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On Friday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeated plans for a new agency that would respond to mental health crises in the wake of two fatal shootings by the police.
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On Friday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeated plans for a new agency that would respond to mental health crises in the wake of two fatal shootings by the police.
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Police blocked off an area near where the victims of the shooting were found in Portland, Ore., on Thursday afternoon.
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Officials blocked off an area near the shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The Union of Pinnacle Tenants protested Summit Properties USA’s effort to buy Pinnacle Group properties on Thursday. Both companies appear to have many reported housing violations.
The Somali community in Minnesota, the largest in the country, has been the target of increased immigration enforcement.
The December jobs tally showed how President Trump’s agenda may have impacted the economy during his first year back in office.
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Doug Mills, left, photographing President Trump after an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday.
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When shopping for cordless power tools, you'd think you could simply purchase the best option of each to fit your needs. But there's a big problem that makes this a lot harder (and more expensive) than it should be: battery incompatibility. By design, you can’t simply pop a Ryobi battery into a DeWalt tool and expect it to work. Engineering decisions aside, using proprietary batteries allows companies to create a sort of obligatory brand loyalty, forcing you to stick with their line of tools unless you want to invest in a whole new set of batteries for every new tool you buy.
If you've been building your cordless tool collection for some time, you may wind up with four or five different chargers and multiple batteries cluttering your workspace. And that clutter can be expensive, because you wind up buying more chargers and batteries than you might not need if batteries were interchangeable.
But it turns out they are, sort of. You can actually swap batteries between brands—you just need the right adapters.
There are two kinds of battery adapters to consider:
Inter-brand adapters allow you to use one brand’s batteries in another brand’s tool (like DeWalt batteries in Milwaukee tools).
Voltage adapters allow you to use a different voltage battery than the tool expects (say, a 20-volt battery in a 18-volt tool).
These adapters are a fairly simple solution to the problem of incompatible battery systems. If you have a lot of DeWalt tools, for example, you can purchase a Milwaukee tool without a battery (which will be cheaper) and just use an adapter to plug in one of the DeWalt batteries you already have.
Of course, these batteries weren’t specifically designed for these tools, so there can be some trade-offs. While tool performance has been found to be broadly similar (and some tools even performed better when using batteries from different brands), for some tools (like grinders and some circular saws) there’s a dropoff in power and performance when using an adapter. That said, you might not notice it if you're just looking to tackling simple DIY projects around the house.
Another caveat to consider: You might lose some features. Some tools are designed to communicate with the battery to modulate power draw in order to extend the life of the battery, and using an adapter will remove this functionality. But again, if you’re simply using a power drill for basic maintenance tasks, this might not be a huge issue for you.
If you’ve got a bunch of disparate tool brands, of course, buying multiple adapters might not seem like much of an improvement over your collection of batteries and chargers. If this is you, consider something like the Ceenr PDNation Universal Battery System, which provides an 18-volt battery and a series of adapters that allow it to be used in a wide range of power tools, including major brands like Ryobi, Milwaukee, and DeWalt.
For example, you can buy a battery with an adapter for DeWalt tools, then buy a second adapter for the same battery that will work with Makita tools. This means you can standardize on one battery system for pretty much any tool you buy (it’s not a truly universal system, since you’re dependent on the range of adapters they offer, but it’s probably close enough for most people).
As with other adapters, there can be some performance loss using a universal adapter, but by and large, it’s probably not a big issue if you’re doing work around the house, as opposed to working professionally on a job site.
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Living in a comfortable, heated house is something a lot of us take for granted. When the cold weather hits, we just put on thick socks, turn up the thermostat (or take other steps), and go about our business. But most modern homes rely on the electrical grid to keep that heat flowing. Even if your home is heated by natural gas or heating oil, there’s most likely an electric component to your heating system.
That means that when the power goes out—say, in the middle of a fierce blizzard—so does your heat. Even recently built homes can lose interior heat pretty quickly, dropping to uncomfortable (and even unsafe) temperatures within a day at most. If you’re not sure when power will be restored, you’ll need to find a way to keep the place as warm as possible if you and your property are going to come out of the experience unscathed. Here are are four ways to keep your house warm if your heat goes out.
If you have some warning that a power loss is possible during the cold months—a winter storm warning, for example—it’s a good idea to “pre-heat” your home. The warmer your house is when the power goes out, the longer it will remain at a safe and/or comfortable temperature. You don’t necessarily want to make it tropical, but a few degrees higher than usual will buy you some time if the power goes out. Combined with sealing the house as tightly as possible—by hanging thermal curtains or blankets over windows, applying plastic insulation kits to windows, and deploying draft stoppers under doorways and anywhere else cold air is getting in—this strategy can be very effective.
Trying to keep a large house warm without an active heating system is a fool’s errand. Instead, focus on a single room where everyone in the house can gather, because a small room is a lot easier to warm up. A few considerations about which room to choose:
Since heat rises, rooms on upper floors will be warmer than rooms on the main floor.
A room that gets a lot of sunlight can be warmed during the day by opening up the curtains and letting that solar energy do its thing.
Smaller rooms will be easier to heat up, but consider how many people will need to live and sleep in there.
Rooms near bathrooms (or with en-suite baths) offer a bit more convenience, especially if you’re going to be hunkering down for a while.
