Some of the perks that come with picking up a book might surprise you.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will defend a narrow majority in the Nov. 5 elections. Below are some of the races to watch as Republicans and Democrats battle through 2024 for control of the chamber. REPLACING KEVIN MCCARTHY Two Republicans - California Assembly member Vince Fong and Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux - will face off on Tuesday in a special election runoff to fill Republican former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's seat. McCarthy resigned from...

The presidential primaries that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have already clinched will move closer to their end Tuesday. Voters in two states, Kentucky and Oregon, will get their chance to weigh in, symbolic decisions that provide a few more delegates to the national conventions and a gut check on where the Democratic and Republican bases stand toward their standard-bearers. Even after they secured the nominations and their rivals dropped out, Biden and Trump have...

Defense attorneys in New York v. Trump rested their case Tuesday morning without calling former President Trump to the stand to testify.  The prosecution rested its case Monday, and Trump defense attorneys called two witnesses — paralegal Daniel Sitko and a former legal adviser to Michael Cohen, Robert Costello — before resting its case.  Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the jury until after Memorial Day.  Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the...

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr (Ga.) was elected as the new president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), as the gun-rights advocacy group turns a new chapter following the resignation of Wayne LaPierre earlier this year.  Barr, who served in the House of Representatives until 2003, said the NRA needs to expand membership, particularly in a presidential election year. “I thank my colleagues for their support of my election as NRA President,” Barr said in a...

Days before OpenAI demonstrated its new, flirty voice assistant last week, the actress Scarlett Johansson said, Sam Altman, the company’s chief executive, called her agent and asked that she consider licensing her voice for a virtual assistant. It was his second request to the actress in the past year, Ms. Johannson said in a statement on Monday, adding that the reply both times was no. Despite those refusals, Ms. Johansson said, OpenAI used a voice that sounded “eerily similar...