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A retired University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor who received a $313 trespassing fine for walking his dogs along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Shorewood, Wis., has appealed the case, arguing that Wisconsin law entitles the public to…
4 MIN READThe trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old occasional Uber driver charged with sparking the blaze that became the Palisades fire — the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history — began Monday in federal court.
3 MIN READVail Resorts on Monday lowered its full-year net income forecast for the second time, citing historically challenging weather conditions across the western United States that cut skier visits by nearly 16% in its fiscal third quarter.
3 MIN READGordon S. Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose scholarship fundamentally reinterpreted the American Revolution as a radical social and political transformation, died Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot…
3 MIN READAn Ohio man who accidentally threw away a scratch-off lottery ticket retrieved it from a dumpster and discovered it was a $100,000 winner, the Ohio Lottery reported.
3 MIN READSavannah Guthrie, the anchor of NBC's "Today" show, issued another emotional plea for the safe return of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, on Sunday as the search for the 84-year-old surpassed four months.
3 MIN READFirefighters in central Kentucky rescued a cow that was spotted stranded in a lake near Danville on Sunday morning, the Boyle County Fire Department said.
3 MIN READA mother bird has hatched two eggs in an unlikely nest inside the storage compartment of a not-in-service police training motorcycle in Puyallup, Washington, the Puyallup Police Department announced Sunday.
3 MIN READA truck hauling a trailer full of fireworks caught fire and exploded on Interstate 75 in Ooltewah, Tennessee, on June 6, 2026, sending a shower of sparks and rockets across the highway. No injuries were reported, according to the…
3 MIN READChristmas Day won the Epsom Derby by 3 lengths on June 7 at Epsom Downs as the race favorite, Benvenuto Cellini, was ruled a non-starter after stewards found his hind leg was caught in the starting gate. The victory was trainer Aidan…
3 MIN READAbout two-thirds of planned artificial intelligence datacenters in the United States are located in areas that have experienced drought conditions over the past year, according to an analysis by The Guardian. The findings highlight a…
3 MIN READArizona officials have closed San Carlos Lake to the public indefinitely after drought conditions and upstream dam releases caused the death of the lake's entire fish population. The San Carlos Recreation and Wildlife Department announced…
3 MIN READThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear arguments Friday over whether the Trump administration has the authority to build a White House ballroom without congressional approval, while construction continues under…
3 MIN READGray whales, once rare in San Francisco Bay, are increasingly appearing in the waterway as climate change reduces their Arctic food supply — a shift that has put them in the path of ship traffic and killed seven of 16 whales seen in the…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed two additional cases of New World screwworm in Texas on Monday, bringing the total to at least three detections since the parasite was first found in a calf last week — the first U.S. cases in…
4 MIN READAt least 12 people were wounded in a shooting near the Old West End festival in Toledo, Ohio, on Saturday, according to police. Two victims were in critical condition as of Saturday evening, and no arrests had been made.
3 MIN READFive people were injured in a mass stabbing at New York City's Penn Station on Sunday evening, and a male suspect is in custody, officials said.
3 MIN READTaylor Parker, the Texas woman sentenced to death for killing her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock in 2020 and cutting the unborn baby from her womb, remains on death row after the U.S. Supreme Court in May declined to review her…
4 MIN READGroups of people have been filmed entering New York City's sewer system through manholes in Queens and Brooklyn since early May, sparking public intrigue, media comparisons to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and an investigation by the New…
3 MIN READGraham Platner, the presumed Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maine, is facing mounting scrutiny over sexually explicit text messages, an accusation of past abuse from a former girlfriend, and social media posts that have…
4 MIN READNew York moved closer to becoming the first US state to enact a moratorium on large datacenters this week after the state legislature approved a one-year ban on the facilities that power the AI boom. The measure now heads to Governor Kathy…
3 MIN READA Bethlehem, Pennsylvania police officer who resigned less than a year after joining the force to appear as a contestant on the reality dating show Love Island USA has drawn criticism from city officials and divided residents in his…
3 MIN READColombia's June 21 presidential runoff between Sen. Iván Cepeda, an ally of President Gustavo Petro, and lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, whom U.S. President Donald Trump has endorsed, presents voters with a stark choice over the future of…
3 MIN READA National Park Service ranger died Thursday after falling into a crevasse on Mount McKinley, the agency said, marking the second fatal incident on North America’s tallest mountain in less than two weeks.
3 MIN READNew York City has seen a steady increase in complaints about dog waste left on sidewalks, prompting city council members to introduce legislation aimed at encouraging responsible pet ownership. Data from the city shows complaints have…
3 MIN READA 17-year-old Maryland high school student walked across the stage at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on May 28 to receive his diploma — a milestone his father, Marco, watched via livestream from Mexico after being arrested by…
3 MIN READThe Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool began refilling on Friday after a weeks-long project to resurface and repaint the basin to a shade President Trump calls 'American flag blue,' drawing mixed reactions from visitors who said the color…
3 MIN READIllinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs delivered a certificate to Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday, authorizing the pontiff to reclaim $8.65 that had been sitting in Illinois' unclaimed property account — a sum once held by the…
3 MIN READA Los Angeles jury awarded $176 million to the parents of two young brothers who were killed in a hit-and-run collision nearly six years ago, finding both socialite Rebecca Grossman and former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson…
3 MIN READRestaurants across the U.S. are charging $28 to $78 for chicken entrees, triggering what chefs and industry analysts describe as a new front in the affordability crisis — one where a once-cheap protein has become a symbol of diner…
3 MIN READThe Bureau of Land Management awarded oil and gas leases on five tracts totaling about 72,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain on Friday, drawing winning bids of $3.7 million in what critics described as tepid…
3 MIN READResidents of Utah and Maryland can now plug solar panels directly into a standard wall outlet to offset home electricity use, and seven additional states have passed laws this year to legalize the practice, according to state legislation…
3 MIN READCrude palm oil fell for a second session Friday amid weakness in soybean oil and soft export demand, while Lynas Rare Earths appointed an interim CEO and analysts issued varied calls on mining stocks including BHP, Deep Yellow and…
3 MIN READA 27-year-old Mackinac County man won $2 million on a Michigan Lottery scratch-off ticket after buying it as part of his road trip ritual. The winner told Michigan Lottery officials that he purchases a Two Million Dollar Cashword ticket…
3 MIN READParamount+ will premiere the third season of its spy thriller Lioness on Aug. 2, the streaming service announced Friday. The series, from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, stars Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman.
3 MIN READFive of seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station were ordered Friday afternoon to take shelter in the docked SpaceX Crew Dragon ‘Freedom’ after an air leak in the Russian segment worsened and NASA objected to the repair…
3 MIN READU.S. natural gas futures fell 1.7% on Friday to $3.278 per million British thermal units, giving back gains from the previous two sessions as traders assessed a below-average weekly storage injection that highlighted tightening supply in…
3 MIN READA red kangaroo named Hunter escaped from its owner's property in Richmond, Kentucky on Thursday, prompting a search by state police, wildlife officials and animal control before the marsupial was returned home safely.
3 MIN READSevere weather in Barcelona forced the last-minute cancellation of headline acts Doja Cat, Massive Attack, and Bad Gyal at the Primavera Sound festival on Thursday night, leaving fans frustrated over poor communication from organizers,…
3 MIN READAn analysis of state and federal records reveals that approximately half of California's tested waterways are contaminated with pesticides classified as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or Pfas. The review identifies the chemical…
3 MIN READA 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck approximately 14 miles west of Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon, with no immediate reports of damage or injury, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
3 MIN READA study published Thursday in Science found that wildfire smoke has reversed decades of progress toward US ozone air quality standards. Ground-level ozone concentrations, which had been declining, began rising after 2015 as increasingly…
3 MIN READHonolulu's bike-share system Biki has lost more than 800 bikes since its launch nearly a decade ago, with vandalism and wear reducing its fleet of 1,000 to just 478 by the end of April, according to city officials.
3 MIN READU.S. and international aviation authorities have issued new guidelines for carrying rechargeable lithium-ion portable battery chargers on flights following a series of smoke and fire incidents, the Associated Press reported June 4.
3 MIN READThe European Union announced Wednesday a €92 million ($107 million) investment package to expand its ocean monitoring network using underwater drones and satellites, as the Trump administration prepares severe cuts to a similar U.S.…
3 MIN READThe family of a 20-year-old Auburn University student who vanished in Japan nearly a week ago is appealing to the public for help locating him, his mother said Thursday. Japanese police deployed search dogs, helicopters and dozens of…
3 MIN READThree mule deer have been captured on camera using the partially completed $20 million wildlife bridge over Route 97 in Siskiyou County, the first documented use of California's first over-highway wildlife crossing designed to reduce…
3 MIN READThe National Transportation Safety Board said the captain of a United Airlines flight from Venice, Italy, was flying too slow and too low before the Boeing 767 struck a light pole and a tractor-trailer while landing at Newark Liberty…
3 MIN READCalifornia and New York have scaled back their climate policies in recent days, while Republican-led states continue to dominate renewable energy deployment, according to Energy Information Administration data and reporting by The Guardian.
3 MIN READPresident Trump will use the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era statute that grants sweeping wartime powers to accelerate domestic industrial output, to provide $700 million in grants to more than a dozen coal-fired power plants across…
5 MIN READFootball's governing body has prohibited reusable water bottles and containers from stadiums just a week before the tournament's opening match, citing safety concerns over thrown projectiles. Heat and health experts have criticized the…
3 MIN READThe Securities and Exchange Commission last week proposed withdrawing a 2024 regulation that would have required publicly traded companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related business risks, beginning the final stage…
3 MIN READGoogle has named Kameirah, a Washington high school student, the winner of its 17th annual Doodle for Google contest for her illustration celebrating kinky hair and its cultural legacy, the company announced Thursday.
3 MIN READA South Carolina man bought a $3 scratch-off ticket while driving a family member to a medical appointment and won a $75,000 prize, lottery officials said.
3 MIN READThe Guardian, a British national daily, launched a callout Thursday asking Americans to share their experiences with difficult consumer situations, from faulty products and refund issues to unresponsive customer service.
3 MIN READSeattle is poised to become the largest U.S. city to impose a moratorium on new data centers, with city council committees voting unanimously Wednesday to approve a one-year ban. A full council vote expected Tuesday would block five large…
4 MIN READA museum in Savannah, Georgia, on Wednesday received 17 cannons from the American Revolution that experts believe sank to the bottom of the Savannah River during the war and remained undiscovered for nearly 240 years. The artifacts, pulled…
4 MIN READUkrainian long-range drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, setting it ablaze as the city prepared to host President Vladimir Putin's annual international economic forum. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drones…
3 MIN READAn unidentified man with a bomb strapped to his body barricaded himself inside a downtown Bakersfield bank on Tuesday afternoon, prompting police to issue evacuation orders and lock down city government buildings, authorities said.
3 MIN READTwo companies that sold illegal pyrotechnic devices used in a gender-reveal photo shoot that sparked California's 2020 El Dorado fire have agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle civil claims brought by the U.S. Forest Service. The…
3 MIN READJill Biden recalled the intense pressure that led Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, saying he told her "Jilly, I had no choice," during a Tuesday book event in New York City for her new memoir *View from the East Wing*.…
4 MIN READFord is recalling almost 420,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of a seat belt retractor issue that could prevent the belts from retracting or extending, increasing the risk of injury in a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic…
3 MIN READChinese beef traders on Wednesday began purchasing Brazilian beef certified as free of illegal deforestation, under a landmark agreement that marks the first such certification for Brazil's beef industry. The Beef on Track certification,…
4 MIN READGlobal data centers consumed more electricity in 2025 than all but 10 countries, producing carbon emissions comparable to Argentina, according to a United Nations University report released Wednesday.
3 MIN READLloyds Banking Group apologized Wednesday after an IT glitch left thousands of customers across its brands — Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows and MBNA — unable to make payments, send money or access their accounts…
3 MIN READVoters in Monterey Park, California, on Tuesday approved a ballot measure that permanently bans data centers in the city, making it the first US municipality to enact such a ban through a direct vote. With 86.3% of more than 7,000 votes…
3 MIN READA chicken on the loose in a Kentucky neighborhood led an animal control officer and residents on a chase Friday night that ended with the fugitive fowl taking a swim in a neighbor's pool before being captured.
3 MIN READThe Durham County Sheriff's Office rounded up six sheep that were wandering through a neighborhood on Duck Pond Court on Monday, using trash cans and cornhole boards as makeshift barriers. Animal Services deputies captured the five ewes…
3 MIN READPolice in Bakersfield, California, were negotiating Tuesday night with a man holding several people hostage inside a building that houses a Chase bank branch and a school district office. Officers responded to a bomb threat call around 1…
3 MIN READA U.S. Army soldier and a British servicemember died Sunday during separate military training accidents in northern Iraq, both militaries announced Monday. The U.S. Army said the death occurred at Erbil Air Base; Britain's Ministry of…
3 MIN READSix people were killed and a suspected gunman died from a self-inflicted wound in a series of shootings across Muscatine, Iowa, on Monday that police said stemmed from a domestic-related dispute. The Muscatine Police Department identified…
3 MIN READThe Trump administration plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million deep-sea observation network of more than 900 instruments that has collected continuous climate and ocean data since 2016, according to a…
3 MIN READA Missouri man who bought a Powerball ticket in February said it spent months forgotten in the console of his pickup truck before he discovered it was a $50,000 winner.
3 MIN READThe founder of a private zoo in Ethel, Louisiana, has donated its remaining 125 animals to a group of employees who are turning the facility into a nonprofit, saying he will never work in the zoo industry again. The move comes after years…
4 MIN READBlue Origin said Tuesday that the explosion of its New Glenn rocket during a test firing last week at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station did not damage the launch pad's fuel tanks or other critical ground infrastructure, though a lightning…
3 MIN READThe Bank of England has shortlisted 18 British wildlife species to appear on the next series of banknotes, replacing historical figures including Sir Winston Churchill. The public has until July 3 to vote for their favorites.
3 MIN READThe New York Police Department is investigating multiple incidents in which groups of people have been seen emerging from sewer maintenance holes in Brooklyn and Queens late at night, prompting a sweep of the city's underground…
3 MIN READUber released its 10th annual Lost & Found Index on Tuesday, cataloging the most common and most unusual items passengers left behind in ride-hailing vehicles over the past year. This year's list includes dentures with only two teeth,…
3 MIN READHuman remains found in New Mexico's Carson National Forest on May 28 were identified as those of Melissa Casias, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was reported missing nearly a year ago. New Mexico State…
3 MIN READJune 1 marks significant historical milestones across more than 140 years, including the 2020 clearing of Lafayette Square protesters, the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, and the 1968 death of Helen Keller, United Press International reported.
A bus driver has been charged in connection with a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday that killed five people, including a family of four from Massachusetts that was traveling to a wedding with a carload of homemade desserts, authorities and relatives said.
At least seven people, including the suspected shooter, are dead after a series of shootings in Muscatine, Iowa, on June 1 that authorities said stemmed from a domestic dispute. The suspect, identified as Ryan Willis McFarland, 52, of Muscatine, shot six people believed to be family members at three locations across the city before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
A federal judge on Monday postponed the civil trial over the 2024 collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge after a flurry of last-minute settlements resolved most remaining claims, including all pending lawsuits over the deaths of six construction workers.
Thompson Fire Engine Co. firefighters in Connecticut rescued a young goat Sunday night after the animal got its head wedged in the steel framework of a utility trailer, the fire company said.
Animal law enforcement officers near Pike's Peak, Colorado, rescued a pig named Edgar after his tusk became hooked in a fence last week, in what the Humane Society of the Pike's Peak Region said was a first-of-its-kind call for the agency.
Aleshia Wiley of Cedartown, Georgia, has earned the Guinness World Record for the world's largest collection of Wonder Woman memorabilia, with 1,581 items including comic books, Funko Pop figurines, action figures and branded merchandise.
A Bluffton, South Carolina, woman told lottery officials that a trip to buy cat food on sale led her to purchase a scratch-off ticket worth $1 million.
Guadalupe Higuera, a Phoenix software developer, used a Department of Energy calculator to compare the cost of keeping his 2016 Jeep Wrangler against buying a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox electric vehicle, finding that the switch reduces his carbon emissions by 80 percent and matches the Jeep's cost of ownership within five years.
Firefighters in Beacon, N.Y., rescued a baby deer from a storm drain at the intersection of Ferry and Beekman Street on Saturday, according to the local firefighters union.
Families of the 241 people killed in the June 2025 crash of Air India Flight AI171 are observing the first anniversary of the disaster as investigators prepare to release a final report on what caused the aircraft to fall from the sky less than a minute after takeoff. With only one survivor among the 242 passengers and crew, relatives of the dead have spent the year waiting for answers about the cause of the crash while navigating grief, health complications and what they describe as delayed communication from the airline.
The Environmental Services Association has called for a refundable deposit of up to £5 on vapes purchased in the UK, arguing the scheme would reduce fires in waste facilities and increase recycling rates one year after disposable vapes were banned.
Carroll County Sheriff's Deputy Logan Utt was fatally shot Friday when a man opened fire on two deputies conducting a welfare check at a home in Hillsville, Virginia, law enforcement officials said. A search was underway for the suspect.
A shortage of Scotch bonnet peppers, driven by extreme weather, disease, and pests, is forcing Caribbean hot sauce manufacturers to cancel orders, raise prices, and scramble for alternative ingredients as demand for the region's signature condiment continues to grow globally.
Rising waters in Lake Turkana, the world's largest permanent desert lake, have submerged homes, schools, and burial grounds across northern Kenya, displacing thousands of residents and severely disrupting the region's fragile fishing economy. The El Molo indigenous community, numbering only a few hundred, faces the prospect of losing their cultural and economic foundation as submerged buildings become crocodile breeding grounds and stormy weather cuts off children's access to mainland schools.
A United Airlines Boeing 767 bound for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, turned around mid-flight on Saturday evening and returned to Newark Liberty international airport after a possible security threat, according to the airport's operator, the port authority of New York and New Jersey.
An explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in China's Shanxi province killed 82 people on May 22, ending a decade of safety improvements and marking China's deadliest coal mining disaster in more than 15 years.
The tour bus driver blamed for a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 that killed five people and injured dozens has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, Virginia State Police confirmed Saturday.
An explosion and massive fire ripped through a two-story apartment building in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas on Thursday, killing three people, including a child, and injuring at least five others, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue officials.
ROME (AP) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Cubs fan, met privately Thursday with Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and lifelong White Sox fan, at the Vatican and invited the pontiff to visit his native city next year.
Crews have recovered the remains of six of nine workers missing after a massive chemical storage tank ruptured at a Longview paper mill, bringing the death toll from the disaster to 11, officials said Thursday.
Kyle Adler, a 36-year-old Chilean American, learned he was stolen from his biological mother as an infant and was adopted by an American family in 1990, the Associated Press reported. Earlier this year he reunited with his birth mother, becoming part of a wave of hundreds of Chilean adoptees using DNA tracing and nonprofit organizations to reconstruct the families that were torn apart by the regime of General Augusto Pinochet.
Nine spellers advanced to the finals of the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday, reviving a long-running debate over whether success depends more on mastering language roots or on rote memorization of the dictionary.
A chemical tank rupture at a Washington paper mill killed at least 11 people and left nine others missing — all presumed dead — after it released more than 500,000 gallons of caustic white liquor, authorities said Wednesday. The tank failure at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview occurred during a shift change Tuesday morning, prompting one of the deadliest U.S. industrial accidents in years.
Over 1.5 million pilgrims performed the symbolic stoning of the devil at Mina on Wednesday as temperatures reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42°C), marking the final days of the Hajj and the start of Eid al-Adha. The celebrations carried a subdued tone in parts of the Middle East, where war and displacement dampened the festivities.
Brazil’s federal government announced on May 27 a $75 million investment to pave the BR‑319 highway that cuts through the Amazon rainforest. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the project will create “the most modern road in the world,” while also unveiling a new environmental‑protection plan to monitor a 50‑kilometer strip on each side of the road. The announcement comes as environmental groups warn the road could accelerate deforestation and undermine climate goals.
Southern California officials lifted the remaining evacuation orders Tuesday night, allowing all 16,000 people who lived near a damaged chemical tank in Garden Grove to return home. The crisis, which began Thursday when a tank storing methyl methacrylate overheated, had at its peak forced 50,000 people to evacuate across the Orange County city and surrounding areas.
Rescue crews resumed the search for nine people presumed dead Wednesday after a chemical tank ruptured at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. paper mill in Longview, Washington, in one of the deadliest U.S. industrial accidents in years. Authorities said the likely death toll had risen to 11 after another injured person died, and they held no hope of finding survivors.
Cities and regional planning agencies across the United States are replacing traditional blacktop parking lots with porous concrete panels, native plants, and recycled materials, a shift driven by worsening heat and storm runoff that conventional asphalt magnifies.
All evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday for the 50,000 residents forced from their homes in and around Garden Grove, California, after a chemical tank overheated at an aerospace plant last week, but many returning residents say they are still afraid to open their windows or trust the air is safe.
Jari Honora, a New Orleans genealogist, was drawn to the new pope’s French-sounding surname, Prevost, and what he found in the census rolls was a direct line to a free Black community that predated the Civil War: all four of Pope Leo XIV’s maternal great-grandparents were enumerated as free people of color in antebellum Louisiana, giving the pontiff Creole ancestry.
Argentine authorities seized more than 700 marine animals trafficked from Kenya at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport, conservation groups said, in what they described as a major bust of exotic wildlife destined for the ornamental aquarium trade. The April 26 seizure, disclosed Tuesday by the Associated Press, involved tropical fish and invertebrates including surgeonfish, puffer fish, lionfish, octopuses and starfish. Many of the animals arrived dead after 120 hours in transit, while survivors showed severe signs of stress.
The Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office said Tuesday that the May 15 fire and explosion at Robbins Lumber in Searsmont that killed a volunteer firefighter and injured a dozen others was accidental and began at the base of a silo. The determination, coming nearly two weeks after the disaster, closes the cause inquiry into a blaze that sent plumes of black smoke over Waldo County and required hundreds of responders.
The LEGO Foundation announced a $97 million commitment to the International Rescue Committee on Wednesday, launching a five-year partnership to bring play-based learning to 5 million children in conflict zones across East Africa and the Middle East.
Huge crowds of Muslim pilgrims gathered in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday to throw pebbles at pillars in a symbolic ritual marking one of the final days of the Hajj, as temperatures soared past 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius). The stoning ceremony coincided with the beginning of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. — A therapy dog named Sage is helping elementary school students in this suburban Minneapolis community process the trauma inflicted by the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge earlier this year, when children were kept home from school to avoid arrest and at least four students were detained and sent to a Texas detention center.
A Washington tourist pleaded not guilty in federal court Wednesday to charges accusing him of throwing a rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and a judge ordered him to stay away from the islands' beaches and marine wildlife while the case proceeds.
Happy, an Asian elephant who demonstrated self-recognition in a landmark cognitive study and whose confinement became the subject of a closely watched animal rights lawsuit, was euthanized Tuesday at the Bronx Zoo at age 55. The zoo announced Wednesday that age-related conditions had accelerated in recent weeks, and a necropsy revealed advanced arthritis and large, inoperable uterine tumors.
Federal water managers are weighing a plan to release cold water from deep inside Lake Powell through Glen Canyon Dam, a move designed to cool the Colorado River and protect the threatened humpback chub from predatory fish, but one that would slash hydropower output because the dam’s turbines draw from warmer upper waters, according to agency officials and documents reviewed by the Associated Press.
A new artificial intelligence detection network called WhaleSpotter went live this week in San Francisco Bay, continuously scanning for whale blows and heat signatures up to two nautical miles away and alerting ferry captains and cargo ship operators to steer clear when the animals are near.
The World Meteorological Organization and the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office project a 75% chance that average global temperature between 2026 and 2030 will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, smashing the Paris climate accord's threshold, according to new U.N. climate projections.
Two major hazardous chemical incidents on the West Coast in a single week — a tank rupture at a Washington state paper mill that killed two workers and left up to nine others missing, and an overheating tank in Southern California that forced the evacuation of approximately 50,000 residents — have drawn scrutiny to the nation's oversight of industrial chemical tank safety, an Associated Press review has found.
The Brazilian government said Wednesday it will spend $75 million to upgrade the BR-319 highway running through the Amazon rainforest, a project environmental groups warn will accelerate deforestation and climate change. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva simultaneously unveiled an environmental protection plan that he said would make the road 'the most modern in the world' from an environmental standpoint, and challenged foreign critics to visit and see the safeguards.
Southern California officials lifted the final evacuation orders Tuesday night for residents living near a damaged chemical tank in Garden Grove, allowing about 16,000 people to return home. The evacuation began Thursday after officials detected a crack in a tank containing methyl methacrylate at a GKN Aerospace facility.
President Donald Trump spent more than three hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for a preventive medical and dental checkup, his fourth publicly disclosed exam since returning to office. In a social media post afterward, the 79-year-old Republican said his '6 month physical' showed that 'everything checked out PERFECTLY.' The White House did not immediately release a written report from the president's doctors.
A chemical tank holding nearly a million gallons of a corrosive industrial liquid imploded and collapsed Tuesday at a Nippon Dynawave paper mill in Longview, Washington, killing at least one worker and leaving nine others missing with no hope for rescue, authorities said. Nine additional workers were injured, some critically, as a flood of caustic white liquor swept through the facility along the Columbia River.
Solar and wind projects now account for the majority of new energy developments across Africa, with 173 of the 322 projects announced in 2025 being solar, according to industry data. The shift reflects falling technology costs, rising fuel import bills linked to the Iran war, and policy changes that are accelerating distributed renewable generation.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, posted a video on Tuesday showing himself gripping the tails of two black‑racer snakes on the patio of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. The clip, shared on Kennedy’s personal social‑media accounts, quickly went viral and sparked mixed reactions online. Kennedy’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, can be heard asking “Why?” as he holds the snakes, while herpetologists warned that the handling method could harm the reptiles.
A fire and subsequent explosion at the Robbins Lumber mill in Searsmont, Maine, on May 15 killed 27‑year‑old firefighter Andrew Cross and injured about a dozen others, state investigators said Tuesday. The blaze originated at the base of a sawdust‑filled silo, causing the structure to lift from its concrete foundation and ignite surrounding material. Hundreds of firefighters from dozens of departments responded, battling the flames for hours before the fire was finally contained.
A Washington state tourist pleaded not guilty in federal court in Honolulu to charges accusing him of hurling a rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, according to court proceedings. U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom Trader allowed the defendant to remain free while the case proceeds, but ordered him to stay away from Hawaii beaches and marine wildlife.
The U.S. government is weighing whether to release cooler water from Lake Powell through Glen Canyon Dam to protect the humpback chub, a threatened fish that lives in the Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River. Environmental advocates say warm downstream water could allow non-native bass to spawn, further imperiling humpback chub and other federally protected species. Utilities that buy federal hydropower warn the cool-water “mix” would reduce generation and raise costs for customers.
Clarence B. Jones, a former speechwriter and attorney closely associated with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died at 95, according to a statement released by his family. Jones died Friday at a senior living community in Cupertino, California, a suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Argentine authorities seized more than 700 marine animals trafficked from Kenya at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport on April 26, in a coordinated operation involving the Environmental Control Brigade, customs officials, the agricultural health agency, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Fundación Temaikèn. The shipment, which included 102 species of tropical fish and invertebrates such as surgeonfish, puffer fish, lionfish, octopuses and starfish, arrived after a 120‑hour transit with many animals dead and others severely stressed. Wildlife experts called the bust an “industrialized crime” and noted it is the third seizure this year at the same entry point, highlighting an established trafficking corridor.
Emergency officials on Monday lifted an evacuation order for some residents living near a damaged chemical tank at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant in Garden Grove, Southern California, after tank temperatures fell enough to remove the risk of a catastrophic explosion. Officials said remaining hazards include the possibility of a smaller blast or a fire, and Orange County health officials urged residents returning home to feel safe about contamination. Orange County Fire Authority division chief Craig Covey said authorities still needed to mitigate fire risk, small-explosion concerns and possible spill scenarios.
A man who opened fire Saturday near a White House security checkpoint is dead after being shot by U.S. Secret Service officers who returned fire, the agency said. The shooting happened near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and did not injure President Donald Trump, the Secret Service said.
Centerville, Massachusetts, resident Freeman Johnson, who turned 106 in March, survived the Pearl Harbor attack without seeing it. While the Japanese bombing began on Dec. 7, 1941, Johnson was below deck repairing boilers aboard the USS St. Louis and did not witness the fighting as his ship set out to sea.
Fire officials in Garden Grove, near Los Angeles, said a damaged chemical tank has a crack that could lower the risk of a catastrophic explosion, but an evacuation order for about 50,000 residents remains in effect with no timeline for when people can return. Capt. Wayhowe Huang of the Orange County Fire Authority said crews had been able to evaluate the tank more closely overnight and discovered the crack.
Authorities in Orange County, California, said a damaged tank holding methyl methacrylate no longer poses a risk of a catastrophic explosion, and they lifted evacuation orders for about two-thirds of the roughly 50,000 people who had been told to leave their homes. The tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove overheated last week after valves failed to relieve pressure, officials said.
Southern California officials ordered evacuations for about 40,000 residents near a damaged chemical tank in Garden Grove, Orange County, as firefighters worked to prevent a leak or explosion over Memorial Day weekend. Orange County Fire Authority officials said the tank overheated and began venting vapors Thursday, but a broken or “gummed up” valve has left crews unable to relieve the pressure or remove the chemical.
A bystander who was struck by gunfire after a man opened fire at a White House security checkpoint Saturday remained in serious but stable condition on Sunday, authorities said. The Secret Service said the wounded bystander was not in life-threatening condition, and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department identified the suspect as 21-year-old Nasire Best.
Investigators were combing through a Staten Island shipyard on Saturday after a fire and explosion killed one civilian and injured more than 30 firefighters and other first responders, officials said. The fire broke out Friday afternoon in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood, and authorities said a blast followed less than an hour later.
Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday of May, arrives this year on May 25 as the nation marks a day of remembrance for service members killed in war — a tradition rooted in the Civil War and now also synonymous with the start of summer, travel, and retail sales.
Freeman Johnson, a 106-year-old Centerville, Massachusetts resident and the oldest living survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, was inside a steam drum repairing a boiler on the USS St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1941, unaware of the Japanese bombing unfolding above him.
Freeman Johnson, 106, of Centerville, Massachusetts, has become the oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor, preserving the account of the December 1941 attack that propelled the United States into World War II while living in a home filled with mementos of his Navy service. With only 11 Pearl Harbor survivors remaining, Johnson stands as a last link to a conflict that claimed more than 2,400 American lives and changed the course of world history.
Orange County fire officials partially lifted an evacuation order Monday for roughly 34,000 residents near a damaged chemical tank at a Garden Grove aerospace plant after pressure inside the tank dropped, eliminating the risk of a major explosion.
Authorities in Garden Grove, California, lifted evacuation orders for roughly two-thirds of the 50,000 residents displaced by a damaged chemical tank at a GKN Aerospace facility, after an inspection found a crack that relieved pressure and cooled the volatile methyl methacrylate inside, officials said.
Orange County, California, officials on Monday partially lifted evacuation orders for roughly 34,000 residents living near a damaged tank of methyl methacrylate, a highly flammable liquid, after falling temperatures and a crack in the tank eliminated the risk of a catastrophic explosion at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant in Garden Grove. While the worst-case scenario is off the table, a smaller blast or fire remains possible, and a spill risk persists, authorities said. They cautioned that the tank, which holds 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of the chemical, must cool further before crews can safely drain it.
Evacuation orders were lifted Monday night for roughly two-thirds of the 50,000 residents displaced by an overheating chemical tank at a Garden Grove aerospace plant, after authorities determined the risk of a catastrophic explosion had passed. The six-day emergency at the GKN Aerospace facility, which involved a tank holding 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, had forced the largest evacuation in Orange County in recent memory over Memorial Day weekend.
A chemical tank at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, cracked and sparked an emergency evacuation order, NPR reported. Orange County fire officials said about 50,000 residents remained under the order as emergency responders worked to manage a potentially explosive and toxic situation.
Millions of acres of national forests in the U.S. face changes that could allow more logging after the Trump administration is expected to repeal the Roadless Rule, a decades-old conservation policy, NPR reported May 24. NPR said the rule—signed under President Bill Clinton—had barred new logging and road building on tens of millions of acres.
NPR’s “Life Kit” reports that replacing lawns with native plant gardens could reduce the watering, fertilizer and mowing associated with air and water pollution, while also supporting local wildlife. In a segment aired May 24, the show highlights master gardener Paula Diaz and a Kansas City nonprofit’s guidance on starting small and choosing plants suited to local conditions.
A curator is presenting a series of black-and-white photographs by anonymous Afghan cousins that portray the constricted lives of women under Taliban rule alongside their hopes for change. The cousins, who use pseudonyms and say they fear Taliban retribution, started taking pictures on their cellphones around 2022 and later worked with curator Edith Arance. The photos are on display through May 30 at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York.
Authorities in Southern California ordered about 40,000 people to evacuate after a storage tank started venting vapors from a plastics facility in Garden Grove, an Orange County Fire Authority official said. Fire crews worked Friday to prevent the tank from overheating further, with officials warning the tank could fail and crack or explode.
A man who opened fire Saturday near a U.S. Secret Service security checkpoint outside the White House is dead after officers returned fire, the Secret Service said. The shooting happened near the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 6 p.m. EDT, and a bystander was also struck, though it was not clear whether the person was hit by the suspect’s initial bullets or by officers’ shots.
Kansas wheat farmers are facing a near-collapse this season as record drought, hotter temperatures, and rising input costs cut yields and quality, with the crop forecast to be the smallest since 1972. Growers in the Plains region also report damage from wheat streak mosaic virus and barley yellow dwarf virus, along with higher fertilizer and diesel costs tied in part to tariffs and global pressures.
In interviews, American Muslims described scrambling to secure Hajj permits and then weighing uncertainty around the Iran war as Hajj preparation accelerates. The pilgrimage, a religious obligation for Muslims able to do it, officially starts on Monday as U.S. officials warn Americans to reconsider travel.
Fire officials in Southern California said Sunday that a crack discovered on a damaged chemical tank could lower the risk of a catastrophic explosion, but evacuation orders remain in effect for some 50,000 residents and there is no timeline for when they can return home.
Seventeen years after a massive, multi-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, NPR revisits how the town’s recovery became known for cooperation and “kindness carries on” long after the storm. The story, published May 23, 2026, includes accounts from residents and social-science researchers who study how disasters can reshape people’s identities and encourage mutual aid.
Southern California authorities ordered evacuations extending into the Memorial Day weekend for about 40,000 residents after a chemical tank at a Garden Grove company site overheated and began venting vapors, officials said. Fire officials said valves on the tank were “broken or gummed up,” limiting their ability to remove chemical or relieve pressure as crews tried to cool the tank.
NOAA forecast Thursday gives a 55% chance of a below-average Atlantic hurricane season, with fewer named storms and fewer hurricanes expected as El Nino develops in the Pacific. Meteorologists said the outlook does not eliminate risk for the U.S., including Hawaii, because storms can still form and intensify.
Authorities in Orange County, California ordered about 40,000 residents to evacuate as crews tried to cool an overheated, pressurized chemical tank at a Garden Grove facility. No injuries were reported after the tank began venting vapors Thursday, Orange County Fire Authority said, but officials said valves on the tank were damaged and would not work as they worked through Memorial Day weekend.
Investigators searched a Staten Island shipyard Saturday for the cause of a fire and explosion that killed a civilian and injured more than 30 firefighters and other first responders a day earlier. The blast occurred Friday afternoon after firefighters responded to a fire at the Mariners Harbor facility and found two workers trapped, city Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.
NPR science correspondent Nate Rott says his beat—“the natural world and humanity’s relationship to it”—pushes him beyond climate into questions about biodiversity, monitoring ecosystems and the boundaries of what people should try to preserve. In a Reporter's Notebook conversation, he describes using audio as a way to capture river life, and he discusses debates over emerging efforts to use genetic tools to make species more resilient amid climate change.
President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order to develop a U.S. deep‑sea mining industry has ignited a wave of investor funding and soaring stock prices, while federal agencies accelerate permitting for seabed leases ranging from American Samoa to Alaska. At least nine companies are now in talks with the government for access to polymetallic nodules and other marine minerals.
One person died after a fire and two explosions at a New York City shipyard on Friday, officials said. Firefighters and other first responders were among the injured, and the fire department said a fire marshal and a firefighter were seriously hurt when a second blast hit while they were inside the structure.
CINCINNATI — At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, facility dogs are full-time working animals that visit patients during stressful procedures and help make the hospital feel less frightening. The program, which includes dogs such as Hadley, is part of a broader expansion at children’s hospitals nationwide, supported by research into animal-assisted interactions and child well-being.
The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to support strong action to limit climate change, endorsing a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice despite diplomatic efforts by the United States to derail the measure. The nonbinding resolution passed 141-8 with 28 abstentions, with the U.S. among the countries opposing it.
Parking lots can trap heat and worsen stormwater runoff, especially as climate change intensifies hotter weather and heavier downpours. Now, cities and other groups across the U.S. are testing alternatives to traditional asphalt, including porous materials, vegetation and shading, and designs that help rain soak into the ground. The changes are intended to cool surfaces and reduce polluted runoff that can flow into waterways.
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s San Francisco Bay is rolling out an AI whale-spotting network designed to help ferries and other vessels detect gray whales in near real time and adjust course to avoid collisions.
Firefighters in Staten Island responded to a report of a fire and smoke at a shipyard Friday afternoon, when an explosion occurred and killed one civilian while injuring more than 30 firefighters and other first responders, officials said. As of Saturday, authorities had not provided major updates, and investigators were looking for the cause of the fire and blast in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood.
Jackson Hole’s busiest trails near the town do not appear to create a wildlife “sacrifice zone,” a yearslong study found, using 27 remote cameras in a 36-square-mile area south and east of Jackson. Led by The Nature Conservancy conservation scientist Courtney Larson, the research examined how wildlife such as elk, moose and mountain lions responded to hikers, skiers, mountain bikers and domestic dogs. The study’s findings are set against recent research elsewhere showing recreation can displace wildlife, and come as Bridger-Teton National Forest updates its forest plan.
Advocates marked the 230th anniversary of Ona Judge’s escape from slavery on May 21, 1796, with events in Philadelphia and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In Philadelphia, a rally at the President’s House site emphasized keeping exhibits and telling the full history, after panels were removed last month. In New Hampshire, a mural depicting Judge is set to be unveiled Saturday.
Authorities in Southern California ordered evacuations for about 40,000 residents after a chemical storage tank at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove began venting vapors and raised fears it could crack or explode. Officials expanded the evacuation orders Friday to parts of five additional Orange County cities as crews worked to stabilize the tank and contain any spill.
Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found at a rural New Mexico house where three people died and emergency responders became sick after answering a call about suspected overdoses on Wednesday, authorities said Friday.
Three people died and more than a dozen first responders were quarantined and assessed for possible exposure after responders arrived at a suspected drug overdose at a rural New Mexico home, authorities said Wednesday. Investigators are working to identify the unidentified substance, and New Mexico State Police said there was no threat to the public.
Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died at 74, according to Lynn Acebedo, chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho.
The Trump administration loosened federal rules on refrigerants used in grocery-store cooling systems and air-conditioning equipment, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. President Donald Trump said the step would “substantially lower costs for consumers” by delaying restrictions on which refrigerants U.S. businesses and families can use.
Authorities in Garden Grove, California, issued evacuation orders for about 40,000 people after a storage tank containing methyl methacrylate overheated and began venting vapors, Orange County fire officials said Friday. Fire officials said the tank could fail and crack or potentially explode, and they expanded evacuations to parts of five other Orange County cities as crews worked to manage the leak.
NOAA forecast a below-average Atlantic hurricane season as a developing El Niño pattern weakens conditions for storm formation. The agency put the outlook at a 55% chance of a below-average season, with eight to 14 named storms expected, including three to six hurricanes. Forecasters said El Niño can also shift risk to the Pacific, where they expect a more active period.
The Texas Board of Nursing suspended the nursing license of Camp Mystic co-director Mary Liz Eastland, a registered nurse and the camp’s medical officer, citing inaction during last year’s catastrophic Guadalupe River flood. The board said allowing Eastland to continue practicing would pose a “continuing and imminent threat to public welfare,” according to an order signed Tuesday by executive director Kristin Benton.
PHILADELPHIA (MSI) — Philadelphia marked the 230th anniversary of Ona Judge's escape from slavery by formally declaring May 21 as Ona Judge Day, while a historical marker and a portrait were unveiled in New Hampshire where she settled, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s executive order backing a new deep-sea mining industry has prompted investors to fund companies and federal regulators to speed up permitting. An Associated Press review says at least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals.
The Associated Press reports that in the year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a deep-sea mining industry, companies have raised money from investors and regulators have moved to fast-track permits. AP said at least nine companies have been in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, including areas off American Samoa and Alaska. The report highlights the promise of commercial seabed mining alongside questions about company track records, unresolved plans for processing minerals, and whether the economics will work.
When the Scripps National Spelling Bee gets underway in Washington on Tuesday, a 32-year-old former speller in an aloha shirt will be watching closely from offstage. Scott Remer is the only full-time, professional spelling coach in the country, and his students — including the last two national champions — are once again among the favorites to reach the finals.
A fire and two explosions at a New York City shipyard on Friday killed one civilian and injured 36 others, most of them firefighters and other first responders, officials said. The second explosion occurred while a firefighter and a fire marshal were inside the structure, seriously injuring both by the blast's shock wave.
Children’s hospitals across the United States are increasingly employing full-time facility dogs to comfort young patients, motivate them during therapy and provide companionship through long, difficult treatments, according to reporting by The Associated Press. The dogs, distinct from volunteer therapy animals, are hospital employees trained to work alongside child life specialists in medical settings.
Three people died and dozens of first responders were quarantined after emergency crews in rural New Mexico became sick while responding to a reported overdose call, authorities said. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found at the home in Mountainair, east of Albuquerque, and one emergency responder was still being treated at a hospital Friday.
One person died after a fire and two explosions at a New York City shipyard on Friday that injured 36 people, including most firefighters and first responders, officials said. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said more than 200 firefighters remained on scene as the fire was brought under control, while investigators prepared to begin a comprehensive cause probe.
The Montana Land Board voted Monday to overhaul its land-swap evaluation process, a move that some critics say lacked sufficient public input. The board approved the changes, which proponents argue will streamline the process and increase transparency.
