Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom for President Joe Biden's first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
The Washington, D.C., area is among the many parts of the country that have been swarmed by Brood X cicadas, a large emergence of the loud 17-year insects that take to dive-bombing onto moving vehicles and unsuspecting passersby.
Even Biden wasn't spared. The president brushed a cicada from the back of his neck as he chatted with his Air Force greeter after arriving at Joint Base Andrews for Wednesday's flight.
“Watch out for the cicadas,” Biden then told reporters. “I just got one. It got me.”
It was unclear how cicadas disrupted the mechanics of the press plane. Weather and crew rest issues also contributed to the flight delay late Tuesday. Ultimately, the plane was swapped for another one, and the flight took off shortly after 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
The press plane is arranged with the assistance of the White House and carries journalists at their expense. There was not expected to be any impact on news coverage of Biden's visit.
The Florida GOP suspended its chairman yesterday amid a police investigation into a rape accusation against him.
Lawmakers may finally be close to a deal for a new border security bill.
A car crashed into a parked Secret Service SUV that was guarding President Biden's motorcade in Delaware on Sunday.
A car plowed into a parked SUV that was guarding President Joe Biden’s motorcade Sunday night while the president was leaving a visit to his campaign headquarters.
Negotiators insist they are making progress, but a hoped-for framework did not emerge. The talks come as Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner in 2024, delivered alarming anti-immigrant remarks about “blood” purity over the weekend, echoing Nazi slogans of World War II at a political rally.
The Supreme Court decided to leave in place a ban on semi-automatic weapons in the state of Illinois.
The Senate passed a bill giving retroactive pay increases to those service members who may have been affected by the hold on military promotions caused by Senator Tommy Tuberville.
Jurors are expected to resume deliberations this morning in a case that centers on how much Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani must pay in his damages defamation trial.
President Biden said Israel needs to be more careful when it comes to civilian deaths in its war with Hamas as the next phase of the war is weeks away.
The White House has unveiled a list of 48 drugs that drugmakers will have to pay rebates to the federal government on due to raising their prices higher than the cost of inflation during this year.