Once you’ve selected the room you’ll be using, try to keep it closed up as much as possible (covering windows, stopping up drafts, keeping the door closed). Introducing an indoor-safe heater is a good idea if you have one (or you can make one; see below).
If none of the rooms in your house are ideal, you could also consider setting up a tent indoors. Tents are designed to hold in heat, and can create a small, controllable environment that will be easier to keep warm in a pinch.
If you’ve planned ahead and have an indoor-safe propane or kerosene heater (or even a solar-powered portable heater), that will obviously help to keep your home warm (just be certain to follow all the instructions for ventilating whatever space you’re heating up). If you haven’t, or you discover that your propane tanks have leaked and you have no fuel, don’t despair. You can still generate heat by building a candle-pot heater, which is an old-school way of generating some quick heat.
A candle-pot heater is pretty easy to set up: You’ll need 1-3 clay flower pots (or similar ceramic containers) in different sizes, some non-flammable materials to set up on (bricks or stone tiles will work), and some candles. Then arrange everything:
Set up your bricks or other materials to create a raised platform, with plenty of airflow.
Place your smallest pot upside down on the bricks and cover the hole in the bottom (if it’s a flowerpot).
Place the larger pot on top, and then the largest on top of that if you have three pots.
Place your candles underneath and light them.
The candles don’t produce much heat, but the clay pots will absorb that heat and slowly start to radiate out. Instead of the candles’ heat just rising up to your ceiling and being cooled by the frigid air already in the room, the pots capture it and intensify it.
Will this replace your home’s heating system, or even a portable propane heater? Not by a mile. But it will make a difference, especially in a small space.
A few things to keep in mind here:
Candles are open flames, so never leave your heater unattended, and always be conscious of fire hazards.
You can place a foil-covered panel behind the heater to help reflect the heat in a specific direction (say, toward the chair you’re sitting in).
If you have a gas furnace, it’s not that hard to keep it running even during a blackout if you have an alternative power source like a generator or even a power bank. The furnace needs electricity to run the ignition, the blower, and communication between the thermostat and the furnace or boiler. A decent generator or robust battery can definitely keep your furnace running for a while—and those extra hours or days could be crucial in an extended cold-weather blackout.
If you can see an obvious on/off switch on your furnace, you can pretty easily install a transfer switch like this one (here’s a video demonstrating how it’s done). This allows you to plug in a generator or power bank and keep your furnace running even when the power’s out—all you have to do is plug it in and flip the switch. If you’re not entirely comfortable with electrical wiring, you can hire a licensed electrician to install it as well, of course. Once it’s done, you’ll never have to worry about a cold house again—as long as you pair the switch with a generator or battery solution of sufficient power to keep things running.
Nick Reiner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. If he is convicted, he could face a life sentence without parole or the death penalty.
New guidelines issued on Wednesday say that people should consume less alcohol “for better overall health” and “limit alcohol beverages,” but they don’t recommend clear limits.
“We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday.
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Tools can be a serious investment—so if you're looking to up your DIY game in 2026, a tool bundle is often a good solution. Because they come with batteries and chargers, they’re a great way to get everything you need to use a new tool set right away, and they can be more economical than buying each tool individually. Milwaukee tool sets are often more than $1,000, but you can get a few of these bundles for under $700 right now at Home Depot.
I’ve been using Milwaukee cordless tools for over a decade on a variety of professional and personal projects, including projects around the house as well as large scale decking installations. These tools tend to be reliable and the batteries routinely last more than ten years, even working on outdoor projects, exposed to rain and dirt. Durability is a big consideration when I buy tools; the longer they last, the more economical they are. Because all of the current tools are backwards-compatible with all of the 18-volt batteries I have, it's easy to add tools to my set as new ones come out that I want to try, and as my needs expand.
The Milwaukee 18-volt, nine-tool combo kit is on sale for $649, 46% off its regular price. It comes with a drill, a ¼-inch impact driver, a ½-inch impact wrench, a 6 ½-inch circular saw, a one-hand reciprocating saw, an angle grinder, an oscillating multitool, a mini blower, a work light, two 5-amp-hour batteries, a charger, and tool bag. This is a good set for larger projects, and it has many of the tools included that I used for building a large outdoor deck. Two larger capacity batteries is a good place to start, although if you plan on using multiple saw simultaneously, you’ll need to add another battery or two to keep a fresh battery ready on the charger.
The Milwaukee 18-volt five-tool combo kit is on sale for $299, 50% off its regular price. This set includes a drill, a ¼-inch impact driver, a 6 ½-inch circular saw, a one-hand reciprocating saw, a work light, a five-amp-hour battery, a 1.5-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag. This set has everything you need to get started doing DIY projects, and it includes all the basic Milwaukee tools I use day-to-day for woodworking and smaller building projects like building shelves. This is a good starter set to build on, and it's very similar to the one I began with more than a decade ago.
The Milwaukee 12-volt sub-compact drill and driver set is on sale for $199, 50% off its regular price. This set includes a 12-volt drill, an impact driver, a powered ratchet, two batteries, a charger, and a tool bag. While 12-volt batteries are often underpowered for larger projects, these smaller tools can be quite useful for projects like furniture assembly, putting up shelves, or doing appliance repair, as you often don’t need more than an hour or so of battery life to accomplish many of these tasks with your tools, and the smaller size makes them easier to fit into tight spaces.