A yearslong study using remote cameras around Jackson Hole found that high recreation on nonmotorized trails did not appear to create a “sacrifice zone” for wildlife, researchers said. Led by Courtney Larson of The Nature Conservancy, the study examined 1.9 million images from a 36-square-mile area near the Bridger-Teton National Forest and wildlife refuge and found limited avoidance across most species.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital uses four specially trained, full-time facility dogs to help young patients during stressful procedures and make the hospital environment feel less frightening. In a recent visit, 5-year-old Calvin Owens met his canine friend Hadley on a hospital patio, tossing a ball despite tethering to equipment, while staff cheered. Experts say short interactions with facility dogs can improve children’s well-being and reduce stress signals such as cortisol.
Marine officials in San Francisco Bay launched an AI whale-detection network this week to alert ships and ferries to whales and reduce collision risk. The system, called WhaleSpotter, uses sensors to scan for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, then sends near-real-time warnings to mariners and posts detections publicly.
As the United States marks 250 years of independence, a new Associated Press survey of Britons finds that many struggle to discuss the country without quickly bringing up President Donald Trump. In interviews across Britain, those with differing views of Trump nonetheless said the president shapes how they see America now.
Cities across the U.S. are testing alternatives to traditional asphalt parking lots to reduce heat buildup and limit stormwater runoff, as climate change worsens both problems, the Associated Press reported. A Hampton Roads planning agency in Virginia replaced a crumbling asphalt lot with a design using porous concrete panels, native plants and recycled materials. Similar efforts are underway or being considered in places including New Orleans, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Denver.
Federal officials approved the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s Missouri River crossing segment, ending a legal fight that stretched back to 2016 and 2017 protests near the North Dakota prairie. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it granted a key easement so the pipeline can keep operating under added leak-detection and groundwater monitoring conditions.
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto announced a regulation that will shift exports of coal, palm oil and iron alloys to a new state-owned enterprise starting this year, with global supply-chain implications. The plan, presented to parliament Wednesday, requires private firms to hand over import and export transactions to the entity from June to August, with full management expected by September.
Advocates marked the 230th anniversary of Ona Judge’s escape from slavery by George Washington with events in Philadelphia and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In Philadelphia, a Thursday rally honored Judge on what the city has declared Ona Judge Day, even as federal property exhibit changes linked to President Donald Trump face legal uncertainty.
Scott Remer, described by his students as the most influential National Spelling Bee coach of the past decade, charges $180 an hour for private lessons and takes a performance-based share of some prize winnings. Remer, who has coached five national champions and has worked with at least 29 spellers in each of the past four bees, is preparing for this year’s bee in Washington. The coaching market around him ranges from higher-priced, full-time instruction to less expensive options taken by competitors and their families.
The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to support strong action to limit climate change, endorsing a landmark advisory opinion by the U.N.’s top court issued last year. The 193-member body approved a nonbinding resolution despite recent diplomatic efforts by the United States to have the measure withdrawn.
Three people were killed and more than a dozen first responders were quarantined and assessed Wednesday after they were exposed to an unidentified substance at a rural home in Mountainair, east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorities said.
Kansas wheat farmers say record drought and hotter-than-average temperatures, plus higher input costs tied to fertilizer, diesel fuel and tariffs, are pushing the region’s wheat crop toward its worst production levels since 1972. In Montezuma, Kansas, Orville Williams, 76, said the season is “not going to be a good year,” while Kansas State agronomist Romulo Lollato said the conditions can raise bread prices or reduce access to overseas markets. Federal estimates project the smallest U.S. wheat crop in terms of production since 1972, at 1.56 billion bushels this year.
House Republicans canceled a vote on a Democratic war powers resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran conflict, GOP leaders said Thursday. The decision came as Republicans struggled to find enough votes to defeat the measure, pushing planned House action into June. Democrats said the delay reflected fear of accountability, while Republicans cited the need to let absent lawmakers vote.
The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules requiring grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from cooling equipment, saying the Environmental Protection Agency action would help lower grocery costs. President Donald Trump said the change would “substantially lower costs for consumers” by delaying costly restrictions on the type of refrigerants U.S. businesses and families can use.
The Texas Board of Nursing has suspended the registered nurse license of Camp Mystic’s co-director and medical officer, Mary Liz Eastland, after finding she failed to help evacuate children during the July 2025 flood that killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors, according to a disciplinary order released Wednesday.
A Texas regulatory board has suspended the nursing license of Camp Mystic co-director Mary Liz Eastland, accusing the registered nurse of failing to assist children and staff during the July 2025 flood that killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe River.
Britain’s conservationists and wildlife officials are resettling beavers in parks and restored waterways as heavier, more erratic rainfall increases flooding risks. In West London, a family of five beavers moved to a 20-acre urban park near the Greenford Tube station, where the animals dammed a creek to slow and absorb stormwater. The approach is also spreading beyond London as other communities look to wetlands and natural water storage to cope with climate-driven extremes.
NOAA on Thursday issued its seasonal outlook for the Atlantic, predicting a below-average hurricane season influenced by El Niño. The agency forecast eight to 14 named storms, with three to six becoming hurricanes and one to three reaching major hurricane strength. Forecasters said the same climate pattern is expected to bring a busier, higher-risk storm season in the central and eastern Pacific.
Texas’ Board of Nursing suspended the nursing license of Camp Mystic co-director Mary Liz Eastland, saying she did not help evacuate children during last year’s July 4 floods that killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors. Eastland, a registered nurse who served as the camp’s medical officer, denies the board’s findings and said she will fight the suspension.
At least nine companies are in talks with the U.S. government for access to seabed minerals a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pushing to build a domestic deep-sea mining industry from scratch, an Associated Press review found. Federal regulators have raced to fast-track a permitting process, and sections of seafloor from American Samoa to Alaska could be auctioned for mining this summer, but a close examination of the companies involved reveals uncertain track records and unanswered questions about how the minerals would be processed.
The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules requiring grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cooling equipment, a step that President Donald Trump said would help lower grocery costs. The move relaxes Biden-era restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, emitted by refrigerators and other appliances.
Three people were found dead and more than a dozen first responders were briefly quarantined after exposure to an unidentified substance in Mountainair, New Mexico, authorities said. Two people remained hospitalized Thursday, and investigators are conducting autopsies and toxicology tests to identify the substance and determine the causes of death.
The Montana Land Board voted 3-2 on Monday to adopt sweeping changes to how it evaluates land-swap proposals, acting with minimal public notice despite the first comprehensive overhaul of the process in more than two decades.
A multi-year camera study on nonmotorized trails near Jackson, Wyoming, has found that heavy recreational use does not appear to drive away wildlife, challenging the notion that popular trail networks become ecological “sacrifice zones.” The research, led by Courtney Larson of The Nature Conservancy, analyzed motion-triggered images from 27 cameras across 36 square miles of public land south and east of town.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced on Wednesday that a newly formed state-owned enterprise will assume control of all exports of thermal coal, palm oil and iron alloys by September, a sweeping state takeover that analysts say could shake global commodity markets.
One year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to launch a deep-sea mining industry, businesses have secured millions in investor funding and federal regulators are moving to accelerate permitting processes.
The Indonesian government announced Wednesday that a newly created state-owned enterprise will take over all exports of coal, palm oil and iron alloys by September, a sudden move analysts described as a hostile takeover of major commodity industries set to ripple across global supply chains.
The NTSB said a flaw linked to the engine mount on Boeing’s MD-11 grew unnoticed as federal regulators allowed the inspection schedule to be relaxed for longer periods, and that the FAA approved the change after reviewing a request from Boeing. The agency’s two-day hearing focused on why key safety information about the bearing and metal sheath problems did not get the attention it required before the Louisville crash killed 15 people.
Brits marked the United States’ 250th anniversary with a familiar refrain: many say President Donald Trump defines how they view America. In interviews across Britain, people who admire the U.S. still often begin with Trump when asked what America is like now. (Associated Press)
Jackson Hole’s busiest trails have not turned nearby habitat into a wildlife “sacrifice zone,” a yearslong study found. Researchers who set 27 remote cameras on trails in a 36-square-mile area south and east of Jackson said they saw “encouraging” signs of wildlife continuing to use the area despite heavy human recreation.
The eastern U.S. endured another early-season heat wave Wednesday, with record high temperatures in parts of Maine and Massachusetts and school districts in Philadelphia shifting some students to remote learning. The National Weather Service said a cold front would bring rain later this week after temperatures were expected to drop sharply on Thursday.
San Francisco has launched an AI-powered whale-spotting system that monitors whale blows and heat signatures around the clock and alerts ships and ferry operators when whales are nearby. The network, called WhaleSpotter, is intended to help mariners avoid ship strikes as gray whale deaths in the Bay Area rise. The effort also includes real-time alerts and public posting through the Whale Safe website.
The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to endorse an International Court of Justice climate advisory opinion, despite recent diplomatic efforts by the United States to derail the measure. The nonbinding resolution was approved Wednesday, 141-8 with 28 abstentions, with the United States among those voting against it.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday released its annual list of 11 of the country’s most endangered historic places, themed around the principle that “everyone is created equal.” The list for America’s 250th anniversary includes sites tied to equality movements such as the Stonewall National Monument, the President’s House Site and the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.
A federal judge on Wednesday refused to postpone a June 1 civil trial over claims stemming from the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, rejecting requests from companies involved in the disaster. U.S. District Judge James Bredar said the trial will start as scheduled even after prosecutors filed criminal charges against companies tied to the container ship Dali. The civil case seeks compensation for the deaths of six construction workers killed when the bridge collapsed.
SpaceX filed for an initial public offering that could become the largest in history, with the prospectus describing losses, major spending and shareholder lockups tied to founder Elon Musk. The filing also lays out a long-term vision that includes sending humans to the moon and building a permanent 1 million-person colony on Mars, according to details summarized by the Associated Press.
The Montana Land Board voted Monday to overhaul how it evaluates land-swap proposals, a process used to exchange state trust land for private land of equal or greater value. State Auditor James Brown presented the changes, saying they reduce bureaucracy and add comment opportunities, while opponents criticized the limited public notice. The board approved Brown’s proposal in a 4-0 vote, with Gov. Greg Gianforte abstaining after his motion for a 30-day comment period failed.
President Donald Trump’s executive order promising to create a U.S. deep-sea mining industry has helped spur a rush of company interest, with investors pouring money into projects and regulators preparing to streamline permits. In an Associated Press review, at least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals from American Samoa to Alaska.
Two people remained hospitalized Thursday after three people were found dead at a home east of Albuquerque, in Mountainair, New Mexico, authorities said. Investigators are trying to identify an unknown substance that may have contributed to the deaths and sickened nearly two dozen first responders, who were decontaminated after exposure.
In the year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order to build a deep-sea mining industry in the United States, investors have backed companies, stock prices have risen, and regulators have moved to speed up permitting. An Associated Press review found at least nine companies are in talks with the government for access to seabed minerals, with lease areas from American Samoa to Alaska potentially up for auction this summer and fall.
More than 60 Minnesota business leaders, including the CEOs of Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth Group, issued an open letter calling for state, local and federal officials to de-escalate tensions following fatal shootings by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation. The letter, posted on the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website on Sunday, came as protests and business pressure have mounted against companies perceived as insufficiently vocal on the enforcement surge.
More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in Southern California on Tuesday as the wind-driven Sandy Fire threatened suburban homes in Simi Valley, officials said. The fire was reported Monday just after 10 a.m. in Simi Valley, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Barney Frank, a longtime Democratic congressman who became a leading national advocate for gay rights and helped craft major financial reforms, died Tuesday. He was 86. Frank entered hospice in Maine in April for congestive heart failure, according to his former campaign manager Jim Segel and close friend.
Barney Frank, the blunt-talking Massachusetts Democrat who served 32 years in Congress and became the first member to voluntarily disclose his homosexuality while in office, died late Tuesday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86.
Three people died and more than a dozen first responders were quarantined and assessed for possible exposure after they responded to a suspected drug overdose at a rural home near Mountainair, New Mexico, authorities said. New Mexico State Police said the substance has not posed a threat to the public, and investigators were working to identify what was involved.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Tuesday ordered the Legislature to convene a special session starting Thursday, one day after the regular session deadline, to consider a bill advancing a North Slope natural gas line that he has declared his top priority in his final months in office.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered Alaska lawmakers to convene in Juneau for a special session on Thursday to consider House Bill 381, a natural gas taxation measure tied to an LNG pipeline project. The order came one day after the deadline for the regular session, as House and Senate lawmakers paused negotiations over competing versions of the bill.
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to endorse a landmark international court opinion declaring that countries’ failure to protect the planet from climate change violates international law, brushing aside a U.S. effort to have the measure withdrawn.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday announced 11 sites on its annual list of America’s most endangered historic places, including the Stonewall National Monument and the Women’s Rights National Historic Park. The nonprofit said the 2026 list marks the nation’s 250th anniversary with the theme that “everyone is created equal.” Each of the 11 sites will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to address threats highlighted by the Trust.
Jonathan Rinderknecht will face trial starting June 8 after a federal judge barred some evidence defense attorneys wanted to introduce in his arson case tied to the Palisades Fire, according to court rulings. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang limited evidence tied to alleged negligence by the Los Angeles Fire Department and excluded prosecutors’ AI-generated images created before the fire.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar on Wednesday refused to delay a civil trial scheduled to begin June 1 for lawsuits stemming from the deadly 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The ruling keeps the case on course despite the recent filing of criminal charges against companies that managed the container ship Dali.
Bees have lived alongside humans for more than a millennium, but the origin of the word “bee” remains uncertain, according to etymology experts cited by NPR. This Wednesday marks World Bee Day, established by the United Nations in 2018 to draw attention to the insects’ vulnerability and the risks to food systems.
The National Transportation Safety Board said a flaw tied to engine mounting parts went unnoticed on a UPS MD-11 before a crash last year that killed 15 people. In testimony during a two-day hearing, NTSB officials and aviation experts described how an inspection schedule had been relaxed after Boeing sought to check critical parts less often, with the FAA approving the change after a month-long review.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities said Tuesday that three men killed by two teen shooters at the Islamic Center of San Diego died while trying to delay the attackers as about 140 children were inside during the Monday attack. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the men were shot as they confronted the gunmen and helped move people into lockdown.
A 56-year-old woman died after falling into an uncovered maintenance hole on a busy New York City street near Fifth Avenue and East 52nd Street, police and utility officials said. The woman, Donike Gocaj, parked her SUV Monday night shortly before 11:30 p.m., fell after exiting the vehicle, and was pronounced dead after firefighters pulled her out.
Eastern U.S. residents endured another day of early-season heat Wednesday after record highs were broken in cities including Portland, Maine, and Boston, officials said. Philadelphia shifted students at 57 schools to remote learning over concerns including inadequate air conditioning, while New York City opened cooling centers.
The United Nations General Assembly voted 141-8 with 28 abstentions on Wednesday to support strong action to limit climate change, endorsing an advisory opinion by the U.N.’s top court issued last July. The vote came despite recent diplomatic efforts by the United States to have the measure withdrawn. <a href='/articles/2026-02-16-us-urges-vanuatu-to-withdraw-un-climate-reparations-draft'>MSI previously reported that the U.S. urged Vanuatu to withdraw a related U.N. climate reparations draft</a>.
Scientists are revising global warming projections, saying new scenario work makes the “worst” and “best” extremes less plausible—but also confirms that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement is unlikely without artificial cooling. In interviews, climate researchers said the best-case trajectory would still exceed 1.5°C and that even small additional warming raises risks for ecosystems and extreme weather.
A federal judge in Baltimore refused to postpone a civil trial over claims stemming from the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, rejecting a request by companies involved in the crash. U.S. District Judge James Bredar said the trial will begin as scheduled on June 1, despite criminal charges filed against firms tied to the Dali. The collapse killed six construction workers in March 2024.
San Francisco Bay launched an AI whale-detection network to help ships and ferries spot gray whales day and night and avoid collisions. The system, called WhaleSpotter, uses sensors to identify whale blows and heat signatures and then alerts mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.
POET and Antora Energy have launched a 5 gigawatt-hour thermal energy storage system adjacent to POET’s ethanol plant in Big Stone City, South Dakota, with the companies saying it will absorb excess wind power that would otherwise be limited by grid capacity. The storage technology is designed to capture low-cost energy as heat in insulated blocks and convert it to steam for use at the ethanol facility, officials said.
More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders Tuesday as the wind-driven Sandy Fire tore through dry brush in the hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Ventura County Fire Department said. The blaze, reported Monday, had consumed more than two square miles and destroyed at least one home by Tuesday morning.
Two Navy jets collided midair Sunday afternoon during the 'Gunfighter Skies' air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, 57 miles southwest of Boise. All four crew members ejected and deployed their parachutes, landing safely as the wreckage exploded in a field.
Biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced Tuesday it has hatched live chicks using a 3D-printed artificial eggshell, a milestone the company said could eventually allow it to revive extinct bird species such as New Zealand's South Island giant moa.
San Francisco Bay launched an AI-powered detection network this week designed to track whales day and night, as a spike in whale deaths linked to a marine heat wave has pushed California officials and researchers to seek faster ways to prevent ship strikes.
AUSTIN, Texas — Three young people are in custody following at least 10 random weekend shootings that injured four people, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said Sunday. The suspects drove around the city in stolen vehicles, firing at two fire stations, apartment buildings and houses during a string of robberies and shootings that stretched from Saturday afternoon to early Sunday morning.
Scientists have dropped the most extreme worst-case and best-case global warming scenarios from their updated projections, reflecting growth in renewable energy that has lowered the highest emission forecasts but not enough to keep the internationally agreed 1.5°C warming limit within reach.
NEW YORK (AP) — The bond market is sending out warning signals again, with yields climbing to multi-year or even decade highs and putting downward pressure on stock markets worldwide. The surge reflects concerns tied to oil prices and whether they will stay high because of the war with Iran, along with worries about large and growing U.S. and other governments’ debts. When yields rise, borrowing costs for households and businesses increase and investors may shift money away from riskier assets.
US stocks rebounded Wednesday after pressure eased from the bond market and oil prices gave back some of their recent gains. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% for its first increase in four days, while the Dow climbed 1.3% and the Nasdaq jumped 1.5%.
Oregon voters are voting Tuesday in party primaries and a statewide ballot measure on transportation funding, with the results shaping November’s congressional and state races. In the governor’s race, Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek faces nine challengers in her party’s primary, while Republicans choose from a field of 14. Voters also decide whether to approve Measure 120, which would raise gas taxes and vehicle fees to pay for road and bridge improvements.
The U.S. Senate confirmed former New Mexico congressman Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management on Monday, handing President Donald Trump the agency director needed to expand mining and drilling on federal territories while rolling back previous conservation measures.
Alex Murdaugh has filed a federal lawsuit against former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, claiming Hill’s conduct during his 2023 double-murder trial violated his right to a fair trial. The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Murdaugh’s murder convictions and life sentence last week, citing Hill’s statements to jurors. Murdaugh’s suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday told Congress he would not rule out considering people who used violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot for payouts from a new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that is intended to compensate those who say they were targeted politically. Blanche, appearing before lawmakers for the first time since taking over the Justice Department last month, also declined to say whether he would direct a five-member commission he appoints to restrict eligibility to people convicted of violence.
Georgia Republicans are heading toward a runoff to choose their nominees for governor and the U.S. Senate after Tuesday’s primary failed to produce outright winners. The GOP Senate runoff will pit former college football coach Derek Dooley against Rep. Mike Collins, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson advanced in the governor race. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is set to face the eventual GOP Senate nominee in a battleground contest this November.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to Kentucky on Monday to campaign against Rep. Thomas Massie ahead of Massie’s Republican primary, attacking what he called Massie’s refusal to support President Donald Trump. Hegseth said he was speaking “as a private citizen,” while referencing Trump and pointing to Massie’s stance on the Iran war and other issues.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel this week to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden as European officials weigh U.S. plans to reduce troop levels in Europe and President Donald Trump’s stance on the alliance. The State Department said Rubio will attend the meeting in Helsingborg on Friday, then travel to India for meetings with officials and expected encounters with the “Quad” partners.
The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management on Monday, approving Steve Pearce by a 46-43 vote. Pearce will oversee management of about a quarter-billion acres of public lands as the administration advances mining and drilling while reversing conservation plans.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from pharmaceutical companies that object to negotiating Medicare drug prices with the federal government, leaving in place rulings that dismissed the manufacturers’ claims.
President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican primary runoff for the U.S. Senate, aiming to unseat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton and Cornyn advanced to a May 26 runoff after finishing as the top vote-getters in a March 3 primary in which no candidate won a majority. The endorsement reshaped expectations inside Texas and among Senate Republicans about the party’s resources for the general election.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday showed reporters a construction site for the White House ballroom he is building on the former East Wing, as lawmakers resist an administration request for $1 billion in added security funding. Trump told reporters the building would be “drone-proof” and said the $400 million ballroom cost would be covered by donors, not taxpayers.
The U.S. Justice Department is considering seeking an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro tied to the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes operated by a Miami-based exile group, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The group Brothers to the Rescue—also known as Hermanos al Rescate—has been central to U.S. and Cuban efforts to use the 1996 incident to define the decades-long dispute between Washington and Havana.
A debate over redrawing South Carolina’s congressional districts opened in the state House on Monday, as Republicans pursue changes that could help them win all seven of the state’s U.S. House seats. The effort comes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of Voting Rights Act protections, and lawmakers also weighed how to handle the timing of primary elections and related rules. State lawmakers are scheduled to vote on whether to limit further amendments to the redistricting legislation.
After nearly 20 years of moving between campgrounds, Orr Family Ministries settled in 2022 on a 12-acre site on a hill in Colorado County, Texas, and established Camp Oak Haven. This summer, the camp will not reopen — its operators sold the land after determining they could not meet sweeping new state safety regulations imposed on the camp industry in the wake of a 2025 flood that killed multiple people at Camp Mystic in the Texas Hill Country.
A fast-growing wildfire that erupted after a small medical plane crashed before dawn Thursday near Ruidoso has triggered mandatory evacuations for a rural area north of the Capitan Mountains and prompted the closure of portions of Lincoln National Forest, officials said Monday. The aircraft, operated by Generation Jets and Trans Aero MedEvac, was en route from Roswell Air Center to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport when it went down, killing all four people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate Monday as the wind-driven Sandy Fire burned more than 500 acres of dry brush and damaged at least one home in the hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
Texas summer camps have closed or cut back operations after new state regulations were introduced in the wake of a deadly July 4 Hill Country flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic. Orr Family Ministries sold the land for its Camp Oak Haven, citing the costs and practical challenges of complying with requirements that include weather warning systems and broadband access. State health officials have since reached an agreement with 19 camp operators that temporarily lifts a fiber-optic internet requirement, but camp directors say higher licensing fees and other safety mandates are still pushing some rural and urban camps out of business.
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate Monday as the wind-driven Sandy Fire threatened suburban homes in Simi Valley, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, the Ventura County Fire Department said.
Southern California fire officials said more than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders Tuesday as the wind-driven Sandy Fire threatened homes in and around Simi Valley. The blaze, reported Monday just after 10 a.m., had spread to more than 180 acres by Tuesday morning and destroyed at least one home, officials said. The Ventura County Fire Department said the fire was 5% contained and that its cause was under investigation.
Two teenage shooters opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, killing three men and then killing themselves a few blocks away, San Diego police said. Police said they found evidence the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric,” and investigators are treating the attack as a hate crime.
The fast-growing New Mexico wildfire triggered by a fatal medical plane crash outside Ruidoso has prompted evacuations for a rural area north of the Capitan Mountains and forced closures in the Lincoln National Forest, officials said Monday. The plane crashed before dawn Thursday, killing four people aboard, and investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are looking into the crash.
Vice President JD Vance and former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio used the White House press briefing room on Tuesday as a high-visibility platform, while President Donald Trump has not yet named a successor and has publicly tested the two men as possible 2028 standard-bearers. Vance sat at the lectern for 54 minutes and addressed reporters after taking over temporarily for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave. Rubio had filled in about two weeks earlier, also as a temporary replacement.
A panel of U.S. appeals court judges appeared divided Tuesday while hearing arguments in Anthropic’s appeal of a Pentagon decision designating the company as a supply-chain risk. Anthropic argues Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unlawfully and falsely branded it as a national security risk after the company raised ethical and safety concerns about AI use in war. Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Neomi Rao raised sharply different questions about the scope of the government’s authority and whether courts can second-guess that judgment.
The New York Times sued the Pentagon for a second time in five months, arguing a requirement that reporters be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violates the First Amendment. The paper and reporter Julian E. Barnes filed the new case in federal court in Washington on Monday, after earlier rulings involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s media access rules.
The Pentagon inspector general will evaluate whether the U.S. military followed a targeting framework when it carried out attacks on dozens of alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America, killing nearly 200 people, the Pentagon and a letter to Defense Department officials showed. The review focuses on a six-phase “Joint Targeting Cycle” described in a May 11 letter and was described by the inspector general’s office as “self-initiated.”
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Connecticut and Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William Tong over a new state law that bans federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks while on duty and requires them to display identification. The lawsuit, filed Friday, argues the law conflicts with federal authority under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
A South Dakota-based biofuels producer and a California energy startup have begun operations on one of the world's largest thermal energy storage systems, situated directly adjacent to an ethanol processing facility in Big Stone City. The 5-gigawatt-hour installation absorbs excess, low-cost electricity generated by nearby wind turbines and converts it into heat within carbon blocks for later dispatch.
A 56-year-old woman died Monday night after stepping out of her parked SUV and falling into an open maintenance hole near Fifth Avenue and East 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, police and utility officials said.
ISO New England, the nonprofit operator of the region's power grid, projects electricity demand will grow by about 9% over the next decade, reversing a two-decade trend of falling consumption as more households adopt heat pumps and electric vehicles, according to a May 1 report.
Plants with extra copies of their chromosomes—called polyploids—show evidence of having survived past periods of extreme environmental stress, according to new research. NPR reports that a study led by plant biologist Yves Van de Peer examined ancient whole-genome duplication events across hundreds of plant species and linked them to tumultuous climate eras over the last 150 million years.
Three federal judges dismissed felony grand jury indictments against nine defendants in Wyoming, saying prosecutors’ misconduct involving interim U.S. Attorney Darin Smith “could have prejudiced” the grand jury. The judges stayed the dismissal through Wednesday or until Smith does not contest it, and the dismissals were issued without prejudice. Defense attorneys said Smith improperly told jurors defendants were “bad guys” and “murderers” and that deliberations “won’t take long,” and they later urged the judges to make the dismissals permanent or punish Smith.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., acquitted two business executives of charges they conspired to bribe a retired four-star Navy admiral tied to a government contract. The retrial in Washington ended Monday with jurors acquitting Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger of all counts, after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial.
Hennepin County prosecutors announced charges Monday against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the Jan. 14, nonfatal shooting of Venezuelan man Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
A 56-year-old woman died after falling into an uncovered maintenance hole on a busy street in Midtown Manhattan, police and utility officials said. The woman, Donike Gocaj, parked near Fifth Avenue and East 52nd Street and fell into the open hole shortly before 11:30 p.m. Monday, authorities said.
ISO New England, the regional grid operator, projects electricity demand across New England will rise by about 9% over the next decade, a forecast released May 1. The operator said electrification of heating and transportation is still driving growth, but it expects the pace to be more conservative than in its previous annual forecast. Maine’s energy efficiency programs remain in place, according to Efficiency Maine’s executive director, as federal incentives for heat pumps and electric vehicles have shifted since 2025.
Samsung Electronics’ labor union said it will postpone a planned strike after reaching a last-minute, government-mediated wage deal with management that will be voted on later this month. Union leader Choi Seung-ho said the strike, previously expected to start Thursday, would be delayed as the tentative agreement put forward by both sides is submitted to union members for a vote from May 22 to May 27.
The U.S. Navy said all four crew members of two EA-18G Growler jets were able to eject and deploy parachutes after the jets collided midair during an air show Sunday at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. One crew member was injured but the injury was not life-threatening, officials said Monday as an investigation into the crash continued.
Scientists say they are discarding both the most catastrophic and most optimistic future climate scenarios because they no longer fit how the world is changing. A new set of seven plausible carbon pollution pathways suggests the Paris 2015 goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is not reachable as conditions stand, even in the best case.
Nearly 5 million fewer people are expected to enroll in Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage in 2026, shrinking participation by more than 20%, according to a new analysis by KFF. The group projects enrollment could fall from 22.3 million in 2025 to around 17.5 million this year as subsidies expire and premiums and deductibles rise for those who remain covered.
Community members and leaders mourned three men killed when two teen shooters attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, authorities said. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the victims died while trying to delay and distract the gunmen as about 140 children were inside during the attack.
A federal jury in Oakland, California, dismissed claims filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI and its top executives, finding he waited too long to sue. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the jury’s verdict and dismissed the case on Monday after a three-week trial.
El gobierno de Estados Unidos retirará de forma permanente sus reclamos fiscales contra el presidente Donald Trump como parte de un acuerdo para poner fin a una demanda por la filtración de sus declaraciones tributarias. Según un documento del Departamento de Justicia publicado esta semana, el acuerdo también impide investigar a Trump, a sus hijos y a la Organización Trump por auditorías fiscales actuales.
Google announced a series of new artificial-intelligence tools at its annual developers conference Google I/O, including a personal AI assistant that can take on routine tasks and new upgrades for Gemini and Google search. CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is “firmly in our agentic Gemini era,” and outlined plans for the Gemini 3.5 model to become the default in Gemini and “AI mode” search experiences. The company also previewed an “agentic” system called Gemini Spark and new video-generation capabilities tied to its Gemini Omni family.
A federal judge in New York barred federal agents from routinely detaining people who arrive for proceedings at the city’s immigration courts, saying they should not face arrest to pursue asylum or attend deportation hearings. A day after the ruling, immigrant advocates said a 21-year-old man was arrested in a Manhattan federal building covered by the court order.
A new thermal energy storage system has launched adjacent to a POET ethanol plant in Big Stone City, South Dakota, to store excess wind energy and supply it for industrial use. The project, backed by Antora Energy, pairs the storage facility with the local biofuels site and aims to improve grid reliability while supporting jobs.
New York’s Long Island Rail Road resumed service Tuesday after a deal was reached to end a strike that had shut down the busiest commuter rail system in the U.S. The first trains departed shortly after noon from Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, with full service planned for the evening rush home.
Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died. He was 74, according to Kootenai County Chief Deputy Coroner Lynn Acebedo. Fuhrman, one of the first detectives assigned to the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, became a central figure after recordings surfaced showing he used anti-Black racial slurs.
Michigan State University trustees on May 19 approved an updated board ethics policy, with some members calling it a gag order while the board’s chair said it reinforces existing duties. The vote came during a Sunday night special meeting that also included nearly doubling President Kevin Guskiewicz’s salary to $2 million, according to reporting distributed by the Associated Press.
Republicans are increasingly unhappy with President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a new AP-NORC poll, though they continue to approve of his approach to the Iran war. The survey also finds immigration is becoming a comparatively stronger issue for Trump with GOP voters as gas prices rise during the conflict.
A Connecticut state investigation has charged former Hartford police officer Joseph Magnano with manslaughter in the Feb. 27 shooting of Steven Jones, 55, who police said had a knife during a mental health crisis. Officials said Magnano failed to de-escalate and did not make reasonable attempts to use non-lethal force before firing nine shots. Jones’ family’s attorney called the charge a step toward accountability.
Pope Leo XIV will unveil his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas* (*Magnificent Humanity*), on May 25, the Vatican said. The document focuses on the care of human dignity in the era of artificial intelligence, and the Vatican is bringing Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah to the launch.
Two teenage boys who shot and killed three people in an attack at a mosque in San Diego were radicalized online where they met and shared white supremacist views, the FBI said. The FBI and police said the attackers killed themselves after the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which also has a school nearby.
San Francisco Bay has launched “WhaleSpotter,” an AI-backed whale-detection system meant to help mariners avoid collisions with gray whales. The effort uses computer scanning to flag whale blows and heat signatures for verification by observers before alerts reach ferry operators and vessel traffic controllers.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and national Democrats celebrated Democratic primary wins Tuesday in four Pennsylvania congressional districts, setting up fall contests in which Democrats hope to flip Republican seats. The outcomes include contested Democratic primaries in three swing districts and an uncontested nomination in a fourth. Shapiro, facing Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity in November after both won their primaries, said voters must “win in November” and return “accountability” to Washington.
President Donald Trump disclosed thousands of buy and sell stock trades in a report filed with the federal Office of Government Ethics, including trades involving companies affected by his decisions as president, the report shows. The portfolio disclosed in the filing includes Nvidia, Apple, Boeing, Tesla and several defense contractors, according to the Associated Press. Critics said the volume and the nature of the holdings raise ethics and conflict-of-interest concerns, while a Trump family business spokesperson said third parties manage the investments.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund for allies who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted, with critics calling it unconstitutional and corrupt. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will offer “a lawful process” for “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” Democrats and watchdogs warn the money could become a taxpayer-funded slush fund, while the administration links the payout to a deal that resolved Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the release of his tax records.
President Donald Trump said Monday he paused plans for an imminent resumption of attacks on Iran at the request of Gulf Arab states, while also telling military leaders to be ready for a “full, large scale assault” if an acceptable deal is not reached. The shift came as a fragile ceasefire continues and U.S. and Iranian officials press for talks after months of escalating threats around the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump toppled Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s Republican House primary Tuesday, a high-profile test of how GOP voters respond to Trump-backed challengers. On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro won primaries for four candidates he endorsed, including in contested races. Other results included Georgia losses for Republican officials who had spoken out against Trump’s 2020 election claims and Alabama primaries in several congressional districts set to be voided after state leaders postponed the vote.
An autopsy report released Monday said the death of Haitian man Emmanuel Damas after months in an Arizona immigration detention facility was related to his dental problems, following a claim by his family. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said Damas died from complications of a chest infection with abscesses in his neck and throat and that his severe dental problems were part of the cause.
Two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers collided in midair during the “Gunfighter Skies” air show Sunday at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, about 57 miles southwest of Boise. All four crew members ejected and deployed parachutes, landing safely in an area away from the wreckage, a Navy spokesperson said. The military said the cause is under investigation.
The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management on Monday in a 46-43 vote, as the administration moves to expand mining and drilling while reversing conservation plans. Steve Pearce, a former Republican congressman from New Mexico, will oversee about a quarter-billion acres of public lands through the federal land agency.
Barham Salih, the newly appointed head of the U.N. refugee agency, visited Ukraine's front-line cities in February and called for a diplomatic solution to the war, warning that military options have reached their limit as humanitarian needs overwhelm international aid capacity.
A fast-growing wildfire in southern New Mexico was sparked by the crash of a small medical plane outside Ruidoso, officials said Monday. The crash killed four people and the blaze, fanned by dry conditions and wind, prompted evacuations north of the Capitan Mountains and closures in the Lincoln National Forest.
Thousands were ordered to evacuate Monday in and around Simi Valley, California, as the wind-driven Sandy Fire threatened suburban homes, the Ventura County Fire Department said. The blaze was reported around 10 a.m. in hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and by mid-afternoon had burned more than 500 acres and damaged at least one home.
The National Transportation Safety Board began two days of hearings Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C., examining why a UPS cargo plane’s engine separated from its wing during takeoff last November — a failure that killed all three crew members and 12 people on the ground when the MD-11 crashed in Louisville, Kentucky.
In western Kenya, a distinctive funeral practice blends ancient Luo tradition with the region's widespread Christian faith. Professional mourners — strangers hired by families of the deceased — wail, sing, and beat leafy branches in a performance meant to honor the dead and comfort the bereaved. The role provides a steady, if modest, income in an economically depressed area where formal employment is scarce.
The National Transportation Safety Board held two days of hearings in Washington on why an engine detached from a UPS cargo plane during a 2025 flight out of Louisville, Kentucky, and why a recurring maintenance and reporting problem was not spotted earlier. The crash killed all three pilots and 12 people on the ground.
Texas youth camps have closed or cut back operations after the state of Texas imposed new regulations following last year’s deadly Hill Country floods, according to camp operators and state officials. A Texas campground that served about 100 rural children will not reopen this summer after selling its land. The state later agreed to pause a fiber-optic internet requirement for some camps, but directors say high licensing fees and new safety measures could still push more programs to shut down.
Scientists have revised global warming “worst” and “best” future pathways, saying the most catastrophic scenarios are less likely than before while the most optimistic one now also exceeds the 2015 Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The new set of seven carbon-pollution scenarios, described by climate scientists in a recent study, replaces older extreme cases with a narrower range of possible outcomes by the end of the century. <a href='/articles/2026-05-10-forecasters-warn-strong-el-ni-o-could-bring-heat-drought-and-heavier-rain'>MSI previously reported</a> that El Niño conditions can intensify heat and other extremes.
In western Kenya, hired mourners are taking on a role that mixes Luo cultural practices with Christianity, helping families publicly express grief and receive comfort at funerals. At a recent funeral for 64-year-old Tom Ochieng Mima in Kisumu, people who did not know the deceased waved leafy branches, sang, and cried as part of the ceremony.
ISO New England projected on May 1 that electricity use across its grid will rise about 9% over the next decade, as more people adopt heat pumps and electric vehicles. The independent nonprofit’s latest annual forecast is more conservative than last year’s estimate, in part because of changes in federal climate and energy policies, the report said.
Animal rescue volunteers in New York are racing to find homes for more than 450 pet rats found in a condemned house in the New York City suburbs. The group of about 10 volunteers with the Strong Island Animal Rescue League has spent the past couple of weeks rounding up the domesticated white rodents at the home in Rocky Point, about 70 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island. With about 30 more rats still to catch and a major winter storm quickly approaching, rescuers are accelerating their efforts.
A Bombardier Challenger 600 business jet crashed during takeoff at Bangor International Airport in Maine on January 27, killing all six people aboard. The plane was en route from Houston to Paris and had stopped to refuel when it crashed around 7:45 p.m. while taking off in winter storm conditions. The aircraft flipped over and caught fire on the tarmac. The cause remains unknown, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which began investigating immediately.
Canada's Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said Monday she has given conditional approval for the shuttered Marineland theme park to export 30 beluga whales and 4 dolphins to United States institutions. Thompson said she will issue final permits once Marineland provides additional required information, with a deadline of January 30. The conditional approval averts a threat by Marineland to euthanize the animals if export permits were not authorized by that date.
Americans are increasingly anxious about flying following a collision between an American Airlines jet and a helicopter over Washington, D.C., in January that killed 67 people — the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. The incident has prompted heightened concern among travelers and aviation professionals about the risks of air travel. Adelynn Campbell, a 30-year-old coffee shop manager in San Diego, has felt the effects directly. She experienced a panic attack on a previous flight. Since the January collision, her anxiety has worsened. "It's definitely spiked my concern about getting on a plane and it's making the whole situation a little more stressful than it used to be," Campbell said.
A fire in the basement of the Indigo Hotel in Lahore, Pakistan on Saturday killed at least three people and injured eight others, according to rescue officials. About 180 guests and staff were evacuated from the building when the blaze broke out in the Gulberg neighborhood of the eastern city. The search and rescue operation was completed and the fire was extinguished, the Punjab Emergency Services said.
A gas explosion sent fire racing through the top floors of a 17-story apartment building in the Bronx early Saturday, killing one person and injuring 14 others, authorities said. Firefighters responded shortly before 12:30 a.m. to the building, where residents were seen leaning out of windows calling for help as flames engulfed parts of the top floors. The explosion occurred while investigators were examining reports of a gas odor on the 15th and 16th floors, according to Fire Chief John Esposito.
In February 2026, Reggae, a 33-year-old Atlantic harbor seal at Boston's New England Aquarium, became a social media sensation after videos emerged of him hugging, carrying, and gently manipulating rubber ducks in his tank. But for the aquarium's trainers, the playful scene captured something more significant: a structured enrichment program designed to keep the aging seal mentally sharp and engaged.
Japan's last two giant pandas left Tokyo's Ueno Zoo on Tuesday, ending 50 years of panda presence in the country and marking a symbolic loss amid deteriorating diplomatic relations between Japan and China. The twins, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei—born at the zoo in 2021—returned to China as strained ties between Tokyo and Beijing reach their lowest point in years.
In the southeastern Serbian town of Pirot, a traditionally crafted spicy sausage in the shape of a horseshoe has long been said to lift spirits during long winter months. The "ironed sausage"—or peglana kobasica in Serbian—is made from selected meats loaded with seasoning and dried naturally, with its distinctive shape created by a unique bottle-flattening technique. Though it has been part of Pirot's tradition for generations, the delicacy is now gaining recognition far beyond the town near Serbia's border with Bulgaria.
A northwest Oregon town is stepping up testing of the South Yamhill River, which supplies some of its drinking water, following reporting about a local wood-treating facility's years of chemical spills and stormwater releases that state and federal regulators had documented but not widely disclosed. The Sheridan City Council has instructed staff to consult with environmental researchers and state regulators on a plan to test water samples for chemicals used by Canadian company Stella-Jones.
Ana García, a 26-year-old survivor of one of Spain's deadliest train crashes, has captured national attention with her plea to find her dog, Boro, who fled the wreckage as rescue crews helped her to safety. The high-speed train from Málaga to Madrid crashed on Jan. 21 when its tail jumped the rails and was struck by an oncoming train, which then tumbled down an adjacent slope, killing at least 43 people and injuring more than 150. Bandaged and limping after the disaster, García told reporters she was determined to find Boro, a medium-sized black dog with white eyebrows and a white tuft on his chest. "Please, if you can help, look for the animals," she said. "We were coming back from a family weekend with the little dog, who's family, too." García's search has become a national rallying point. Thousands of social media users amplified her call, sharing her video interview and photos of Boro. Major Spanish media outlets reported on the search as the dog's image circulated alongside phone numbers for García and her family. The search has shown signs of progress. On Monday, television broadcaster TVE captured footage of a dog resembling Boro running through a field near the crash site, though rescuers were unable to locate the dog. On Wednesday, an animal rescue patrol authorized to enter the accident perimeter had more success: a Civil Guard environmental agent spotted Boro, alive and well. But when the agent tried to catch him, the dog fled into the woods.
The same travertine quarries near Rome that built the Colosseum 2,000 years ago and St. Peter's Basilica centuries later continue to operate today, supplying distinctive pock-marked stone to churches, temples and mosques around the world. Workers at quarries near Tivoli, Italy—35 kilometers east of Rome—extract travertine from underground sulfur springs, fulfilling commissions from institutions ranging from the Getty Center in Los Angeles to the Bank of China in Beijing to a renovated Latter-day Saint temple in Manhattan.
