New C.D.C. Director Is Fired, White House Says  —  Susan Monarez was said to have refused to adopt Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s stance on vaccination policy.  —  The White House said late Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control …

Federal agents arrest firefighters working on WA wildfire  —  Two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula were arrested by federal law enforcement Wednesday, in a confrontation described by firefighters and depicted in photos and video.  —  Why the two firefighters were arrested is unclear.

Why Aren't Markets Freaking Out?  —  For those of us who follow economic policy in general and the Federal Reserve in particular, the past week has been shocking and terrifying.  Donald Trump's ongoing attempts to bully the Fed into large interest rate cuts have escalated into an attempt to fire Lisa Cook …

In Trump's Second Term, a Bolder President Charges Ahead Unchecked  —  Trump is frequently riffing on authoritarianism and ignoring caution from advisers  —  Some aides to Donald Trump warned the president that building a ballroom at the White House would force them to tear down part …

Intelligence Chief Gabbard Slammed for Identifying Undercover CIA Officer  —  COVER BLOWN  —  The covert official was included in a list of names shared by Gabbard online.  —  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been condemned for sharing the name of an undercover CIA officer on social media.

Trump administration plans to limit how long foreign students can study in the US … “For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars …

Transcript: Trump Erupts in Rage as Dem Gov's Harsh Takedown Hits Home  —  The following is a lightly edited transcript of the August 28 episode of the  —  Daily Blast podcast.  Listen to it here.  —  Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network.

Shooting Madness in Minneapolis  —  The alleged killer of children at church fits a too-common profile.  —  The details are still emerging about the person who shot up a church full of Catholic school children in Minneapolis on Wednesday at a celebratory Mass for the first week of the new school year.

The authoritarian checklist  —  There is so much happening that occasionally pausing to take stock is necessary.  So where are we?  In deep trouble.  America may not be fully authoritarian, but by no means can we consider it to be a functioning democracy.

Air Force to provide funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt  —  The U.S. Air Force will provide Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt with military funeral honors, reversing a Biden-era decision that denied her family's request, according to a legal group that has represented her family.

FDA approves COVID-19 vaccines only for ‘high risk’ people  —  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved the updated version of Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines for this upcoming respiratory viral season, but limited the approval to seniors and people at a high risk …

Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures  —  A pilot program in six states will use a tactic employed by private insurers that has been heavily criticized for delaying and denying medical care.  —  Like millions of older adults, Frances L. Ayres faced a choice …

Trump Ally Pelted With Rocks in Campaign Stunt Disaster  —  ROCK AND HARD PLACE  —  Argentina's president was whisked away by bodyguards as things turned nasty on the campaign trail.  —  Argentina's Trump-loving president was whisked away from a rally by his security goons when protesters started lobbing rocks and bottles at him.

OpenAI Says It's Scanning Users' ChatGPT Conversations and Reporting Content to the Police  —  As the loved ones of the people impacted by these dangerous bots rally for change to prevent such harm from happening to anyone else, the companies that run these AIs have been slow to implement safeguards …

2 Weeks After Trump Talks, Russia Bombards Kyiv, Killing at Least 18 … Emergency responders at a residential building that was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, on Thursday.  —  Visuals by Finbarr O'Reilly  —  An hourslong barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed …

Vance defends thoughts and prayers after school shootings  —  Vice President Vance is criticizing anyone who would mock the idea of offering thoughts and prayers after a school shooting following the killings of two children at a Catholic school Wednesday in Minneapolis.

Donald Trump Is a Threat to Capitalism  —  Perhaps we should have seen this coming.  —  In his first term, Donald Trump was not shy about using the bully pulpit of the presidency to attack any institution that interfered with his uniquely distorted economic philosophy.

The ‘Mozart of Math’ rarely speaks about politics.  The wide-ranging cuts to science funding made him change that.  —  UCLA's Terence Tao called the Trump administration's actions an “existential threat” to academic research in the U.S.  —  Terence Tao, one of the world's foremost mathematicians …

YouTube's Deal With the Devil … In late 2020, YouTube took a decisive step: The company suspended the right-wing conspiracy factory One America News, demonetized its channel, and declared that it was not an “authoritative” source.  It was the correct call: OAN has a lengthy record …

Exclusive: Electromagnetic weapon zaps drone swarm in seconds  —  Waves of drones tumbled out of the sky above Camp Atterbury, Indiana, on Tuesday, their mechanical death throes punctuating what was otherwise a quiet morning. … - Axios was the only media on hand for the Atterbury tests …