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 number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits slid last week, another sign that the job market continues to recover rapidly from the coronavirus recession.
Fed-watchers had their ears peeled after Wednesday's meeting of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee for any signal of when the central bank might start tapering its $120 billion in monthly assets purchases.
President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators have reached a deal over major outstanding issues in a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
man accused of killing eight people, most of them women of Asian descent, at massage businesses in Georgia pleaded guilty to four of the murders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reversing course on some masking guidelines. The agency announced new recommendations Tuesday that even vaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S.
Four officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection are giving emotional and angry accounts of the attack.
Vaccine Mandates, Osaka Out & LeVar Burton Takes Jeopardy!
New York City will require all municipal workers to get coronavirus vaccines by mid-September or face weekly COVID-19 testing.
President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi are set to announce that they’ve come to an agreement to end the U.S. military’s combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year.
Team USA's Uneven Start, Optimism Plummets & 'Old' Stuns Box Office