A drone strike ignited a fire at the edge of the United Arab Emirates' sole nuclear power plant on Sunday in what Emirati authorities called an unprovoked terrorist attack, spotlighting the threat of renewed war as the United States and Iran traded threats.
Federal contractors are blasting and bulldozing Native American sacred sites — including a mountain revered by the Kumeyaay Nation, a 1,000-year-old geoglyph in Arizona, and a shrine atop a New Mexico peak — as the Trump administration accelerates border wall construction under waivers of environmental and cultural laws, tribal leaders and government records show.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers collided and crashed Sunday during an aerial demonstration at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho. All four crew members ejected safely and were in stable condition, officials said, and no one on the ground was injured.
Indigenous leaders on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border say federal contractors blasting and bulldozing for new border-wall sections have damaged or desecrated sacred and cultural sites, including Kuuchamaa Mountain in California. The Associated Press reported that the construction has accelerated after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security waived cultural and environmental laws.
For decades, billions of gallons of raw sewage flowing from Tijuana have created hazardous air quality in Southern California's Tijuana River valley, sickening residents through exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. Since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons of sewage laden with industrial chemicals have poured into the Tijuana River, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission. The contamination has created what the Environmental Protection Agency termed one of the nation's worst environmental crises, affecting tens of thousands of people in largely poor, Latino communities near the river.
More than 80 children are missing after a wave of militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week, local officials and Amnesty International said Sunday, the latest in a long series of school abductions in the West African country.
CHENG LEI, a 50-year-old Chinese-born Australian television journalist, spent 1,154 days in Chinese custody — much of it in a shared cell under constant surveillance — before being deported in October 2023. Now, in a new memoir and an upcoming stage production, “1154 Days,” she is offering a rare, firsthand account of the pressure tactics, isolation, and psychological toll of China’s secretive prison system, and how she rebuilt her life through writing, stand-up comedy, and a return to journalism.
Militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week left more than 80 children missing, according to local officials and Amnesty International. The attackers abducted 42 children from a primary school in Borno state between Wednesday and Thursday, Amnesty said.
Drone strike sparked a fire near the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, as Iran and the United States signaled readiness for further fighting. The UAE’s defense ministry said three drones crossed from its western border with Saudi Arabia and that two were intercepted, while authorities said there were no reported injuries or radiological release.
Powerful tornadoes tore through the Upper Midwest on April 18, leaving substantial damage across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota but no reported deaths or serious injuries, officials said. The storms uprooted trees, damaged homes and buildings, and downed power lines across multiple counties, prompting extensive recovery efforts. "We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury," said Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall of the storm that struck Lena, Illinois.
A pickup truck carrying 15 agricultural workers plunged off a low-water bridge into a river in southern China’s Guangxi region on Saturday, killing one worker and leaving nine others missing, state media reported.
Three people were killed and several others were injured late Saturday night when a vehicle crashed into a parked car and multiple pedestrians in Oakland, California, police said. Authorities arrested the teenage driver, and the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Gunmen killed at least 10 people, including a child, in the town of Tehuitzingo in Mexico’s Puebla state in the early hours of Sunday, according to a statement from the state’s public security agency.
Three Finnish cave-diving experts arrived in the Maldives on Sunday to map a new strategy for recovering the bodies of four Italian divers lost deep inside an underwater cave, a Maldives presidential spokesperson said, after a Maldivian military diver died during the initial rescue attempt.
BEIJING (AP) — A pickup truck carrying 15 people fell off a bridge in southwest China’s Guangxi region on Saturday, leaving one person dead and nine missing, state media reported. Five people were rescued, while search and rescue teams continued Sunday for the remaining missing people.
Three people were killed and several others were injured late Saturday night after a driver crashed into a parked car and pedestrians in Oakland, California, authorities said. The crash occurred shortly after 11 p.m., and police said the driver was arrested and is under 18.
Mexican authorities said at least 10 people were killed in an attack by gunmen in Tehuitzingo, a town in Mexico’s Puebla state. The Puebla public security agency said the victims included six men, three women and a child, all shot in the early hours of Sunday.
Boise, Idaho officials said all four crew members ejected safely after two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho. The base locked down immediately, canceled the remainder of the show, and the Navy is leading an investigation, according to officials.
Three Finnish divers arrived in the Maldives to help map a new plan to search for the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be inside an underwater cave, after a Maldivian rescue diver died, the Maldives coastguard and officials said. The renewed effort was prompted by the death of Mohamed Mahudhee of the Maldivian National Defense Force, which officials said occurred after he was hospitalized in the capital.
A study published in April in JAMA Oncology found that colorectal cancer deaths among young adults in the U.S. are concentrated among people without college degrees, suggesting socioeconomic factors drive the increase in mortality. The American Cancer Society research, based on data from more than 101,000 deaths from 1994 through 2023, is the first national study to parse which young adults are most affected by the increase. Celebrity deaths including actor Chadwick Boseman in 2020 and James Van Der Beek earlier this year have highlighted the trend.
Police in Trinidad and Tobago said they are investigating after 56 bodies—50 of them infants—were found dumped at a cemetery in Cumuto on Saturday. The discovery comes as authorities extend a state of emergency due to surging gang violence and crime.
In mid-April, the satirical news outlet The Onion submitted a proposal to a Texas state court seeking an exclusive temporary license to operate the conspiracy-focused platforms of Alex Jones as a parody site. The proposal comes as Jones' company, Free Speech Systems, faces liquidation to satisfy more than $1 billion in defamation judgments owed to relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
In late April, jury selection concluded in Harvey Weinstein's third rape trial in New York. A jury of seven men and five women was chosen to decide whether the 73-year-old former Hollywood producer raped a woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2013. The trial, with opening statements scheduled to begin, was expected to last up to four weeks.
A 70-year-old pilot is in critical condition after his small plane crashed in a parking lot at an O'Reilly Auto Parts store in Pacoima, north Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The crash was reported shortly after 11 a.m. The pilot was rescued from the aircraft and taken to a local hospital. No other injuries have been reported.
The death toll from a Russian cruise missile strike that flattened a Kyiv apartment building rose to 24 on Friday, including three teenagers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as he led the mourning for one of the deadliest attacks on the capital in the four-year war. The strike occurred during what the Ukrainian air force described as Russia’s largest aerial barrage of the full-scale invasion, with more than 1,560 drones launched against population centers since Wednesday.
KYIV, Ukraine (MSI) — Maryna Homeniuk, a 24-year-old English teacher who spoke 10 languages and dreamed of starting a family, was killed alongside her boyfriend Yurii Orlov when a Russian cruise missile struck their Kyiv apartment building Thursday, friends and family said. They were among 24 people killed in what Ukrainian military officials described as the largest single wave of airstrikes of the four-year war.
A young Kyiv couple killed in a Russian airstrike were remembered this weekend by friends and family as ambitious and devoted, with the woman planning her life around the hope of starting a family. Maryna Homeniuk, 24, and Yurii Orlov, 30, were among 24 people killed Thursday in what Ukrainian military officials described as the biggest barrage of the war.
BANGKOK (AP) — A cargo train struck a public bus at a railway crossing in central Bangkok on Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20, with emergency services saying all victims were found aboard the charred vehicle.
Maldivian authorities suspended the search for four Italian divers trapped deep inside an underwater cave on Saturday, after a military diver involved in the rescue effort died of decompression sickness. The divers are presumed dead after a fatal dive that exceeded the recreational limit, officials said.
A driver plowed into pedestrians on a main street in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people, four of them critically, before attempting to flee and being detained by police, local authorities said.
At least eight people were killed and more than 20 others were injured when a cargo train crashed into a public bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, Thai emergency services said. The crash happened in the late afternoon near an airport railway station, according to the Erawan Medical Center.
Maldives authorities suspended the search for four Italian divers believed trapped deep inside an underwater cave after a Maldivian military diver died during an attempted rescue mission, the government said Saturday. Officials said the search will be reassessed with the arrival of Finnish deep-and-cave-diving experts. The dive exceeded Maldives recreational limits, and Italy’s Foreign Ministry said the cause of the deaths remained under investigation.
A driver plowed into pedestrians in Modena, northern Italy, injuring eight people on Saturday, four of them critically, before police detained him after an attempted escape, local authorities said. Modena Mayor Massimo Mezzetti said no one was killed.
The wife of a U.S. Army soldier was released from immigration detention Thursday after a U.S. senator personally intervened, the Department of Homeland Security said, ending a monthlong custody that began when she was arrested at a routine immigration appointment.
Kyiv mourned as the death toll from a Russian missile attack on an apartment building in the Ukrainian capital rose to 24, including three teenagers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, returned to Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday after an 11-month deployment that included operations tied to the U.S. war with Iran and the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. About 5,000 sailors aboard the ship and two accompanying destroyers docked as the crews were set to see their families for the first time since leaving in June, according to the Associated Press.
A small plane carrying a pilot and four passengers to a Texas pickleball tournament suffered icing on its airspeed indicator and broke apart in midair on April 30, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released Friday. All five people aboard — Justin Appling, Hayden Dillard, Brooke Skypala, Stacy Hedrick and Seren Wilson — died in the crash near Wimberley, about 40 miles southwest of Austin.
Back-to-back storms in March brought Hawaii's worst flooding in two decades, causing an estimated $50 million in damage across nearly 2,000 farms on Oahu's North Shore and leaving the state's small-scale growers struggling to recover without crop insurance.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused a small plane to crash into a home in northeast Ohio and explode into flames, killing both pilots aboard. The crash happened after a training flight out of Akron Fulton Airport, and authorities said they plan to use witness testimony and doorbell camera footage as they work to determine what happened.
Hawaii farmers on Oahu’s North Shore are struggling after back-to-back storms in March brought the state’s worst flooding in two decades, leaving some farms wiped out and reducing what they can sell at farmers markets. The damage threatens local agriculture and the island supply chain, officials said.
Wyoming wildlife officials plan to cut the number of wolves that can be hunted in the Yellowstone region by half after a canine distemper outbreak pushed the state’s wolf population to its lowest level in more than two decades, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced Thursday.
A new study of 21,000 rivers worldwide has found that oxygen levels have dropped an average of 2.1% since 1985, driven primarily by warming water temperatures, raising the risk of dead zones where fish suffocate and ecosystems collapse.
Michigan's Natural Resources Commission voted Wednesday to limit hunters in the Lower Peninsula to killing one antlered deer annually starting next year. The decision, reached after a nine-hour meeting, rejects a more restrictive Department of Natural Resources recommendation and draws mixed reactions from the state's hunting community.
An adolescent great horned owl that spent roughly six months in rehabilitation after entering a cement mixer has returned to the wild in southwestern Utah with a set of replacement feathers.
A small plane on a training flight crashed into a home in Akron, Ohio, on Thursday, killing both pilots aboard but leaving a father and his two children inside the house unharmed, officials said Friday as a federal investigation began.
A Maldives National Defense Force diver died Saturday from decompression sickness while assisting the search for the bodies of four Italian divers believed trapped deep inside an underwater cave in Vaavu Atoll.
A firefighter was killed and at least 11 other people were injured Friday when a massive fire and explosion tore through the Robbins Lumber mill in Searsmont, Maine, triggering an all-hands emergency response from across Waldo County.
A 27-year-old volunteer firefighter was killed and at least 11 others were injured when a massive fire and explosion tore through a silo at a lumber mill in rural midcoast Maine on Friday. Andrew Cross, a member of the Morrill Volunteer Fire Department, was identified Saturday by the state fire marshal’s office. A procession of dozens of firetrucks and emergency vehicles, stretching 46 miles from Augusta to Belfast, escorted Cross’s remains to a funeral home as communities across the region mourned.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Beijing’s Nanluoguxiang neighborhood on Thursday, sampling local street food including a bowl of zhajiangmian noodles and a fermented soybean drink that drew a pained reaction captured on Chinese social media.
A commercial vessel anchored near the United Arab Emirates was seized and taken to Iranian waters on Thursday, while a separate cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack, as tensions around the strategic Strait of Hormuz continued to escalate. The incidents come amid heightened instability in the waterway, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil, and as senior Iranian officials reiterated Tehran’s claim of control over the strait.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg met with President Irfaan Ali and other top Guyanese officials this week to explore U.S. investment in the South American nation's bauxite reserves, as the Trump administration intensifies its focus on Latin America's energy and mineral resources. The visit, announced Friday, comes amid an oil boom that has elevated Guyana's geopolitical importance and as U.S. officials express concerns about Chinese companies securing lucrative state contracts.
A humpback whale that gained widespread attention in Germany after a dramatic rescue operation was found dead off a Danish island this week, authorities confirmed Saturday. The whale, nicknamed Timmy, had been released on May 2 after being transported by barge toward the North Sea but was discovered stranded near the island of Anholt in the Kattegat Strait.
A shark fatally mauled a 38-year-old spearfisher on Saturday off Rottnest Island, Australia, police said. The victim was attacked on a coral reef while diving with a friend, according to Western Australia Police Sergeant Michael Wear.
In Zimbabwe, parents increasingly choose English first names that carry family history, emotion and circumstance—ranging from gratitude and faith to stigma and hardship. For people such as Privilege Mubani and others interviewed in Harare, the meaning behind a name can reflect personal family narratives that remain tied to identity.
Wyoming wildlife managers plan to reduce the number of wolves hunters can kill by 50% in 2026 after a canine distemper outbreak pushed the state’s wolf population to the lowest level in two decades. Officials said the proposed 2026 hunting mortality limit would be the fewest available to licensed hunters since wolf hunting resumed in 2012. The state also scheduled public meetings on the draft quotas, with commission action expected in mid-July.
Un buzo militar de Maldivas murió el sábado mientras buscaba los cuerpos de cuatro buzos italianos que se cree que quedaron atrapados en una cueva submarina, informó el gobierno de Maldivas. El ministerio de Exteriores de Italia indicó que el grupo italiano de cinco buzos habría muerto durante una inmersión a unos 50 metros (160 pies) de profundidad en el atolón Vaavu. La causa de las muertes sigue bajo investigación.
A massive fire and explosion at a lumber mill in Maine’s midcoast region killed a firefighter and injured at least 11 other people Friday, authorities said. The firefighter was found dead at the mill after flames spread through Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, about 95 miles from Portland. Silo-related damage occurred as part of the response, and state and local crews worked for hours to contain the fire.
A 27-year-old firefighter, identified as Andrew Cross, was killed in a fire and explosion at a lumber mill in Maine’s midcoast region. Officials said the blast and flames also injured at least 11 others as communities in Morrill honored Cross the day after the incident.
Un barco anclado frente a la costa este de Emiratos Árabes Unidos fue incautado y llevado a aguas iraníes, mientras que otro buque de carga cerca de Omán se hundió tras ser atacado, dijeron autoridades el jueves. Los incidentes ocurrieron en medio de tensiones en el estrecho de Ormuz, una ruta clave para el comercio petrolero, mientras funcionarios iraníes reiteraban su control sobre la vía y planteaban condiciones para nuevas conversaciones con Estados Unidos.
U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg met with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali and other senior officials in Georgetown to discuss business opportunities tied to the South American country’s bauxite and other natural resources, according to the Associated Press. The visit comes as the Trump administration looks to Latin America for energy and minerals amid global supply pressures.
A humpback whale found dead this week off Denmark’s Anholt island has been identified as the same animal released two weeks ago after a contentious rescue effort following repeated strandings along Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, Danish authorities said Saturday. The whale was stranded on Thursday off Anholt in the Kattegat, authorities said, ending weeks of attempts to return the mammal toward the Atlantic Ocean.
A Tennessee man known online as “Chud the Builder” was held on a $1.25 million preliminary bond on attempted murder and other charges after a shooting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse, authorities said. Prosecutors sought to hold Dalton Eatherly without bond ahead of a full hearing next week, but a judge set the bond, citing the number of people in the courtyard and the seriousness of the felonies.
A 38-year-old spearfishing diver was fatally mauled by a shark off Rottnest Island, police in Western Australia said. The man was attacked on a coral reef near the island’s dive boats on Saturday and later died after paramedics could not resuscitate him.
A Minnesota teenager recognized as a reincarnated Buddhist lama has moved from the Minneapolis area to monasteries in northern India and then to Nepal, where he has been blessing people during a 12-day ritual series. Jalue Dorje, now 19, said he sees his path as “really happening” and connected to guidance he received as a child from the Dalai Lama.
Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission voted Wednesday to limit hunters in the Lower Peninsula to taking one antlered deer starting next year, down from the current allowance of two. The policy, known as the “one buck rule,” passed after more than nine hours of public comment and commissioner debate over deer management, license structure, and enforcement of a separate “earn a second buck” pilot proposal.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was seen on a food tour in Beijing trying the city’s zhajiangmian noodles, which are topped with thick soybean-paste sauce. Huang was later filmed tasting a fermented soybean drink that made him wince, with videos spreading on Weibo on Friday afternoon.
An adolescent great horned owl found stuck in a concrete mixer at a resort construction site in southwestern Utah is recovering and has flown back into the wild, officials said. The bird underwent a feather-replacement procedure after months of care at a sanctuary in Kanab, with staff using a conservation technique known as “imping.”
Global warming is causing rivers to slowly lose oxygen, threatening fish and other life in waterways worldwide, a new study finds. Researchers using satellites and artificial intelligence analyzed oxygen levels in more than 21,000 rivers since 1985 and reported an average 2.1% decline. The study projects that continued deoxygenation could worsen into the range that creates dead zones by the end of the century.
A preliminary federal investigation found that a small plane carrying four pickleball players to a tournament near Austin broke apart midair after freezing-ice issues with instruments during the flight, the NTSB said. The report released Friday described problems with the plane’s anti-icing system, the pilot’s last radio transmission at 10:59 p.m. and a debris field consistent with an inflight breakup near Wimberley.
FBI Director Kash Patel participated in a "VIP snorkel" over the sunken USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in August 2025, according to government emails obtained by The Associated Press. The excursion was not disclosed by the FBI, which had highlighted Patel's visit to its Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement while omitting his two-day return to the island after official visits to Australia and New Zealand.
Russia unleashed a third consecutive day of massive drone and missile attacks across Ukraine on Thursday, demolishing a nine-story apartment building in a residential Kyiv neighborhood and killing at least nine people, Ukrainian authorities said. More than two dozen civilians were wounded in additional strikes elsewhere in the country as Moscow pressed its largest aerial campaign since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Cuba’s national power grid collapsed early Thursday, severing electricity to all eastern provinces from Guantánamo to Ciego de Ávila, authorities said, while residents in Havana faced rolling blackouts that stretched to 24 consecutive hours. The failure is the latest symptom of an energy crisis that has crippled the island’s aging infrastructure amid a prolonged economic downturn and tightening U.S. sanctions.
Cuba’s national power grid suffered a major failure early Thursday, cutting electricity to the island’s eastern provinces, authorities said. The state-run Electric Union said power was lost from Guantánamo to Ciego de Ávila, as residents in Havana continued facing rolling outages.
Congress is working to raise the retirement age for U.S. Capitol Police officers as threats against lawmakers climb and the department struggles to recruit and retain enough officers. A Senate measure would let officers extend service until age 62, while a House-passed bill would allow service until age 65. The current system sets forced retirement at 57, with waivers for officers who reach age 60 or complete 20 years of service.
PARIS (AP) — The gilded dome of Les Invalides in Paris is known worldwide as the resting place of Napoleon. Behind the landmark’s grand façade, the National Institution of Invalides has served for more than 350 years as a home and hospital for wounded soldiers and civilian victims of war, with a state-funded renovation estimated at 100 million euros ($108 million) under way.
PARIS — The gilded dome of the Invalides is known worldwide as Napoleon’s tomb, but behind the Paris landmark's grand 17th-century façade, a lesser-known mission has continued without interruption for over 350 years: serving as a home and hospital for wounded soldiers and civilian victims of war.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed rescinding a 2024 rule that required coal-fired power plants to treat toxic heavy metals leaching into groundwater, arguing the regulation is too costly as electricity demand surges from data centers powering artificial intelligence. Environmental groups warned the move would permit hundreds of millions of pounds of neurotoxins and carcinogens to enter drinking water sources.
Six migrants from Honduras and Mexico, including a 14-year-old boy, died in a sweltering shipping container on a freight train in Texas, authorities said Thursday. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said a seventh victim likely also died after falling or being thrown from the train.
Black scuba divers and community members made a pilgrimage in early May to the underwater memorial marking the wreck of the Henrietta Marie, a British slave ship that sank off Key West, Florida, in 1700 after delivering 200 enslaved Africans to Jamaica. The group, organized by Underwater Adventure Seekers and Diving With a Purpose, described the visits to the shipwreck site and a nearby African refugee burial ground as acts of devotion and a way to confront a history that some feel is being erased.
Two people were found dead after a small plane crashed into a house in Akron, Ohio, on Thursday and burst into flames, according to the Akron Fire Department.
President Donald Trump has halted U.S. offshore wind development through lease buybacks and construction orders, even as the global industry added enough capacity in 2025 to power 10.2 million homes, according to industry data.
Surging global oil prices as war disrupts the Strait of Hormuz have delivered an estimated $850 million revenue windfall to New Mexico, creating a political conundrum for a state where Democrats control the levers of power while campaigning on climate action and opposing the war.
Federal prosecutors have charged a Washington state tourist with harassing an endangered species after a witness recorded video of him throwing a coconut-sized rock at a Hawaiian monk seal near a Maui beach. Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, of Covington, Washington, made arrangements to surrender to NOAA special agents in the Seattle area on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Honolulu.
TAPACHULA, Mexico — On Christmas Eve 2024, a young Cuban woman called her mother to say she had put on a life jacket and was boarding a boat that would carry her and 39 other migrants from a southern Mexican port toward the United States. It was the last anyone heard from her. Sixteen months later, her mother and other relatives arrived in the Chiapas town of San José El Hueyate to search for answers — scouring the pier, navigating the Pacific coast, and canvassing residents — but finding only silence.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a sweeping clean electricity strategy Thursday that aims to double the country’s grid by 2050, saying electrification is the path to affordability, competitiveness and net-zero emissions. The plan, which carries an estimated price tag of more than one trillion Canadian dollars, would overhaul the nation’s power system with a mix of hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas and other sources.
A 41-year-old man scaled an 8-foot perimeter fence at Denver International Airport late Friday night, walked onto a runway, and was fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines jet with 231 people aboard, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff and exposing a security vulnerability at one of the country’s busiest airports.
A federal jury has awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old global health worker who died in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia, resolving one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits tied to the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
An anonymous buyer paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Warren Buffett and NBA star Stephen Curry, according to an eBay charity auction that wrapped up Thursday night. The winning bid will go to the charities backed by Buffett, the Currys and their foundations, with Buffett also set to match the winning amount.
The Associated Press profile of Jalue Dorje, a US-born teenager who was recognized by Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama, follows him from a Minneapolis-area childhood to monastic life in the Himalayas. Now 19, Dorje has been studying at Mindrolling Monastery in northern India after moving from Minnesota last year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to roll back limits that require coal-fired power plants to prevent toxic heavy metals from entering streams and rivers through groundwater. The EPA proposed changing a rule finalized in 2024 under President Joe Biden, arguing it is unduly costly for the energy industry as electricity demand rises.
A teen was among six people from Honduras and Mexico found dead in a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo, Texas, authorities said May 14. Police said the group was believed to be part of a human smuggling effort and that federal authorities were leading the investigation.
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Two people were found dead inside a small plane after it crashed into a house and exploded into flames in Akron on Thursday, the Akron Fire Department said. The department said there were no immediate reports of injuries inside the home, and nearby homes were evacuated.
A Washington state tourist is facing federal charges after prosecutors say a video shows him hurling a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal just off a Maui beach last week. Prosecutors allege the rock narrowly missed the seal’s head and caused the animal to abruptly alter its behavior, according to a criminal complaint. Federal agents arrested the man and a judge ordered him released pending a later court appearance in Honolulu on May 27.
Families in Mexico’s Chiapas state have been scouring ports and roadside businesses for clues after 40 migrants vanished in late December 2024 while traveling a sea route used by smugglers toward the United States. The search has centered on San José El Hueyate, near the Guatemalan border, where relatives say a Cuban woman’s last call came before the group disappeared.
A tourist widely condemned in Hawaii after a video showed him throwing a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal was arrested by federal agents, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday. The federal complaint says the rock narrowly missed the seal’s head and caused the animal to change its behavior.
An intruder walked onto a runway at Denver International Airport and was fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines jet attempting takeoff late Friday night, according to surveillance video and officials. City airport leaders said Tuesday that the airport received “perfect scores” after federal inspections, while experts described the episode as a serious airport security failure.
In Key West, Florida, Black divers and community members gathered at a memorial underwater marker for the Henrietta Marie, a British slave ship that sank in the 1700s. The pilgrims said the visit offered a chance to connect with their roots and to process a traumatic history tied to death and suffering. On land, the group also visited a cemetery and memorial for African refugees who died in 1860 after being rescued from slave ships by the U.S. Navy.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a clean electricity strategy Thursday that he said will double Canada’s electricity grid by 2050 and lower energy costs for most households. Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa, Carney linked the plan to challenges including U.S. tariffs, higher energy costs tied to the war in Iran and the impacts of climate change.
A federal jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old global nonprofit worker killed in the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The Wednesday verdict resolves one of the last remaining wrongful-death lawsuits tied to the disaster, which killed all 157 people aboard the Boeing 737 Max jet.
Offshore wind is gaining momentum worldwide, even as the Trump administration has moved to stop U.S. offshore wind projects and buy back federal leases, according to an Associated Press rundown. The United States has three operating offshore wind farms, while three more began delivering power or preparing to fully open after construction resumes following lawsuits.
A Washington state tourist was arrested by federal agents on Wednesday after a witness video showed him throwing a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal off a Maui beach, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Honolulu.
Russia launched at least 800 drones at about 20 regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, including children, in one of the longest barrages of the four-year war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The daytime assault struck the capital Kyiv, the western city of Lviv, and the Black Sea port of Odesa, stretching air defenses for hours even as Russian and U.S. leaders hinted at progress toward peace.
A U.S. Army statement says the remains of the second soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered, ending a multinational search. The soldier was identified as Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, of Florida.
Severe flooding triggered by torrential rains struck the Havza district of Turkey's Samsun province late Tuesday, causing rivers to overflow and sending water rushing through streets. The floods swept away vehicles and debris, inundated homes and businesses, and left at least 12 people hospitalized with minor injuries, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.
Torrential rains triggered severe flooding in the Havza district of Turkey’s northern Samsun province, officials said. The floods inundated homes and businesses and swept through streets, sending at least 12 people to hospitals with minor injuries, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Search and rescue crews found 11 survivors who floated for about five hours on a yellow life raft after a Beechcraft 300 King Air ditched in the ocean off Florida, the U.S. military said. Air Force Reserve officials and a combat rescue specialist described how the survivors lacked a way to call for help and gathered under a tarp as a thunderstorm approached.
Canine distemper drove Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park wolf counts down to their lowest levels in two decades, with biologists documenting 253 wolves and 14 breeding pairs statewide at the end of 2025.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Wednesday that airlines develop realistic simulations to train pilots for cockpit smoke emergencies, after a December 2023 bird strike aboard a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max left the crew struggling to see their instruments and forced an emergency landing.
The always-fatal chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in an elk on the National Elk Refuge north of Jackson, Wyoming, federal and state officials announced Monday, marking the first documented case in the refuge’s elk population. The diagnosis, from an ailing cow elk euthanized in April, heightens pressure on wildlife managers to consider reducing the 11,000-animal Jackson Elk Herd — the largest migratory elk herd in North America — and reignites debate over the refuge’s long-standing winter feeding program.
The remains of the second U.S. Army soldier who went missing during a multinational military exercise in Morocco have been recovered, the Army said Wednesday, concluding a search operation that deployed more than 1,000 personnel and advanced surveillance technology.
The Volo Museum near Chicago received a $50 speeding ticket from New York City this week, alleging its replica of KITT, the talking car from the 1980s TV series "Knight Rider," was photographed doing 36 mph in a 25 mph zone in Brooklyn on April 22 — except the car hasn't moved from its Illinois exhibit in years, museum officials said Wednesday.
A French woman infected with hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship is fighting for her life on an artificial lung, part of an outbreak that has now sickened 11 people, killed three, and prompted quarantine measures across Europe. The World Health Organization on Tuesday said nine of the cases have been confirmed, with two suspected, and warned that more could surface within weeks as the virus's long incubation period unfolds.
The operator of a Dutch-flagged cruise ship at the center of the first known hantavirus outbreak on a cruise vessel said Wednesday it expects to determine by the end of the week whether the ship will keep its scheduled Arctic sailings, after three passengers died and nine confirmed cases of the rodent-borne illness were identified. Oceanwide Expeditions told The Associated Press it is awaiting official guidance on disinfection protocols as the MV Hondius sails toward Rotterdam with a skeleton crew, two health workers, and the body of one of the deceased passengers.
A French woman infected with hantavirus during the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak is in critical condition on life support, her doctor said Tuesday, as the total number of cases linked to the vessel rose to 11, including three deaths.
Two bald eagle hatchlings have been spotted in a nest in a Chicago park in what city officials are calling the raptors' first successful wild breeding in the city in more than a century. The first eaglet was spotted April 28, and a second was confirmed May 7 in Park 597 along the Calumet River on the city's Southeast Side, according to the Chicago Park District.
California finalized regulations at the start of May requiring producers to make all single-use plastic packaging recyclable or compostable by 2032, the most ambitious deadline in the country. The rules, enacted under a landmark 2022 law, have already drawn legal threats from environmental advocates who say they are too weak and from plastic manufacturers who say they are too costly.
A Beechcraft King Air turboprop carrying 11 people ditched in the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles off Vero Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, triggering a dramatic rescue by an Air Force Reserve helicopter crew that plucked the survivors from a life raft after five hours of uncertainty.
A US-born teenage Buddhist lama, Jalue Dorje, has blessed thousands at a monastery in Nepal’s Himalayan foothills, according to an Associated Press report. The story traces how Dorje, now 19, went from playing Madden NFL in Minnesota to training for years as a monk, after the Dalai Lama recognized him as a reincarnated lama.
A private lunch with Warren Buffett and Stephen Curry sold for $9,000,100 in an eBay charity auction that ended Thursday night, the Associated Press reported. The anonymous winner will meet the 95-year-old investor and the basketball star next month in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, with their respective charities expected to benefit. Curry and his wife, Ayesha, raised money through the Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, while Buffett and his long-running auction partner effort supported San Francisco’s GLIDE Foundation homeless charity.
Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park wolf numbers plunged in 2025 after a flare up of canine distemper that was especially lethal to pups, Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills said. Mills said the combined minimum count came to 253 wolves and 14 breeding pairs statewide at the end of 2025.
In a safety recommendation issued Wednesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board urged airlines to train pilots with realistic simulations for emergencies in which smoke fills the cockpit. The NTSB said pilots on a Southwest Airlines flight in December 2023 told investigators the situation was far more challenging than anything they had experienced in training.
Officials announced the first chronic wasting disease case in an elk on the National Elk Refuge north of Jackson, Wyoming, after samples from an April 15 euthanized cow elk tested positive. The discovery has renewed discussion of a 2021 plan to revisit management of the nation’s largest migratory herd, including feed practices, antler-collection traditions and potential impacts on nearby water use.
French authorities say a woman infected in the MV Hondius outbreak is critically ill in Paris, as the total reported cases tied to the cruise ship has reached 11, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said confirmed and suspected cases have been reported only among the ship’s passengers or crew.
Bad Staffelstein, Germany, is home to a Catholic monastery church display that includes four elaborately decorated skeletons brought from Rome centuries ago—relics known as “catacomb saints” or “Holy Bodies.” Visitors in Bavaria say the glass-encased figures can feel unexpectedly eerie, while a priest and a historian describe their Baroque presentation as an effort to convey what believers will look like after the resurrection.
Colombia’s Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta is being choked by an invasive aquatic plant that residents say is cutting off fishing routes and driving up costs for communities that rely on the lagoon. The plant, Hydrilla verticillata, has spread rapidly across the Caribbean wetland since about mid-2025, residents and experts said.
Over 1,700 passengers and crew aboard the British cruise ship Ambition were ordered to remain on board in Bordeaux, France, after French authorities said an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness sickened some people. Officials said they found no link to a separate hantavirus outbreak on another vessel that has prompted a wider health response.
Two bald eagle hatchlings have been spotted in a nest in a Chicago park in what city officials believe is the raptors’ first successful wild breeding in the Windy City in more than a century, the Chicago Park District said. The first eaglet was spotted April 28 and a second was confirmed May 7 in Park 597 along the Calumet River on the city’s Southeast Side.
California’s newly finalized rules under a landmark 2022 law require plastic producers to make packaging recyclable or compostable or otherwise comply with stepped goals. The regulations—finalized at the start of the month—have triggered lawsuits from environmental groups and complaints from industry that the requirements go too far. Sen. Ben Allen, the law’s author, said the program will still “massively moves the needle” even as he acknowledged the compromise was “not perfect.”
Una francesa infectada en el brote de hantavirus vinculado a un crucero está en estado crítico en un hospital de París, según un médico del Hospital Bichat, mientras el total de casos reportados asciende a 11. El médico dijo que la paciente recibe tratamiento con un dispositivo de soporte vital y describió la atención como “la etapa final de la atención de apoyo”. En paralelo, España anunció un nuevo caso confirmado en un pasajero evacuado y las autoridades sanitarias de la OMS pidieron cuarentenas por el largo periodo de incubación.
A replica “Knight Rider” Trans Am displayed for years at the Volo Museum near Chicago received a $50 speeding ticket from New York City, the museum said, despite the car not leaving Illinois. The ticket alleges the vehicle was clocked at 36 mph in a 25 mph Brooklyn zone on April 22.
The operator of the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius said it expects to have clarity by the end of this week on whether the vessel can restart cruises after a hantavirus outbreak left three passengers dead. Oceanwide Expeditions said about 120 passengers and crew were evacuated to Spain’s Canary Islands and isolated in several countries, and the ship is now traveling to Rotterdam for cleaning and disinfection.
At least 10 people have died and thousands of homes have been destroyed after torrential rains and flooding swept across six provinces in South Africa since May 4, prompting the government to declare a natural disaster on Tuesday. The flooding hit informal settlements especially hard, with over 10,000 structures damaged around Cape Town alone, local officials said. The Western Cape provincial government ordered schools closed and shut down parts of the Table Mountain tourist attraction as emergency crews responded.
South African authorities declared a national disaster as flooding, thunderstorms, high winds and even snowfall affected parts of six provinces since May 4, leaving at least 10 people dead. The disaster declaration allows the government to use emergency funds and other resources for the response.
Workers at Denver International Airport missed a security breach by a man who scaled a perimeter fence and crossed a runway where he was hit and killed in a fiery collision with a Frontier Airlines plane, authorities said Tuesday. The airport said the trespasser triggered an alarm late Friday night but security personnel mistakenly attributed it to nearby wildlife before the pilot notified the control tower.
All ten people aboard a small plane were rescued Tuesday after the aircraft crashed in Bahamian waters off Florida's coast, officials said. The pilot had declared an emergency before communication was lost, triggering a search-and-rescue operation involving the U.S. Coast Guard and multiple Bahamian agencies.
Honduran authorities arrested former Tocoa mayor Adán Fúnez and two others on Tuesday, accusing them of masterminding the 2024 assassination of environmental leader Juan López — a breakthrough in a case that had drawn international condemnation and symbolized the lethal dangers facing environmental defenders in Central America.
Security personnel at Denver International Airport missed a breach of a perimeter fence by a man who then walked onto a runway and was fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines jet taking off for Los Angeles, authorities said Tuesday. The 41-year-old man died by suicide, the medical examiner said, and no note was immediately recovered. The collision late Friday night caused an engine fire that forced the 231 people on board to evacuate; twelve people were injured.
A man armed with an assault-style rifle fired more than 60 rounds at cars along a busy Cambridge roadway Monday afternoon, seriously wounding two motorists before a Massachusetts state trooper and a Marine veteran separately returned fire and stopped the gunman, authorities said.
Pop star Debbie Gibson and Black Sabbath co-founder and bassist Geezer Butler visited the Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to praise a sprawling effort to rescue and rehome roughly 1,500 beagles purchased from a nearby research facility, Ridglan Farms.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Singapore-based ship operator and a technical superintendent with criminal counts including conspiracy and misconduct causing death, alleging the company deliberately relied on an improper fuel pump that caused the Dali container ship to lose power twice before it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, killing six construction workers.
Federal prosecutors on May 12, 2026 announced criminal charges against the operator of the massive cargo ship that struck and destroyed Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024, killing six construction workers and severing a major East Coast transportation artery for months.
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled special edition bald eagle stamps for America’s 250th birthday Thursday at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, and made them available for purchase across the United States. The stamps depict the bald eagle across five major life stages, from hatchling to the white-headed adult on the Great Seal. The Postal Service historian Steve Kochersperger said the series helps people look back at both the bird’s life stages and the country’s.
Honduran authorities arrested three people, including former mayor Adán Fúnez, accused of masterminding the 2024 killing of environmental defender Juan López, a case that activists and international figures highlighted as emblematic of corruption and the risks of protecting the environment. Authorities said Fúnez was arrested at his home on Tuesday, along with businessman Héctor Eduardo Méndez and Juan Ángel Ramos Gallegos.
A man previously convicted of firing a gun at police shot at motorists on a busy road outside Boston, seriously wounding two drivers on Monday afternoon, authorities said. The shooting happened along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a state trooper returned fire with a Marine veteran who had pulled over.
The operator of the cargo ship that struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is facing criminal charges tied to actions leading up to and after the crash that killed six people, federal prosecutors announced May 12, 2026. The charges come more than two years after the Dali lost power and rammed the bridge in the early hours of March 26, 2024, closing the port for months.
Pop star Debbie Gibson and Terry “Geezer” Butler of Black Sabbath visited a humane society in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to praise efforts to place about 1,500 beagles previously bought for medical experiments into new homes. They spoke as Dane County Humane Society staff and partner rescue groups prepared the dogs for health checks, vaccinations and transport.
A small plane crashed Tuesday in Bahamian waters about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Florida’s Vero Beach Regional Airport, and all 10 people aboard were rescued, Bahamian officials said. The pilot declared an emergency before communication with the aircraft was lost, the Bahamas’ Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority said.
A U.S. Air Force training jet crashed Tuesday in west Alabama, and both pilots ejected safely, military officials said. The aircraft was a T-38 Talon II from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.
A U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon II training jet from Columbus Air Force Base crashed Tuesday at noon in west Alabama, military officials said. Both pilots ejected safely, according to a news release from base officials.
A Spanish government document reveals that the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major, which sank in the Mediterranean in December 2024, was carrying components for two nuclear reactors like those used in submarines, according to the captain's statements to Spanish authorities, the Associated Press reported.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria office says at least 100 civilians — including children — were killed in a Nigerian military airstrike on a market in Tumfa, northwestern Zamfara state, on Sunday. The military confirmed the airstrike but denied any civilian casualties.
A Russian ship that sank in the Mediterranean in December 2024 after an engine-room explosion may have been carrying components for two nuclear reactors used in submarines, according to a Spanish government document. The document, registered in the Spanish parliament and first reported by CNN, says the ship’s captain “confessed” to the cargo after questioning by Spanish authorities.
Nigeria’s military is facing renewed scrutiny after airstrikes in northwestern Zamfara state, where Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said Sunday’s strike at a market in Tumfa town killed at least 100 civilians, including children. The Red Cross in the state confirmed an airstrike at the market and said multiple civilians were killed, while the military denied civilian deaths and said it had found “no verifiable evidence.” The incident has renewed questions about the military’s targeting capabilities and the role of U.S. support.
The Interior Department is canceling a 2024 rule that put conservation on equal footing with development on federally managed public lands, a move the Trump administration said will boost energy production and grazing but that conservation groups warned will harm water and wildlife. The repeal, announced Monday, is effective 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, scheduled for Tuesday.
Doctors who examined Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi more than a week after she collapsed in an Iranian prison said she needs months of treatment, her foundation announced Wednesday. An angiography revealed two of her main arteries are significantly blocked and her vascular disease has worsened since 2024. The 53-year-old activist was released on bail nearly 10 days after collapsing and taken to a hospital in Tehran, where her specialists are monitoring her.
NAIROBI, Kenya — French and African leaders on Tuesday announced more than $11 billion in renewable energy investments across the continent, spanning sustainable aviation fuel, hydropower, solar and wind projects, during the France-Africa Summit in Kenya's capital. The commitments emerged from a closed-door CEO forum attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenyan President William Ruto and leaders from more than 30 African nations, alongside executives from major energy and industrial companies.
KINSHASA, Congo — Micheline Nzonzi rocks a drowsy year-old bonobo, one of dozens of orphaned apes whose survival depends on human caregivers at the only sanctuary of its kind in the world. For 24 years, Nzonzi has been a foster mother at Lola Ya Bonobo, a nursery on the forested outskirts of Kinshasa where infant bonobos rescued from poachers and illegal pet traders receive the maternal care they need after their mothers are killed for bushmeat.
Princess Catherine traveled to Reggio Emilia, Italy, on Wednesday for her first solo overseas trip since announcing her cancer was in remission, drawing large crowds as she toured preschools that use the renowned Reggio Emilia early childhood education approach. The visit, described by Kensington Palace as part of an international “fact-finding mission,” underscores her signature focus on early years development through the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which she founded in 2021. Speaking Italian to a group of children, the princess, known as Kate, said she had long been fascinated by the philosophy.
The Trump administration is canceling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development on taxpayer-owned public lands managed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the change could have blocked access to hundreds of thousands of acres, while conservation advocates said the rollback would weaken protections for water and wildlife.
Doctors who examined Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi more than a week after she collapsed in an Iran prison said she needs months of treatment, her foundation said Wednesday. The foundation said an angiography procedure showed major artery blockage and that her vascular disease has worsened since 2024.
Kinshasa, Congo — At the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary on the forested outskirts of Kinshasa, Micheline Nzonzi has been fostering an orphaned 1-year-old bonobo for about three years, a period the sanctuary says is crucial for the animal’s survival and eventual transition to a larger group. The sanctuary says bonobos are legally protected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but are still taken for bushmeat, including when infants are rescued from poachers or raised by local families for meat.
French and African leaders on Tuesday announced more than $11 billion in renewable energy investments across Africa, unveiled during a closed-door CEO forum in Nairobi alongside the France-Africa Summit. The commitments, involving companies including TotalEnergies, EDF, Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy, cover projects from sustainable aviation fuel to solar, wind, hydropower and clean cooking, as leaders discuss green industrialization and expanding electricity access.
Princess Catherine, the Princess of Wales, traveled to Italy on Wednesday for her first solo overseas trip since announcing her cancer was in remission. She arrived in Reggio Emilia, where officials and residents welcomed her as she toured programs tied to the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.
