The U.S. is sending a “small number” of ground troops to the Middle East as a larger war between Israel and Hezbollah threatens to break out, the Pentagon announced Monday. Defense Department press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters the new detachment was being sent “in light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution.” “We are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder said...

Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest...

White House adviser Ali Zaidi said the Biden administration is racing to lock in the hundreds of billions of clean energy investments in its landmark climate law — a pledge that comes as former President Donald Trump is vowing to dismantle the whole effort. In an interview with the POLITICO Energy podcast ahead of Climate Week in New York City, Zaidi said the incentives in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act and actions by U.S. allies abroad have sparked a shift in clean...

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has received the endorsements of several popstars—most recently, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish threw their support behind the Vice President and Democratic nominee—but one particular chart-topper, whose feminist music and “Midwest Princess” aesthetic the meme-embracing Harris campaign has enthusiastically co-opted, has said she won’t be among them. Chappell Roan, the 26-year-old “Good Luck, Babe!” singer from Missouri, told the Guardian in an interview...

The Colorado gunman who killed 10 people at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket in 2021 was found guilty of murder on Monday and now faces life in prison. Ahmad Alissa, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was convicted on multiple charges on Monday, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 38 counts of attempted murder, one count of assault, and six counts of possessing illegal, large-capacity magazines. Alissa, now 24, opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in March 2021, killing nine customers...

The federal criminal investigation into New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ ties to the Turkish government — specifically whether he conspired with them to funnel illegal foreign donations to his campaign — has reportedly widened to include five more countries. The New York Times reported that prosecutors subpoenaed City Hall, Adams, and his campaign two months ago for information related to China, Qatar, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and Israel. It was not clear how expansive the scope of the...

TikTok has removed accounts on the platform linked to Russian media groups for engaging in what it calls “covert influence operations” ahead of the 2024 U.S. election. The video-streaming platform announced Monday it had removed accounts associated with parent companies Rossiya Segodnya and TV-Novosti for violating its community guidelines. TikTok did not list which specific accounts were removed, but NBC News reported Russian state media outlets RT, formerly known as...

The Republican Party’s efforts to lock down all of Nebraska’s electoral votes for former President Trump could be jeopardized after a state lawmaker refused to throw his support behind an initiative to change how the state allocates its electoral votes. Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell, a former Democrat from Omaha who switched his party to Republican this year, issued a statement Monday about his opposition to awarding that state’s five electoral votes...

Students retrieve their cellphones from pouches where they are stored during the school day at Bayside Academy in San Mateo, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill into law that will require California school districts to restrict or ban student cellphone use, thrusting the state with the largest K-12 population in the nation into the forefront of a growing movement to get distracted students off their devices in the classroom and focused on learning. The law, called the Phone-Free...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration and federal environmental and wildlife officials Monday to challenge the endangered species listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard, which lives in the heart of Texas oil country. Less than three inches long, the lizard inhabits parts of the Permian Basin near Midland-Odessa and the southeast corner of New Mexico, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Paxton argued that the agency illegally classified the lizard, also...