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A newly released report sheds new light on the death of Jackie, the famed bald eagle mother who died in August. An autopsy revealed that Jackie died of pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu.
Jackie rose to fame from a webcam placed in the eagle’s nest 10 years ago near the shore of Big Bear Lake, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles. Millions of viewers tuned in the watch her love story with her partner, Shadow, as they fought year after year to keep their eggs and chicks safe from predatory ravens, heavy snowfalls and windstorms.
In July, Jackie was found on the shoreline of Big Bear Lake weak, disheveled and undernourished. The Ojai Raptor Center took her into its care and was flooded with questions about her treatment. She died on Aug. 10.
The report stated that Jackie suffered several diseases and a toxicology screen found rat poison in her system. But Steve Kubiski, director of disease investigations at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a joint statement that bird flu was the “primary underlying cause of her decline.” The virus caused an ulcer in her stomach leading to internal bleeding and infection.
Jackie was cremated following the investigation to prevent the spread of the virus.
Friends of Big Bear Valley, which operates the webcam and documented the eagles’ journeys, wrote: “Fly high and soar free…Jackie. Thank you for all that you taught and gave us.”
Speaking at Vice President JD Vance’s rally in Monroe, Michigan, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (Michigan) delivered the party’s final argument to voters: that Americans should keep the GOP in power because the party has “more work to do.”
“No one up here is going to tell you things are perfect,” McClain said at the rally Thursday. “I’m never going to gaslight you: We know we have more work to do. We need to keep the Senate and the House to do it.”
High gas prices, rising costs due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and Trump’s sagging favorability ratings have complicated Republicans’ efforts to maintain their House and Senate majorities. The party faces tougher-than-expected midterm races across the country, including in Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is running against Republican former representative Mike Rogers for Senate. El-Sayed, considered a progressive Democrat, is holding a narrow lead in most polls.
As head of the GOP conference, McClain is largely in charge of House Republicans’ messaging. In her Thursday remarks, she told the crowd that the Democratic Party “is communism” — rhetoric she’s been employing throughout most of the campaign season.
“Democrats want free health care, free tuition, free housing,” McClain said. “To pay for all that free, Democrats will tax the hell out of your paycheck.”
McClain also attacked Democrats’ border policies and emphasized Republican-passed tax cuts, including no tax on tips or overtime.
The holdout juror in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who killed her three children in 2023, said in an interview with Fox News he answered questions truthfully during court proceedings and the jury selection process.
Michael Desronvil, the holdout juror, has faced questions from Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington about the truthfulness of his answers.
The Boston Globe reported after the trial’s conclusion that Desronvil had an active civil restraining order over claims he assaulted his nephew, and that previous domestic assault and battery charges against him had been dismissed.
In the interview with Fox News that published Wednesday, he described the assault and battery charges from 2021 as an incident that “got blown out of proportion.”
Reddington filed a motion on Sept. 18 that asks the court to question Desronvil about the truthfulness of his answers on the questionnaire, which asks whether potential jurors have been arrested or charged with a crime.
A mistrial was declared in the case on Sept. 4 after Desronvil refused to join 11 other jurors in voting to acquit Clancy.
Desronvil also denied claims made by Reddington and other jurors that he experienced doubt about Clancy’s guilt, and he said that thought Clancy’s actions on the day of the strangulations were “methodical.”
For weeks, Luna, a 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix, has been a blur around Yellowstone National Park.
She dashed out of the cabin where her family was staying Sept. 10 after “a tragic mistake” while the owners were out with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, according to the group called in to find her.
Since then, park staffers and visitors had reported sightings, including in lodges and restaurants.
But Luna was fast, and would “not allow anyone to approach her,” wrote Norris Ark Training & Recovery Center, the Montana-based nonprofit that has provided multiple updates on the search, on Facebook.
On Wednesday, there was another update: “WE GOT HER!!! Luna is safe.”
Katie Boucher, Norris Ark’s president, wrote in a message that Luna had lost about 10 pounds but was otherwise in relatively good health.
“She had words for her human!” Boucher wrote.
The group had said that it could not use food to try to lure Luna because it could attract predators; instead, they used a live trap baited with the dog’s own scent and that of her family. Norris Ark warned in recent days that time was running out because it would need to remove equipment when its permit expired on Oct. 31. Luna was found in the park’s Canyon Village area, near the wastewater treatment plant zone, Boucher said.
“Park rangers worked with the owners and an outside organization to recover the dog and are glad she was successfully captured and is alive and well,” park spokesperson Linda Veress said in an email.
In an email, Boucher said she wanted to urge Yellowstone visitors to leave their pets at home.
“It is a very dangerous place, escapes happen often, and it is very hard to get them back if they aren’t recovered within a few hours,” she wrote.
On Wednesday afternoon, Reagan National Airport hit 90 degrees — the latest in the year that Washington has hit 90 since recordkeeping began in 1871, when Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House.
The previous record for a late 90-degree day was Oct. 11, 1919, when D.C. hit 90 degrees. (National Airport hadn’t been built yet, and readings at the time were taken at the U.S. Weather Bureau’s city office on M Street NW in Foggy Bottom.)
The 90-degree reading came around 4 p.m. Wednesday, and, notably, it accompanied a southerly breeze. The sensor’s position is far enough out on National Airport’s peninsula that any southerly winds would blow off the Potomac. That would mean slightly cooler temperatures reaching the sensor.
To break records at National, you normally need a westerly wind.
Since recordkeeping began about 155 years ago, Washington’s average October high temperature has warmed by 3.7 degrees, largely because of human-induced climate change. Subsequently, record temperatures are now disproportionately more likely to occur.
President Donald Trump uses Truth Social daily to shape the course of the war in Iran, announce new policies and share AI-generated videos of himself. But the audience for his social network is shrinking.
Traffic to Truth Social fell more than 30 percent in the year ending in September, according to an analysis by digital intelligence firm Similarweb. The platform averaged about 260,000 daily users last month, down from a peak of 420,000 in June 2025.
Trump, who has by far the largest following of any Truth Social user, posts on the social network many times each day. This week, he has used the service to tout an investment in semiconductors, share positive media coverage about himself and repost a graphic video of a man being attacked by a tiger.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Truth Social’s parent company said that Truth Social has engaging and influential content, and asserted that The Washington Post was biased.
Trump launched the social network in between his presidencies after Facebook, YouTube and Twitter banned him from their services in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
The social network has become a source of ethical concerns about the president’s second term. Earlier this year, for example, the company announced it would launch a tool that would provide investors faster access to posts on the service, sparkinglegal concerns.
It’s been a record-breaking year for storm activity across the Pacific because of an unparalleled El Niño.
Now, another storm could soon rapidly intensify and, by early next week, rival the strongest ones that have formed on the planet so far this year.
Dubbed Tropical Depression Champi, it’s expected to grow into a typhoon by Saturday, then probably track near the U.S. territory of Guam on Sunday, local time. That’s where it has the potential to bring destructive wind gusts of over 100 mph.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicts that the storm will track just south of the island of Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands, which was dealt a devastating blow from Super Typhoon Bavi in July.
As the storm continues west early next week, it will encounter exceptionally warm, deep ocean water in the upper 80s, moist air, winds that change little with height and air spreading efficiently away from the storm at high altitudes — potentially whipping it up into one of the world’s most powerful storms of the year by wind speed.
As of early Thursday, modeling from Google’s DeepMind shows about a 40 percent chance that this storm’s peak winds will top those of Super Typhoons Sinlaku and Bavi this year.
Later next week, the storm is expected to push toward Taiwan and/or Japan.
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