A bomb attached to a rickshaw exploded in a crowded bazaar in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than two dozen, according to local police.
Amnesty International said Tuesday that a Nigerian military airstrike on a market in Tumfa, Zamfara state, killed around 100 civilians over the weekend. A Red Cross official confirmed the strike and said “multiple civilians” were killed, but Nigeria’s military denied any civilian casualties, stating that no verifiable evidence had been established.
A bomb rigged to a rickshaw exploded in a bazaar in Lakki Marwat in northwest Pakistan, killing at least nine people and wounding more than two dozen others, police said Tuesday. The blast damaged nearby shops, and traffic police officers were among those killed, local officials said.
Nigeria’s military denied a rights group’s claim that an airstrike on Sunday hit a market in Tumfa, Zamfara state, killing 100 civilians, as fighting with armed groups continued in the country’s volatile north. Amnesty International said multiple civilians were killed in the strike and quoted local accounts, while a Red Cross official confirmed the strike and said “multiple civilians” were killed. A military spokesperson said “no verifiable evidence” of civilian casualties had been established and insisted civilians were not the target.
Southeast Alaska residents told the U.S. Forest Service in more than 300 public comments that a proposed revision of the Tongass National Forest management plan is moving too fast and fails to adequately protect old-growth forests, salmon streams and subsistence uses, while mining and timber interests argued the plan should expand access to resource extraction.
Malaysian authorities searched Tuesday for 14 Indonesians missing after a boat carrying over 30 people sank off the island of Pangkor in Perak state, according to the state's maritime office. A fishing vessel rescued 23 people before dawn Monday, finding them floating at sea.
Thousands of people filled plazas in downtown Buenos Aires on Sunday to trade Panini World Cup sticker cards, a communal tradition that peaks a month before the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press has published an interactive quiz testing readers' knowledge of U.S. sports history, part of the wire service's America at 250 series marking the nation's semiquincentennial.
Malaysia’s maritime authorities in Perak are searching for 14 Indonesians after a migrant boat carrying more than 30 people sank off Pangkor island. Officials said 23 survivors were rescued Monday and handed to marine authorities for questioning.
Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities are seeing a surge of World Cup sticker trading about a month before the 2026 FIFA tournament begins, with fans gathering in plazas to complete official Panini stickerbooks through swaps. Parents and children are leaning into the hobby as both a social activity and a way to build skills, while Panini has expanded the program for the tournament’s growth to 48 teams. “This connects you with the world,” said Juan Valora, a fan trading stickers in a public square.
In the lead-up to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the America at 250 initiative is rolling out a new quiz focused on sports history, inviting players to test what they know about U.S. sporting moments and figures. The quiz, highlighted by AP and attributed to Holly Meyer, asks participants to answer questions and see how they score.
Southeast Alaska residents submitted more than 300 comments to the U.S. Forest Service on a revised management direction for the Tongass National Forest, expressing sharply divided views over timber, mining and protections for old-growth forests. Supporters of mining and timber said the plan should better accommodate mineral exploration and development, while conservation advocates and other residents criticized the process as rushed and urged stronger safeguards for wildlife and old-growth. The Forest Service said the preliminary draft plan’s comment period has closed and that it will publish a draft plan and environmental impact statement later this year, with a final forest plan set for 2028.
Israeli drone strikes on vehicles south of Beirut killed four people on Saturday, while airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter, Lebanese state media and the Health Ministry reported.
Israeli drone strikes near Beirut on Saturday killed four people, and airstrikes across southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter, Lebanese state media and the Health Ministry said. The deadliest strikes reported by Lebanon’s Health Ministry included at least seven killed in Saksakiyeh and three killed in Bourj Rahhal. The toll raised the stakes for renewed international diplomacy, with a new round of talks scheduled in Washington starting Thursday.
Joni Lamb, president and co-founder of the Daystar Television Network, died Thursday at age 65 after a decline in health following a back injury, the network announced. She and her late husband, Marcus Lamb, built the Bedford, Texas-based network from a single station in 1993 into one of the world’s largest Christian television networks, now reaching 2.3 billion households globally.
A person who breached a perimeter fence at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines jet during takeoff late Friday, triggering an engine fire and forcing the evacuation of 231 passengers and crew.
Joni Lamb, who helped found the Daystar Television Network and later led it as president, died Thursday, the network said. She was 65. The network said Lamb had been dealing with serious health issues before sustaining a back injury that caused her health to deteriorate; it did not release a cause of death.
A handful of Palestinian surfers braved Israeli naval patrols and the dangers of a war-damaged coastline on Tuesday, riding rare high waves off the Gaza City port in a fleeting escape from the territory’s two-year humanitarian crisis.
Ethiopia’s push to adopt electric vehicles has accelerated sharply, with more than 115,000 EVs now on its roads, as fuel shortages and soaring prices tied to the Iran war strain the country’s economy and drive a broader African shift toward cleaner transport.
Myanmar miners have discovered an 11,000-carat ruby near Mogok, a gem-mining hub in the country’s upper Mandalay region, according to state media reported May 8. The ruby, described as the second-largest ever found by weight in Myanmar, was unearthed in mid-April shortly after the traditional New Year festival, and was later examined by President Min Aung Hlaing at his office in Naypyitaw.
DEIR AL-BALAH, The Gaza Strip — Despite the dire humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip and a fragile ceasefire in place, a small number of Palestinian surfers have continued to take to the Mediterranean waters when conditions allow. Tahseen Abu Assi, one of the surfers, said only three or four men still surf because of shortages of surfboards and materials to repair damaged ones.
Miners in Myanmar have unearthed an 11,000-carat ruby near Mogok, a conflict-battered hub responsible for most of the world's supply, with the massive gem presented to President Min Aung Hlaing, state media reported Friday.
A pair of wildfires burning in South Florida spread across thousands of acres in the Everglades on Monday, with the larger fire reaching 5,600 acres and containment operations increasing despite smoky conditions and reduced visibility, the Florida Forest Service said.
Passengers and crew were safely evacuated from a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday after smoke was seen coming from the landing gear, the airline said. The 277 passengers and 11 crew members escaped via emergency slides as a precaution, with no injuries reported. The airport was closed for nearly two hours before flights resumed.
Crews battled two South Florida wildfires that spread Monday after burning thousands of acres in the Everglades over the weekend, officials said. The Florida Forest Service reported smoky conditions with reduced visibility as containment operations increased. The larger fire had spread to about 5,600 acres and the other blaze, in Miami-Dade County near Homestead, was about 300 acres.
Passengers and crew safely evacuated a Turkish Airlines jet at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport after smoke was seen coming from the landing gear shortly after landing, the airline said. The airport was shut down in the morning and reopened nearly two hours later after the plane was moved to a safer area, with flights operating on schedule later in the day, according to airport and airline statements.
Brazil is on track to record its lowest Amazon deforestation rate since 2012, but scientists and environmental groups warn that forest degradation remains widespread and could intensify during a strong El Nino forecast for 2026. The threats include wildfires, logging and drought, which experts say can damage forests even when trees are not felled.
Faith leaders and Louisiana and local officials on Saturday paid tribute at a funeral for eight children killed in a mass shooting last month in Shreveport. The service at Summer Grove Baptist Church included prayers, remembrances for each child, and remarks from state and city leaders. Police say the children were killed in an April 19 attack that also wounded multiple people, and an investigation remains ongoing.
Eight children killed in an April 19 mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, were laid to rest Saturday at Summer Grove Baptist Church, as hundreds of mourners filled the sanctuary and faith leaders, politicians, and a survivor of gun violence offered tributes and prayers.
The Trump administration has ordered federal land managers to dramatically scale back restrictions on hunting and fishing across national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, raising concerns about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued the directive in January, instructing agencies to remove what he called “unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers” and to justify any regulations they wish to keep.
The Trump administration is pushing managers of national parks, refuges and wilderness areas to substantially scale back hunting restrictions, according to an Interior Department order issued in January. The order directs agencies to remove what Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described as “unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers” to hunting and fishing, and to justify any limits that remain.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amy Grant, 65, discussed her new album, “The Me That Remains,” saying it reflects a recovery after a serious bicycle accident in 2022 that left her with a traumatic brain injury. In an interview with The Associated Press, Grant also talked about what she called resisting labels in music and writing darker songs, while describing how faith continues to shape her work.
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing's proposed repairs for the MD-11 cargo fleet, allowing FedEx to resume flying the aircraft days after the planes were grounded following a fatal crash in Louisville.
Indonesian rescuers recovered the body of one hiker and searched for two missing Singaporeans after Mount Dukono erupted on Friday, catching a group of 20 climbers who were ascending the volcano in defiance of a government closure order, officials said Saturday.
At least three passengers have died in a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship now approaching the Spanish island of Tenerife with more than 140 passengers and crew aboard. Multiple countries are racing to trace passengers who disembarked before the virus was identified, as Spanish authorities prepare a quarantine reception at the Canary Islands port.
Spanish passengers aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, where a hantavirus outbreak prompted a global health response, told The Associated Press on Friday that they fear being stigmatized as viral vectors upon returning home more than they fear contracting the illness. Two passengers, speaking anonymously because of those concerns, described seeing sensational news reports and memes ostracizing those aboard, and worry about being met with hostility when the ship docks in Tenerife after its more than 140 passengers and crew could begin disembarking as early as Sunday.
The 85th Iroquois Steeplechase kicked off Saturday with its most popular event: a parade of more than 20 foxhounds that ended with one hound’s unauthorized detour into a beer tent as 25,000 spectators cheered.
NANYUKI, Kenya — With fewer than 100 mountain bongos left in the wild, a conservancy on the slopes of Mount Kenya is working to breed and reintroduce the critically endangered antelope, aiming for a population of 750 by 2050.
Seasonal forecast models are projecting a powerful El Niño event that could become the strongest on record, fueling extreme weather from heat waves and drought to intensified rainfall, meteorologists and climate researchers said Friday. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed the onset of the warming pattern in the equatorial Pacific and cautioned that while models indicate a strong event, spring forecasts carry higher uncertainty.
LONDON — David Attenborough, the BBC natural history presenter whose hushed, excited voice has narrated the lives of gorillas, whales and tiny frogs for more than seven decades, marked his 100th birthday on Friday with a celebration that spanned a Royal Albert Hall party, cinema screenings of his films and messages from preschool groups to care home residents. Colleagues and scientists said the man who insisted “the animals are the stars” reluctantly accepted the spotlight as they honored his role in teaching generations about evolution, biodiversity and the fragility of the planet.
Arizona, California and Nevada announced a plan to save up to 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water through 2028 — bringing total proposed savings to 3.2 million acre-feet, or enough water to supply more than 25 million people for a year — following the driest winter on record in the basin.
A cyberattack on the Canvas learning management system disrupted final exams and grade submissions at schools and universities across the United States this week, with the hacking group ShinyHunters claiming responsibility. The outage, which hit during the high-stakes finals period, prompted some institutions to postpone exams and limit student access to the platform out of caution, even after service was restored for most users late Thursday.
The Canvas online learning platform was back online Friday after a cyberattack late Thursday knocked it offline for tens of thousands of students and faculty worldwide, according to Instructure, the company that operates the system. The outage, which occurred during final exam season, forced colleges and universities across the United States to reschedule tests and extend assignment deadlines while cybersecurity experts said a hacking group calling itself ShinyHunters claimed responsibility.
Six people believed to be migrants were found dead inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday, in what federal authorities are investigating as a potential human smuggling event, according to local police and Homeland Security Investigations.
A charter boat exploded Saturday afternoon in Biscayne Bay near Haulover Sandbar, injuring 11 people who were transported to area hospitals, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue agency said.
A South Dakota mining company canceled a graphite drilling project in the Black Hills after Native American tribes and advocacy groups opposed the project because of its proximity to a sacred site, the Associated Press reported. The cancellation came amid two federal lawsuits and a temporary restraining order that had halted the work.
Olivia and Liam held their spots as the most popular names for American babies born in 2025, the Social Security Administration reported Friday, marking the seventh consecutive year the names have topped the annual list.
Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades who survived the Holocaust as a child, died Sunday at age 86, the organization announced. Foxman counseled world leaders and became a prominent voice against antisemitism, earning both praise and criticism for his willingness to accept apologies from those who had made antisemitic remarks.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, singer-songwriter Amy Grant, 65, opened up about her new album "The Me That Remains," the lingering effects of a 2022 bicycle accident, and why she continues to resist the labels others have tried to place on her — including the persistent "Christian artist" tag. Grant, who has straddled the worlds of contemporary Christian and mainstream pop for nearly five decades, described the album's creation as a therapeutic re-engagement with her creative self after a long physical recovery from a traumatic brain injury. She spoke candidly about her faith, the darkness in her lyrics, and the simple power of daily kindness.
Indigenous organizations from across the Amazon and Latin America sent a letter to the United Nations on Monday warning that organized crime — including illegal mining, drug trafficking and logging — is expanding rapidly in rainforest territories, driving violence and environmental destruction. The groups urged U.N. member states and agencies to prioritize territorial protection and international cooperation against criminal networks, while cautioning that responses reliant on military force often worsen conditions for Indigenous communities.
FedEx began flying grounded Boeing MD-11 cargo planes again after the FAA approved Boeing’s proposed fix for the aircraft type, the AP reported. The planes were grounded after a UPS MD-11 crash in November 2025 outside Louisville that killed three pilots and 12 people on the ground.
Rescuers in Indonesia have recovered the body of an Indonesian woman caught in a volcanic eruption at Mount Dukono on Halmahera island, officials said Saturday. The search continues for two Singaporean climbers after Dukono erupted early Friday, forcing some hikers to be evacuated amid hazardous conditions.
NANYUKI, Kenya — Conservationists in Kenya are slowly reintroducing the mountain bongo, a critically endangered antelope, back into the wild, aiming to grow the population of a species with fewer than 100 animals left in its natural range. The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy said it recently imported four male bongos that will be quarantined and monitored before breeding with descendants of earlier animals.
Forecasters say a potentially record-strong El Niño event could intensify extreme weather this year, boosting heat and worsening drought in some regions while increasing rainfall and flooding in others. In an interview Friday, WFLA-TV Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli said he expects weather events “we’ve never seen in modern history before,” as the World Meteorological Organization updates its outlook.
David Attenborough, the longtime BBC wildlife presenter, is turning 100 on Friday and will be celebrated by the BBC with a party at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the broadcaster said. Associated Press reported that filmmakers are also screening his nature films, and friends have been praising his work ahead of the milestone.
Tens of thousands of students studying for final exams regained access Friday to Canvas, a widely used online learning platform, after a cyberattack disrupted access for thousands of schools and universities earlier in the week. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said the system was taken offline to contain the incident and investigate unauthorized changes made when some users were logged in.
Abe Foxman, who led the Anti-Defamation League for nearly three decades until retiring in 2015, has died at 86, the ADL said May 10. The organization said it “deeply mourns the loss of our longtime national director,” without providing details about where or when he died.
Indigenous organizations from across the Amazon and Latin America sent a letter to the United Nations warning that organized crime, including illegal mining, drug trafficking and logging, is driving violence and accelerating environmental destruction in rainforest communities. The groups urged governments to avoid heavily militarized responses in Indigenous territories and urged the UN to incorporate Indigenous perspectives in anti-crime and anti-corruption efforts.
A boat explosion near Miami on Saturday sent about a dozen people to hospitals, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said. The blast occurred in Biscayne Bay near Haulover Sandbar, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission preliminary information.
Federal agents are investigating the deaths of six people found inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard near the Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, as a potential human smuggling event. Webb County medical examiner Dr. Corinne Stern said one victim’s autopsy found hyperthermia, or heat stroke, and she believes the others also died of heat stroke, with identities being confirmed through fingerprints and federal missing-person records.
California, Nevada and Arizona announced a temporary plan to cut Colorado River water use through 2028, aiming to stabilize supplies in reservoirs including Lake Mead and Lake Powell after the driest winter on record. The states said the proposal would save as much as 1 million acre-feet of river water through 2028, on top of already-announced cuts, for total proposed savings of 3.2 million acre-feet. Arizona lead negotiator Tom Buschatzke said the plan is a short-term fix while talks continue on a longer-term deal.
Colleges and universities across the U.S. reported disruption during finals after the Canvas learning platform suffered an outage tied to a cyberattack, with Instructure saying late Thursday that the service was available again to most users. Some schools continued to block access, while others postponed exams scheduled for later in the week.
A driver accused in a wrong-way crash that killed a Los Angeles sheriff’s recruit and injured other recruits has withdrawn his guilty plea, his lawyer said. The move came after crash victims spoke in court and a judge decided to sentence him to a year in jail, the lawyer said.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Foxhounds wearing GPS collars paraded Saturday to kick off the Iroquois Steeplechase, an 85-year-old steeplechase tradition where horse races and fox hunting remain closely linked. More than 20 hounds—trained to run alongside horses and hunters—were kept on course by huntsmen and the whippers-in as thousands of spectators packed the infield.
A person who jumped a perimeter fence and entered a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff late Friday, airport and airline officials said. The collision triggered an engine fire, and the airline evacuated passengers using slides. Frontier’s flight 4345 was on its way from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport when it reported striking a pedestrian at about 11:19 p.m., according to airport and airline officials.
Rapid City-based Pete Lien & Sons canceled a graphite drilling project in South Dakota’s Black Hills after opposition from Native American tribes and local groups. In a letter provided to the U.S. Forest Service, the company withdrew its plan of operations for the project near a sacred site known as Pe’Sla.
Olivia and Liam topped the Social Security Administration’s list of the most popular U.S. baby names for children born in 2025, the agency said May 8. The SSA released the rankings from Social Security card applications, a dataset it says dates back to 1880.
A Diamond Bar man has rescinded his guilty plea to charges stemming from a 2022 wrong-way crash that killed one Los Angeles County sheriff's recruit and injured more than two dozen others, his attorney said Saturday, after a judge indicated a one-year jail sentence.
Deforestation rates in Brazil's Amazon are expected to hit their lowest level since 2012, the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this week, touting a sharp reversal from the 15-year highs recorded under his predecessor. But scientists and environmental officials warn that forest degradation — a slower, less visible attrition driven by wildfires, logging, and drought — now covers roughly 40% of the rainforest and has outpaced clear-cutting in recent years.
The remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., a 27-year-old U.S. Army officer who disappeared during military exercises in Morocco, were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on May 9, the Army confirmed Sunday. A multinational search operation involving more than 600 personnel continues for a second missing service member.
The U.S. Army said Sunday that the remains of a U.S. soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco a week earlier were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. The service member who died was 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., while military teams continued searching for a second missing U.S. soldier.
A suicide bomber and several gunmen attacked a security post in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan late Saturday, killing at least 14 police officers, authorities said. The attack was claimed by a newly formed militant group that Pakistani officials say is a front for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
A Rwandan academic and government critic, Aimable Karasira, died in custody as he was preparing to be freed from jail, prompting calls for an independent investigation. The death was reported as resulting from an overdose of his prescribed medication, but Human Rights Watch questioned the circumstances and urged scrutiny by a “body of experts.”
Pakistan’s police said a suicide attack on a security post in Bannu, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, killed 14 officers and wounded three early Sunday, after a vehicle packed with explosives detonated late Saturday.
Police in Germany freed two people from a locked room at a Volksbank branch in Sinzig after entering the bank following a hostage alarm, the Associated Press reported. Officers said they believed there were “several perpetrators and hostages” and that the driver of an armored van was among those held. Special forces later freed the two people unhurt, and police said they found no hostage-takers.
Texas health officials agreed Thursday to waive a requirement that youth camps install fiber-optic internet connections before operating, a mandate enacted after a flash flood killed 28 people at a Hill Country camp last July. The deal with a group of 19 camps that sued over the rule allows them to use cellular or satellite-based redundant internet instead, ensuring most camps can open for the summer season.
Spanish emergency services are preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew from the MV Hondius, a cruise ship stricken by hantavirus, as the vessel nears Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Dutch-flagged ship is expected to arrive Sunday, and passengers will be evacuated in small boats to isolated buses under guard, officials said Friday. Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five who left the ship are infected, though no one currently on board has symptoms.
A Frontier Airlines flight struck and killed a person on the runway at Denver International Airport late Friday during takeoff, triggering an emergency evacuation as smoke filled the cabin. The National Transportation Safety Board is gathering information on the evacuation to determine whether it warrants a full safety investigation.
JEAN LAFITTE, La. — Five years after Hurricane Ida flooded Louisiana’s Barataria Preserve with saltwater, shattered its boardwalk trails, and swamped its visitor center, the National Park Service has launched a two-year, federally funded rebuilding effort meant to harden the site against the next storm. The repairs come as scientists warn that without more proactive restoration, the wetlands that buffer this coast could lose 90 percent of their marshland by century’s end — and that even the projects now underway may only slow the loss.
Texas health officials on Thursday agreed to lift a requirement that youth camps install “end-to-end fiber optic facilities,” clearing the way for some camps to reopen this summer while other safety conditions remain in place. The agreement follows a lawsuit filed by 19 camps challenging the fiber rule passed after the July 4 flood in the Texas Hill Country that killed 25 campers and two counselors.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is gathering information about the evacuation of a Frontier Airlines plane after it hit and killed a person on the runway at Denver International Airport during takeoff. The agency said the evacuation is being reviewed to determine whether it meets criteria for a safety investigation.
Barataria Preserve, a mostly freshwater marsh site about 20 miles south of New Orleans, was badly damaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021 and closed to visitors for long-needed repairs, the Associated Press reported. Five years later, the National Park Service has begun rebuilding work, including removing old boardwalks and replacing them with materials designed to resist flooding.
Indonesian rescuers on Sunday found the bodies of two Singaporean hikers on Halmahera, officials said, two days after the men became stranded in a volcanic eruption on Mount Dukono. A third hiker, an Indonesian woman, was found dead earlier as teams searched an area in North Maluku province.
Spanish authorities said they were preparing to receive more than 140 passengers and crew from the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius as it heads for the Canary Islands, where health officials said evacuations would be carried out in a fully isolated area. The United States and the United Kingdom also agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens.
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry warned Saturday that an oil spill originating in Trinidad and Tobago has caused serious environmental damage along the coastlines of at least two Venezuelan states and in the Gulf of Paria, while Trinidad’s government disputes the extent of the spill, saying only 10 barrels were released and contained the same day it was detected.
Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to present her country's claim to the mineral- and oil-rich Essequibo region before the International Court of Justice, the latest chapter in a decades-old territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana.
Academic and government critic Aimable Karasira died in custody in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 6 — the day he was set to be released from prison — prompting Human Rights Watch to demand an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death.
Rescue teams on Indonesia’s remote Halmahera island recovered the bodies of two Singaporean hikers on Sunday, two days after a sudden eruption on Mount Dukono, bringing the death toll to three, officials said. The hikers had been part of a group of 20 who ignored safety restrictions and entered a restricted danger zone before the volcano erupted Friday morning, sending an ash column about 10 kilometers into the air.
A federal judge sentenced Preston Henry Tolth to five years in prison Friday for robbing Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay, the only person ever charged in her unsolved 2021 disappearance, closing a troubled case that had renewed national focus on missing and murdered Indigenous people.
A free solar-powered charging station that opened in early April in Santa Clara, Cuba, is providing residents a way to charge electric vehicles, cook meals, and power devices amid chronic blackouts and fuel shortages, the Associated Press reported.
Repeated fuel shortages, a cost-doubling end to gasoline subsidies, and a contamination scandal are pushing a small but growing number of Bolivians to abandon fossil-fuel vehicles for electric cars, according to Bolivian drivers, industry experts, and government data.
The body of a missing hiker has been found in Glacier National Park in what authorities say appears to be the first deadly bear attack at the iconic Montana park since 1998. The hiker, identified as Anthony Pollio, 33, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, disappeared Sunday and his remains were discovered Wednesday off the Mt. Brown Trail.
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry warned in a letter late Saturday that an oil spill it says originated in Trinidad and Tobago had caused “severe risks” to ecosystems along Venezuela’s coast and in the Gulf of Paria. Trinidad and Tobago disputed the scope, saying only 10 barrels were spilled and that it was contained the same day it was detected on May 1.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands to appear before the International Court of Justice in a case involving the Essequibo region, which both Venezuela and Guyana claim. The final hearing with Rodríguez’s appearance is scheduled for Monday, with the court expected to take months to issue a legally binding ruling.
A federal judge in Phoenix sentenced the only man charged in the 2021 disappearance of Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay to five years in prison for robbing her. U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes accepted a plea agreement under which Preston Henry Tolth pleaded guilty to robbery after previously having a confession suppressed in court.
Santa Clara, Cuba, opened a free, solar-powered charging station known as a “solinera” in early April, giving residents a way to recharge devices and vehicles amid chronic blackouts and a severe shortage of gasoline. The station, installed with solar panels and batteries, is drawing crowds who say it has eased daily travel and business losses tied to unreliable power.
La policía en Alemania entró el viernes en un banco de la localidad de Sinzig y rescató a dos personas que estaban encerradas en una habitación con llave, horas después de que se reportara una supuesta toma de rehenes. Autoridades regionales dijeron que creían que había varios perpetradores y rehenes en el lugar y que el conductor de un vehículo blindado era un rehén.
A hiker’s body was found Wednesday in Glacier National Park in Montana, where authorities said the injuries appear consistent with a bear encounter. The National Park Service said wildlife and law enforcement personnel are assessing the area for bear activity and any ongoing public safety concerns.
A San Luis Obispo County sheriff said evidence suggests human remains were present at a home connected to Paul Flores, the man convicted of killing Kristin Smart. The search began Wednesday after authorities served a warrant at the Arroyo Grande property and used specialists in human decomposition and soil to take samples.
A series of powerful tornadoes ripped across southern Mississippi on Wednesday night, flattening trailer parks, shredding homes, and injuring more than a dozen people — yet for the second time in less than a month, the state reported no fatalities in the face of catastrophic weather.
A kitten was pulled alive from the debris of a tornado-ravaged Mississippi trailer park early Wednesday, after storm chaser Ashton Lemley heard its faint meow piercing the predawn darkness. The rescue came hours after at least three tornadoes swept across the southern half of the state, injuring a dozen people at the Bogue Chitto mobile home community.
A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council on Thursday recommended a sweeping overhaul of federal disaster aid that would shift more responsibility to states, change how disasters qualify for assistance, and limit the type of aid survivors can receive, while stopping short of the president’s threat to abolish the agency.
In a predawn search through a tornado-ravaged trailer park in Mississippi, a storm chaser heard a kitten’s faint meow and tracked it to the rubble. The kitten was pulled from insulation between wooden posts and later handed to a volunteer disaster-response group, The Associated Press reported.
The Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council on Thursday approved a report outlining changes to how the federal government funds disaster preparedness, response and recovery, according to a public meeting held with thousands of virtual attendees. The council’s recommendations would shift more responsibility to states, tribes and territories and alter how FEMA determines which disasters receive federal support and how survivors receive assistance, though many proposals stop short of what the administration has promised. The council’s final recommendations will now be sent to President Donald Trump, and many reforms would require congressional action.
The Trump administration will soon propose rolling back parts of the first-ever limits on toxic "forever chemicals" in drinking water, an EPA official said, planning to rescind restrictions on several less-common types of PFAS while retaining tighter standards for the two most widespread forms of the substance. Jessica Kramer, head of the EPA's Office of Water, told a Washington conference on Thursday the agency intended to revisit limits she said were improperly issued under the Biden administration, citing a need for legally defensible rules.
The American Clean Power industry association said the Pentagon has stopped completing national security reviews that would let more than 250 new onshore wind farms move forward on private land. The Pentagon said its siting “clearinghouse” is evaluating land-based wind projects so they do not impair national security or military operations.
A group of Wounded Warrior Project veterans — many carrying physical scars from Iraq and other conflicts — swam alongside a 20-foot whale shark, manta rays and giant groupers at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Wednesday, describing the encounter as a fleeting release from constant pain. 'It gives them, you know, 30 or 40 minutes to just relax,' said Jason Bush, who manages the aquarium’s Military Salute program, which brings active-duty and retired service members into the water weekly. 'Weightlessness takes away for a moment the physical pain you feel on land.'
Trees in the world’s cities offset roughly half of the warming caused by pavement and buildings, but their cooling power is concentrated in wealthy, leafy cities while many of the hottest and poorest urban areas receive almost no benefit, according to a new study published Wednesday in Nature Communications.
President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday to view a near-$2 million coating project that has painted the Reflecting Pool a shade he calls "American flag blue."
Media mogul Ted Turner, who died Wednesday, leaves behind an environmental footprint spanning some 3,125 square miles of U.S. ranchland and Patagonia, where he shifted land management from traditional agriculture to habitat restoration and endangered species recovery.
Ted Turner, the brash media mogul who transformed global journalism by launching CNN and pioneering the 24-hour cable news cycle, died Wednesday at age 87. Turner was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, according to Turner Enterprises.
The Connecticut legislature has approved a bill naming basketball Hall of Famer Sue Bird as the state's co-state bird every March, sharing the designation with the American robin. The measure, tucked into a 111-page omnibus bill, now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont's desk.
Global warming is on track to decimate the world's plants, with scientists predicting that between 7% and 16% of species will lose nearly all their habitat and go essentially extinct in the next 55 to 75 years, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
A multi-year investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) reveals that Georgia environmental regulators knew for nearly two decades that PFAS chemicals from carpet mills were polluting drinking water in northwest Georgia and Alabama, yet took no action to warn the public or clean up the contamination. The state’s inaction left hundreds of thousands of residents exposed to the toxic “forever chemicals,” linked to cancer and other illnesses, while other states moved aggressively to protect their citizens.
Georgia’s environmental regulators knew for nearly two decades that the carpet industry in the state's northwest corner was discharging dangerous forever chemicals into rivers that provide drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people, but the state declined to regulate the pollution, warn the public, or cooperate with downstream Alabama officials who asked for help identifying the source, an investigative collaboration has found.
Michigan cities that once embraced the annual “No Mow May” campaign are now backing away from it, citing limited evidence that a one-month mowing pause helps pollinators and concerns that taller grass may attract ticks.
Newly released flight data from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board indicates both engines on a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 were deliberately shut off and that a struggle may have taken place in the cockpit before the jet crashed into a mountain in southern China on March 21, 2022, killing all 132 people on board.
A deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch cruise ship on a weeks-long polar expedition has drawn fresh attention to the rapid growth of tourism in Antarctica, where scientists warn that soaring visitor numbers risk introducing diseases and contaminants to one of Earth’s last pristine environments. The outbreak on the MV Hondius — which left Argentina in April and visited several Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands — comes as tourism to the frozen continent has grown tenfold over the past three decades, with researchers projecting that annual visits could exceed 400,000 within ten years.
Ted Turner, the media mogul who died Wednesday, left behind a conservation effort built around large-scale private land stewardship and endangered-species work, the Associated Press reported. Turner owned ranches and habitat across several states, including New Mexico and Montana, and promoted a view that environmental protection could be paired with business investment.
Basketball Hall of Famer Sue Bird will share Connecticut’s “state bird” designation every March with the American robin under a bill approved by the Connecticut legislature and headed to Gov. Ned Lamont. The measure is expected to be signed into law, starting next year.
Scientists project that warming could drive many plant species toward “essentially extinct” status by the end of the century, with losses tied to habitat loss as temperatures rise and rainfall patterns shift. A separate study by Kew Gardens researchers finds nearly 10,000 flowering plant species are already at high risk, with the loss of evolutionary history and biodiversity falling largely unnoticed.
The Trump administration plans to propose softening some Biden-era limits on PFAS “forever chemicals” in drinking water, according to an EPA official. The proposal would delay parts of the rollback but keep strict standards for two common PFAS types, while rescinding limits on some rarer forms and revisiting others, the official said.
Belgium-based researchers and global health officials say the rapid growth of Antarctic tourism is raising biosecurity concerns, after a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a Dutch ship on a polar cruise. The World Health Organization said it is investigating possible human-to-human transmission on the MV Hondius voyage, which left Argentina for Antarctica on April 1 and visited isolated islands.
Ted Turner, the television pioneer who launched CNN and helped usher in the 24-hour cable news cycle, has died. He was 87. Turner died Wednesday while surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, which oversees his businesses and investments; a cause was not released.
Kathmandu, Nepal — Hundreds of climbers and their Nepali guides are assembling at Mount Everest’s base camp as the climbing season gets under way, despite a warning about an unstable ice block above a key route. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee said the serac has “multiple cracks” and urged “extreme caution” after the Icefall route opened later than usual.
An event for injured U.S. military veterans brought them to Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta for a healing swim Wednesday, part of the Wounded Warrior Project’s recovery support through marine-life encounters. Staff said the program offers participants time to relax and that the weightlessness in the water can ease physical pain. The swim also included a chance to snorkel and swim with a whale shark named Yushan, the only one in captivity in the Western Hemisphere, according to aquarium officials.
Georgia officials and scientists identified PFAS contamination in drinking-water supplies in northwest Georgia more than a decade before the state began taking new public action, an Associated Press investigation finds. Residents in the Calhoun area describe blood-test results showing PFAS buildup and health diagnoses including liver and thyroid conditions. The report also says Georgia did not issue fish advisories or do-not-drink orders as concerns grew, even as PFAS migrated toward Alabama.
Two engines were shut off and a cockpit struggle appeared to occur before a 2022 China Eastern Airlines jet crashed into a mountainside, newly released National Transportation Safety Board data suggests. The findings, released May 1 after a public records request, draw on the Boeing 737-800’s flight data recorder and include a description of events before power was lost on the recording.
President Donald Trump on Thursday took reporters on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool to inspect a new blue coating he says will replace gray stone at the site. The Republican president arrived after the pool was coated in what he called “American flag blue,” and he spoke with members of his Cabinet as reporters awaited his departure before sunset.
Cities across Michigan are adjusting “No Mow May” rules and other grass-cutting plans amid concerns that taller lawns may attract ticks and that skipping mowing for a month does little for pollinators. Some communities have shifted toward yard-care programs that emphasize low-growing or intentionally planted native vegetation instead of an across-the-board monthly pause.
Trees and other urban vegetation reduce heat from pavement and buildings, but a new study says the cooling benefits fall short in the hottest, poorest cities where extreme heat can be most deadly. Researchers analyzed nearly 9,000 large cities and found that, averaged globally, tree cover offsets about half of the additional heat that creates the urban heat island effect.
More than a dozen houses of worship were burned or damaged in the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, and many faith leaders say the recovery effort has strengthened relationships across religious lines. Rabbi Amy Bernstein of Kehillat Israel, which lost 300 of 900 member families, said the fires “blew everything open” for clergy who are now working together to rebuild and support scattered congregants.
Corpus Christi City Council voted to begin preliminary talks with a private company, AXE H2O, about building a desalination plant for the Coastal Bend as drought pressures mount. Seven months after the city axed its own desalination effort and with a water shortage projected within months, council members also advanced a separate groundwater proposal.
A late spring snowstorm swept across parts of Colorado on Wednesday, closing schools and disrupting travel as slushy roads and slick conditions prompted warnings from the National Weather Service. The storm eased through the day, but officials said winter impacts could continue in the form of additional snow and rain.
Alaska Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ruled Wednesday that the state can resume shooting and killing black and brown bears, including from helicopters, under a plan aimed at helping recover the Mulchatna caribou herd. Two conservation groups had sought to halt the program as their lawsuit challenging the plan’s legality proceeds.
Oakland’s City Council on Tuesday voted to fine two landowners $915,135 after city staff said they illegally cut 38 protected trees in the Oakland hills, in violation of the city’s Protected Trees Ordinance.
A participant in the Cocodona 250 ultramarathon died Tuesday after experiencing a medical emergency on trails in northern Arizona, race organizers and local law enforcement said. First responders attended to a woman in her 40s who collapsed at a trailhead in the Groom Creek community south of Prescott in Yavapai County, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.
A 69-year-old man opened fire at a Koreatown shopping center and then an apartment complex in Carrollton, Texas, on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding three others before he was captured at a grocery store, police said.
A man shot five people in back-to-back attacks Tuesday north of Dallas, killing two and injuring three, police said. The shootings began just before 10 a.m. at a shopping center in Carrollton’s Koreatown area, then continued about four miles away at an apartment complex where officers found the suspect dead.
The small Taiwanese town of Fenglin, a designated slow city with a shrinking, super-aged population, has turned its embrace of a slow pace of life into a quirky tourism draw: annual snail races. Organizers say the event, now in its third year, helps lure visitors back to the Hualien County area still reeling from a devastating 2024 earthquake that killed 19 people and dampened travel.
Three passengers have died and at least four others are ill after a rare hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch cruise ship anchored off Cape Verde, health officials said Tuesday. The MV Hondius, carrying nearly 150 passengers and crew, is awaiting medical evacuation of three people while the World Health Organization investigates possible human-to-human transmission — a typically rare route for the rodent-borne virus.
The University of Vermont opened a new extreme-weather monitoring station in Lyndonville on Tuesday, part of a planned statewide network designed to give more localized data for flood and winter-storm predictions. UVM said the station, the first of about 20 planned, will help the National Weather Service and state emergency managers detect fast-changing conditions earlier, improving evacuation timing and reducing property damage.
EDMOND, Okla. — Police in Edmond said Tuesday that a shooting at a lakeside party near Arcadia Lake left one person dead and 22 others with gunshot and shrapnel wounds. Investigators said the shooting began after a fight erupted at the party on Sunday night, and they have not arrested anyone.
An explosion at a coal mine in central Colombia killed nine miners and injured six others who were recovering in a hospital, officials said Tuesday. The blast happened Monday inside the Carbonera Los Pinos mine in Sutatausa, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Bogota, according to provincial and mining officials.
Fenglin, a Taiwanese town of about 10,000 residents, is drawing tourists by hosting snail races that celebrate a slower, more sustainable pace of life. The town has been known for years for quality-of-life efforts that include joining the Cittaslow network and, after an April 2024 earthquake hurt regional travel, launching the races as a draw for visitors.
Nayomie Mendoza has seen how Cinco de Mayo is often celebrated in the U.S.: platters of tacos, pitchers of margaritas, and mariachi bands. But this year, she and other Mexican American business owners are using the holiday to highlight authentic Mexican history and culture, pushing back against anti-immigrant sentiment that has deepened fear in their communities.
Debris from the demolition of the White House East Wing that was dumped at a nearby public golf course has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, the National Park Service said. An interim report described soil contamination at East Potomac Golf Links, which President Donald Trump plans to renovate.
Yellowstone National Park officials said Tuesday that two hikers were injured in a bear attack Monday afternoon on the heavily traveled Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful. The incident, involving one or more bears of undetermined species, prompted a temporary closure of a large area near the Midway Geyser Basin while an investigation is underway.
Zambia's foreign minister on Monday accused the United States of linking a $2 billion health assistance package to access to the country's critical minerals, escalating a diplomatic row over the Trump administration's transactional approach to foreign aid. The accusation, which the U.S. ambassador dismissed as 'absolutely and patently false,' comes amid broader tensions as Washington rewrites health agreements with dozens of aid-dependent nations.
A shooting at a weekend lakeside party at Arcadia Lake in Edmond, Oklahoma, left an 18-year-old woman dead and 22 others with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, police said Tuesday. No arrests have been made, but investigators believe there is no ongoing threat to the public.
An explosion at a coal mine in central Colombia killed nine miners and injured six others on Monday, officials said. Cundinamarca Gov. Jorge Emilio Rey said on X that 15 miners were working inside the Carbonera Los Pinos mine in Sutatausa, about 50 miles north of Bogotá, at the time of the blast.
A suspected hantavirus outbreak aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius has killed three people and left three others critically ill, trapping the vessel off the coast of Cabo Verde as local authorities refuse to let it dock, the World Health Organization and the ship’s operator said Monday.
The first four months of 2026 saw the deaths of dozens of influential figures across entertainment, science, politics, and activism, according to an Associated Press roundup published May 5. Among them were Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice on an estimated 12,000 songs formed the soundtrack of modern India; genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter, who mapped the first draft of the human genome; and civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Other notable deaths included Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in U.S.-Israeli military strikes in February, and Robert S. Mueller III, the former FBI director who led the Russia investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
A heavy late spring snowstorm swept across Colorado and Wyoming on Tuesday, closing schools and threatening power infrastructure after Denver recorded its driest winter on record, according to National Weather Service officials.
Record-high global gold prices are fueling a renewed illegal mining surge across Brazil's Amazon rainforest, accelerating deforestation in protected conservation zones and driving mercury contamination to hazardous levels.
A 13-year-old student admitted carrying out a shooting attack at a public school in Rio Branco, Brazil, on Tuesday, killing two female staff members and injuring another staff member and a student, authorities said. Police said the suspect used a gun owned by a legal guardian; local media reported the guardian was the teenager's stepfather, who was also detained.
A participant in the Cocodona 250 ultramarathon in northern Arizona died Tuesday after experiencing a medical emergency on trails near a Groom Creek trailhead south of Prescott, officials said. First responders attended to a woman in her 40s who collapsed, and race organizers confirmed the death on Wednesday.
Oakland, California, officials on Tuesday fined Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner $915,135 after they cut down 38 protected trees in the Oakland hills without permits. The City Council voted 5-3 to impose the fine, after two earlier attempts to reach a decision, and the council heard arguments from city staff, environmental advocates and the property owners.
Corpus Christi City Council voted May 6 to begin preliminary talks with a Houston-based company about building a privately financed desalination plant for the Coastal Bend area, after voting earlier to cancel its own desalination effort. The move comes as the city faces a worsening drought and leaders estimate a potential water emergency by September.
Alaska Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ruled Wednesday that state wildlife agents can resume killing black and brown bears, including from helicopters, under a plan aimed at recovering the Mulchatna caribou herd. Conservation groups challenging the program said the state lacked key data about bear populations and sustainability.
A late spring snowstorm eased across parts of Colorado after closing schools and snarling flights and commutes Wednesday, with crews and residents digging out under a winter storm warning. The National Weather Service said several higher-elevation towns received around 2 feet of snow and expected additional snow in the Denver area and other Front Range cities. Forecasters warned that snow-loaded tree limbs could snap and advised people to avoid parking under trees.
A lone male coyote surprised biologists and visitors when it swam to Alcatraz Island earlier this year, but DNA analysis showed it came from farther away than originally thought. National Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle said the swimmer likely left Angel Island, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away, rather than San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile from Alcatraz. The coyote has not been seen again, and officials had been prepared to capture and relocate it because the island is a seabird nesting habitat.
A school shooting in Brazil’s Acre state on Tuesday left two women dead and two others injured, authorities said. Police said a 13-year-old student was detained after authorities said the student carried out the attack at a public school in Rio Branco.
