The military is walking back its previously announced plans to discontinue some weather forecast data after public pushback. The Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will still distribute data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program beyond Thursday, according to a statement. The government previously said the data would be discontinued after Thursday. The Defense... ... Read full Story
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is again raising eyebrows, this time over a resurfaced clip in which he says, “Israel is not a place, it is not a country." ... Read full Story
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly considers removing USPSTF board members as Senate Republicans back efforts to eliminate DEI practices from health guidelines ... Read full Story
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and President Trump took swings at India as a tariff deadline nears for the country. “India came to the table early. They've been slow rolling things,” Bessent said Thursday during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “So, I think that the president, the whole trade team’s been frustrated with them, and... ... Read full Story
President Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test, a controversial relic of the Cold War era that former President Obama abandoned in 2012. The executive order would create programs for schools to reward “excellence in physical education,” White House officials told CNN, and aims to address “the widespread... ... Read full Story
FDA maintains deregulatory approach as consumers use apps to identify harmful ingredients in beauty products while advocacy groups push for stricter oversight ... Read full Story
Joe Biden addresses the historic Black lawyers organization's milestone celebration after son Hunter faced disbarment over drug use and gun violations ... Read full Story
Former President JOe Biden warned that Trump-era policies threaten civil rights progress in a fiery speech to a Black legal group in Chicago Thursday night. ... Read full Story
New details are emerging about the deadly collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter in January near Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people. Three days of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearings, along with thousands of pages of documents, suggest that the Black Hawk helicopter may have been relying on... ... Read full Story
A legal immigrant and chair of the Los Angeles County GOP is saying that pro-sanctuary Democrats are deliberately building a two-tiered justice system designed to trap Latinos and immigrants in a “permanent underclass." ... Read full Story
President Trump sent letters Thursday to 17 of the world’s largest drug companies, telling them to take more steps to slash the prices of prescription drugs to match the lowest price in certain foreign countries. The letters represent an escalation of the administration’s push for lower drug prices by launching a "most favored nation” model, which... ... Read full Story
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley entered the 2026 North Carolina Senate race to succeed retiring Sen. Thom Tillis in expected costly battle. ... Read full Story
The White House is racing to finish trade deals ahead of its Aug. 1 deadline, just as prices in the economy are starting to take off from tariffs. President Trump’s novel “reciprocal” tariffs will go back into effect Friday after first being imposed in April. They were set to resume in early July, but were... ... Read full Story
A new Republican bill aims to halt federal funds to police agencies employing illegal immigrants following ICE's arrest of a Jamaican national serving as a seasonal officer. ... Read full Story
A small group of professors at Harvard has sent a letter to university leadership urging them not to cross certain lines as the nation’s oldest and richest school engages in negotiations with the Trump administration, which has withheld billions in federal funding to the school. The letter, addressed to Harvard President Alan Garber, members of... ... Read full Story
NYC GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa called out socialist opponent Zohran Mamdani over what he says is a double standard when it comes to armed protection. ... Read full Story
Top Trump administration officials will travel into the Gaza Strip on Friday to inspect food distribution amid international outrage over increasing deaths from starvation and criticism that U.S. efforts to distribute food are contributing to suffering and death. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy for peace missions,... ... Read full Story
Federal judges presiding over major cases involving the Trump administration on Thursday denounced threats they’ve faced as tensions between the White House and judiciary continue to mount. U.S. District Judges John J. McConnell Jr. of the District of Rhode Island and John Coughenour of the Western District of Washington said during a virtual event that... ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 2, 2025 is:
palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ noun
Palimpsest in its original use refers to writing material (such as a parchment manuscript) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased; the underlying text is said to be “in palimpsest.” Palimpsest in extended use refers to something that has usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface.
// Scholars believe the motive for making palimpsests was often economic—reusing parchment was cheaper than preparing a new skin.
// The ancient city is an architectural palimpsest.
“My aim was to trace the course of … the Aqua Marcia, built between 144 and 140 B.C. by Julius Caesar’s ancestor Quintus Marcius Rex. … The original tuff arches carried the Marcia across a steep ravine. Subsequent retaining walls and buttresses have transformed the bridge into a palimpsest of building styles.” — David Laskin, The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2024
Did you know?
Long ago, writing surfaces were so highly valued that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest in its original use referred to an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short. (The word is from the Greek palimpsēstos, meaning “scraped again.”) Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn’t completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing. De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers apparent beneath the surface.