The Mendenhall River flood near Juneau, Alaska, the state capital, reached a record-breaking crest of 16.65 feet on the morning of Wednesday August 13 after a massive glacial outburst sent debris-filled water rushing into neighborhoods.
Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) issued an executive order allowing cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including ICE.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered rare public praise for the Trump administration on Thursday, calling it “energetic and sincere” just one day before his first in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump since 2019. The talks, set for Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, will mark Putin’s first visit to American soil in a decade.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is co-founding Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup positioned to compete directly with Elon Musk’s Neuralink. According to The Financial Times, the company plans to raise $250 million at an $850 million valuation, with a large portion of its funding expected from OpenAI’s ventures arm.
Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, announced Wednesday that he is leaving the company to start his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures. The new firm will focus on AI safety research and funding startups that aim to “advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is urging President Donald Trump to ban AR-15 rifles as part of a broader push to address violent crime in U.S. cities. Appearing Tuesday on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, Scott said, “The president could also do some very simple things for us, Jake. Not just for Baltimore, but for the whole country… The president can say, no one will no longer be able to go into a store and buy an AR-15.”