Gold prices have helped fuel a renewed illegal gold mining rush in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, accelerating deforestation inside protected areas and raising mercury contamination risks, officials and experts said. A study released May 5 found illegal mining sites drove clear-cutting inside three conservation areas in the Xingu region, and prosecutors described enforcement as a “cat-and-mouse game.”
Colorado and Wyoming are bracing for a late-season snowstorm that began Tuesday, bringing heavy, wet accumulation north of Denver and into southeastern Wyoming, forecasters said. Denver area conditions shifted from mostly rain to snow by early evening, and additional snowfall was expected into Wednesday. Schools in the region canceled classes Wednesday, and utilities prepared for possible power outages as temperatures dropped.
Two hikers were injured in a bear attack on the Mystic Falls Trail near Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful geyser, park officials said Tuesday. The park temporarily closed an area near the Midway Geyser Basin while it investigated the incident.
Two people were killed and three seriously injured when a driver deliberately drove into pedestrians in a shopping district of Leipzig, Germany, on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The attack, one in a spate of vehicle-ramming assaults worldwide, prompted the wire service to publish a roundup of such cases spanning two decades and multiple continents.
Prosecutors say the man accused of starting the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was angry at the world, upset about spending New Year’s Eve without plans, and ranted to rideshare passengers about capitalism and the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter. A pretrial memo filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office outlines Jonathan Rinderknecht’s alleged state of mind before the Jan. 1, 2025, fire that authorities say smoldered undetected underground for a week before reigniting into one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, killing 12 people.
California insurance regulators announced Monday they are seeking millions of dollars in penalties against State Farm, accusing the state’s largest home insurer of systematically delaying, underpaying and mishandling claims from the 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires that killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
As the West braces for another severe wildfire season, a growing network of AI-powered cameras is spotting smoke before any human calls for help, giving firefighters a critical early edge.
Prosecutors said Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of sparking Los Angeles’ Palisades Fire, was angry and ranting about being “pissed off at the world” in the hours before the first blaze. In court documents filed by prosecutors, they described a New Year’s Eve Uber trip in which passengers said he spoke about capitalism, vigilantism and UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione.
California is seeking millions of dollars in penalties against State Farm after regulators found the insurer delayed investigations and underpaid some claims tied to 2025 wildfires in the Los Angeles area, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. The state said State Farm violated state law hundreds of times in a sample of 220 cases, and could face a license suspension that would bar it from writing new policies for up to a year.
Wildfire-prone states across the Western U.S. are installing AI-monitored cameras that flag possible smoke and alert human analysts for verification, with the aim of dispatching firefighters sooner. In Arizona, artificial intelligence helped identify the early signs of what became the Diamond Fire, according to Associated Press reporting.
The Trump administration said this month it strongly supports a proposal to postpone new federal protections for North Atlantic right whales until 2035, a move that would prioritize the fishing industry over immediate conservation measures for a species numbering only about 380. The legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), would build on an existing regulatory pause and allow regulators time to craft rules that are less burdensome to fisheries, according to a White House memo released Friday.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Monday asked a federal judge to block Minnesota’s lawsuit accusing oil companies and industry groups of deceiving residents about climate change. The department argued that regulating greenhouse gas emissions is a federal responsibility, not a matter states can impose on the rest of the country, according to a filing in federal court in Minneapolis.
A United Airlines jet with 231 people aboard struck a bakery delivery truck and a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday, narrowly avoiding what experts called a potential catastrophe.
The Trump administration asked a federal court Monday to block a nearly six-year-old Minnesota lawsuit that accuses major oil companies and an industry trade group of deceiving residents about climate change, arguing that the state is improperly attempting to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, a power reserved for the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes told the Trump administration not to cut down more than 10 trees at the historic East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, D.C., without first giving notice, pending a lawsuit alleging the planned renovation would violate an 1897 law establishing the park for “the recreation and the pleasure of the people.”
Four major water infrastructure projects are underway or in early planning in South Dakota, representing investments that could total tens of billions of dollars. The systems are designed to secure a reliable drinking water supply for more than 750,000 people across South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa over the next four to five decades.
A shooting at an unsanctioned party at Arcadia Lake in Edmond, Oklahoma, sent at least 18 people to hospitals, with three victims in critical condition, after an argument among a group of girls erupted into chaos late Sunday, police said.
A driver plowed into a crowded shopping area in central Leipzig on Monday, killing two people and seriously injuring three others in what officials believe was a deliberate rampage, authorities said.
A second sloth transferred from the unopened tourist attraction Sloth World to a central Florida zoo for rehabilitation has died, the zoo said Monday, deepening concern over the facility where more than 30 other sloths perished. The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens euthanized Habanero, an adult male, on Saturday after his condition worsened despite initial signs of stabilization, the zoo said in a statement. Another sloth, Bandit, died last week following the same transfer.
An explosion at a coal mine in central Colombia trapped at least twelve miners on Monday, authorities said, with three others managing to escape on their own.
Nine federally recognized Lakota Sioux tribes from South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to stop exploratory drilling for graphite near Pe’Sla, a sacred meadow in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for South Dakota, alleges the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal law by approving the project without an environmental review and without consulting the tribes, whose members have used the site for ceremonies, prayer and youth camps for centuries.
Across the United States, Indigenous peoples gathered this week to honor relatives who are missing or have been killed and to demand better data collection, law‑enforcement response and reforms to keep their communities safer, the Associated Press reported. Events took place in cities from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Denver, Colorado, and from Madison, Wisconsin, to Oklahoma City, with participants wearing red to signal solidarity. Advocates cite the U.S. Department of Justice’s finding that Native Americans are more than twice as likely as the general population to be victims of violent crime, and they call on federal agencies to act on longstanding legislation such as Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act.
Denis Leary’s Leary Firefighters Foundation has an annual “Firefighter for a Day” event tied to International Firefighters Day on May 4, opening the FDNY Fire Academy on Randall’s Island to civilians. Organizers say the experience supports grants that fund equipment and training for fire departments nationwide.
A late spring snowstorm swept across parts of Colorado on Wednesday, closing schools, snarling flights and leaving roads slushy for commuters, the National Weather Service and officials said. The storm eased later in the day after dumping up to about 2 feet of snow in higher-elevation towns, while a winter storm warning remained in effect for additional snow into Thursday.
A federal judge told the U.S. government Monday not to cut down more than 10 trees at the historic East Potomac Golf Course without providing notice, while a legal dispute over the planned renovations moves forward. U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes said she would not issue a temporary restraining order yet in the case brought by the DC Preservation League.
South Dakota water managers are advancing four major projects to draw more water from the Missouri River, aiming to boost capacity for decades. The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System is expanding existing treatment and well infrastructure, while three other regional efforts—from WEB’s upgrades to new pipeline planning—are at various stages of study or feasibility work.
The Trump administration said it strongly supports a proposal to delay new federal protections for North Atlantic right whales until 2035, backing a plan aimed at reducing new constraints on commercial fishing. The proposal, supported by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, comes after the government paused new federal rules on right whales until 2028.
Police in Edmond, Oklahoma, said a weekend shooting at a lakeside park left at least 18 people treated at hospitals in the Oklahoma City area and critically injured at least three. Authorities were still searching Monday for suspects and had made no arrests.
A driver plowed into people in a busy shopping area in central Leipzig, Germany, on Monday afternoon, leaving two people dead, authorities said. Officials said three additional people were seriously injured, and police detained the driver in the vehicle.
At least twelve miners were trapped after an explosion in a coal mine in central Colombia on Monday afternoon, officials said. The governor of the Cundinamarca province, Jorge Emilio Rey, said three miners escaped on their own and one was taken to a hospital.
Nine Native American tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska sued the federal government Thursday to stop exploratory drilling for graphite near Pe’Sla, a sacred ceremonial meadow in the Black Hills. The tribes said the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal law when they approved the project without required consultation and environmental review.
Orlando, Florida, zoo officials said a second sloth transferred for rehabilitation from an upcoming tourism attraction has died. Habanero, an adult male, was euthanized Saturday at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens after his condition worsened, following the death of another sloth, Bandit, last week.
Secret Service officials said a man opened fire on plainclothes officers near the Washington Monument on Monday before being shot by law enforcement in an exchange. The incident prompted a brief lockdown near the White House as President Donald Trump continued a small business event, officials said.
A United Airlines jet narrowly avoided catastrophe after it struck a semitrailer truck and a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The bakery delivery truck driver was treated for minor injuries, and all 231 people aboard the Boeing 767 landed safely, officials said.
Authorities have determined that buckshot fired by the man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner struck a Secret Service agent, the federal prosecutor leading the investigation said. Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro told CNN the agent’s bullet-resistant vest shows evidence the shot came from the suspect’s shotgun. The Secret Service officer survived, and the man remains jailed pending trial.
A Serbian bird-watching group has used crowdfunding to purchase and protect a rare woodland patch in the country's flat agricultural northeast, setting a community-led conservation model.
Two U.S. Army soldiers went missing Saturday evening near the Cap Draa Training Area in southwestern Morocco after a recreational hike, prompting a joint search and rescue operation involving helicopters, ships, mountain rescue units and divers, U.S. Africa Command and a defense official said Sunday.
PLANDISTE, Serbia, on May 3, 2026, a Serbian bird-watching group said it used crowdfunding to buy a 5-acre woodland in the country’s northeast and protect it from being cut. The group, which says it now plans to preserve the forest as-is and document its plants and animals, announced the purchase after the effort raised 8,000 euros in less than a month.
Two U.S. service members were reported missing in southwestern Morocco after they went on a recreational hike following exercises in the North African country, U.S. Africa Command said Sunday. AFRICOM said the U.S., Morocco and other participating countries have launched a search and rescue operation after the incident Saturday near the Cap Draa Training Area.
A fire broke out Saturday evening at a marine science laboratory building on the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus, sending plumes of gray smoke into the air and prompting an evacuation, according to university police and the local fire department. No injuries were reported as of Saturday night.
Flooding from weeks of intense rainfall across Kenya has killed 18 people in the past week, police said Sunday, with most of the deaths attributed to drowning. More than 54,000 households have been affected nationwide, including 6,000 in the capital, Nairobi, according to the Interior Ministry.
A fire broke out Saturday evening in a laboratory building on the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg, Florida, authorities said. University police and the local fire department ordered an evacuation, and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
Flooding from ongoing heavy rains in Kenya has killed 18 people over the past week, police said Sunday. Most of the deaths were attributed to drowning, according to the Interior Ministry.
A United Airlines passenger jet with 221 people aboard struck a light pole and a delivery truck on the New Jersey Turnpike on Sunday as it approached Newark Liberty International Airport, officials said. None of the passengers or crew were injured, and the plane landed safely.
Firefighters worked overnight to extinguish a blaze at the University of South Florida’s marine science laboratory building in St. Petersburg on Saturday, and university officials said Sunday the building could be a total loss. No injuries were reported and no hazardous materials were released, USF President Moez Limayem wrote in a message to students and staff.
Denis Leary’s Leary Firefighters Foundation has used a single-day FDNY training event to raise money for fire departments since 2016, with the next edition on International Firefighters Day, May 4. The event, held at the FDNY Fire Academy on Randall’s Island in New York City, gives non-firefighters hands-on instruction in search and rescue, fire hose operations and rappelling, according to the foundation and FDNY partners.
A United Airlines passenger jet flying from Venice, Italy struck a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike during its approach to Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday afternoon, authorities said. No passengers or crew were injured, but a delivery truck driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Boeing 767 landed safely after “came into contact with a light pole.”
A small boat carrying migrants trying to cross the English Channel ran aground on a beach in northern France, leaving two people dead and 16 others injured, French authorities said on Sunday. The vessel, carrying 82 people, drifted after its engine failed near Hardelot, south of the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish a Saturday night blaze at a laboratory on the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg, Florida, officials said. The U.S. marine science lab building could be a total loss, and the school said there were no reported injuries and no hazardous materials released.
The rescue groups Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy have begun taking custody of 1,500 beagles from a Wisconsin dog breeding and research facility where animal-welfare protests erupted, according to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. The groups said the first dogs were moved Friday and that the animals appeared to be seeking attention as they arrived in staging care in Wisconsin.
A small boat carrying 82 migrants attempting to cross the English Channel ran aground on a beach in northern France overnight Saturday into Sunday, leaving two women dead and 16 people injured, three with serious burns, French authorities said.
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, made up of debris from Halley's comet, will peak Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, but a bright, nearly full moon will significantly reduce the number of visible meteors, astronomers said.
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly struck oil refineries and export terminals deep inside Russia over recent weeks, prompting evacuations and raising concerns about severe environmental damage along the Black Sea coast.
Ukraine has carried out drone strikes targeting oil facilities deep inside Russia, in attacks Russian officials say are under control but that have sparked fires, evacuations and environmental warnings. The attacks come as the Iran war has helped lift global fuel prices and replenish Russia’s oil revenues, leaving the ultimate economic impact unclear.
Five members of an Amarillo pickleball club died Thursday night when their small plane crashed in the Texas Hill Country on the way to a tournament in New Braunfels. The victims included a recent high school tennis state champion, a trauma counselor, and two local business owners.
Pickleball players killed when a small plane crashed in Texas Hill Country were mourned by fellow club members Saturday as federal authorities led the investigation. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the victims on the Cessna 421C included pilot Justin Appling and four other pickleball players who had departed Amarillo and were heading to New Braunfels.
One person died after a vehicle crashed into the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon, early Saturday, and authorities said explosive devices — some that had detonated — were found in or near the vehicle.
A private rescue team released a humpback whale nicknamed Timmy into the North Sea on Saturday, ending a two-month saga that saw the animal stranded in shallow waters off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast and drew worldwide attention, according to a member of the rescue effort.
Denis Leary’s annual “Firefighter for a Day” challenge turns civilians into temporary FDNY trainees, drawing donations for the Leary Firefighters Foundation. The event, held at the FDNY Fire Academy on Randall’s Island in New York City, is tied to International Firefighters Day on May 4.
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, made of debris from Halley’s comet, is expected to peak Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, but a bright moon will make the display harder to see. In the Southern Hemisphere, viewers typically see about 50 meteors per hour during the peak, though the moon could cut that number by half, the Associated Press reported. In the Northern Hemisphere, skywatchers are likely to see fewer than 10 per hour.
German officials on Saturday authorized a private rescue team’s plan to free a humpback whale nicknamed “Timmy,” which had been stranded in shallow waters near the Baltic Sea coast for weeks. The whale was released from a barge in the North Sea, witnesses said, after efforts to coax it back failed and the episode drew livestream attention worldwide.
The crash happened shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon, authorities said. Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day said one person died in the vehicle and that investigators also found explosive devices, some of which had detonated.
Rising diesel prices tied to the Iran war are increasing pressure on African mobile operators to power telecom towers with solar energy, a shift that was already underway as costs and climate goals pushed networks off fossil fuels.
A body discovered by a kayaker in Tampa Bay has been identified as Nahida Bristy, a University of South Florida doctoral student from Bangladesh, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said Friday. Bristy is the second USF doctoral student from Bangladesh found dead in the bay in recent weeks, following the discovery of Zamil Limon's body two days earlier.
Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon killed at least 10 people and wounded eight Friday, while Hezbollah launched an explosive drone that wounded two Israeli soldiers in the latest violence since a ceasefire began April 17.
The wreckage of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tampa, torpedoed by a German submarine during World War I with the loss of all 131 people aboard, has been located off the coast of Cornwall, England, the Coast Guard announced Wednesday. The British technical-diving team Gasperados found the wreck about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Newquay at a depth exceeding 300 feet (90 meters) after a three-year search.
Israel carried out several airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, killing at least 10 people, as Hezbollah said it launched rockets and drones toward northern Israel, where two Israeli soldiers were wounded, the Associated Press reported.
A small plane carrying five pickleball players crashed in the Texas Hill Country late Thursday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. The Cessna 421C was en route from Amarillo to New Braunfels when it went down in Wimberley, about 40 miles southwest of Austin.
Silicon Ranch, a solar company, this week unveiled a 40-acre solar farm in Christiana, Tennessee, where a small herd of cattle grazes beneath the panels — a test of whether the two land uses can work together, the Associated Press reported.
International maritime nations preserved a plan to adopt the world’s first global carbon fee on shipping this week, agreeing during talks in London to keep the Net‑zero Framework as the foundation for negotiations while leaving the door open to alternative proposals, according to reporting by the Associated Press. The meeting at the International Maritime Organization ended Friday with delegates scheduling more sessions for the fall, a continuation of the process after the United States and Saudi Arabia blocked adoption last year.
Mexico City is sinking at a rate of nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) per year, according to new satellite data released by NASA, making it one of the fastest-subsiding urban areas in the world. The measurements, captured between October 2025 and January 2026 by the NISAR satellite, reveal that the 22-million-person metropolis is dropping so quickly the subsidence is visible from space.
Prosecutors in London charged Claire Freemantle, 49, with dangerous driving on Friday, more than two years after her Land Rover crashed into a school tea party and killed two 8-year-old girls.
Iran’s nationwide internet shutdown, entering its fourth month, has crippled an online economy that supported roughly 10 million jobs, the Associated Press reported from Tehran. The blackout, which authorities have depicted as a wartime necessity but critics call an economic catastrophe, has left fashion designers, fitness coaches, gamers and software developers without income, as the government restricts global internet access to a small elite.
As a brass band played and villagers cheered, the young men of Kühbach, Germany, hoisted a freshly painted 28-meter maypole upright with long wooden rods — a centuries-old ritual celebrating community, spring, and a healthy dose of competitive theft-prevention.
Orange County prosecutors filed involuntary manslaughter charges Friday against Tommi Jo Mejer after her 14-year-old son, riding an unlicensed electric motorcycle, struck and killed 81-year-old Ed Ashman last month in Lake Forest. The case extends a novel legal theory of parental criminal liability to e-motorcycle deaths, and comes as prosecutors across California increasingly seek to hold parents accountable for children's illegal operation of the powerful vehicles.
A growing number of Americans are seeking death-care options that reduce their carbon footprint and protect natural landscapes, according to funeral industry surveys and interviews with researchers and practitioners, as concerns mount over the climate and health effects of conventional embalming, fire cremation, and resource-intensive burials.
New satellite measurements from a joint NASA-Indian mission show that Mexico City is sinking by as much as 10 inches each year, one of the fastest subsidence rates ever recorded in a major metropolis, as groundwater pumping beneath its ancient lakebed continues to compress the soil.
A colossal Steller sea lion nicknamed “Chonkers” has become the star attraction at San Francisco’s Pier 39, where visitors have flocked to glimpse a pinniped estimated to weigh between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds. First spotted last month, the animal has turned the tourist pier into an impromptu viewing area as it lounges among the resident California sea lions, drawing comparisons to a Volkswagen.
The California Delta Stewardship Council voted six to one last week to advance Gov. Gavin Newsom's Delta Conveyance Project, directing the Department of Water Resources to resolve two outstanding environmental disputes before the half-century infrastructure plan can proceed.
A small plane carrying pickleball players crashed in Texas Hill Country late Thursday, killing all five people aboard, authorities said. The crash happened around 11 p.m. near Wimberley, about 40 miles southwest of Austin, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Maritime nations at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London preserved a plan for a global carbon fee on shipping emissions, but they agreed to keep discussing alternative approaches through meetings later this year. The framework—known as the “Net-zero Framework”—is intended to create fees for greenhouse gas emissions above allowable limits and to fund incentives and support for the transition, with the United States and Saudi Arabia strongly opposing a carbon fee.
Mexico City is sinking by nearly 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) a year, NASA said, citing new satellite imagery that shows ground subsidence can be seen from space. The NASA estimates, based on measurements from October 2025 to January 2026, also indicate the sinking is accelerating in places including the main airport and the Angel of Independence.
A woman who drove a Land Rover into a tea party outside a London primary school in 2023, killing two 8-year-old girls, was charged with dangerous driving, authorities said. Prosecutors charged Claire Freemantle, 49, with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and seven counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Kühbach, Germany, marked May Day on Friday with the erection of a new maypole in the village center, drawing people from across Bavaria to watch the pole rise. Beer, brass-band music and chants of “Hau-Ruck” accompanied the festivities as young men and women guided the 28-meter maypole into place. Mayor Karl-Heinz Kerscher called the tradition a symbol of togetherness.
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) — A California woman has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from injuries after being struck by her 14-year-old son’s e-motorcycle, prosecutors said. The charge stems from an April 16 collision involving a Surron e-motorcycle that prosecutors said her teen son was riding illegally.
San Francisco’s Pier 39 has drawn crowds after a giant Steller sea lion nicknamed “Chonkers” arrived and lounged among the smaller resident sea lions. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said the animal is likely from the Pacific Northwest and could weigh between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds (680 and 907 kilograms).
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s last-year push for a $20 billion Delta tunnel cleared another step in state review, but major court, water-rights and financing questions still stand in the way of construction. The Delta Stewardship Council voted 6-1 to require the state Department of Water Resources to address two of the project’s proposed impacts and challenges, leaving opponents and some legal timelines unresolved.
A body found in Tampa Bay has been identified as the second missing University of South Florida doctoral student from Bangladesh, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said May 1. Chronister said the killings involved two garbage bags and that DNA and dental records were used to make a positive identification.
Millions of Americans are weighing how to reduce the environmental impact of death, with some families choosing options such as green burial, natural organic reduction and alkaline hydrolysis. An Associated Press report describes practices that aim to let bodies decompose naturally and, in some cases, support conservation land management. The legality and availability vary across countries, states and provinces.
The Coast Guard said the wreck of the USCGC Tampa, a cutter lost in a deadly World War I attack, has been discovered about 50 miles off Newquay, Cornwall, England. The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that the wreck was found at a depth of more than 300 feet and was confirmed by a British technical-diving team.
Mexico City is sinking nearly 25 centimeters (10 inches) per year, according to NASA satellite images released this week. The research, based on measurements taken between October 2025 and January 2026 by the NISAR satellite, shows the sinking can be observed from space and is affecting infrastructure and water supplies.
Under pressure from grieving families, state lawmakers and its own regulatory lapses, Camp Mystic on Thursday abandoned its bid to reopen for the 2026 summer season, just weeks before the planned May 30 start date. The reversal, announced the same day the Texas camp withdrew its license-renewal application, followed weeks of court and legislative testimony detailing missed warnings and fatal delays before a July Fourth flood that swept through the camp and killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors.
Camp Mystic in Texas has withdrawn its application to renew its license for 2026, halting plans to reopen this summer on the Guadalupe River after last year’s flood killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors. The decision came after weeks of court testimony and legislative investigations that described safety and operational failures, the Associated Press reported April 30.
Israel has issued sweeping evacuation warnings covering large parts of southern Lebanon since the war with Hezbollah erupted on March 2, displacing over a million people and drawing accusations that the military is using the alerts as a tool of forced displacement. The orders — delivered by text, phone call, social media, and leaflets — have emptied entire villages and sent families fleeing in panic, often with little notice and no safe destination.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran is reducing oil production as the American blockade of its exports strains storage capacity and threatens long-term damage to its aging wells, oil analysts said, with the country potentially facing a full shutdown within weeks.
In Gaza, Palestinians say shortages remain severe more than six months after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stopped most fighting, leaving residents scrambling for delivered water. An Associated Press report describes families in the Muwasi tent camp rationing water from trucks and residents depending on costly bottled supplies amid damage to most of the enclave’s water infrastructure. Doctors Without Borders also accused Israel of using water as a weapon, while Israel’s COGAT denied the allegations.
Israel’s evacuation warnings to residents in southern Lebanon have triggered mass departures and confusion, with some areas receiving detailed or late-night alerts while strikes still hit without warning, the Associated Press reported. The warnings have also coincided with fighting that has continued despite a nominal ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. AP reported that at the peak of the conflict, more than a million people fled, and that UN officials said over 115,000 were sheltering in collective shelters.
Richland County, Ohio, voters will decide on May 5 whether to repeal a county ban on large-scale solar farms, the second time an Ohio county’s renewable energy restriction has faced a voter referendum, according to Signal Ohio reporting distributed by the Associated Press.
A massive explosion leveled a home in Queens, New York, early Thursday, injuring eight police officers who were responding to a call about a knife-wielding man inside. Police body camera video showed the blast hurling officers across the yard as windows shattered, and the house later collapsed.
At least 17 Sudanese migrants died and nine remain missing after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near Tobruk, Libya, United Nations officials reported Thursday. The U.N. refugee agency said only seven of the 33 people on board survived the shipwreck.
King Charles III made his first appearance at The King’s Trust Global Gala in New York on Wednesday, delivering a brief speech and helping the charity raise a record $3 million. The event, attended by celebrities including Lionel Richie, Martha Stewart, and Anna Wintour, marked the monarch’s first U.S. visit since his coronation, part of a trip meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.
With most of Colorado in drought and reservoirs low after a winter of record-low snowfall, cities across the U.S. West are imposing outdoor watering restrictions, pushing home gardeners to adopt water-saving techniques. Denver Water announced its earliest-ever drought restrictions on March 25, while Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque already have year-round seasonal rules. Experts say that growing food with less water is still possible by capturing rainwater, improving soil health, and switching to drip irrigation.
A massive explosion at a home in Queens sent several New York City police officers flying through the air early Thursday as officers responded to a call about a man with a knife and the smell of gas, the NYPD said. Police treated eight officers for minor injuries, including burns and at least one head laceration, and said the people inside the building have been accounted for.
A boat carrying 33 Sudanese migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya’s eastern port of Tobruk, leaving at least 17 people dead and nine missing, U.N. officials said Thursday. The UN refugee agency said only seven people survived the shipwreck.
King Charles III made his first appearance at the five-year-old King’s Trust Global Gala in New York, helping boost fundraising to more than $3 million, according to organizers. The event was held Wednesday at Christie’s New York and drew guests including Lionel Richie and fashion figures such as Martha Stewart and Anna Wintour.
DENVER—With much of Colorado in drought and Denver Water announcing drought restrictions, gardeners and backyard growers say they are reshaping how they plant and water to conserve supplies. AP spoke with local and regional experts who advise capturing alternative water sources, improving soil, protecting plants from heat and wind, and using deep, infrequent irrigation.
The solar-power ban in Richland County, Ohio, is headed to a May 5 referendum after supporters collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot. The county’s commissioners approved the ban last year under a 2021 Ohio law that allows local officials to block certain utility-scale wind and solar projects. Opponents of the ban and supporters of it are framing the vote differently—property rights and government overreach on one side, and farmland preservation on the other.
Perched on the bow of his long-tail fishing boat in northern Thailand, a fisherman said he worries his family’s catch has become harder to sell as people fear contamination in the Mekong River. The Associated Press reported that toxic runoff from rare earth mines upstream in Myanmar is spreading into Mekong tributaries, raising health risks for millions who rely on the river for farms and fisheries.
In Kenya’s coastal settlement of Owino Uhuru, residents say they are still coping with lead poisoning linked to a lead-acid battery recycling plant that operated for years and was later shut down. The Associated Press reports that experts warn similar risks are emerging across Africa as off-grid solar and battery use expand, often with informal or poorly regulated recycling that can release lead into air, soil and water.
A man arrested in connection with an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump after an event at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner arrived in Washington on an Amtrak train from California with a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol, federal authorities said. The case has revived calls from rail worker unions and passenger advocates for changes to how firearms and other threats are screened on long-distance trains. It also drew comparisons to how airports use Transportation Security Administration screening for carry-on bags and people, while train passengers are not screened by security officials at stations.
Countries that gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, to accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels ended their first conference on April 29 with an agreed direction: the global debate is shifting from whether to phase out oil, gas and coal to how to do it—especially the financing. The talks did not produce binding pledges, but participants said they left behind early outcomes such as plans for continued cooperation and working groups on issues including finance and labor transitions.
Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center, about 15 miles south of Boston, says it has used largely unchanged instruments to record daily weather for 141 years. Staff and volunteers at the private nonprofit send observation summaries to federal and climate-research data centers and also invite local residents into a “citizen science” program.
The U.S. State Department said it is preparing a limited release of commemorative U.S. passports for the country’s 250th birthday that will feature President Donald Trump’s picture. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the passports would be available at the Washington, D.C., passport office in the run-up to July 4.
Air traffic investigators are prompting upgrades in vehicle tracking after a March 22 collision at LaGuardia Airport that killed two pilots and injured others, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. The agency said transponders will be installed on fire trucks and other rescue vehicles at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports so air traffic controllers receive more precise locations. The National Transportation Safety Board cited the lack of transponders in a preliminary report released last week.
Four critically endangered mountain bongos arrived in Kenya from the Czech Republic on April 29, the Kenyan government said, as part of efforts to restore the antelopes to native forests. The animals were received at Kenya’s main airport by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano before being moved to a wildlife conservancy for quarantine and acclimatization.
Helicopter pilots flying through Kauaʻi’s remote Waimea Canyon will be able to review video and weather data along their flight path before takeoff at Līhuʻe Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA expects the cameras to be operating by the end of the year as part of a statewide network meant to reduce accidents linked to rapidly changing conditions in and around the canyon.
Colombia has approved a plan to euthanize about 80 invasive hippos along the Magdalena River after officials warned the population could exceed 500 by 2030 without intervention. The decision has sparked debate in Puerto Triunfo, where tourism and livelihoods depend on the animals that were brought to the country illegally decades ago for Pablo Escobar’s private zoo.
Animal rescue groups said they agreed to buy 1,500 beagles from Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin dog breeding and research business that drew violent protests earlier this month. The groups said the dogs would be transported later this week for medical exams, microchips and vaccinations before being assessed for adoption.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and conservation groups are urging Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality to revise a proposed policy that limits who can submit water samples used to decide whether waters are “impaired” under the Clean Water Act. Wyoming’s draft methods say data used for “use support determinations” must come from people employed by or under contract with a governmental entity, a restriction state officials say has been in place since 2020. In letters and public comments, advocates argue the rule conflicts with EPA guidance requiring states to use “existing and readily available” water-quality data.
A small group of “bell hunters” is traveling the United States to visit Liberty Bell replicas distributed by the Treasury Department in 1950 for a savings bond drive. The fans say the replicas—placed at state capitols, museums and other sites—have ranged from being restored to sitting unused for years. The Associated Press story focuses on Tom Campbell of Fort Collins, Colorado, and on teenager Zoe Murphy, who has visited dozens of the bells.
Lehde, Germany, is one of the few places where postal service runs through waterways: during warmer months, mail is delivered by barge along canals of the Spreewald Forest delta southeast of Berlin. Andrea Bunar, a 55-year-old postal worker, rows the route and says the start of the season is “always special” after a winter break. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the barge route runs from April to October, with deliveries Monday through Saturday.
Springfield, Missouri, was hit Tuesday by a severe hailstorm that knocked out power, damaged hundreds of vehicles and even aircraft, and killed an emu at the Dickerson Park Zoo, officials and witnesses said. The storm also delayed or canceled dozens of flights at the Springfield-Branson National Airport.
BOSTON (AP) — Paul Revere’s midnight ride to Lexington was reenacted Monday in Boston with modern-day changes, including bright daylight and a police escort. Crowds lined the route through the North End, Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Arlington as a reenactor portrayed the silversmith and warned that British regulars were coming.
The Associated Press published a new quiz asking readers how well they know a set of famous Americans tied to the U.S. 250 anniversary. The questions include figures such as Ronald Reagan, Hank Aaron, Harvey Milk and Pope Leo XIV, and AP said the quiz is meant as a test of knowledge ahead of the 250th-year milestone.
A barge carrying Timmy, a humpback whale stranded near Germany since March, has started its journey toward the North Sea, German authorities said. The whale reached Danish waters Wednesday, according to the authorities, after rescuers moved it onto the barge this week.
President Donald Trump has lifted a federal ban on mining near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, clearing the way for Twin Metals Minnesota LLC to seek permits. The move reverses a 20-year moratorium imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023.
The remote Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior has seen its wolf population rebound, but the animals’ return is coinciding with a steep drop in the island’s moose numbers, according to a new annual survey released Monday. Researchers estimate there were 37 wolves during the winter study period that ran from Jan. 22 through March 3.
Africa’s expanding use of off-grid solar and battery storage is increasing demand for lead-acid battery recycling, experts warn, raising concerns about rising lead exposure in communities. The issue is rooted in how many batteries are recycled in informal or poorly regulated settings, with evidence of long-lasting contamination in Kenya’s Owino Uhuru settlement near Mombasa.
Mali held a funeral on Thursday for former defense minister Gen. Sadio Camara, who was killed during last weekend’s coordinated militant attack in the country. The ceremony, after two days of national mourning, was attended by junta leader Gen. Assimi Goita and broadcast live on national television.
A director of Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp in Texas Hill Country where 25 campers and two counselors died in a July 2025 flood, tearfully apologized Tuesday to the families of the victims as lawmakers questioned the camp’s preparations to reopen. Edward Eastland said he and his father, Richard Eastland, were on the property the night of the flood and tried to rescue girls as heavy rain turned the Guadalupe River into a raging current. The apology came during the second day of a special legislative hearing that is examining emergency planning failures before the deaths.
Most Maui wildfire victims are nearing the start of settlement payments after a $4.03 billion deal reached to compensate people for losses, but the payouts are unlikely to make many survivors whole, attorneys and advocates said. Checks could begin flowing as early as June, with payments scheduled in installments and amounts still subject to a claims-administration process. Lawyers’ fees and insurance recoveries are also expected to take parts of the settlement, while federal tax policy could further reduce what survivors keep.
Officials battling two large wildfires in southern Georgia warned Tuesday that firefighters are bracing for a prolonged battle even after weekend rains boosted containment. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said firefighters “are going to be in this for a while,” as officials reported rapid containment gains on one blaze in Brantley County while a larger fire along the Georgia-Florida line remained only partly contained.
The Trump administration said it will pay Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind to end their U.S. offshore wind leases, after courts blocked earlier efforts to halt the projects. The Interior Department said the reimbursements total nearly $900 million and that the companies will not pursue new offshore wind projects in the United States.
A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Portland, Oregon, diverted into emergency childbirth after a passenger went into labor just before landing, the Associated Press reported. Paramedics on board helped the mother give birth to a healthy girl as the plane prepared to touch down Friday night.
Montana’s wildlife agency is proposing to prohibit fishing from boats on the East Gallatin River, a tributary north of Bozeman, as part of the 2027-2028 fishing regulations that are open for public comment. The proposal would extend a boat-fishing restriction that exists on the mainstem Gallatin to the river’s low-flow cousin, an agency official said. Bozeman-area anglers and conservation groups said they will weigh the change at a public meeting scheduled for May 19.
A seafood company on Cape Cod donated a rare two-colored lobster to Woods Hole Science Aquarium, sparing it from being cooked. Fishermen caught the lobster off Cape Cod on April 16, and the aquarium plans to display it when it reopens.
Most sunscreens can end up in the ocean after swimming, and research cited by the Associated Press links several common chemical UV filters to harm to coral reefs. The story details how consumers can reduce exposure through clothing and shade, and how to choose mineral formulas and apply them in ways that cut runoff.
High-level talks aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels began Tuesday in Santa Marta, Colombia, with President Gustavo Petro warning the world could reach “a point of no return” without the Amazon’s role in regulating climate. The two-day meeting, co-hosted with the Netherlands, brings together ministers and senior officials from more than 50 countries to discuss how to move from oil, gas and coal toward cleaner energy.
Mississippi’s largest synagogue, Beth Israel Congregation in northeast Jackson, opened to local media as it continued rebuilding after an arson attack in the early hours of Jan. 10. Leaders said their goal is to resume services by the Jewish New Year in October 2027, even as asbestos abatement is expected to cost about $2 million.
An Associated Press investigation found adopted children are being confined in private, for-profit residential treatment programs and boarding schools that market care for adoption-related issues, despite evidence experts say doesn’t match their claims. Adoptees interviewed by AP described being promised “forever homes” but instead placed for years in facilities they said felt like prison, with limited outside oversight.
As residents return to Sudan’s capital Khartoum after months of fighting, unexploded ordnance and landmines left behind by the war are creating a growing danger across the city, the Associated Press reported. Deminers are clearing contaminated areas, but aid groups warn the work could take years amid limited funding and international attention.
Islamic State militants attacked a village in northeastern Nigeria overnight, killing at least 29 people, authorities said April 27. The attack occurred in Guyaku, in Adamawa state, and the Islamic State group said it carried out the attack in a Telegram message, authorities said.
Mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan hit a university and civilian homes in northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, Afghan officials said, killing seven people and wounding at least 85. The strikes marked the first major violence since Chinese-mediated peace talks between the two sides earlier this month, Afghan and Pakistani officials said.
Brenda Obare used to light her stove with a quick turn of the knob in Nairobi’s Kibera neighborhood. Now, higher costs and disruptions linked to the Iran war often leave her cooking outside with charcoal when LPG, kerosene or electricity are out of reach.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin defended a proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency that would cut funding sharply, telling senators the agency can still enforce environmental laws. At a Senate committee hearing Wednesday, Democrats accused Zeldin and the Trump administration of abandoning the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment as Congress weighs the final shape of the plan.
President Donald Trump and members of his administration were moved from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after a gunman tried to breach the ballroom during the event, the Associated Press reported. AP said the crowd of about 2,300 ducked as security shouted “Shots fired,” and law enforcement responded as shots rang out outside the ballroom. Officials said at least one Secret Service officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest and was recovering, and the suspect was later in custody.
Camp Mystic officials have withdrawn their application to operate the camp this summer, saying they will not move forward while families grieve and investigations continue. The Hill Country all-girls Christian camp was forced to halt its reopening plans after regulators and lawmakers highlighted alleged deficiencies in emergency planning ahead of the July 4, 2025, floods that killed 25 campers and two teenage counselors.
Fast-moving storms battered parts of the Midwest Monday with hail, strong winds and heavy rain, flooding streets and stranding commuters across several states. Tornado warnings were posted for parts of southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and northern Arkansas, the National Weather Service said.
Search efforts have been suspended for five missing crew members of the cargo ship Mariana, which overturned near the Northern Mariana Islands during Super Typhoon Sinlaku, U.S. authorities said Wednesday. The Coast Guard previously recovered one body from the overturned vessel and identified six crew members aboard the 145-foot ship.
A Texas legislative committee’s investigator said Camp Mystic counselors at the all-girls Christian camp in the Texas Hill Country were young and lacked emergency training before a July Fourth flood that killed 27 counselors and campers. The investigator told lawmakers that the camp’s “obedience” culture, flood-warning complacency, poor communications and delayed evacuation contributed to the deaths.
Federal energy regulators have ordered immediate inspections of the Cheboygan Dam powerhouse in Michigan and other dams after historic flooding threatened failures. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the powerhouse was reactivated as an emergency measure April 17, after a 2023 fire left it offline, and it ordered the owner to submit a report by May 15.
A tornado touched down in Mineral Wells, Texas, on Tuesday and tore through buildings, injuring five people and leaving neighborhoods with collapsed structures and missing roofs, officials said. The National Weather Service said the tornado’s winds reached at least 120 mph (193 kph).
A surgeon in Omdurman, Sudan, has spent years operating at Al Nao hospital as the war destroyed staff, supplies and electricity near the front line, the Associated Press reported. Dr. Jamal Eltaeb said he kept working even after the hospital was bombed multiple times and medicines and fuel ran out.
California officials are asking a federal judge in Los Angeles to order Sable Offshore Corp. to stop using and remove a pipeline that crosses part of Gaviota State Park, a state official said at a hearing scheduled for Monday. The state argues the Trump administration’s order to restart drilling and pipeline operations exceeds federal authority and permits that expired, while Sable says it has proper authorization.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum ruled out a conflict with the United States over an incident in Chihuahua in which two CIA agents died in an accident. Speaking at a morning news briefing on Monday, she said she hopes the episode remains isolated and that the federal government expects the U.S. to respect Mexico’s constitution and national security laws going forward.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited the National 9/11 Memorial in New York on Wednesday as part of a four-day diplomatic trip to the United States marking 250 years of American independence. The royal couple laid flowers at the memorial and met with victims’ relatives, first responders and local dignitaries before continuing to other events across the city.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A long-distance train slammed into the rear car of a commuter train stopped at Bekasi Timur Station outside Indonesia’s capital on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, officials said. Several passengers were trapped in a badly damaged car, and rescue teams worked to reach them, police said.
Italian luxury brand Ferragamo said it can map the country of origin for much of the leather used in its footwear and handbags, a step it said supports traceability efforts as new European Union sustainability rules take shape. The company’s chief product officer, James Ferragamo, said in an interview that leather is “one of the more sustainable materials” and that many partner tanneries manage water use and workforce treatment while checking leather sources.
Congo announced the creation of a paramilitary guard to secure its mining operations, backed by U.S. and Emirati investments, as it seeks more control over mineral supply chains amid insecurity in the east. The General Inspectorate of Mines said the force would be deployed gradually, with an initial 2,500 to 3,000 personnel expected to be operational by December after six months of training. The program is funded through partnerships with the United States and the United Arab Emirates, according to the statement.
A global climate conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, focused on what governments need to accelerate the shift away from oil, gas and coal, and delegates said lack of financing remains a major barrier. Experts at the meeting said clean-energy transitions often run into borrowing costs, limited fiscal space and infrastructure needs, even when renewables can be cheaper to operate over time. Speakers also pointed to differing approaches ranging from using fossil-fuel royalties to policy tools such as carbon markets, alongside criticism from Indigenous groups that oppose offsets.
Chile’s Atacama Desert is home to major astronomy projects, but scientists warn the region’s “darkest skies” face growing pressure from development and energy proposals near observatories. An appeal last year helped cancel a green power complex near Paranal, but researchers and Chilean monitoring groups say regulations remain unclear and are under review.
Workers in Rio de Janeiro resumed construction of the stage for Shakira’s free concert next weekend at Copacabana Beach after a worker’s death halted the work the day before. Police said a 28-year-old locksmith, Gabriel de Jesus Firmino, was crushed by two stage elevators when the equipment was activated. Investigators said the company that operates the stage is under investigation for alleged non-compliance with workplace safety regulations.
A tornado-producing storm swept through northern Texas late Saturday, killing at least two people and displacing at least 20 families in the towns of Runaway Bay and Springtown, authorities said. Wise County officials and local fire officials reported major home damage and difficult access for crews as outages left many residents without power. The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-2 tornado near Runaway Bay and an EF-1 tornado near Springtown.
Heavy weekend rain slowed the spread of two large wildfires in southern Georgia, but crews responded to new blazes as drought conditions persisted, the Georgia Forestry Commission said. The Highway 82 Fire in Brantley County remained only 6% contained, after destroying at least 87 homes, while Georgia’s Pineland Road Fire had scorched more than 50 square miles and damaged at least 35 homes, officials said.
