At least 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were injured when the truck they were traveling in overturned in southern Mexico on Sunday, Mexican authorities say.

A major earthquake has hit the east coast of Taiwan with a magnitude of 7.4, the strongest on the island in 25 years.

A jury in Memphis convicted three former officers on some charges in a federal civil rights case. The ex-cops beat him to death last year after a traffic stop, and conspired to cover up the attack.

The storied union behind the port strike halting ships from Maine to Texas reflects a throwback to more traditional, top-down era of labor culture and activism.