📌 High-Stake Elections, Towering Inferno, More

Candidates in Florida and Wisconsin on Monday made their final pushes for victory in high-stake elections.

Results in today’s elections could reshape the ideological balance of the House of Representatives and a state’s supreme court. Voters will cast ballots in two special elections in Florida today that could further shape the balance of power in the House, where Republicans hold a 218–213 majority.

The outcome could either strengthen the GOP's lead or allow Democrats to narrow the margin, which could complicate efforts by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to advance key parts of Trump's agenda.

In Wisconsin, voters will choose a state supreme court justice in what has become the most expensive judicial race in US history, with opponents and major political allies of the president pouring money into the contest, notably billionaire Elon Musk.

The contest between conservative Brad Schimel and liberal Judge Susan Crawford will decide whether the court maintains its 4–3 liberal majority or flips to conservative control, with potential implications for abortion, redistricting, and other key issues in the closely divided state.

In Florida, the two vacancies in the 1st and 6th Congressional Districts were created when Republican Matt Gaetz resigned after being considered for Trump's attorney general, and former Representative Mike Waltz was tapped to serve as national security adviser. Florida is considered a GOP stronghold.

A colossal fire erupted today in a Malaysian suburb outside Kuala Lumpur, forcing people from their homes and injuring dozens.

The towering inferno near a petrol station in Putra Heights in central Selangor state was visible for miles. At least 63 people were being treated in hospitals for burns, respiratory problems, or other injuries, authorities said, with more than 100 injured.

National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10 a.m local time. The affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the valves will eventually snuff out the fire.

The flames, 20 stories high at one point, were small enough for firefighters to approach around 2:45 p.m., the Selangor state fire department said.

Pictures and videos of the fireball went viral on social media, with some residents saying they felt a strong tremor with the doors and windows of their homes shaking.

Petronas said three gas stations were closed as a precaution, though they weren’t affected, and investigations are still underway.

Substances in coffee can elevate bad cholesterol in the blood but methods of delivering the brew can reduce them.

Diterpenes are compounds made by plants that have various effects on the human body. Two — cafestol and kahweol — have been linked to increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

Swedish researchers collected samples from 11 machines that brewed coffee from grinds mixed with hot water and passed through a metal filter and from three more that mixed a liquid coffee concentrate with hot water without filtration. Boiled, unfiltered coffee produced a massive mean concentration of just under 940 mg/L of cafestol and nearly 680 mg/L of kahweol.

Coffee from liquid and brewing machine models had a median cafestol concentration of 174 milligrams per liter and 135 mg/L of kahweol. French presses produced coffees with moderate diterpene levels, coming in under 90 mg/L for cafestol and under 70 mg/L for kahweol, while percolators had similar readings.

The best option was paper-filtered drip brews, clocking a median of just 11.5 mg/L of cafestol and 8.2 mg/L for kahweol. When the researchers filtered their boiled coffee through fabric, concentrations dropped to just 28 mg/L for cafestol and 21 mg/L for kahweol.

The researchers acknowledged small sample sizes and variables like filter pore size, water pressure, temperature, and how the beans were roasted and ground. Yet one researcher was adamant: “For people who drink a lot of coffee every day, it's clear that drip-filter coffee, or other well-filtered coffee, is preferable.“

China began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan today as a “stern warning“ against separatism.

China called Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te a “parasite“ as Taiwan sent warships to respond to China's navy approaching its coast. China views the island as its own and has never renounced force to bring it under its control. The exercises around the island come after Lai called Beijing a “foreign hostile force“ last month.

China detests Lai as a “separatist,“ and in a video accompanying the Eastern Theatre Command's announcement of the drills depicted him as a cartoon bug held by a pair of chopsticks above a burning Taiwan, calling him in English a “parasite.“

“The focus is on exercises such as combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets, and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes,“ the Eastern Theatre Command said.

Taiwan's government condemned the drills, with the presidential office saying China was “widely recognized by the international community as a troublemaker“ and that the government has the confidence and ability to defend itself.

Two NASA astronauts whose weeklong stay in low-Earth orbit increased to over nine months spoke publicly for the first time.

NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore garnered worldwide attention when issues with their Boeing Starliner vehicle cropped up during a June test flight to the International Space Station.

“We were always coming back, and I think people need to know that,“ Williams said. “We’re back to share our story with so many people because … it’s unique, and there are some lessons learned to it, and part of that is just resilience and being able to take a turn that was unexpected and make the best of it.“

Williams added: “We are International Space Station crew members, and we’re doing what all of our other friends in the astronaut office do: Go to work and train and do amazing science experiments up on the International Space Station.“

Both Williams and Wilmore said that Starliner is “very capable“ and they would fly it again. “We’re going to rectify all the issues we encountered,“ Wilmore said. “We’re going to fix it; we’re going to make it work. Boeing’s completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.“

After returning home, Williams said she couldn’t wait to hug her husband and her dogs. She said she’s been feeling good and went for a 3-mile run yesterday — something she says is a testament to the astronauts’ trainers, who are “rocking it“ in helping the crew reacclimate to life on Earth again.

If attacked by the US or its allies, Iran would acquire a nuclear weapon, an adviser to its supreme leader warned on Monday.

The comment came after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised to hit back if Trump carried out a threat to bomb the Islamic republic if it did not make a deal to curb its nuclear program.

Trump said on Saturday that “there will be bombing“ if Iran did not agree on a nuclear deal, according to NBC News, which said he also threatened to punish Tehran with what he called “secondary tariffs.“

Iran's foreign ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests in Iran, “following the threats by the US president,“ a ministry statement said.

“Someone who is in a glass room shouldn't throw stones at anyone,“ the man in charge of Iran's ballistic missile program threatened on state television Monday.

Western countries including the US, have long accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has denied, insisting its enrichment activities were solely for peaceful purposes. The West has also accused Iran of using proxy forces to expand its influence in the region, a charge Tehran rejects.

A New Zealand poll voted the blobfish fish of the year despite being described as the world's ugliest animal.

The creature, which grows to about 12 inches long, is known affectionately as Mr. Blobby and is the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.

It has a bulbous head and loose, flabby skin and lives in the deep sea, mainly off the southeastern coast of mainland Australia, the Australian island of Tasmania, and New Zealand.

The blobfish topped the annual poll by the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust, an environmental non-profit group, winning almost 1,300 out of more than 5,500 votes.

Blobfish resemble any other fish in their natural habitat, on the seabed at depths of about 2,000–4,000 feet. But when brought to the surface, where the water pressure isn't high enough to maintain their shape, blobfish morph into mushy creatures with an unfortunate appearance.

The trust's co-director, Kim Jones, described the competition as “a battle of two quirky deep sea critters, with the blobfish's unconventional beauty helping get voters over the line.“ The longfin eel, the whale shark and the great white shark were among the other fish in the top 10.