NAHUNTA, Ga., officials said a fast-growing Georgia wildfire has surpassed 31 square miles and is only 7% contained, with evacuations possible as winds pick up. Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said the Highway 82 Fire “basically doubled last night” and warned that residents who did not evacuate previously “almost got caught by that fire.”
A small plane crash near Minneapolis killed North Dakota state Rep. Liz Conmy and the pilot on Saturday, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration said two people were aboard, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of a Beech F33A.
Chicago police identified Officer John Bartholomew, 38, as the man fatally shot Saturday at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital while in police custody, authorities said. A second officer was wounded and remained in critical condition Sunday, police said.
Orlando, Florida, officials said disease and low temperatures killed nearly 30 sloths at a wildlife import warehouse in 2024 and 2025. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation inspection report, issued in August, described deaths of sloths imported from Guyana when temperatures dropped into the 40-to-55 degree Fahrenheit range at Sanctuary World Imports.
Underhill, Vt., farmer Anne O’Connor said a Clover & Bee Farm ewe gave birth earlier this month to rare sextuplets, and that the mother and all six lambs are doing well. O’Connor said the ewe had been expected to have two lambs after a checkup, then she kept counting as more arrived.
An explosive device killed 13 people traveling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday and injured at least 38, authorities said. The attack occurred along the Panamerican Highway in Cajibío, as Colombia reported a recent run of explosions and drone attacks linked to drug-trafficking violence in the region.
Two wildfires in southeastern Georgia continued to threaten homes and residents on Saturday as officials warned that strong winds could spread the flames. The Highway 82 Fire, which has burned since Monday, has destroyed at least 87 homes, and a second blaze near the Florida line has destroyed at least 35 homes. Officials also said the state faces dozens of other fires across Georgia and Florida.
Palestinians buried a woman pregnant with twins and two of her children after Israeli strikes in Gaza on Saturday, while local hospitals said at least 13 people were killed in Friday’s attacks. The toll included eight people killed in Khan Younis after Israel targeted a police vehicle, and Gaza’s health ministry later said Israeli attacks have killed more than 790 people since a fragile ceasefire began about six months earlier.
Ukrainians who work at the Chernobyl site said a Russian drone strike on Feb. 14, 2025, damaged the plant’s protective New Safe Confinement structure. They said the incident underscored how Russia’s war has disrupted assumptions about nuclear safety, and that dismantling work is on hold. Officials and experts said monitoring did not show a rise in radiation levels outside the arch and that no injuries were reported.
Minneapolis police said a small plane crashed shortly after taking off from Crystal Airport north of the city on Saturday, killing North Dakota state Rep. Liz Conmy and the pilot. Brooklyn Park police said officers responded to a report of the crash at 11:51 a.m. and found an aircraft that caught fire in a park. The Federal Aviation Administration said two people were aboard, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating.
Enid, Oklahoma, was hit Thursday night by an EF-4 tornado that damaged about 40 homes, authorities said, with no deaths reported. The tornado, described by the National Weather Service as on the ground for 9 miles and about 500 yards wide, prompted searches for possible trapped residents and repair efforts.
The suspect detained after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was believed to have entered the hotel through its outermost security layer because he was staying as a guest, officials said Saturday. At the event at the Washington Hilton, several additional checks—including magnetometers run by the Secret Service and TSA—were used to reach the ballroom, where Secret Service agents maintained a buffer around President Donald Trump, officials said.
Texas state health regulators have identified nearly two dozen deficiencies in Camp Mystic’s emergency operations plan as the all-girls Christian camp seeks a late-May reopening, less than a year after a deadly flood killed 27 children and counselors. The Department of State Health Services said the plan’s flood warning, evacuation and training components did not meet requirements in the licensing review process.
Middle school students in Mississippi stopped a school bus from crashing after the driver blacked out while driving on a four-lane highway, the Associated Press reported. The bus left Hancock Middle School in Hancock County with about 40 children on board when the driver had an asthma attack. Students steered the vehicle onto a median, put it in park, called 911, and administered medication until emergency help arrived.
Small changes in how consumers store fruits and vegetables can extend their shelf life by days, reducing household food waste linked to moisture, temperature and airflow, according to Purdue University and other food-safety experts interviewed by the Associated Press. The AP also reported the U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that confusion over “purchase-by” dates contributes to a portion of consumer waste, while environmental advocates tie kitchen trash to methane emissions from landfills.
Mexico’s Ministry of Security said Saturday that two U.S. federal agents killed in a car crash in northern Mexico were not authorized to participate in operations on Mexican territory. The ministry said one entered as a visitor and the other with a diplomatic passport, and it said it was reviewing the case with local authorities and the U.S. Embassy.
Authorities in Louisiana said Friday that they have charged a 17-year-old with murder in connection with a Thursday shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge that killed 1 teenage girl and injured five other people. Police Chief TJ Morse said the incident was not random and appeared linked to “social media beefs” and “maybe gang-related stuff,” and officials said they were searching for another suspect.
Federal investigators said a firefighter’s truck collided with an Air Canada Express jet at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 22 after an air traffic controller issued “stop, stop, stop” warnings that the firefighter crew initially did not recognize as meant for them.
A Florida zoo will open its newly renovated Outback habitat to the public Saturday, alongside a major breeding milestone: the first koala birth at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society. The joey, born last fall to Ellin and Sydney, is still staying in its mother’s pouch as zoo staff monitor her and provide extra food.
A man in police custody opened fire on officers at a Chicago hospital on Saturday, killing one officer and critically injuring another, police said. Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling said the officers were transporting the individual to Swedish Hospital for an observation when the shooting occurred. The suspect fled, was later detained, and a gun was recovered, authorities said.
Governments from about 50 countries are gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia, for a summit aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels, organizers said. The April 24-29 conference is co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands and is expected to open political debate without producing binding commitments, officials said.
Massachusetts officials are moving forward with a plan that keeps sewage releases into waterways during heavy storms, prompting grassroots groups to push for a full shift to separate sewer systems. In the Boston area, water authority officials say the proposal would reduce combined sewer overflows, while critics argue it leaves “open sewers” in place. The state water agency is expected to submit an updated plan to regulators at the end of April, followed by a five-month public comment period, with a final plan expected in January 2027.
On Newport’s south side, mature trees help cool neighborhoods and support wildlife, while the city’s North End has far fewer trees. On Wednesday for Earth Day, volunteers with the Newport Tree Conservancy worked in Miantonomi Memorial Park to nurture native seedlings and expand the area’s tree canopy.
Late every summer, hulking polar bears gather outside the Alaska Native village of Kaktovik on the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a spectacle that once drew 1,000 or more tourists a year. The COVID-19 pandemic and a federal order in 2021 halting boat tours largely ended the polar bear tourism, but village leaders now want to restart it with new rules.
Atlanta will again receive giant pandas as China announced it will send two animals to Zoo Atlanta, a move announced in Beijing as the Trump visit to China approaches. The China Wildlife Conservation Association said the male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang will kick off a decade-long conservation partnership, with Zoo Atlanta saying it is ready after facility upgrades.
HAVANA — Cubans in recent months have altered everyday routines as water, electricity and fuel shortages deepen, including changes to beauty grooming, transportation timing and laundry habits. Residents and workers in Havana told The Associated Press that chronic blackouts and limited water availability—compounded by U.S. energy restrictions—are pushing them to abandon or stretch practices they long relied on.
Thousands of climbers and their guides are being forced to delay their planned climb of Mount Everest after an unstable ice block—described as a serac—halted movement on the route just above Everest base camp, Nepal’s mountaineering authorities said. The spring climbing season, which ends at the end of May, is expected to offer only brief weather windows.
Wildfires in southeast Georgia and northern Florida have killed a volunteer firefighter and destroyed at least 120 homes, officials said Friday. Gov. Brian Kemp said two large blazes have triggered evacuations in several Georgia counties, with investigators suspecting a foil party balloon and a welding incident as possible ignition sources.
Georgia’s latest wildfires have destroyed dozens of homes, underscoring that climate change is helping drive more intense and damaging fires across the eastern United States, fire scientists and officials said. Researchers point to hotter, drier conditions that dry out vegetation, along with drought and storm-linked fuel buildup.
Two buses crashed head-on near a Pentagon bus stop in Arlington, Virginia, injuring 23 people, including Defense Department personnel, according to a Pentagon Force Protection Agency press release and local officials. The crash happened shortly before 7:30 a.m. Friday, and the Metro Access Road was closed for an investigation.
Residents, city workers and environmental volunteers in Jakarta hauled bulging nets of invasive “janitor fish” to the surface of a reservoir in an operation launched this week to remove the fish from the capital’s waterways, the Associated Press reported Friday. Authorities are seeking to remove at least 10 tons (9 metric tons) of the fish, with officials saying the effort aims to restore balance in the Ciliwung River and renew public attention on water quality.
Fairfield, Montana, is facing an early-season water shortage as decades-old pipes leak and regional drought limits replenishment of depleted wells, threatening tighter limits for residents and irrigation for farmers. The town council has invested in plumbing and imposed restrictions, but officials said more wells going dry could force new emergency steps, such as hauling portable toilets. (AP)
Virginia Commonwealth University plans a memorial and burial site for dozens of people whose remains were recovered after workers found bones in a well on the school’s medical campus in 1994. The board of visitors voted to fund what VCU calls the East Marshall Street Well Project, with construction expected to begin in summer 2027.
BATON ROUGE, La. — An exchange of gunfire inside a food court at the Mall of Louisiana on Thursday killed one person and wounded five others, police said. Police Chief TJ Morse said five people were in custody and there was no ongoing threat to the public. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said some innocent bystanders were struck.
Archaeological digs tied to road construction along Brazil’s BR-156 highway have yielded new clues about Indigenous life in the Amazon long before European arrival, the Associated Press reported. The discoveries include pottery that may have been funerary urns and small artifacts resembling human faces, found during surveys ahead of paving work in the northern state of Amapa.
NAHUNTA, Ga. — Some wildfires burning through Georgia this week are being fed by persistent drought and by fallen trees and limbs scattered across the South by Hurricane Helene in 2024, officials said. Blustery winds are also helping ignite and expand fires that have prompted air quality warnings in the region, including areas far from the blazes, as evacuations continued near Georgia’s coast.
Michigan was cleared of liability Thursday in a lawsuit tied to the 2020 Edenville Dam collapse that flooded parts of Midland, destroyed more than 100 homes and drained Wixom Lake, according to a Court of Claims ruling. Court of Claims Judge James Redford said torrential rain and a 100-year flood, along with conditions at the privately owned dam, led to the disaster rather than actions taken by the state’s regulators.
Michigan lawmakers are set to consider legislation next week aimed at strengthening dam safety rules and boosting oversight, as state officials remain on alert following recent dam failures and emergency repairs. The proposal would raise flood-control and maintenance expectations for dams, increase inspection frequency, and seek closer coordination between federal and state regulators.
The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority approved a 12-month moratorium barring the delivery of water and sewer services to data centers in its service area, citing limited water and wastewater capacity and the need for additional studies. The decision affects hyperscale and mid-size facilities, artificial intelligence computing sites and high-performance computational centers, as a University of Michigan data center project and other proposals move forward in the region.
On Thursday off Rhode Island, the Associated Press traveled roughly 100 miles to see offshore wind turbines spinning and under construction across the region, including Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. The visit came as President Donald Trump seeks to end or roll back the U.S. offshore wind industry. Officials and industry advocates say the pace of development and the growing electricity demand for coastal states are colliding with a federal push to slow projects.
Stockholm’s annual secondhand clothing swap is drawing hundreds of residents to exchange clothes and help extend garments’ life spans. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation says the events are part of a broader effort to reduce the environmental cost of clothing production. Organizers and volunteers said tailoring assistance at the swaps also helps people repair items instead of discarding them.
A feud over burial plans has left former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s body unburied nearly 10 months after his death, with Zambia’s government seeking custody of the remains for a state funeral. Lungu died in South Africa in June and his family had planned to bury him there, refusing to repatriate his body for a ceremony that would include President Hakainde Hichilema.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday recommended that all new school buses be equipped with alcohol detection systems that can disable the bus if they detect the driver might be impaired. The recommendation follows a West Virginia crash in which police found the driver was drunk and a boy later required an amputation.
Federal investigators said issues involving air traffic control procedures, a fire truck’s equipment and runway lighting contributed to a deadly Feb. 22 collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport between an Air Canada Express regional jet and a fire truck. The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board describes a collision seconds after the plane landed and as crews responded to an unrelated emergency.
Linh Mai, a 10-week-old Asian elephant calf, made her public debut Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C. The zoo said she is the first elephant calf born at the facility in 25 years.
Officials unveiled a roadside marker in Ellerbe, North Carolina, honoring professional wrestler and film actor Andre the Giant. The marker, presented Thursday, notes his birth name, key wrestling career details and his role in “The Princess Bride.”
Mogadishu, Somalia’s ambassador to Algeria said at least 17 Somali migrants drowned when a boat capsized in waters between Algeria and Spain. Yusuf Ahmed Hassan said he visited two hospitals near Algiers after the Algerian Foreign Ministry informed him that bodies were recovered in a coastal province about 100 kilometers west of the capital.
Heavy rain and snowmelt swelled rivers and lakes in Cheboygan County, northeastern Michigan, sending large chunks of ice into some homes, officials said. The sheriff’s office said ice and flooding overran area waterways beyond their banks, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for multiple counties.
Huge wildfires burning across Georgia and Florida destroyed more than 50 homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Officials said drought and wind-fueled flames rapidly spread, with Georgia’s forestry commission issuing a burn ban for the first time in its history.
A chemical leak at a silver recovery business in Institute, West Virginia, killed two people and sent about 30 others to hospitals on Wednesday, officials said. Kanawha County emergency management director C.W. Sigman said a reaction involving nitric acid produced toxic hydrogen sulfide as workers prepared part of the Catalyst Refiners plant for shutdown.
People fighting human-caused climate change are increasingly drawing on joy, laughter and community as tools to cope with stress and keep people engaged, including around Earth Day. The Associated Press reports that activists, teachers and psychologists are using seminars, books and classes that emphasize what works psychologically, with laughter, dancing and hugs alongside warnings about warming.
Water releases meant to shore up drought-depleted Lake Powell’s hydropower are expected to boost flows in eastern Utah this spring, with officials aiming to raise Powell’s level after the region’s driest winter on record. The effort would rely on letting out as much as a third of the water in Wyoming and Utah’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir, but it is also expected to draw down water and electricity options elsewhere in the Colorado River system.
Runners who were struggling to reach the Boston Marathon finish line were helped by fellow competitors during Monday’s race, the Associated Press reported. Ajay Haridasse was lifted and carried about 1,000 feet (305 meters) to the finish by other runners after his legs gave out, and a separate group of racers helped Lan Nguyen reach the end after she could not walk.
Pope Leo XIV told inmates at a prison in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, on Wednesday that “You are not alone,” urging them and their families with a message of hope as he neared the end of a four-nation Africa tour. The visit brought renewed attention to prison conditions and the country’s human-rights record, including concerns raised by campaigners and international bodies.
Police in Iowa City are seeking a 17-year-old on attempted murder charges after a shooting early Sunday in a nightlife area near the University of Iowa campus, authorities said Wednesday. Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston said five people were treated for gunshot wounds, including three University of Iowa students, and one woman remained in critical condition. Authorities said an arrest warrant was issued and that Iowa law requires the 17-year-old, from Cedar Rapids, to be charged as an adult for forcible-felony offenses.
A preschool teacher in Shreveport, Louisiana, is coping with the loss of a 5-year-old boy, Braylon Snow, who was killed along with other children in an attack by their father on Sunday. Angela Hall, who teaches at Johnnie L. Cochran Head Start, said she learned of the shooting after Sunday church and returned Monday to find families and coworkers grappling in the classroom and at morning drop-off.
Lexington, Massachusetts, held a naturalization ceremony on the town’s Battle Green on April 22, with 49 people sworn in as U.S. citizens on the Revolutionary War battlefield where “the shot heard round the world” was fired. Steve Cole, a reenactor who plays Capt. John Parker at the annual Battle Green reenactment, told the new citizens, “No matter where you come from, here you belong.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson administered the Oath of Allegiance and said the oath is to the Constitution.
A Canadian tourist was killed and at least 13 people were injured when a gunman opened fire on visitors at Mexico’s Teotihuacán pyramids, authorities said. Officials said the 27-year-old assailant carried materials they said were apparently related to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
Tokyo said a 7.7-magnitude earthquake off northern Japan triggered a brief tsunami alert and a Cabinet Office/Japan Meteorological Agency advisory that coastal areas face a slightly higher risk of a possible megaquake over the following week, the government said Monday. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged residents in 182 towns to verify shelters and evacuation routes and prepare emergency supplies. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said nuclear facilities in the region were intact.
Wildfires in Georgia and Florida have destroyed over 50 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate as dry and windy conditions fuel the flames. The largest fires are burning near the Georgia coast, with others erupting in northern Florida, which is facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades.
An explosion at a well site in Etoile, Texas, triggered a large fire that was visible for miles and led to some evacuations, authorities said Tuesday. The fire was still burning early Tuesday but was not spreading, and officials said there were no injuries.
Heavy rain and snowmelt in northeastern Michigan have driven large chunks of ice into homes and other buildings along Black Lake, Cheboygan County, threatening to overwhelm stressed dam systems and forcing evacuations, officials said. The danger has involved ice breaking through windows and doors, while state and county crews have worked to keep debris and ice from clogging the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex as water flows toward Lake Huron.
Environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its approval of BP’s ultra deep-water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. The groups said required information for the approval was missing and that the project would endanger Gulf residents’ health and harm ecosystems.
Hundreds of migrants, most of them from Haiti, left Tapachula, Mexico, on foot Tuesday, but many said they no longer see the United States as a realistic destination. They described difficulties getting responses on asylum claims while waiting in the southern border city and said they were instead aiming for large Mexican cities where they could work and seek protection.
A chemical leak at a silver recovery plant in Institute, West Virginia, killed two people and sent about 30 others to hospitals, officials said Wednesday. Authorities said the leak involved a chemical gas reaction during a process connected to nitric acid and a second substance, producing toxic hydrogen sulfide.
Activists and psychologists are using laughter, dancing and community-building to help people keep working to curb human-caused climate change, including on Earth Day, according to interviews with seminar leaders and researchers. The approach centers on coping with grief and eco-anxiety while still taking action—rather than focusing on sacrifice alone.
Boston Marathon runners kept finishing hopes alive on April 21 by stopping to help fellow racers who were struggling near the finish line, according to accounts from competitors and officials. In one episode, Ajay Haridasse’s legs gave out as he neared the end, and two other runners lifted and carried him about 1,000 feet to the finish.
Officials plan to raise depleted Lake Powell levels by releasing more water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green River, a move intended to keep hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam running. The releases are expected to lower Flaming Gorge levels and could leave the downstream Lake Mead area with less water. The plan also comes as drought, evaporation and water demand have reduced Lake Powell to about a third of its capacity.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a complaint in federal court against Washington, D.C., and DC Water seeking financial penalties over a Potomac River sewage leak, the Justice Department said. The complaint stems from a January collapse of a 72-inch Potomac Interceptor pipeline that spilled 244 million gallons of raw sewage, and it alleges the utility failed to properly operate and maintain the system.
Un hombre abrió fuego en la zona arqueológica de Teotihuacán, al noreste de Ciudad de México, y murió después. Una canadiense murió y 13 personas más —incluidas varias de Estados Unidos y otras nacionalidades— resultaron heridas; la Fiscalía del Estado de México informó que el atacante fue el único agresor y que la causa de su muerte se determinará conforme a protocolos.
In a suburb southeast of Paris, the Wildlife Veterinary Hospital in Maisons-Alfort treats injured, sick and orphaned wild animals so they can be returned to their natural habitats. Over the past year, it admitted more than 10,400 wild animals, from birds to European mammals such as foxes, deer and hedgehogs. Last week, volunteers began caring for a female fox cub found alone in a garden on the city’s outskirts.
Millions around the world are set to mark Earth Day on Wednesday, a holiday that grew out of a U.S. “teach-in” focused on pollution in 1970. The annual observance is not a federal holiday, but it has inspired volunteer cleanups and helped shape major U.S. environmental laws, according to EarthDay.org history shared by The Associated Press.
U.S. officials were working for the CIA when two of them died in a vehicle crash in northern Mexico while returning from a mission to destroy a clandestine drug lab, AP reported, citing a U.S. official and other people familiar with the case. Mexican authorities said two Mexican investigators also were killed during a convoy returning from an operation targeting drug-lab operations in the state of Chihuahua.
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Florida immigration detention facility in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will remain open, rejecting a judge’s order to wind down the center. The Eleventh Circuit said the facility is not under federal control, and therefore does not require federal environmental review under the law at issue.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said she will demand explanations after U.S. Embassy instructors died in a crash in northern Chihuahua following an operation to destroy a clandestine drug lab. She said her government was not informed of the operation and that any collaboration with foreign entities on Mexican territory without federal permission would violate Mexican law.
An explosion at a natural gas or oil well site in Etoile, Texas, triggered a large fire and precautionary evacuations on Monday. Authorities reported no injuries, and air quality is being monitored.
Scientists at a nonprofit research site in Richburg, South Carolina, have burned a series of nearly identical houses to learn how to better protect homes from wildfires as climate change intensifies fire seasons. The controlled burns, conducted in spring conditions and using sensors and cameras, are meant to test what happens when flames breach windows, walls and exterior “defensible space” buffers around homes.
Amtrak canceled and rerouted multiple train services in Florida on Monday because of a 2,700-acre wildfire burning in the state's northeast, the railroad said.
Cold snaps after unusually warm conditions are frustrating flower and fruit growers across the Northeast, forcing some to harvest early or take steps to protect budding plants. The swing comes after temperatures surged into the 70s and 90s in parts of the region, followed by falls into the 50s and freeze warnings in multiple states.
Nicholas Gutierrez, 25, of Diamond Bar, California, pleaded guilty Monday to causing a wrong-way crash that killed a Los Angeles County sheriff's recruit and injured nine others during a training run in 2022. Gutierrez was sentenced to eight years suspended prison time and five years' probation, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. The plea came more than three years after his SUV veered onto the wrong side of the road in suburban Whittier, striking recruits on a morning jog.
The Justice Department has subpoenaed witnesses to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington as part of its investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, according to three people familiar with the matter. The subpoenas were issued in recent days, indicating prosecutors are pressing forward with the months-old inquiry despite a key prosecutor's recent departure. The investigation centers on a 2023 congressional hearing where Brennan testified about the intelligence community's assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — a case that has become a flashpoint in ongoing disputes over that election.
An Amish woman and her six children died in a house fire in rural Pennsylvania on Sunday. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but police suspect a propane leak may have been the cause.
Thousands of survivors from the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, who accepted settlement payments from the utility accused of sparking the disaster now face federal tax bills that could consume significant portions of their funds. Unless Congress passes pending legislation, the survivors could lose tens of thousands of dollars to taxes, at a time when construction costs have soared and many are struggling with insurance complications.
The United States Navy attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as it attempted to breach a U.S. naval blockade, according to President Donald Trump and the military. Iran's Joint Military Command called the boarding piracy and a violation of a ceasefire set to expire Wednesday, raising doubts about planned diplomatic talks in Pakistan scheduled to begin Monday. The seizure marks the first naval intercept since the U.S. began blockading Iranian ports last week, escalating a standoff that has already killed thousands in a conflict now in its eighth week.
Four decades after the 1986 nuclear explosion that forced the evacuation of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone has become an unexpected sanctuary for wildlife. Przewalski horses—nearly extinct in the wild and introduced to the zone in 1998—graze across the radiation-soaked landscape. Wolves prowl where humans once lived. Bears, absent from the region for over a century, have returned, according to reporting from the Associated Press.
Searchers from several countries scoured the Pacific Ocean on Monday for six crew members missing from the cargo ship Mariana, which overturned during Typhoon Sinlaku near the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Sunday night that an overturned vessel spotted Saturday is the Mariana, a 145-foot dry cargo ship registered in the United States.
A hot air balloon with 13 people descended safely into a Temecula, California, homeowner's backyard Saturday, made an emergency landing due to low fuel and shifting winds. The vessel touched down on a grass patch only about 10 feet wide without damaging the home or injuring any of the passengers and crew.
Indigenous delegates gathered at the United Nations in April for the world's largest gathering of Indigenous peoples, but many confronted visa denials from the Trump administration and warned of escalating threats to their lands, health, and cultural knowledge.
Vermont is hosting public meetings to gather resident feedback on the future of the 306-foot Bennington Battle Monument, which was saturated with 66,000 gallons of water and faces an estimated $40 million restoration bill. State officials announced meetings on April 29 and May 12 to discuss options for the iconic obelisk that commemorates the 1777 Battle of Bennington. The monument, the second-tallest unreinforced masonry structure in the United States after the Washington Monument, has become a test case for balancing historic preservation with fiscal reality. Its elevator remains non-functional, causing visits to the state's most-visited historic site to drop last year.
Two Southwest Airlines planes nearly collided over Nashville on Saturday after an air traffic controller directed one pilot to turn directly into the path of a departing aircraft. Both flight crews received alerts from their collision avoidance systems and took evasive action — one climbing while the other descended — to prevent impact, according to air traffic control audio and a Federal Aviation Administration statement.
Renewable energy sources surpassed coal as a share of global electricity generation for the first time in modern history in 2025, driven by record solar expansion in China and India, according to a comprehensive analysis by Ember, an energy research think tank. The milestone marks a turning point in the world's energy transition, with solar and wind combined meeting 99 percent of net growth in global electricity demand over the year.
In April, Russian drone strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people as the Ukrainian military targeted a Russian drone manufacturing facility, escalating the exchange of long-range attacks between the countries. A "massive" nighttime drone strike on Chernihiv in northern Ukraine killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded four others, according to Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the head of the city's military administration. Russian drones also attacked the southern city of Kherson, where a man died of his wounds after a drone hit a van in the city center, according to regional administrator Oleksandr Prokudin. The Ukrainian military said it struck the Atlant Aero factory in Taganrog, a drone manufacturing facility in southwestern Russia, using Neptune cruise missiles. Ukrainian officials said the strike sparked a fire at the site, which designs and produces reconnaissance drones and components for armed unmanned aircraft.
In the heart of Bruges, one of Belgium's most touristic cities, about two dozen women have found sanctuary from bustling cobblestone streets and chattering crowds at an institution founded nearly 800 years ago. The Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde, a women-only community established in 1245, sits beyond a small bridge and under an ornate arch engraved with the Latin phrase 'sauvegarde'—safe place. For contemporary residents like Trees Dewever, who has lived there for 22 years, the beguinage provides 'an overwhelming feeling of calm.'
Schools across Iran have remained closed for seven weeks since the United States and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28, leaving families navigating childcare and educational challenges with no announced timeline for reopening. Working parents like Mahnaz Ataei, a finance manager in Tehran, have brought their children to the office to supervise online classes while trying to maintain productivity. The fragile ceasefire has shifted the crisis from immediate aerial threat to the grinding logistics of displacement and remote learning.
Forty years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl's exclusion zone has become an accidental refuge for wildlife. Przewalski's horses—stocky, sand-colored animals once hunted to near extinction—roam the radioactive landscape freely, while wolves, brown bears, and lynx have reclaimed territory they abandoned over a century ago. On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the nuclear power plant forced the evacuation of tens of thousands, but human departure opened the door for nature's return.
An explosion and house fire in central Pennsylvania killed an Amish woman and her six children Sunday morning, authorities said. The victims were trapped inside the home in Lamar Township near Mill Hall, and all seven died despite firefighters’ response.
The Iran war's disruption of global energy supplies is prompting Asian and African nations to rapidly expand nuclear power generation, both by increasing output at existing reactors and by launching ambitious long-term plans to build new plants across the regions hardest hit by the conflict.
A French soldier died and three others were wounded Saturday in an attack in southern Lebanon near UNIFIL positions, just two days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. French President Emmanuel Macron said Hezbollah was responsible; the militant group denied involvement and called for a full investigation before assigning blame.
School closures have disrupted the lives of Iranian families since the U.S.-Israel war began on February 28, leaving working parents to supervise their children's online classes while juggling employment. A fragile ceasefire now in effect is expected to expire early next week, leaving families uncertain whether schools will reopen or the conflict will reignite.
More than 61% of the lower 48 United States is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, including 97% of the Southeast and two-thirds of the West, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. This represents the highest levels of drought for this time of year since the monitor began recording data in 2000. Meteorologists said the severe spring conditions raise concerns about an intensified wildfire season, western water shortages, and rising food prices.
A U.S. Coast Guard search team spotted an overturned cargo vessel Saturday near Saipan while searching for a missing ship with six crew members, the Coast Guard said. The HC-130 Hercules crew saw the overturned vessel early Saturday, about 100 nautical miles northeast of where the Mariana was last spotted. The vessel matched the description of the Mariana, a 145-foot dry cargo ship registered in the U.S., though the Coast Guard said it could not immediately confirm the vessel's identity.
The house where Beatles guitarist George Harrison visited family in Benton, Illinois, in 1963 is now for sale, drawing interest from fans and local preservation advocates. The bungalow at 113 McCann Street later became a bed-and-breakfast filled with Beatles memorabilia before it closed in 2010.
A Canadian man facing 14 murder charges has agreed to plead guilty to 14 counts of aiding suicide, his lawyer said Friday. Kenneth Law, from the Toronto area, allegedly sold sodium nitrite online to people at risk of self-harm. Under the plea agreement, Canadian prosecutors will withdraw the murder charges.
The Dominican Republic and Haiti agreed Friday to reopen their shared airspace in May, restoring direct flights between the neighboring Caribbean nations after a closure spanning more than two years. The agreement permits connections between three Dominican airports and Cap-Haïtien, Haiti's northern port city. The decision followed bilateral talks focused on border control, surveillance, migration, and trade.
The door that once led to a family room now faces nothing but the void. For Syed Murtaza Sadar, a 25-year-old business owner in Kabul, this empty space represents the cost of Afghanistan's capital city's infrastructure ambitions. Two months before speaking to reporters, municipal authorities arrived to expropriate his home, the barber shop and public bath his family had operated for years, and ordered him to finish demolishing it himself. Over the past four and a half years, Kabul's Taliban-led municipal government has expropriated 11,278 properties across the capital to make way for wider roads, constructing roughly 450 kilometers (280 miles) of roadway as part of a modernization campaign that is rapidly reshaping the city.
A life jacket worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, a first-class passenger aboard RMS Titanic, sold at auction on Saturday for 670,000 pounds ($906,000), far exceeding the presale estimate of 250,000 to 350,000 pounds. Francatelli wore the flotation device as she escaped the doomed ocean liner on a lifeboat and signed it along with other survivors from the same boat. The artifact sold to an unidentified telephone bidder at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, western England.
The Supreme Court unanimously sided with oil and gas companies on Friday, ordering a Louisiana environmental lawsuit back to federal court after a state jury ordered Chevron to pay more than $740 million for coastal damage. Writing for an 8-0 court, Justice Clarence Thomas found the lawsuit was related to companies' World War II efforts to supply aviation fuel for the U.S. government and should be heard in federal court.
Wyoming residents and tribal and state officials are urging time to evaluate nuclear energy and spent-fuel storage as federal efforts accelerate and developers consider new projects. The discussion follows Wyoming’s 2022 carveout that allows spent nuclear fuel from in-state plants, but some communities say the window for debate is narrowing as regulators and industry move faster.
A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah brokered by the United States took effect Friday, prompting thousands of displaced Lebanese to begin the journey home in long convoys of vehicles piled high with salvaged belongings. The truce follows a devastating conflict that displaced more than one million people, leaving southern Lebanon heavily damaged and residents uncertain whether the fragile calm will hold.
Wildfires are burning longer each day in North America as human-caused climate change extends the warm, dry conditions that fuel them, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances. The number of hours when weather conditions favor wildfires has increased 36% over the past 50 years, with some regions like southwestern New Mexico and central Arizona seeing as much as 2,000 additional burning hours annually.
The U.S. Coast Guard was searching for six people aboard a disabled cargo vessel off Guam on April 17 after losing contact with the ship the previous day following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 145-foot dry cargo vessel Mariana had notified the Coast Guard on April 15 that it had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance. The last known position of the vessel was approximately 140 miles north-northwest of Saipan, according to the Coast Guard.
The Trump administration has effectively halted two federal programs that helped American farmers pursue renewable energy, leaving hundreds of projects stalled and forcing farmers to abandon or defer plans to cut electricity costs through solar installations. Within the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, the Rural Energy for America Program—which has distributed over $1.8 billion in grants since its inception nearly two decades ago—has stopped awarding grants, and the federal clean energy tax credit has been restructured with tighter deadlines that solar developers say are nearly impossible to meet.
The house in Benton, Illinois where George Harrison visited his sister in 1963 is for sale, according to Associated Press. The five-bedroom bungalow at 113 McCann Street is listed for $105,000, after a history of preservation efforts and later use as a Beatles-themed bed-and-breakfast. The sale comes decades after activists helped stop demolition in the mid-1990s.
Floodwaters pushed Michigan's Cheboygan Lock and Dam to the brink of collapse Thursday — climbing within five inches of the crest — threatening downtown Cheboygan with potential evacuation while evidence emerged that local, state and federal officials had known for years of critical safety deficiencies at a privately owned hydroelectric facility connected to the public dam. The hydroelectric plant — which the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said accounts for about 30% of the Cheboygan River's flow to Lake Huron — has been nonfunctional since a fire closed it in September 2023.
Former heavyweight champion George Foreman was buried in a cemetery in northwestern Iowa—a place he visited in 1988 and where he recalled experiencing a sense of peace. His family revealed the burial location this week during a news conference at Logan Park Cemetery in Sioux City.
Ford is recalling approximately 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks in the United States because of a gearshift defect that can cause unintended downshifts and loss of vehicle control. The recall, announced April 17, affects F-150 light trucks with six-speed automatic transmissions manufactured between March 12, 2014 and August 18, 2017. Ford is aware of 444 warranty claims and 105 customer service reports potentially linked to the issue, along with two reported injuries and one accident possibly connected to the defect.
Patients and colleagues in Virginia's dental community are mourning Dr. Cerina Fairfax, a 49-year-old dentist police say was killed by her estranged husband in their Annandale home early Thursday. Police believe former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife before killing himself.
The Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday calling for a 12-month moratorium on providing water to data centers. The move aims to slow development of a $1.2 billion computing facility jointly planned by the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The pilot of a sightseeing helicopter that crashed off Kauai on March 26, killing three passengers, told investigators that the aircraft experienced intense vibrations and began spinning before plunging into the water, according to a preliminary report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The pilot and one passenger sustained serious injuries in the crash, which occurred roughly 75 yards off remote Kalalau Beach on the Na Pali Coast.
The Associated Press released its weekly news quiz on Wednesday, featuring major stories from across seven news categories. The quiz tested readers' knowledge on U.S. and world news, along with reporting on oddities, health, technology, religion, sports and entertainment.
A UPS cargo plane aborted its landing at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport early Tuesday morning after a small aircraft crossed the runway as it approached, federal authorities said. Air traffic control audio captured a controller directing the small plane, identified as Skylab 25, to stop before ordering the UPS aircraft to perform a go-around maneuver. No one was injured in the incident, which occurred around 12:10 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Two U.S. Army soldiers were injured Thursday after encountering a brown bear during a land navigation training exercise at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, the military said Friday. The soldiers were receiving medical care as of Friday; their conditions were not released pending notification of relatives. Both used pepper spray on the bear during the encounter, which is still under investigation.
An Associated Press investigation has found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hired thousands of new officers and special agents with questionable qualifications during an unprecedented hiring spree to carry out President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. The agency, which received a $75 billion congressional windfall, prioritized rapid recruitment over verification, resulting in the hiring of applicants with histories of financial distress, failed police academies, and prior misconduct allegations.
Colombia’s environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, said the war in the Middle East should speed the global energy transition away from oil, gas and coal. Speaking to The Associated Press on Thursday, Vélez argued that instability in energy markets creates pressure to accelerate efforts toward solar, wind and geothermal instead of delaying them.
Federal prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office made an unannounced visit Tuesday to a Federal Reserve construction site under criminal investigation, but were turned away by a building contractor and referred to Fed attorneys, according to two people familiar with the visit. The same day, President Donald Trump renewed his threat to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if Powell remains on the central bank's governing board after his chairmanship expires next month.
Russia fired nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100 others in one of the worst aerial assaults of recent weeks, Ukrainian authorities said. Strikes hit the capital Kyiv, the southern port city of Odesa, and the central Dnipro region. The attack came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy completed an urgent 48-hour diplomatic trip to Germany, Norway, and Italy to press European allies for additional air defense systems, as Ukrainian officials acknowledged that stocks of advanced interceptor missiles are running low.
The U.S. Senate voted 50-49 on Thursday to lift a federal ban on mining near Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, advancing a resolution that would allow a Chilean mining company to extract copper, nickel and other precious metals from the region. The measure now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature, with House Republicans having approved it last month.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned two sons of Nicaragua's copresidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo on Thursday, along with officials and companies tied to the country's gold industry, saying they help sustain a government the department described as repressive. Maurice Ortega and Daniel Edmundo Ortega, both government officials, were the highest-profile individuals named in the action. Nicaragua's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Thursday that his populist-nationalist Fidesz party requires a "complete renewal" after its landslide defeat in Sunday's parliamentary election, which delivered a two-thirds majority in Parliament to center-right challenger Péter Magyar's Tisza party and ended Orbán's 16 years in power.
German rescuers launched an elaborate operation Thursday to save a sick humpback whale stranded in shallow Baltic Sea waters near the eastern town of Wismar, deploying air cushions to lift the animal onto a tarp secured between two pontoons for tow by tugboat toward the North Sea. The whale, nicknamed Timmy by local media, was first spotted in the region on March 3 and has barely moved in days, breathing slowly and heavily, with experts and the public alike fearing it may soon die. State officials in Mecklenburg-Pomerania approved a private initiative to transport Timmy back to the North Sea and possibly the Atlantic Ocean, with the tugboat expected to leave Baltic waters by Friday.
Former Philippine lawmaker Zaldy Co, a key suspect in a flood control corruption scandal that triggered mass protests, was arrested in Prague after entering the Czech Republic without proper documentation, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday. Marcos said his government is in close coordination with Czech authorities to arrange Co's return to the Philippines, though the two countries have no extradition treaty.
Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax killed himself and his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, on Thursday, police said. The apparent murder-suicide occurred at their home in Annandale, Virginia, with their two children in the home. The deaths came during divorce proceedings, just two weeks before a court-ordered deadline for Fairfax to vacate the family residence.
SAN DIEGO, California — Residents along the Tijuana River say untreated sewage and industrial wastewater produce a strong odor and health symptoms, including congestion, coughing, headaches and breathing trouble. Researchers documented hydrogen sulfide concentrations in a nearby neighborhood reaching levels far above typical urban values when the river’s nighttime flow peaked.
A house in Benton, Illinois, where Beatles guitarist George Harrison visited his sister in 1963 is now for sale, after decades of preservation efforts by fans and locals. The five-bedroom bungalow at 113 McCann Street is listed for $105,000, according to the report.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking delays to state climate goals, arguing that implementing key clean-energy requirements now could raise energy prices for families. The move comes as several Democratic governors and lawmakers across the Northeast weigh affordability agendas against emissions-cutting targets.
Directors of the Hawaiʻi Agribusiness Development Corp. voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a $4.9 million purchase of 142.5 acres on which the 120-year-old Wahiawā dam and spillway sit, moving the state closer to completing a multiagency takeover of a structure that carries the nation's highest federal hazard rating. The vote came weeks after Kona storms pushed Wahiawā Reservoir to within three feet of its brim and triggered the evacuation of thousands of downstream residents on Oʻahu's North Shore.
The U.S. Forest Service has proposed creating a Tri-Forest Federal Sustained Yield Unit that would direct three Montana national forests to supply local businesses with at least 35 million board feet of timber per year, invoking an 82-year-old federal law in a bid to stabilize the state's faltering logging sector. The agency unveiled the proposal last month, citing the recent closure of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber sawmill in Seeley Lake and the shuttering of the Roseburg Wood Products facility in Missoula as evidence of the industry's vulnerability. The proposal drew mixed reactions at a Forest Service public hearing in Helena.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday it will withhold more than $73.5 million in federal funding from New York state after the state refused to revoke 32,606 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses issued to immigrants that a federal audit found had significant problems. More than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the audit had serious deficiencies — including licenses that remained valid long after the holder's authorization to be in the country had expired — according to the department.
DNA analysis has identified the remains found in a submerged Ford station wagon in the Columbia River as those of an Oregon family who vanished in December 1958 while searching for Christmas greenery, the Hood River County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. The state medical examiner's office identified parents Kenneth and Barbara Martin and their daughter Barbie from remains recovered at the site. Investigators found no evidence of a crime, the sheriff's office said.
A Kaua'i nonprofit has built a community-driven map of coconut rhinoceros beetle infestations across the island, documenting feeding, breeding, and treatment sites as the invasive pest reaches Moloka'i for the first time and is rediscovered on Maui. The project, called Niu Ola Kauhale and led by E Ola Kākou Hawai'i, received a $25,000 county innovation grant and draws on a network of district leaders practicing traditional Hawaiian observation methods to gather data that state agencies lack the staffing to collect.
A minibus taxi exploded into fire on a highway in southwest Zimbabwe on Thursday, killing approximately 18 people, police said. The vehicle caught fire on a road near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said authorities were still working to confirm the exact number of victims but put the toll at "approximately 18."
Sama, a technology company that has faced litigation in Kenya over the treatment of African content moderators, announced Thursday it will lay off 1,108 workers at its Nairobi office after Meta issued formal notice ending a major service engagement. Sama said it received notice from Meta to terminate the contract and had issued a layoff notice covering all affected employees. The company said it was "actively supporting affected employees with care and respect."
Young adults across the world have spent recent months flooding social media with videos proclaiming they are "becoming Chinese" — embracing habits like drinking hot water steeped with goji berries, eating dumplings, and wearing slippers indoors — in a viral trend that has drawn the attention of Chinese diplomats, the Associated Press reported. Xie Feng, China's ambassador to the United States, cited the social media wave while promoting a new visa-free transit policy and urging Americans to "experience for yourselves a real, dynamic and panoramic China."
Two American families argued before Italy's Court of Cassation on Tuesday that a 2025 law curtailing citizenship by ancestry should not apply to people whose lineage predates its enactment, in a challenge that could restore an Italian citizenship path for millions of diaspora descendants across the United States and Latin America. Attorney Marco Mellone told an expanded panel of the court that the restriction enacted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government in March 2025 should govern only people born after it took effect. A separate attorney represented Venezuelan descendants of Italian immigrants at the same hearing.
A former cranberry farm in Plymouth, Mass., sold by Glorianna Davenport and her husband for conservation has become the single largest freshwater restoration project in Massachusetts, producing peer-reviewed science on how quickly degraded agricultural land can recover and helping launch a state program that has already converted roughly 500 acres of retired bog land into functioning wetland. The property, now Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary and managed by Mass Audubon, supports sinuous streams, native pitcher plants, sphagnum moss, and wildlife absent during a century of cranberry production. The transformation is monitored by a live network of cameras and sensors generating publicly available data that researchers from Massachusetts to the Amazon rainforest have drawn on.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku pounded the U.S. Pacific territory of the Northern Mariana Islands on April 14, damaging homes and prompting residents to shelter as winds and heavy rain continued overnight. The National Weather Service said the storm’s sustained winds reached up to 150 mph when it made landfall, and the American Red Cross said it was sheltering more than 1,000 people across Guam and the Northern Marianas.
A former student opened fire at a vocational high school in Siverek, in Turkey’s Sanliurfa province, wounding at least 16 people before killing himself, Gov. Hasan Sildak said Tuesday. The attacker, who was 18, fired inside the school and later died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound after police cornered him, Sildak added.
Maine's Democratic-controlled legislature approved a bill Tuesday that would impose a yearlong moratorium on large data centers, sending what would be the nation's first statewide pause on the energy-hungry facilities to Gov. Janet Mills for her signature. The measure follows intense community backlash against proposed projects in Maine and escalating concerns about electricity costs, potential blackouts, and water consumption tied to the AI-driven surge in data center construction.
Survivors of the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion are marking the 65th anniversary of the CIA-backed assault on Cuba with the grand reopening of a new museum in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, as about 200 aging veterans of Brigade 2506 gather to preserve their legacy for future generations.
Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, met Wednesday in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the latest diplomatic effort to arrange a second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations before a ceasefire set to expire Tuesday. The White House said any further direct talks would likely return to Islamabad but that no decision had been made on whether to resume them.
Nearly 200 organizations called Wednesday on the Trump administration and Puerto Rico's governor to restore $350 million in federal funding for rooftop solar and battery systems, warning that low-income families dependent on medical equipment face potentially fatal consequences from chronic power outages as Atlantic hurricane season approaches. The letter, addressed to Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was released as a May 9 deadline nears — the date at which a solar installation program that has left 12,000 low-income families in limbo will formally expire.
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday reinforced his call for peace and dialogue as U.S. President Donald Trump continued a week of public attacks on history's first American-born pope, accusing him of weakness on crime, claiming him as a political captive, and asserting that Leo owed his election to Trump. Speaking to journalists aboard the papal plane en route to Cameroon, Leo said the message "the world needs to hear today" is one of peace and dialogue. Leo made no mention of Trump's latest social media posts or the suggestion by Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, that the pope should "be careful" when speaking about theology.
A medical officer for Camp Mystic in Texas testified in court that she still has not officially reported deaths from a July 4 predawn flood to the state health agency that regulates camps. The testimony came during a legal fight between families of victims and the camp’s operators over whether parts of the property should be preserved as evidence before the camp seeks to reopen.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is changing how the state issues air quality alerts as wildfire smoke season approaches, including when conditions reach the federal Air Quality Index range labeled “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The state will issue an alert when fine particulate matter or ozone levels rise into the AQI orange range, rather than waiting for the red “unhealthy” category.
Severe storms with tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds are expected to hit parts of the Plains and Midwest again Tuesday afternoon and evening, forecasters said. A day after storms damaged communities across the region, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan reported impacts ranging from minor injuries and structural damage to power outages and flooding concerns.
Hawaiian Electric’s proposed upgrade of its Waiau power plant on Oʻahu is at the center of a new dispute after a shadowy commenter raised that the site is now in a federally designated 100-year flood zone. The utility says its facilities sit above floodwaters, but the Public Utilities Commission is expected to revisit questions about whether the change could affect building permits, federal funding and cost increases for ratepayers.
Heavy rains over several days in northwestern Haiti have killed at least 12 people and flooded farmland, authorities said. The rains also damaged more than 900 homes, flooded a local hospital and destroyed a bridge, while roads and crops were damaged in areas including Port-de-Paix, Saint Louis du Nord and Anse-a-Foleur.
President Donald Trump again denied a request from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for major disaster declarations after wildfires and flooding, denying FEMA public assistance and hazard-mitigation funding. FEMA acting administrator Karen S. Evans upheld the decision on appeal in letters to Polis. Polis said the outcome was “incredibly disappointing.”
Floodwaters from record rainfall stranded drivers on Milwaukee highways Wednesday as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency, while communities in Michigan's Ann Arbor area worked to recover from powerful overnight storms that tore part of the roof from a university ice arena and forced school closures across the city. At least three tornadoes were confirmed in Wisconsin, and National Weather Service crews were still surveying parts of Michigan to determine whether additional tornadoes had touched down.
The security guard on duty at Camp Mystic the night of last summer's deadly flood testified Wednesday that an early evacuation order could have saved the lives of campers killed when floodwaters surged through the Guadalupe River in the predawn hours of July 4. Glenn Juenke, who directed a group of girls to run uphill on his own initiative, also told the hearing he did not recall camp operators ever training campers, counselors, or staff on where to go in an emergency.
Voting for California governor begins in about a month, with mail-in voting scheduled to start in under a month, according to the Associated Press. The top-two primary system will put all candidates on one ballot and advance only the two highest vote-getters to November.
Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Communication dismissed two state officials after a stampede at the mountaintop fortress La Citadelle killed 25 people, according to the ministry’s statement. Authorities also arrested nine suspects, including five police officers, officials said.
Pope Leo XIV visited the archaeological ruins in Annaba, Algeria, on Tuesday, making a pilgrimage to the birthplace and legacy of St. Augustine, his spiritual father. The pope arrived with tight security amid rain and said the visit reflects a message of peace and interreligious bridge-building. The stop is part of Leo’s four-country Africa tour.
El gobierno colombiano autorizó el lunes un protocolo para practicar la eutanasia a unos 80 hipopótamos descendientes de los ejemplares introducidos de forma ilegal por Pablo Escobar en la década de 1980. La ministra de Ambiente, Irene Vélez, firmó la directiva y dijo que las medidas se aplicarían en el segundo semestre del año, ya con un nuevo presidente en funciones desde el 7 de agosto.
Southern Haiti’s Marigot mayor appealed for central government help after a gang attack in Seguin left seven people dead and a police station set on fire, according to the Associated Press. Marigot Mayor René Danneau said the victims were young men who worked alongside police to gather information. He criticized authorities for not responding quickly enough and asked the prime minister to take “all necessary measures.”
Jackson, Mississippi is spotlighting the America at 250 celebration with two adjoining museums that present state history, including slavery and racial violence, through exhibits and artifacts created to “don’t brush over anything” and “don’t whitewash anything.” The state’s approach, as described by officials and visitors, contrasts with federal changes that followed President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.
America at 250 is offering a quiz on the American Revolution that tests readers’ knowledge of events and figures from the period. The quiz includes questions about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, among other topics. The American Revolution quiz is part of the “America at 250” project’s broader push to mark major moments in U.S. history.
An unusual April heat wave pushed temperatures into the 80s and 90s across the eastern United States on Wednesday, with major cities from Atlanta to New York City facing potential record highs that the National Weather Service said could persist through Friday. A strong ridge of high pressure fueling moisture into the southern plains drove the unseasonable conditions, the weather service said. Washington, D.C., was forecast to reach 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.9 Celsius) Wednesday and again Thursday; Philadelphia was expected to hit 92 degrees (33 Celsius).
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering reclassifying chemical plastic recycling facilities as manufacturers rather than incinerators under the Clean Air Act, a move environmental advocates say would immediately eliminate federal air pollution controls at those sites and expose surrounding communities to toxic emissions. The agency has solicited public comment on a potential rule that would shift pyrolysis plants — which use heat to break down plastics — out of Clean Air Act Section 129, which limits emissions of nine air pollutants including toxic particulates, heavy metals, and dioxins, the Associated Press reported April 15.
A Miami federal jury awarded $300,000 last Friday to Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California, after finding Carnival Cruise Line negligent in serving her at least 14 shots of tequila before she fell aboard one of its ships and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.
Dozens of millennials and members of Generation Z gathered in Brooklyn apartments and converted office spaces this spring to set their phones aside for evenings of reading, drawing, and face-to-face conversation — part of a small but growing rebellion against what participants call the corporate harvesting of human attention. The gatherings are the American face of an international "attention liberation" movement whose advocates say Big Tech has made its products too addictive for the industry's own corrective tools to fix.
The rare corpse flower housed at Mount Holyoke College's Talcott Greenhouse in South Hadley, Mass., bloomed overnight Monday, drawing visitors Tuesday who compared its notorious odor to rotting eggs, farm manure, and stinky diapers baking in the sun. The plant, nicknamed "Pangy" and known scientifically as *Amorphophallus titanum*, last bloomed at the college in 2023 and produces the foul smell only briefly and infrequently.
The House on Tuesday approved the Alert Act, a bill aimed at strengthening aviation safety requirements after a deadly midair collision near Washington last year involving an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter. The measure, backed by industry groups and pushed by Rep. Sam Graves and Rep. Rick Larsen, now heads to the Senate as key senators and families of the 67 victims say it still needs changes.
A Texas court hearing Monday featured testimony from the director of Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors were killed in a devastating Guadalupe River flood in 2025. Edward Eastland told the court he did not see flood warnings issued the day before the storm, that staff did not hold meetings about the danger, and that the camp did not order evacuations until it was too late.
A super typhoon called Sinlaku is bearing down on the Northern Mariana Islands, with Guam facing heavy rain and tropical storm-force wind gusts hours before the storm’s arrival, the National Weather Service said. The storm is expected to cross near the islands of Rota, Tinian and Saipan late Tuesday local time, bringing widespread rain, flooding and destructive winds that could lead to lengthy power outages.
Northern Michigan officials issued flood watches and warnings after a period of heavy rain raised concerns for river flooding and dam overflow, including at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency Friday at the complex, and crews began work Monday to restore power to a shuttered hydroelectric station and increase pumping. Officials also urged residents and business owners in flood-prone areas to monitor updates and prepare to act.
Marine heat waves are making hurricanes and other tropical cyclones more likely to rapidly intensify as they near land, according to a study published in Science Advances. Researchers analyzed 1,600 tropical cyclones making landfall since 1981 and found storms that traveled over exceptionally warm ocean waters were associated with far more billion-dollar disasters.
President Donald Trump said he tipped a DoorDash driver $100 after the driver delivered McDonald’s to the Oval Office on Monday, part of an effort by the White House to highlight a federal tax break for tips ahead of Tax Day. Trump made the moment public as media cameras rolled and invited the driver, Sharon Simmons, to stand beside him for questions.
Police in the Bahamas have released Brian Hooker, of Onsted, Michigan, after he was questioned following his wife’s disappearance from a small boat in waters off the island nation, authorities said Monday. Hooker told police that Lynette Hooker fell overboard while the couple traveled from Hope Town to Elbow Cay, according to a police statement.
Sara Mearns, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, shared with AP how missing cues and struggling to hear partners led her to get tested for hearing loss and eventually wear hearing aids during performances. Mearns said the transition felt like “a whole new chapter of my life,” and she described the adjustment process with a hearing specialist.
Rocky Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, has updated its long-range planning to flatline future wind and solar additions across multiple states, including Wyoming, from 2027 through 2045. The company said the shift is driven by a July 4, 2025 repeal of major parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which it said phases out tax benefits for renewables. A Sierra Club organizer criticized the plan, saying it creates uncertainty for developers even as utilities can revise their forecasts.
Haiti’s authorities arrested seven people, including five police officers, after a stampede at La Citadelle in Milot killed at least 25 people over the weekend, police said Monday. Dozens were injured, with 30 still in hospital as investigators work to determine what caused the crush.
Corpus Christi, Texas, is facing a serious water-shortage risk after yearslong drought has pushed key reservoirs to their lowest levels ever, officials said, leaving the city to scramble for groundwater and other supplies. The situation could lead to forced water cutbacks for residents and curtail operations at refineries and petrochemical plants in the Gulf Coast energy hub, where the region supplies fuel for much of the country.
Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos that roam freely in a central region of the country, where they threaten villagers and displace native species years after Pablo Escobar brought them to his Hacienda Nápoles ranch. Environment Minister Irene Vélez said previous population-control efforts were too expensive or unsuccessful and that as many as 80 hippos would be affected.
California’s eastern Sierra Nevada received a major spring snowstorm that briefly shut down Interstate 80 and helped extend Mammoth Mountain’s ski season, officials said. The storm dumped more than 3.5 feet (1 meter) of snow over the weekend in the mountains around Mammoth Lakes, according to the ski resort and the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab.
Denmark’s royal house says John Donaldson, the father of Australian-born Queen Mary, has died in Tasmania. A royal statement from Copenhagen said he was 84 and that his health had been declining for several years, with the queen visiting him at the end of March.
OSHA has cited three subcontractors for safety violations connected to the July 21, 2025, death of a worker building Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. A federal watchdog group said one of the companies was owned by a donor to President Donald Trump, and OSHA declined to cite the prime contractor tied to the fatal incident.
Climate change is pushing ecosystems to change faster than evolution can, scientists say, and they are increasingly turning to “conservation genomics” to guide restoration. The approach involves sequencing organisms’ genetic blueprints to find individuals or traits that may better survive drought, disease and other climate extremes, researchers say.
The United Nations warned Monday that humanitarian conditions could worsen after fighting erupted in Akobo, a strategic town in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, where opposition forces retook the town after ousting government troops. The U.N. Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, called for a cessation of hostilities and said it is engaging with parties to prevent further escalation.
The Nigerian Air Force strike that hit a weekly market in northeastern Nigeria left at least 100 people dead, according to Amnesty International and local reporting. Amnesty said survivors identified children among the dead after the Saturday attack near the Borno-Yobe border in Yobe state. Nigeria’s military said it conducted a strike on a Boko Haram logistics hub but did not provide details on any possible misfire.
Cruise companies visiting southeast Alaska have started skipping Tracy Arm after a massive landslide last summer generated waves that left the area’s slopes unstable, the Associated Press reported. With Tracy Arm’s North and South Sawyer glaciers and wildlife now considered a safety risk, major cruise lines are replacing the stop with Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier, officials and cruise operators said.
The U.S. House on April 14 approved the Alert Act, a bill aimed at reducing the risk of midair collisions after a jet and an Army helicopter crashed near Washington, leaving 67 people dead. The measure would require aircraft flying around busy airports to have locator and next-generation collision-avoidance systems, and it drew immediate calls from families and some lawmakers for stronger safeguards as it moves to the Senate.
Police in the Bahamas released Brian Hooker, a Michigan man who had been in custody after his wife, Lynette Hooker, disappeared from their small boat near the island nation, authorities said. Hooker told investigators he believed his wife fell overboard while they were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay on April 4, and he later contacted people on shore, according to the police account.
Police said one person was killed and six others were injured in a shooting at a Chick-fil-A in Union, New Jersey, late Saturday. Investigators said the attack at about 9 p.m. was not random, and authorities said there is no immediate ongoing threat to the general public.
A stampede at Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière mountaintop fortress popular with tourists in the north has killed at least 25 people and injured dozens, authorities said. Municipal officials in Cap-Haïtien said the Saturday incident in Milot involved asphyxiation and trampling, and many people were reported missing.
Miami officials said demolition experts used controlled implosion Sunday morning to demolish the former Mandarin Oriental hotel on Brickell Key, across from downtown, a human-made island at the mouth of the Miami River. The 23-story building collapsed in less than 20 seconds after blasts around 8:30 a.m., as residents within 800 feet were told to stay inside with windows and doors closed.
A Syrian man buried his wife and four children killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut earlier this week, laying them to rest in Deir el-Zour province in northeastern Syria, according to the Associated Press. The bodies arrived from Lebanon in wooden coffins, while search operations continued for one missing daughter believed trapped under rubble. The Associated Press also reported that Lebanon’s Health Ministry has put the overall death toll from the war with Hezbollah at more than 1,950 killed and more than 6,300 wounded.
A typhoon in Micronesia is expected to strengthen this weekend and move northwest toward Guam, the U.S. Coast Guard said, prompting warnings about flooding and high winds. Forecasters said Typhoon Sinlaku could reach the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane as it passes near or just south of Guam early next week.
Peruvians are set to vote Sunday for a new president and Congress, but illegal mining—driven by high gold prices and linked to deforestation and mercury pollution—has received limited attention in campaign platforms, according to environmental and anti-corruption groups. Experts say the narrow focus reflects a broader failure to confront what they describe as the country’s largest illicit economy, with consequences for Indigenous communities and public health.
Drought has threatened Ethiopia’s myrrh trees, a resin used in luxury perfumes and in local livelihoods, according to experts who visited harvesting sites in the Somali region. Researchers said trees are producing less resin and that fewer young trees are surviving as rainfall patterns fail and livestock graze near seedlings. The team also explored ways to connect harvesters directly to buyers to improve earnings and reduce the influence of middlemen.
Special forces in Guyana searched dense jungle in a mountainous area near the Brazilian border for the pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed near a gold mining district, the Associated Press reported. The Cessna Caravan, a 13-seat aircraft, was declared missing after failing to land as expected the day before, and local civil aviation authorities said the pilot was the only person aboard.
Trump’s administration approved major disaster declarations for at least seven states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday, moves that could unlock federal recovery support.
The U.S. Coast Guard and authorities in the Bahamas are investigating the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, who vanished while sailing between Hope Town and Elbow Cay. Police arrested her husband, Brian Hooker, and authorities said he told them she fell overboard from a small motorboat, but she has not been found. Her family and an attorney for Hooker say he has been cooperating and denies causing her disappearance.
Argentina’s Senate on Thursday approved a bill promoted by libertarian President Javier Milei that eases protections for glaciers, a move environmental groups say they will challenge in court. The legislation passed with 137 votes in favor, 111 against and three abstentions, and is expected to be signed by Milei in the coming days, according to the AP.
With a button press, workers descend hundreds of meters into Onkalo, Finland’s underground facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel. After decades of construction, authorities are expected to grant a license within months, potentially making the site the world’s first operating permanent repository for commercial radioactive waste.
Former U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee and helped lead high-profile foreign policy work including Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, has died. He was 79. Engel died Friday at a Bronx hospital of complications from Parkinson’s disease, his family said.
Residents on the North Shore of O‘ahu cleaned up flood-mud after late-February storms that authorities say are being linked to pesticide and bacterial contamination questions. State health officials have detected pathogens in mud and water in areas affected by the flooding, and the state is still waiting on results for additional bacteria and legacy pesticides. At the same time, experts and officials say the volume of rain would likely have diluted any pesticide residues to levels unlikely to be hazardous—though farmers fear harm to soil, food safety and organic certification.
Los Angeles needs more than 100,000 construction workers to help rebuild after the Palisades Fire and the Eaton fire, according to a state analysis discussed by CalMatters and reported by the Associated Press. Community colleges are expanding carpentry and related training programs to match demand, with funding that has started to reach campuses after recent awards.
The Trump administration has proposed weakening federal rules for handling coal-plant ash that can contain hazardous heavy metals and contaminate groundwater, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal would ease monitoring near some ash sites and roll back requirements aimed at cleaning up entire coal properties, while also making it easier to reuse coal ash. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes reflect the agency’s commitment to “restoring American energy dominance” and “accommodating unique circumstances” at some facilities, while environmental and other groups warned the rule could increase the risk to water and human health.
A Mexican judge ruled that the aircraft involved in a 2018 Cuba crash that killed 112 people suffered severe maintenance failures and should never have flown. The judge ordered charter operator Aerolíneas Damojh to pay millions of dollars in damages to the families of Mexican crew members who sued.
Before and during his second term, President Donald Trump has pushed to keep coal plants operating, using emergency authorities and other government powers to delay retirements that utilities had planned under Biden-era climate rules, according to an Associated Press review of government data and interviews with experts. Opponents say the approach could raise electricity prices, worsen air pollution and slow progress on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he has become an honorary citizen of Albania, announced Friday by Albanian officials and confirmed by a spokesperson for Adams. The Albanian president, Bajram Begaj, issued a decree granting the honorary status “at his request,” the Associated Press reported. Adams, who previously spoke of his desire to move abroad after leaving politics, described the development as part of a long relationship with the Albanian-American community.
Five people have been charged with murder over a July 1 explosion at an illegal fireworks warehouse near Esparto, Calif., that killed seven people, authorities said April 10. The charges stem from a grand jury indictment related to the blast that also injured two others, Yolo County prosecutors said.
Nevada’s largest electricity provider, NV Energy, says planned data-center expansions could multiply the power demand it must serve—potentially making it difficult to hit the state’s clean-energy targets. The utility warned that meeting the expected load growth may require more fossil-fuel generation, as lawmakers and environmental groups argue over whether data centers should bear the costs of new renewable power.
A drone strike hit a wedding party in Sudan’s Darfur region on Wednesday, killing at least 30 civilians, the United Nations said. The U.N. said the ceremony was in Kutum in North Darfur, as the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces continues.
Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday hit deep inside central Beirut, killing more than 300 people and wounding over 1,800, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The attacks targeted multiple neighborhoods and commercial corridors, including areas along the city’s seafront, as Israel later said Hezbollah had moved into residential and commercial zones.
Israeli attacks hit Lebanon on Wednesday, with an AP reporter in Beirut describing a barrage that began at 2:14 p.m. and left parts of the capital in smoke, rubble and gridlocked streets. The reporter said Israel described striking Hezbollah targets and that more than 300 people were killed, according to the AP account.
Iranian Americans in the United States described fear and uncertainty after President Donald Trump issued threats toward Iran and then agreed to a two-week ceasefire in the war, according to interviews. Many said they are trying to assess whether relatives in Iran are safe, while others said the prospect of renewed fighting is forcing painful conversations at home.
Iranian Americans reacted with whiplash after President Donald Trump threatened Iran, then agreed to a fragile two-week ceasefire—leaving many worried about family in Iran and anxious about what comes next. In protests in cities including Austin, Texas, and across the country, some urged an end to the war, while others described fear and moral unease over the conflict’s civilian toll.
A Frontier Airlines pilot prevented a near collision with two trucks at Los Angeles International Airport when the vehicles crossed the plane’s path on a taxiway, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday. The FAA is investigating the incident, which happened late Wednesday and did not injure anyone.
A New York City man was charged after prosecutors said he set fire to a residential building in Queens last month, killing four people, including a 3-year-old. Prosecutors said the man acted in what he described as a “fit of rage” after losing his job.
A town near Japan’s Mount Fuji says “tourism pollution” has worsened as social media drives more visitors to see cherry blossoms and the mountain’s iconic views. In Fujiyoshida, officials canceled the annual cherry blossom festival this year and increased crowd controls at the start of the season, after complaints that residents faced traffic, litter and other disturbances from tourists.
Maryland reached a settlement in principle with the owner and operator of the M/V Dali after the ship crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, Attorney General Anthony Brown said. The agreement resolves a portion of the state’s claims, Brown said, and the companies said they also reached a separate settlement agreement with ACE American Insurance Company.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon appeals court sided with PacifiCorp on Wednesday in a ruling that could jeopardize more than $1 billion in damages sought by victims of the state’s devastating 2020 wildfires. The Oregon Court of Appeals sent the class-action case back to a lower trial court after finding the 2023 jury was given an instruction that improperly allowed jurors to apply evidence from multiple fires to all class members.
U.S. State Department and officials said freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson, kidnapped in Baghdad in late March, has been released, and her mother in Wisconsin said she hopes her daughter will return home. Barb Kittleson said she emailed her daughter from a Mount Horeb library and that she has not seen Shelly since 2002.
Raoni Metuktire, the Amazon’s internationally known indigenous leader, said on Wednesday he still supports President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and plans to campaign for Lula’s reelection in October, despite protesting government-backed projects. He spoke at the Free Land encampment in Brasilia, Brazil’s largest indigenous mobilization, where about 7,000 people from 200 groups have camped for a week.
Israel carried out strikes in central Beirut on Wednesday hours after a ceasefire was announced in its war with Iran, according to Lebanon, leaving at least 182 people dead and hundreds wounded. U.S. President Donald Trump said Lebanon was not included in the deal, adding that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah were a separate issue.
The roof over a stairwell at a parking garage being built at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia collapsed suddenly on Wednesday, killing one person and leaving two others missing and presumed dead, authorities said. Mayor Cherelle Parker said rescue efforts continued as search teams worked amid structural concerns, including reports that search dogs found no signs of life by Thursday.
MARANA, Ariz. — A small plane crash at a Marana-area airport killed two people, city officials said Wednesday. The aircraft went off the runway and burst into flames, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
A Frontier Airlines jet nearly collided with two trucks on a service road at Los Angeles International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The agency is investigating after the incident occurred while the plane was moving slowly on a taxiway late Wednesday.
In Omaha, a sinkhole that swallowed vehicles on Pacific Street in February went viral, but city records show many cave-ins occur with little notice. City Engineer Austin Rowser said crews reported more than 2,100 cave-ins over the past five years, ranging from minor pavement dips to large collapses.
A Wyoming judge sentenced Cody Roberts, 44, to 18 months of probation for hitting a wolf with a snowmobile, taping the wounded animal’s mouth shut, bringing it into a rural bar and then killing it, according to court proceedings. District Judge Richard Lavery imposed a $1,000 fine and ordered Roberts not drink alcohol, enter a bar or liquor store, or hunt or fish while on probation.
Activists say Poland’s flagship “Clean Air” program to curb household smog-linked heating demand has lost momentum, threatening both public health progress and the country’s energy security. The government points to a mid-program reform and says it needs tighter screening to prevent misuse of public funds.
A miner was rescued Wednesday after being trapped for nearly 14 days following a collapse and flooding at the El Rosario mine in Sinaloa, northern Mexico, authorities said. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also confirmed that one miner was found dead and another remains missing. The dam breach caused by a structural failure flooded the mine after the March 25 accident, and rescuers later lowered equipment to reach the remaining survivor.
Unseasonable heat pushed March to the hottest March on record across the continental United States, with federal data showing the month ran 9.35 degrees Fahrenheit (5.19 C) above the 20th-century normal. The Associated Press reports the record comes as NOAA data show the warmest 12-month period on record for the Lower 48 and as forecasts call for a strong El Niño later this year.
Brazil’s Petrobras has begun exploratory offshore drilling near the mouth of the Amazon after securing environmental licensing, triggering migration to a remote riverside city as residents weigh promised jobs against infrastructure strains and environmental risks. In Oiapoque, Brazil, new neighborhoods are expanding amid limited sewage and street access, while environmental and Indigenous groups have sued to halt the drilling. City council members and Indigenous leaders described the changes unfolding as operations begin offshore and political debates intensify.
Bahamas police said late Wednesday they have arrested Brian Hooker, the husband of U.S. citizen Lynette Hooker, after Lynette vanished from a small boat near the Abaco archipelago. The Coast Guard said it opened a criminal investigation, and Bahamian police said search and investigative efforts remain active.
A decades-in-the-making collection of concert recordings compiled by Chicago music fan Aadam Jacobs is being digitized and made available online by volunteers with the Internet Archive, the Associated Press reported. The effort centers on Jacobs’ taped performances from the late 1980s onward, including an early Nirvana show, as the tapes are cleaned up for streaming and free download.
Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, has died. He was 97. Whittaker died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington, according to a statement from his family.
A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty in federal court in Laredo, Texas, acknowledging his role in an attempt to smuggle migrants to the United States that ended in a crash in Mexico in 2021. Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, entered the plea to a federal felony conspiracy charge, the U.S. Department of Justice said, and sentencing is scheduled for July 7.
Many people pull into a driveway or parking spot and stay in their cars for a few minutes—sometimes while scrolling on a phone, other times just sitting—before going inside. Psychologists told the Associated Press that these brief parked-car pauses can act as an emotional buffer, helping people decompress between parts of the day. They also cautioned that the same “reset” can backfire when it turns into rumination or phone scrolling that keeps stress in motion.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told a conference of climate skeptics to “celebrate vindication” after the agency repealed a 2009 legal determination used as the basis for federal rules to slow climate change. The remarks came as environmental groups and others criticized his appearance at an event hosted by the conservative Heartland Institute.
MARANA, Ariz. — A Piper PA-32 plane crashed at a small airport in Marana, Arizona, killing two people, officials said Wednesday. City officials said the aircraft went off the runway and burst into flames, and the National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation.
Philadelphia officials said one person died and two others were missing and presumed dead after a partial roof collapse at a parking garage under construction at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Mayor Cherelle Parker said the stairwell roof collapse triggered a progressive collapse across seven levels, and search efforts continued as crews prepared to deconstruct the unstable structure.
Texas health regulators told Camp Mystic’s owners they are investigating “hundreds of complaints” about the all-girls camp’s 2025 operations as the state considers whether the camp can reopen this summer after last year’s deadly floods. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the Texas Rangers are also helping investigate allegations of neglect linked to the July 4 disaster that killed 27 girls and others, as families and lawyers press for answers.
Offset, the former member of the hip-hop trio Migos, was shot Monday outside a Florida casino, and police in Hollywood, just north of Miami, detained two people as they investigated who may have fired. The rapper was in stable condition at a hospital Tuesday, authorities said. Here’s a look at his career, his relationship with Cardi B, and past violence tied to the group.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is advancing a proposal that would give tax credits aimed at boosting production of sustainable aviation fuel, with credits funded through a mechanism tied to diesel excise taxes. Supporters say the plan protects jobs and helps meet climate goals, while critics including UC Berkeley economists and the state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst warn it could raise gas prices and divert money from highway and local road maintenance. The proposal is expected to receive a final legislative hearing on Thursday.
An Omaha sinkhole went viral after a patch of Pacific Street collapsed in February, swallowing vehicles and alarming residents. City and geology officials said the city’s fine-grained loess soil and water leaks into sewer and storm systems can help create the underground voids that lead to cave-ins. They also said most reported cave-ins remain minor and that engineers have procedures for investigating and repairing the underground problem.
Parents of a 1½-year-old boy who was hurt at ZooAmerica in Hersheypark after entering a restricted area near a wolf exhibit have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, Pennsylvania police said. The case stems from an incident Saturday shortly before noon, when the toddler slipped through a fence barrier and reached a chain-link enclosure, police said.
The rapper Offset was shot outside a Florida casino and was in stable condition Monday night, a spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. Police said the injuries were not life-threatening after a shooting that followed a fight at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, just north of Miami.
Panama authorities closed the Bridge of the Americas over the Panama Canal after a fuel truck exploded at the base of the span, killing one person and injuring two firefighters, according to the Fire Department. The blast occurred around 4 p.m. Monday, and officials said the cause had not been determined as firefighters extinguished the flames and engineers assessed potential damage to the decades-old bridge.
NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — Matthew Shifrin, who is blind, says accessible, braille instructions for Lego sets gave him his first chance to build on his own. The 28-year-old launched the nonprofit Bricks for the Blind after a family friend handed him instructions in braille three years earlier, and the group now provides free downloads for blind or visually impaired Lego builders.
Ford is recalling 422,613 vehicles because windshield wiper arms can break, reducing visibility and increasing the risk of a crash, the company said. The recall covers certain 2021-2023 Ford Expeditions, 2021-2023 Lincoln Navigators, and 2022-2023 F-Series Super Duty trucks, Ford said.
California is ending support for a partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to restore endangered winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River in far northern California, tribal officials said. The tribe fears the abrupt stop will stall mid-stream restoration work, including research and jobs tied to the project. State officials said the funding was a time-limited drought response pilot that has been exhausted.
A Cape Air flight departing Nantucket, Massachusetts, returned to the airport after part of the main cabin door opened shortly after takeoff, the airline said. No injuries were reported, and the aircraft was taken out of service for evaluation, following established safety procedures.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin toured parts of North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene, pledging faster progress on federal disaster assistance during his first official trip in the role. Mullin said the Trump administration would help move forward on pending disaster declaration requests and clear a backlog of FEMA needs ahead of the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season.
A high school principal in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, was shot in the leg Tuesday after confronting a man who entered the school with a gun, authorities said. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the suspect, a 20-year-old former student, was taken into custody. Officials said no students were injured in the shooting and the principal was in stable condition.
Environmental groups asked a federal appeals court panel Tuesday to lift a temporary halt on an order requiring Florida officials to close the state’s Everglades detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The request comes as judges at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned when federal law applies to the state-run facility, which opened last summer to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Savannah Guthrie returned to the anchor desk on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday for the first time in more than two months since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her Arizona home. Guthrie said as the program opened, “Here we go, ready or not,” and thanked viewers for starting the week with the show.
KYIV, Ukraine — Volunteers released hundreds of bats late Saturday at events planned for the arrival of spring near Kyiv, offering families and bat enthusiasts a rare moment of relief after a harsh winter. Hundreds of bats, many rescued from war-torn areas in eastern Ukraine, were freed into the twilight at a nature park on the edge of Kyiv.
MELBOURNE, Australia, April 6, 2026 — Thirty passengers were evacuated from a cruise ship that ran aground on a reef in Fiji, the ship’s owner said Monday. The MV Fiji Princess, operated by Blue Lagoon Cruises, ran aground Saturday near Monuriki Island, the Fiji-based tourism company said.
Heavy rain and storms across Afghanistan have killed at least 110 people, injured 160 and left seven missing over about 12 days, according to the Disaster Management Authority. Authorities also reported widespread destruction, with hundreds of homes completely destroyed and thousands more damaged.
Route 66 marks its 100th anniversary this year, with travelers from around the world still flocking to what many call the quintessential American road trip. The highway, now decommissioned as a federal route, still draws visitors to neon-lit towns, roadside food and motels, and preserved stretches from the Midwest to California.
Two months after nine backcountry skiers were killed in a California avalanche near Lake Tahoe, an analysis by U.S. avalanche experts says tour leaders should have spaced the group out through dangerous terrain despite avalanche warnings. The report was published Saturday by the Sierra Avalanche Center on the National Avalanche Center website, and it cites “best practice” guidance that larger groups of four or more face higher odds of being caught.
A gasoline tanker truck burst into flames Sunday in the Fort Worth area after colliding with another vehicle and knocking over power lines, Fort Worth authorities said. The driver was hospitalized in critical condition with burns, and firefighters spent hours spraying the tanker and using sand to contain the leaking fuel.
The Associated Press has published a year-in-review roll call of influential people who died in 2026, including former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and martial arts star Chuck Norris. The list also highlights other notable deaths through March, including White House aide Alexander Butterfield and actor Mary Beth Hurt.
Savannah Guthrie returned to co-hosting NBC’s “Today” show on Monday, more than two months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her Arizona home. Despite a months-long effort involving thousands of law enforcement officers and volunteers, authorities said there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1.
A toddler was lightly injured by a wolf at ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, after he crawled under an exterior metal fence and stuck his hand into the wolf habitat, the zoo said Sunday. Zoo officials said the child was not inside the wolf habitat and that the injuries were minor. The zoo described the wolf’s response as consistent with natural animal behavior and said the incident was not a sign of aggression.
A juvenile gray whale that swam about 20 miles up a Washington state river was found dead near Raymond, according to a marine research biologist and a nonprofit that tracked the animal. Researchers said the whale appeared thin but was behaving normally, and they suspected hunger may have driven it to follow prey as the species’ eastern Pacific population declines.
Swedish authorities released the EU-sanctioned tanker Flora 1 after concluding they lacked sufficient evidence that the ship caused a Baltic Sea oil spill, the Swedish Coast Guard said. The spill was discovered Thursday and the vessel was boarded and detained after Swedish officials linked the case to a tanker on the European Union’s sanctions list for transporting Russian oil with unsafe shipping practices.
A vehicle struck revelers during a Lao New Year celebration parade in rural Louisiana on Saturday, injuring about 15 people, some seriously, authorities said. The driver was arrested and charged with impaired driving after police said tests showed he had a high blood alcohol level.
Police pursuits have led to at least eight deaths across the United States in less than a week, the Associated Press reported, as some law enforcement experts urged agencies to curb risky, high-speed chases. The incidents include a fatal crash on a rural Alabama road during a state trooper pursuit and multiple deadly crashes during police pursuits in Texas and California.
Swedish authorities released a tanker that had been detained for suspected involvement in a Baltic Sea oil spill after investigators found insufficient evidence the vessel was at fault, according to the Swedish Coast Guard. The ship had been sanctioned by the European Union and boarded on suspicion it caused a 12-kilometer spill discovered last week.
Louisiana authorities said a vehicle struck revelers during a Lao New Year parade Saturday in rural Louisiana, injuring about 15 people. Police arrested and charged the driver with impaired driving, and state police said a test showed a high blood alcohol level. Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Rebecca Melancon said investigators so far found no indication the crash was intentional.
Police pursuits have led to at least eight deaths around the United States in less than a week, according to the Associated Press. In Alabama, four people were killed after a car pursued by a state trooper left a rural road and hit a tree, and in Texas and California, other pursuits ended in fatal crashes.
A 3-year-old immigrant who crossed the border near El Paso last year suffered alleged sexual abuse while in federal custody and placed in foster care, according to a lawsuit described by her legal team and her father. The father learned of the allegations only after turning to the courts. He later reunited with his daughter after attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition.
Crews battled a fast-growing wildfire Friday in windy Southern California that forced some residents to evacuate and led a community college to temporarily close. The Springs Fire broke out around 11 a.m. east of Moreno Valley in Riverside County, and by Friday evening had grown to about 6.5 square miles, according to Cal Fire and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Descendants of Choctaw code talkers gathered in Fort Worth for an April 1 unveiling of a new historical marker at Veterans Memorial Park. The plaque, unveiled during a ceremony hosted by the Oklahoma tribe, the Texas Historical Commission and the city’s parks and recreation department, recognizes the group’s use of Choctaw language to send encrypted messages to Allied forces during World War I.
Sweden’s Coast Guard released the EU-sanctioned tanker Flora 1 after investigators said they found no sufficient evidence that the vessel caused an oil spill in the Baltic Sea. The ship had been boarded and detained after a spill was discovered Thursday, according to the Coast Guard and Swedish authorities.
Sweden’s Coast Guard said it boarded a tanker suspected of causing a 12-kilometer (8-mile) oil spill in the Baltic Sea after the vessel left a Russian port. The Coast Guard said the ship is under European Union sanctions tied to the “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil.
The earthquake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 5.8, struck late Friday with an epicenter in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush range, killing at least eight people in Afghanistan, authorities said. In Pakistan, it was felt across several cities and towns, while there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The Artemis II crew is more than halfway to the moon, but NASA said the Orion capsule’s toilet has malfunctioned again, requiring Mission Control to direct astronauts to use additional backup urine-collection bags. Debbie Korth, the Orion program deputy manager, said the crew also reported a smell from the bathroom area as the crew prepares for a Monday flyaround of the moon’s far side.
A vehicle struck revelers at a Lao New Year parade in rural Louisiana on Saturday, injuring several people, authorities said. The driver was arrested and charged with impaired driving, according to police. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he and his wife were praying for those affected.
A father whose 3-year-old daughter was placed in federal custody after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border said her release after months in foster care came only after his case reached the courts. He alleges she suffered sexual abuse while in the foster placement, and his daughter’s lawyer said the abuse was reported to local law enforcement and that a forensic exam and interview took place.
New research and reporting on sand sourcing in Massachusetts show how beach “nourishment” projects can depend on material taken from cranberry bogs, drawing complaints from people living near excavation sites. In Cranberry Village in Carver, residents living near a sand excavation site owned by A.D. Makepeace say sand dust and noise have become a public-health and quality-of-life concern.
State police troopers rescued a bear cub found alone in a ditch along the side of Interstate 78 in Union Township, northern New Jersey, officials said. The troopers responded shortly before 1:40 p.m. Wednesday to milepost 12.2 on the eastbound side, and later turned the animal over to Environmental Protection Department staff for care.
Mississippi lawmakers on Wednesday sent a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves that would create a state grant program to help homeowners retrofit properties to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes and other windstorm damage. The Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program, approved by both the House and Senate, would offer grants of up to $10,000, administered through the state Department of Insurance.
Seattle-area whale watchers have spotted three killer whales that researchers say had not been recorded in the region before, drawing crowds of visitors to Puget Sound waters near downtown over the past month. The Washington-based Orca Conservancy says the pod members have been designated T419, T420 and T421 and appear to be transient whales that likely originated from Alaska.
WESTLAND, Mich., and Trenton, Mich. — Kids raced at two Detroit-area parks Friday to grab thousands of marshmallows dropped from a helicopter as part of Wayne County Parks’ annual Marshmallow Drop. Organizers held the events about two hours apart, and officials urged participants not to eat the treats because they landed on the grass.
Regulators in the U.S. and the states of Montana and Wyoming are seeking public comment on the proposed Bridger Pipeline Expansion, a project intended to move Canadian crude from the border in Phillips County, Montana, to a terminal near Guernsey. The 30-day public scoping period began this week, with officials planning multiple public meetings as the federal review evaluates environmental and community impacts.
Una excursionista en la Costa Oeste de la Isla Sur de Nueva Zelanda cayó por una cascada de 55 metros y fue rescatada con heridas graves el 24 de marzo, pero su perra border collie, llamada Molly, no estaba con ella. Unos días después, la policía confirmó que la perra seguía desaparecida y la búsqueda se mantuvo, hasta que un helicóptero encontró a Molly el 31 de marzo, tras una semana perdida en el bosque.
The Trump administration said it is combining two offshore drilling agencies created after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill into a single unit under the Department of the Interior. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the change would streamline offshore oil and gas permitting while keeping existing regulatory protections and safety standards.
Copenhagen’s harbor has yielded the wreck of a Danish warship sunk during the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum said Thursday, 225 years to the day after the fighting. Marine archaeologists are racing to excavate the shipwreck of the Dannebroge before it is affected by construction for a new housing district in the Lynetteholm project.
Honolulu City Council members questioned the city’s emergency management response to North Shore flooding, saying evacuation orders came late and updates were unclear. During a Wednesday council meeting, officials defended their decision-making as complicated by monitoring limits and a focus on whether flooding threatened a key dam area. State agriculture leaders, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to pursue quick federal aid for storm-damaged farms, while Gov. Josh Green said he has sought a presidential disaster declaration.
A powerful storm front sweeping across Greece over the past 24 hours brought gale-force winds and flooding, leaving one man dead and disrupting travel in and around Athens. Greek state radio and officials said fire crews responded to hundreds of calls for help as homes and roads were affected, while on islands in the Aegean some bridges and vehicles were damaged or swept away.
Reports on April Fools’ Day of the death of the world’s oldest known land animal, a 193-year-old tortoise named Jonathan, were exaggerated. On St. Helena, the island’s communications chief Anne Dillon told The Associated Press on Thursday that Jonathan is alive.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed for the first time to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a federal list of contaminants in drinking water, a step that could lead to new limits for water utilities. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the proposal is meant to respond to Americans concerned about plastics and medicines in tap water and is tied to the MAHA agenda promoted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Associated Press released body camera footage Thursday showing Tiger Woods’ arrest on a DUI charge after a crash last week in Florida, including a roadside sobriety test where a deputy told him his “normal faculties are impaired.” In the video, Woods is seen being handcuffed after failing the sobriety test and appearing to yawn and nod off during a ride to the sheriff’s office.
A man killed four children in a machete attack inside a nursery school in Kampala, Uganda, police said Thursday. The suspect gained access to the Gaba Early Childhood Development Program by disguising himself as a parent, police said. Parents gathered outside the school after hearing the attack, and police fired in the air to disperse an angry crowd, according to police.
Oklahoma junior college student Ethan Dietz died after a head injury during a game in Texas on Nov. 22, his family’s attorneys said, alleging the team failed to provide proper medical care before putting him back on the court. The college said it was unaware of any active or pending litigation and declined to comment on potential claims.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin rescinded a rule requiring Department of Homeland Security expenditures over $100,000 to receive his office’s personal approval, a change that DHS said is aimed at streamlining contracting. The move follows a policy put in place by Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, that critics said delayed FEMA disaster response and recovery work. DHS said the agency remains constrained by a government shutdown that had reached 47 days by April 1.
An undersea magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck parts of northern Indonesia near the Molucca Sea on Thursday, killing at least one person, damaging buildings and triggering a small tsunami, the Disaster Management Agency and other officials said. The shaking was felt in Bitung and Ternate, and authorities reported aftershocks including one of magnitude 6.2.
A fire on the 11th floor of a historic Wayne State University building in Detroit prompted an evacuation on Wednesday, authorities said. The fire was contained, no injuries were reported, and investigators said it likely began in the heating and cooling system.
Colorado recorded its worst snowpack since statewide recordkeeping began in 1941, and hydrologists say the early, low mountain snow leaves less water for the drought-stricken US West. The findings come as cities announce new restrictions and ranchers weigh earlier feed cuts, while states negotiate new rules for managing Colorado River shortages before current agreements expire in September.
California officials say a grenade explosion last year that killed three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies involved “willful” safety violations, including failure to provide effective training and leaving explosives unattended. The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations and about $350,000 in fines in January, and the department is appealing, according to the state.
The San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land says it has agreed to buy the 161-acre Golden Gate Fields site on the Berkeley-Albany border and transfer it to the East Bay Regional Park District. The track closed in 2024, and the deal—valued at $175 million with a $20 million district contribution—would convert the former horse-racing venue into a new bayside park, according to officials and the trust.
A pile-up at a toll booth on a busy highway in central Colombia killed at least two people and injured 19, local authorities said Wednesday. The crash occurred on the Cundinamarca highway about 50 kilometers north of Bogota after a milk truck lost control of its brakes, officials said.
Climate change is intensifying droughts, disrupting rainfall and fueling wildfires, pushing more regions to turn to the sea for drinking water. Desalination—removing salt from seawater—can produce freshwater where rain, rivers or groundwater can’t meet demand, and its use is growing worldwide, including in drought-prone U.S. coastal areas. The technology comes with major trade-offs, including energy use and environmental impacts such as harm to marine life.
A ship operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation collided with a Norwegian krill trawler off Antarctica, the trawler’s owner said, in an incident that threatened the crew and raised alarms about damage in environmentally sensitive waters. The trawler owner likened the collision to a “terrorist attack,” while Watson’s foundation disputed that characterization and said the contact was a “gentle nudge.” The collision occurred Tuesday, according to a video provided to The Associated Press.
Brazil’s banks will be required to verify satellite-based deforestation data tied to properties before approving rural credit, starting Wednesday, according to a rule approved in December. The new requirements use a government registry of areas flagged for potential illegal deforestation after July 31, 2019.
The Italian coast guard said it found 19 bodies and rescued 58 people after intercepting a dinghy carrying migrants that was in distress about 80 nautical miles from Lampedusa, the Italian island that serves as a major entry point to Europe. The rescue took place Tuesday night in the Libyan search and rescue zone during rough weather, a coast guard spokesperson said.
Warm winter weather linked to human-caused climate change can make nitrate pollution reach drinking-water sources more often, experts say. In Iowa, Des Moines Water Works spent about $16,000 a day in January and February filtering nitrates after rare winter events, the Associated Press reported. Researchers and officials warn that more frequent thaw-and-runoff patterns could raise water-quality and affordability pressures for rural and low-income communities.
A federal judge in Nevada rejected a bid by conservation groups to block the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine, ruling that regulators had properly approved the project and sufficiently examined impacts to an endangered wildflower. The case centered on Tiehm’s buckwheat, whose entire population is confined to a small area within the project site in Esmeralda County.
HAVANA (AP) — Yuneisy Riviaux, an unemployed mother of two in Havana, said she sometimes cannot provide lunch for her daughters amid persistent blackouts, shortages and cuts to Cuba’s state ration system. She and her husband, Cristóbal Estrada, describe how U.S. energy restrictions intensified an already worsening economic crisis, leaving pharmacies empty and public transportation strained by gasoline shortages.
Iraqi security forces are pursuing the captors of American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, according to Iraqi officials and a U.S. State Department statement. Iraqi authorities said they launched an operation that involved crashes and a vehicle seizure, while the U.S. said it had warned her about threats.
HONOLULU — A Hawaii seabird known as the manu-o-Kū, or white tern, has increased in Honolulu over the past decade, with new counts showing the birds thriving in the city’s trees despite threats that have reduced many other native species in the islands. The volunteer group Hui Manu-o-Kū says it documented 691 eggs and chicks in Honolulu trees as of this week, and that a 2023 survey found breeding adults on Oahu rose 1.5 times to 3,600 compared with 2016. Scientists say they are not sure why the birds are doing well in the urban environment.
A Buddhist meditation hall at Tassajara Mountain Zen Center in central California burned down in an attic fire March 26, destroying the wooden structure and damaging the nearby library, officials said. The center’s leaders said no one was injured, and monks and staff helped contain the blaze while volunteer firefighters traveled roughly an hour from a nearby community.
Americans can cut down on fast furniture purchases by seeking free items through community groups, shopping secondhand, and maintaining what they already own, according to experts cited by The Associated Press.
The Transportation Security Administration detained a U.S. Marine at Palm Springs International Airport in California after TSA personnel found a live 25 mm explosive round in the Marine’s checked baggage, police said. Palm Springs police said the explosive ordnance disposal team confirmed the round was live with X-ray technology and destroyed it in a desert area near Interstate 10.
Mexico’s government has denied accusations by environmental groups that it lied about where a massive oil spill off Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico began, after the spill spread into protected nature reserves and coastal areas. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said Tuesday that authorities have not reported any leak in state oil infrastructure and that natural seeps are a more likely explanation. The groups, which include Greenpeace Mexico and CEMDA, cite satellite images and say an oil slick appeared in early February and points to a pipeline tied to state-run Pemex.
The Trump administration exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told officials the decision was needed for national security. The action, decided by a panel known as the “God Squad” and chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, drew criticism from conservation groups and came as global oil markets have been shaken by the Iran war.
Electric bicycles can travel faster than many riders expect, and that speed contributes to injuries when riders and pedestrians share sidewalks and paths, Associated Press reported. A Minnesota woman, Janet Stotko, was struck by a 14-year-old riding an electric bike at about 25 mph and survived after severe head injuries and surgery.
Stephen Lewis, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime social activist, has died at 88, his family and the Stephen Lewis Foundation said. Lewis was diagnosed with stomach cancer eight years ago.
The Biden administration? No—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the case for an exemption would be based on national security. The Endangered Species Committee granted that request this week, a move scientists and conservation groups said could put the rare Rice’s whale at greater risk as the Trump administration seeks to expand Gulf oil and gas drilling.
The U.S. Virgin Islands-based? No. On Oʻahu’s North Shore, residents and farmers say neglected plantation-era irrigation ditches, culverts and drainage infrastructure helped worsen flooding during recent storms. Reporting from Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed by The Associated Press describes disputes over who is responsible for maintaining the patchwork of waterways as the region rebuilds and seeks clearer enforcement.
The EPA’s Office of Inspector General found that about 100 of the federal Superfund sites most contaminated by toxic waste sit in areas vulnerable to flooding and wildfires, according to two new reports. The inspector general said cleanup plans often failed to account for flood damage from sea-level rise, heavy rain, and more frequent storms and wildfires, raising concerns for communities near the sites.
Supporters of César Chavez on Tuesday wrestled with how to honor his legacy after allegations that he groomed and sexually abused women and young girls surfaced in reporting this month. As states and local governments marked what had long been “César Chavez Day,” some officials moved to rename the holiday or cancel celebrations, while others grappled with whether monuments and public recognition can coexist with the claims.
A 15-year-old student shot a teacher at a Texas high school and then fatally shot himself Monday morning, authorities said. No other injuries were reported at Hill Country College Preparatory High School in Bulverde, near San Antonio, as investigators sought to understand what led to the attack and how the student obtained the firearm.
Millions of Americans are weighing home energy upgrades as electricity bills rise, and in parts of Michigan, residents are banding together for discounts through Solarize programs. An Associated Press report describes how towns and counties in the state have taken over the administration of the neighborhood-based solar-buying model, which has roots in Portland, Oregon.
Tiger Woods faces DUI-related charges in Florida after a rollover crash in Jupiter Island, authorities said, including a count tied to his refusal of a urine test. A change to Florida law last year could allow prosecutors to pursue that refusal even without lab results, legal experts said.
Arctic sea ice shrank to a tie for the lowest measured winter level as unseasonably warm conditions shattered temperature records across multiple regions, including the United States, Mexico and parts of Europe, according to climate scientists cited by The Associated Press. The winter ice maximum matters because it sets the starting point for the summer melt season that leads to the year’s minimum.
Joe and Jill Biden have adopted two black Lab-mix puppies, Boo and Scout, at the former president’s home in Delaware, according to the animal welfare group that helped arrange the adoption. The puppies are siblings rescued from an overcrowded shelter in Tennessee.
A federal judge in Washington ruled Friday that the Trump administration can hold a meeting next week to seek a national-security exemption from the Endangered Species Act for expanded Gulf of Mexico oil and gas drilling. District of Columbia Judge Rudolph Contreras rejected a request by the Center for Biological Diversity to pause the Interior Department’s meeting, which the administration says is authorized under a provision tied to national security.
Vermont defended its 2024 climate superfund law in federal court on Monday, as the Trump administration and industry-backed groups urged a judge to throw out lawsuits challenging the measure. The case centers on whether Vermont can require fossil fuel companies to pay for harms tied to global greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts in the state.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland soccer tournament organized for immigrant and refugee girls drew dozens of volunteer coaches, referees and community supporters, offering a rare sense of safety as many families grapple with the stress and fear of federal immigration enforcement.
People often overestimate the climate benefit of low-impact actions such as recycling and underestimate higher-impact choices such as avoiding plane flights and changing meat consumption, a new study says. Researchers found that when Americans ranked the climate effect of everyday behaviors, they were frequently wrong about which actions mattered most.
Paramilitaries and allied forces attacked Dilling, the capital of South Kordofan province, in Sudan’s latest deadly assault, killing at least 14 people, including five children, medical officials said. The Sudan Doctors Network said the hourslong attack wounded at least 23 others and involved shelling of residential areas. The Rapid Support Forces and their allies launched the offensive on Saturday, according to the military, which said it fended off the attack after previously breaking an RSF siege earlier this year.
Kabul, Afghanistan, severe flooding, a landslide and thunderstorms left 17 people dead and 26 injured over the last 24 hours, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority. The agency also said the storms damaged roads, homes and agricultural areas, with more heavy rainfall forecast for parts of the country.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that hands-free driver-assistance systems do not improve safety, citing two fatal crashes involving Ford’s Blue Cruise. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the technology functions mainly as “convenience features rather than safety enhancements,” after hearings that included the 2024 crashes in Texas and Pennsylvania that killed three people.
A stranded humpback whale in Germany’s Baltic Sea is showing signs of further weakening, officials said in a news conference in Wismar on March 29. Rescuers left the whale inside a 500-meter restricted area to rest after earlier attempts to free it, as experts said hopes of an eventual return to the Atlantic are fading.
Hundreds of partygoers fled a dance club in Germany’s Kehl early Sunday after a fire broke out in the early hours, emergency services said. Authorities said none of the club’s roughly 750 guests were injured, though police reported three people were treated at the scene for shock.
Police in Derby, England, arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after a car hit pedestrians in the city center, sending seven people to hospitals, the Derbyshire Constabulary said. The incident happened at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday on Friar Gate, a popular night spot.
Huntington, Tenn., officials said a crash involving a school bus and a dump truck on Highway 70 in west Tennessee killed two students and injured at least seven other people on Friday. The bus was carrying students and employees from Kenwood Middle School in Clarksville for a field trip, and officials said the cause was under investigation.
For the first time in nearly a decade, President Donald Trump did not attend CPAC in Grapevine, Texas. Even without him on site, speakers used the conference to argue for unity while debating how to handle Trump’s war with Iran and applauding his immigration crackdown as the Republican Party prepares for a difficult midterm election.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drew major cheers at CPAC near Dallas, where activists said he should be Republicans’ choice for the U.S. Senate race over Sen. John Cornyn. At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Paxton met privately with supporters, delivered the keynote address at the Ronald Reagan dinner, and supporters booed when Cornyn was mentioned during portions of the event.
Hawaii’s state land board voted Friday to acquire irrigation lands from Dole Food Co., clearing the way for the state to take over the aging Wahiawa Dam north of Honolulu after a failure scare during heavy rains last week. The dam is rated a “high hazard,” and authorities ordered thousands of residents in two North Shore communities to evacuate before the orders were lifted Saturday when floodwater receded.
Savannah Guthrie will return to NBC’s “Today” show on April 6 after nearly two months away following the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. In an interview aired Friday with Hoda Kotb, Guthrie said, “joy will be my protest.”
VERACRUZ, Mexico — A large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has stretched more than 373 miles and seeped into seven nature reserves, damaging coastal fishing along Mexico’s Gulf states as Holy Week nears, the Associated Press reported March 28. Fishermen and vendors in Veracruz described empty markets and a near halt to fishing because oil contamination risks spoiling catches.
Actor James Tolkan, known for playing vice principal Gerald Strickland in “Back to the Future” and a commanding officer in “Top Gun,” has died at 94. Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, according to his booking agent, John Alcantar.
A sightseeing company’s helicopter crashed off Kauai’s Na Pali Coast on Thursday afternoon, killing three people and injuring two others, authorities said. The Hughes/MD 500 helicopter crashed near Kalalau Beach, a remote area on Kauai’s North Shore, according to the Kauai Fire Department and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Five people were killed when a freight train collided with a van at a rural crossing in south Mississippi on March 28, authorities said. Stone County Coroner Wayne Flurry said all five who died were in the van, including two daughters of the front seat passenger.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Beneath Lake Erie, the Whiskey Island salt mine owned by Cargill produces millions of tons of salt each year that helps supply road salt for municipalities across the Northeast and Great Lakes. Cargill says a colder, snowier-than-usual winter has increased demand and driven some cities to exhaust supplies that normally last through spring. The mine opened in the 1960s and operates year-round about 1,800 feet underground.
Airports serving Washington, D.C., Baltimore and parts of Virginia briefly halted all flights Friday evening after federal authorities said air traffic controllers detected a strong chemical smell at the Potomac TRACON facility that manages traffic into the region’s airports. The Federal Aviation Administration said controllers were returning to work and normal flight operations should resume soon.
Henry Lee, the forensic scientist who gained widespread attention for testimony in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, died at 87 on Friday, his family and the University of New Haven said. Lee, who taught for more than 50 years at the university, died at his home in Henderson, Nevada, following a brief illness.
A humpback whale freed after becoming stuck for days in shallow water at a Baltic Sea beach resort in northern Germany was stranded again on Saturday, after failing to make its way back to the Atlantic, the German environment ministry and Greenpeace said. Rescuers used an excavator to dig an escape channel earlier this week, and the whale later appeared farther east near Wismar before getting stuck again.
Mexican Navy aircraft located two sailboats carrying humanitarian aid for Cuba about 80 nautical miles northwest of Havana, and the boats arrived in the Cuban capital hours later on Saturday, after days of being out of contact, the Navy and aid convoy organizers said. The vessels set sail March 20 from Isla Mujeres in southern Mexico with at least eight people aboard, and bad weather delayed their arrival, organizers said. The boat’s arrival comes amid warnings about the humanitarian impact of a U.S. fuel blockade on the island, and after a delegation of religious leaders visited hospitals in Cuba.
Tech companies’ efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are coming under pressure as artificial intelligence drives a surge in electricity demand for data centers, an Associated Press analysis says. The report cites changes in how companies describe their clean-energy and carbon-removal timelines, along with sustainability reports that show emissions increases over the first years of their pledges.
Tiger Woods was arrested Friday after a car crash in Florida in which he struck another vehicle and rolled his Land Rover near his home on Jupiter Island, authorities said. The arrest was tied to signs of impairment, his refusal to take a urine test and a Breathalyzer result that came back negative, officials said. He was charged with driving under the influence with property damage and with refusal to submit to a lawful test, both misdemeanors.
Colombia held a solemn ceremony in Bogota to honor 69 members of the security forces killed when a military plane crashed shortly after taking off, according to the Associated Press. Survivors of the crash and officials including Gen. Hugo Alejandro López and Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez took part in the national mourning, which began after the accident on Monday. Authorities said they are investigating the cause and have ruled out an armed attack by illegal groups.
A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to protect former first lady Jill Biden accidentally shot himself in the leg at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday morning, authorities said. The agent was not in the area where Biden was, and Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the injury occurred during what he called a “negligent discharge” of the agent’s firearm.
A United Airlines passenger jet avoided a collision with a military Black Hawk helicopter near John Wayne Airport in Southern California, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA said the incident happened around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday and is investigating whether the agency’s newer rules for separating helicopters and planes were followed.
A stabbing at a school in Calama, in Chile’s northern Antofagasta region, killed at least one person and injured four others on Friday, police said. Carabineros said a 12th-grade student attacked three students and two staff members, and police later subdued and detained the attacker.
Un hombre apuñaló a una mujer en una tienda de Pokémon en el centro de Tokio antes de suicidarse, según la policía japonesa. La agresión ocurrió en un popular centro comercial en el edificio Sunshine City, donde la tienda estaba rodeada de clientes. La policía investiga el ataque como un asesinato premeditado.
Honolulu officials did not issue evacuation orders as Oahu’s North Shore flooded in the overnight hours of March 19, according to reporting that reviewed the timeline, weather information and communications used that night. The delays left residents describing sudden, fast-rising water and, in some cases, difficulty reaching help. The city’s emergency management director said he accepts responsibility for how the city managed the flood.
The Trump administration is asking to exempt oil and gas exploration and development activities in the Gulf of Mexico from requirements of the Endangered Species Act, citing national security as it prepares for a meeting of the Endangered Species Committee, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Environmental groups said the government has not followed required procedures and are trying to block the committee from meeting before Interior Secretary Doug Burgum convenes it Tuesday.
President Donald Trump interrupted a Thursday Cabinet meeting focused on the Iran war and financial pressures to tell a long story about custom Sharpie markers used at the White House. The episode included comments about security-line delays at major airports, rising oil prices, and concerns raised by senior officials, before Trump returned the floor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
A Florida sea turtle hospital has released Amelie, a three-limbed Kemp’s ridley, back into the Atlantic Ocean with a satellite tracking tag to monitor how the animal copes after losing a forelimb. The Loggerhead Marinelife Center and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute said they used satellite devices to learn how well amputee sea turtles survive and move in the wild.
Rare footage captured in 2023 shows a sperm whale giving birth with female whales from two family lines coordinating to support the labor and lift the newborn calf above the water, scientists say. The video, taken off the Caribbean island of Dominica, shows the delivery taking about 30 minutes and pairs of whales holding the calf above the surface for hours afterward, according to studies published in Scientific Reports and Science.
Mexico’s navy secretary said a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began in early March spread more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) and reached seven nature reserves along parts of Veracruz and Tabasco, with contaminants also tied to natural oil seeps. Admiral Raymundo Morales said authorities identified three spill sources after satellite analysis and inspections, including a vessel near Coatzacoalcos and two types of “chapopotera” or other seep sites, and that the spill’s most likely effects were not expected to be severe.
Millions of Americans keep unused electronics in drawers and closets, even as global e-waste continues to grow. An Associated Press guide published this week outlines practical steps for consumers, including how to wipe data before recycling or donating devices. It cites estimates from the United Nations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and includes advice from environmental and engineering experts on recycling’s environmental and supply-chain benefits.
Washington’s cherry blossoms have reached peak bloom, the National Park Service said, sending a brief wave of pink across the capital. The timing also means the four-week National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway, with events running from March 20 through April 12.
Investigators said federal findings released this week tie two deadly natural gas explosions in Jackson, Mississippi in January 2024 to underground gas pipes that pulled loose from fittings as Yazoo clay soil expanded and contracted. The National Transportation Safety Board said Atmos Energy detected the leaks before the explosions but did not treat them as severe enough for quick repair.
More than seven months after an Aug. attack on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters left windows riddled with bullets, the federal government has not yet replaced the damaged “blast-resistant” windows, the agency’s acting chief said March 25. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told employees that replacement work is under way, with officials saying each window must be custom-made and installation depends on weather.
Savannah Guthrie said her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, was likely kidnapped, describing in an interview on NBC’s “Today” how doors were propped open at the Arizona home where Nancy disappeared. Guthrie also recounted making sense of ransom notes, seeing surveillance video of a masked man at the front door, and how family members responded as investigators worked.
Two progressive lawmakers, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, introduced legislation Wednesday to pause new data centers nationwide until federal safeguards are in place for workers, consumers and the environment, according to the Associated Press. The proposal is unlikely to advance in Congress, but it reflects mounting concern among progressives about data-center growth and artificial intelligence’s energy demands.
Communities across Hawaii are digging out after the worst flooding to hit the state in more than 20 years, with nonprofits and mutual aid groups collecting donations to support households, farmers and animals affected across the islands. Gov. Josh Green said two Kona low winter storm systems unleashed deluges over saturated soil and asked President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration to speed recovery.
LaGuardia Airport saw a fatal runway collision on March 25 when an Air Canada jet struck a fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway. The crash killed the plane’s two pilots and injured dozens of passengers and responders. Investigators say the airport’s ASDE‑X surface detection system did not issue a warning, and the fire truck lacked a transponder that could have improved tracking.
LaGuardia Airport’s runway reopened Thursday morning after a collision on the tarmac killed two Canadian pilots, the Port Authority said. The airport had been operating at limited capacity all week while investigators examined the wreckage and crews removed debris.
Corpus Christi’s City Council voted Tuesday to begin negotiations for water from a desalination plant owned by Corpus Christi Polymers, despite concerns about drought, cost and environmental impacts. The city, facing historic drought and low reservoir capacity, said the agreement could help avert a water emergency.
Texas-based Jesuit Rev. Brian Strassburger says his ministry at the U.S.-Mexico border has shifted as crossings fell under President Donald Trump, but he remains focused on accompanying migrants and people who have been detained or deported. He leads the Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, providing Mass and other sacraments in shelters and detention centers on both sides of the border, including in Texas and Mexico.
FEMA is reopening applications for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grant program after a yearlong hiatus, following a federal court order that required the agency to reverse its cancellation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will make $1 billion available for the program, which funds preparedness projects to help states, local governments, territories and tribes harden infrastructure against disasters.
Honolulu crews began assessing damage after a surprise downpour Tuesday sent floodwaters raging through a neighborhood near downtown Honolulu, the latest round of storms and flooding that have hit Hawaii over the past two weeks.
Residents across Hawaii are digging out from the state’s worst flooding in more than 20 years, following two Kona low winter storm systems that dumped heavy rain on already-saturated ground. Nonprofits, mutual aid groups, and foundations are collecting donations to support affected households, farmers and animals across multiple islands, and Gov. Josh Green has asked President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration.
California sued the Trump administration Monday in federal court to block what state officials call an emergency order that would restart a long-shut offshore oil pipeline on the Santa Barbara coast. The state says the March 13 order by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright overreaches under the Defense Production Act, while the Trump administration has sought to force the restart of the system owned by Sable Offshore Corp.
One of only two air traffic controllers on duty at LaGuardia Airport cleared a fire truck to cross a runway about 12 seconds before an Air Canada flight touched down, the NTSB said. Investigators said the collision Sunday night killed both Air Canada pilots and injured several passengers.
Corpus Christi, Texas, voted 7-1 to consider an agreement to purchase drinking water from a private desalination plant after scrapping its own seawater project, city officials said. The city faces a historic drought, with two main reservoirs at 8.4% capacity and city leaders warning the system has about 180 days of water if conditions do not improve.
Travelers at Philadelphia International Airport expected long security lines Tuesday, but organizers’ biggest queue was the one for cheesesteaks. Organizers said Philadelphia set a Guinness World Record for the longest line of cheesesteak sandwiches, with 1,291 lined up inside a departure hall to mark National Cheesesteak Day.
Federal officials said a runway warning system failed to sound an alarm moments before a collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Two pilots who died in the Sunday crash have now been identified as Canadian men who were flying an Air Canada regional jet landing at the airport, the Associated Press reported.
Savannah Guthrie appealed for help finding her 84-year-old mother after NBC aired a brief segment of her interview with Hoda Kotb on Wednesday’s “Today.” Guthrie, speaking in a tearful first interview since her mother was reported missing on Feb. 1, said “someone needs to do the right thing” and urged anyone with information to come forward.
New York investigators are probing what caused a deadly collision on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport between an Air Canada regional jet and an airport fire truck, after the vehicle was cleared to cross moments before landing. The National Transportation Safety Board said audio later captured a controller saying, “I messed up.” The NTSB has not determined a cause.
London police said four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire early Monday in the Golders Green neighborhood, and investigators are treating it as an antisemitic hate crime. The Metropolitan Police said counterterror officers are involved as detectives work to determine whether an online claim of responsibility by an Islamist group with alleged links to Iran is authentic.
New York’s LaGuardia Airport was shut down after an Air Canada jet collided at high speed with a fire truck late Sunday, killing the pilots and injuring a flight attendant who survived outside the aircraft, authorities said. The NTSB is investigating the crash, while passengers reported that they opened emergency exits and helped others escape as fuel and debris remained near the cockpit.
A military transport plane carrying 128 people, mostly soldiers, crashed shortly after taking off Monday in Puerto Leguizamo in Colombia’s Putumayo province, killing at least 66 people, the head of Colombia’s armed forces said. General Hugo Alejandro López Barreto said four military personnel were still missing, while Deputy Mayor Carlos Claros said bodies were taken to the town’s morgue and injured people were treated locally before being flown to larger cities.
Asian countries are shifting back to coal as the Iran war disrupts oil and gas shipments, including liquefied natural gas routed through the Strait of Hormuz. The AP reports that several governments and utilities are raising coal burn to plug LNG gaps, while experts warn the move could worsen air pollution and delay the clean-energy transition.
An explosion in Nigeria’s north-central Kwara state has killed at least one person and injured an unspecified number of people, police said Monday. The blast was believed to be an improvised explosive device in a village near Woro in the Kaiama district, where a commercial vehicle was traveling toward Niger state.
President Donald Trump visited Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis during a Monday stop tied to U.S. efforts on Iran and to long lines at airports, the Associated Press reported. While at a local roundtable on crime, Trump said, “I love Elvis,” and later toured the home, where he examined items tied to Presley and asked whether he could have beaten Elvis in a fight.
Consumers Energy is asking federal regulators to delay a $350 million spillway replacement at Hardy Dam in Michigan to Dec. 31, 2028, as the utility pursues selling the dam and 12 others to a private equity-backed operator. In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the company said the work is “neither feasible nor prudent” until regulatory approvals for the sale are complete. Critics and some advocates said the delay could increase flood risk for downstream communities.
HONOLULU — Crews in Hawaii began assessing damage after a surprise downpour sent floodwaters surging through a neighborhood east of downtown Honolulu, the latest bout in a two-week stretch of storms and flooding. Authorities said there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries, but they reported hundreds of damaged homes and extensive damage from reddish-brown mud in the Manoa Valley.
Hawaii’s worst flooding in two decades has swept away parts of communities on Oahu, damaging hundreds of homes and prompting hundreds of rescues as crews assess damage after torrential rains. Authorities said no deaths had been reported as of Monday, though the state’s emergency response continued in areas hit by flooding earlier this month and in new downpours.
The Interior Department said TotalEnergies agreed to refund leases for offshore wind projects off North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in liquefied natural gas exports in Texas instead. Supporters called the plan a novel way to halt offshore wind after court setbacks, while Democrats and environmental groups criticized it as a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
California sued the Trump administration in federal court to block what it calls an emergency order to restart a long-shut offshore oil pipeline on the Santa Barbara coast. The state argues the order oversteps U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s authority under the Defense Production Act and conflicts with state law and a federal consent decree requiring state fire-marshall approval.
Travelers at Philadelphia International Airport expected long security lines on Tuesday, but organizers say the longest line was made of cheesesteak sandwiches. Organizers said Philadelphia achieved a new Guinness World Record for the longest line of cheesesteak sandwiches, with 1,291 lined up inside a departure hall to mark National Cheesesteak Day.
A U.S. Park Police officer was seriously wounded in a shooting Monday evening in Southeast Washington, D.C. According to Park Police Chief Scott Brecht, the officer was "ambushed" by two gunmen while working an investigation.
Federal investigators said a LaGuardia air traffic controller cleared a fire truck to cross a runway just 12 seconds before an Air Canada flight touched down, leaving little time to avoid a collision Sunday night. The NTSB said the investigation is focused on which layers of airport safety failed and how warning systems, runway coordination and vehicle visibility factored into the crash.
Two pilots who died when an Air Canada regional jet collided with a fire truck on a LaGuardia Airport runway were identified this week as Mackenzie Gunther and Antoine Forrest, according to a family member and a Canadian college that confirmed their training. The crash sent about 40 of the roughly 70 passengers and crew on the regional jet, as well as two people from the fire truck, to hospitals for treatment, with many released by Monday morning, authorities said. An investigation is under way into the crash’s cause.
New York investigators are working to determine what caused a deadly collision between an Air Canada regional jet and an airport fire truck on a LaGuardia Airport runway Sunday night, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators said the truck had been cleared to cross the runway shortly before controllers repeatedly told it to stop.
The Trump administration will pay TotalEnergies about $1 billion to terminate two U.S. offshore wind leases off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, the Department of the Interior said Monday. TotalEnergies will receive the refund and pledge not to develop new U.S. offshore wind projects, according to Interior.
An Air Canada regional jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilots and injuring several others, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, and Canada has also sent investigators. The crash shut down the airport and disrupted travel during what the officials said was a messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown.
A regional Air Canada jet collided with an airport fire truck on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said. The crash occurred as the truck was crossing the runway to respond to an emergency involving another aircraft, after an air-traffic emergency prompted firefighters to be dispatched. LaGuardia closed after the collision and reopened Monday afternoon with one runway operating and delays.
LaGuardia Airport in New York was dealing with a runway emergency late Sunday when an Air Canada regional jet crashed into a fire truck, killing the pilot and co-pilot from the Montreal flight. Federal and union officials and aviation experts said the incident highlighted long-running staffing shortages, demanding work schedules and aging systems facing U.S. air traffic controllers.
NUEVA YORK (AP) — Un avión de Air Canada que aterrizaba en el aeropuerto LaGuardia chocó con un camión de bomberos a última hora del domingo, dejando la muerte del piloto y del copiloto y heridas en otras personas, según autoridades. El accidente ocurrió mientras el camión de bomberos cruzaba la pista tras recibir permiso para revisar otro avión que había abortado el despegue.
Vermonters are being urged to get ahead of black bears as warmer conditions bring the animals out of hibernation earlier, increasing the chance they will look for food near homes. Bear biologist Jaclyn Comeau of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department said reports of bear incidents have risen over the past decade alongside the state’s growing bear population and earlier spring emergence. Conservation officials said people also can reduce conflict by securing trash, compost and other attractants.
A flight attendant who was thrown from an Air Canada plane after it collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport survived, her daughter said Monday. Solange Tremblay was still strapped in her seat when the collision occurred, Sarah Lepine told Canadian media.
The record-smashing heat dome that has baked the U.S. Southwest is continuing into early April and is creeping eastward, meteorologists said. After March records in multiple states, forecasters said temperatures may reach the 90s Fahrenheit in parts of the southern and central Plains by midweek as the broader area of record heat expands.
Mexican authorities found 229 migrants packed in the back of a truck traveling through the eastern state of Veracruz, marking the first such encounter in months, officials said. The migrants were discovered after they began calling for help from inside a vehicle that had been taken to a police impound lot, according to the state official and a witness who spoke anonymously.
Many U.S. travelers say airport security lines and other disruptions have heightened anxiety about flying as winter storms, the Iran war and government shutdowns add to familiar hassles. On Monday, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said she was stuck in a TSA line for three hours, while another traveler at Reagan Washington National Airport said delays caused him to miss an appointment and lose a deposit.
At least 64 people, including 13 children, were killed in a strike on a hospital in Sudan’s western Darfur region last week, the World Health Organization said Saturday. The WHO said the Al Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur was also rendered non-functional, with at least 89 people injured.
In a new family statement posted Sunday, Savannah Guthrie renewed appeals to people in Tucson and southern Arizona to share any information that could help solve the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. The family said it believes someone in the area may “hold the key to finding the resolution in this case.”
Cuba began restoring electricity on Sunday, a day after a nationwide grid collapse left millions without power for the third time in March. The state-run Electric Union and the Ministry of Energy and Mines said power had returned early Sunday to about 72,000 customers in Havana, including five hospitals, but only a fraction of the capital’s roughly 2 million residents.
A natural gas explosion in Istanbul’s central Fatih district brought down two residential buildings on Sunday, killing one person, the Istanbul Governor’s office said. Rescue teams pulled out 10 injured people who were hospitalized, including one in critical condition.
Chappell Roan responded on Sunday to accusations by Brazilian-Italian soccer star Jorginho, who said a security guard mistreated his 11-year-old stepdaughter after she recognized the singer at a Sao Paulo hotel. Jorginho posted a lengthy account on Instagram Saturday, saying the guard spoke “in an extremely aggressive manner” to his wife and daughter. Roan said the guard was not her personal security and that she did not see “a woman and a child.”
Federal environmental regulators told West Virginia last year its plan to reduce sulfur and smog over national wilderness areas was insufficient. Six months later, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump approved a revised approach that conservationists say would allow states to roll back pollution limits that have improved visibility in parks nationwide.
Iran’s attacks on Qatar’s natural gas export infrastructure have forced Qatar to halt production of liquefied natural gas and associated products, threatening helium exports relied on by advanced industries. The episode is raising concerns among chipmakers and other manufacturers that depend on helium’s role in semiconductor fabrication, medical imaging and space-related activities.
More than 60 years after Neil Armstrong barely survived an emergency aboard Gemini 8, newly discovered photos of his return from orbit have been donated to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Ohio. The images, captured by photographer Ron McQueeney, show Armstrong and fellow astronaut David Scott after a splashdown off Okinawa, Japan, as preparations for recovery unfolded.
Cuba’s power grid collapsed on Saturday, leaving the island without electricity for a third time in March, the Cuban Electric Union said. The union said an unexpected failure at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province set off a cascading shutdown.
Extreme heat warnings returned Saturday across parts of California and Arizona, with temperatures forecast to reach triple digits as far north as Nebraska. The National Weather Service also forecast temperatures in the 90s across Nebraska, followed by a drop into the 50s and 60s Sunday.
Hawaii officials urged evacuations over Saturday due to the state’s worst flooding in more than 20 years, after heavy rain from a winter storm left soils already saturated and more rain loomed. Authorities warned a 120-year-old dam could fail as muddy floodwaters smothered parts of Oahu’s North Shore and evacuation orders affected thousands.
Police video released by Sag Harbor, New York, shows Justin Timberlake struggling with field sobriety tests after a traffic stop in the Hamptons in 2024, according to video footage released March 21 by the village’s police department. In the footage, recorded during an encounter after police suspected driving while intoxicated, Timberlake tells officers that the tests are “really hard” and asks why he is being arrested.
Taylor Tomlinson filmed her Netflix special “Prodigal Daughter” inside Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a congregation leaders describe as welcoming her edgy material. The special, which includes sexual themes and profanity, was released Feb. 24 and features Tomlinson addressing her conservative Christian upbringing.
Syrian Kurds have returned to Afrin, a district in northern Syria, to mark Nowruz for the first time since exile, Associated Press reported. The return comes after the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa declared Nowruz a national holiday and strengthened Kurdish rights during ceasefire talks in January.
Bodies wash ashore and families wait without answers as migrants trying to reach Europe disappear along a Mediterranean route often described as “invisible shipwrecks.” The Associated Press reported that Italy, Tunisia and Malta have restricted or withheld information on migrant rescues and shipwrecks, leaving even the United Nations migration agency unable to verify many cases.
An avalanche in Italy’s South Tyrol killed two skiers and injured five others, Italy’s mountain rescue service said. The slide struck at about 11:40 a.m. Saturday on slopes near the Austria border, according to the CNSAS emergency center in Bolzano.
Dozens of models with Down syndrome walked a catwalk in Romania’s capital on March 21, in an event meant to celebrate “style, atypical beauty and courage” ahead of World Down Syndrome Day.
South Korean rescue workers recovered the remains of 14 people from a charred auto parts factory in Daejeon after an explosion and fire that injured at least 59 others, officials said. The fire was reported at about 1:18 p.m. Friday, and officials deployed more than 500 firefighters and emergency personnel to contain flames and search for missing workers.
Meteorite hunters fanned out across Ohio after a fireball over Valley City was followed by a sonic boom that rattled buildings, officials said. The meteoroid broke apart around 9 a.m. Tuesday and NASA said it was a near-6-foot (1.8-meter) object about 6 feet in diameter.
A floor collapsed during a wedding at the Preserve at Chocorua in Tamworth, New Hampshire, sending about 70 people into the basement. New Hampshire’s State Fire Marshal’s Office said Saturday that six people were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
TOKYO (AP) — Drone footage taken inside a Fukushima Daiichi reactor has shown a confirmed hole at the bottom of the Unit 3 pressure vessel for the first time since the 2011 meltdown, Tokyo Electric Power Company said. The operator also said the images show lumps of likely melted fuel debris hanging from the vessel’s steel wall.
Severe rains sparked flash flooding on Oahu’s North Shore, with Honolulu officials ordering thousands to evacuate areas downstream of the Wahiawa dam, warning the 120-year-old earthen dam could fail. Gov. Josh Green said more than 230 people were rescued, no deaths were reported and about 10 people were treated for hypothermia.
The war in Iran is complicating U.S. efforts to keep energy affordable, with experts pointing to rising crude prices and gasoline costs as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively blocked. They say President Donald Trump’s push for fossil fuels—paired with rollbacks of renewable-energy policies—has left consumers with fewer alternatives when supply shocks hit.
The war in Iran is disrupting oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up energy prices and straining import-dependent economies from Asia to Europe and Africa. As crude and LNG flows stall, the crisis is renewing calls to accelerate the shift to renewable power, especially as renewable projects become more cost-competitive, an Associated Press analysis said.
Lebanon’s Eid al-Fitr preparations have been upended by renewed war and displacement, with more than 1 million people forced from their homes, the Associated Press reported. Muslims in parts of the country, including Sidon and Beirut, are spending the holiday in shelters or makeshift arrangements rather than gathering at home.
Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian new year, with grief and disruption as the Iran war has cut communication between families abroad and in the country, the Associated Press reported March 20. In Paris, a man described his mother’s return trip and the difficulty of staying in touch after she went back to Iran.
As Iranians Americans weigh fear, anger and hope during the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, many are debating how to mark Nowruz, Iran’s new year, this week. Some people have canceled large events, while others are holding pop-up dinners, baking and cooking rituals, and charity fundraisers that bring communities together through food.
Two dozen states, along with more than a dozen cities and counties, sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s repeal of a 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The states filed the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after the EPA finalized the rescission last month, which plaintiffs said could roll back greenhouse gas emissions rules for cars, trucks and power plants.
The U.S. State Department said it is creating a new Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response based in Washington that will coordinate disaster and emergency humanitarian aid through 12 regional hubs. The hubs will be located in Miami; Bogota, Colombia; Guatemala City; Santo Domingo; Kyiv; Amman; Addis Ababa; Nairobi; Dakar; Bangkok; Dhaka; and Manila, the department said.
Ugandan wildlife authorities reintroduced two southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, where rhinos have been extinct since 1983 due to poaching. Officials said two additional rhinos arrived in metallic crates later this week, as part of a wider conservation effort backed by partners including Global Conservation.
Robert F. Bukaty, an AP staff photographer, describes how he captured a dense flock of migrating snow geese at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in rural Pennsylvania. He says he initially photographed the birds too far from shore, then returned after learning the geese spent the day feeding in nearby corn fields.
Michigan’s Air Pollution Control Exemption, designed to reward pollution-reduction equipment, has cost local governments billions in property-tax revenue over the last decade with limited state follow-up, an investigation found. The exemption is granted in perpetuity by the Michigan State Tax Commission after an initial EGLE environmental review, but EGLE says it lacks staff and budget to revisit whether businesses comply. The review by BridgeDetroit found that many exempted facilities later received air-quality violations or faced federal enforcement.
Corpus Christi-area refineries are seeking alternate water sources as the city warns it could enter a water emergency in as soon as two months, a move that could affect refining output and fuel supplies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies to suspend normal procedures to speed projects as local reservoirs fall below 10% capacity and the city scrambles for options to meet demand.
Across the United States, institutions and cities are moving to remove or rename places honoring labor leader César Chavez after explosive sexual abuse allegations, according to officials. The changes followed actions by California State University, Fresno, where Chavez’s statue was covered and is expected to come down. Officials in places including Denver, Phoenix and San Francisco State University said they are reviewing names tied to Chavez as communities also consider shifting observances like César Chavez Day.
American Airlines and Google said they used an AI-based forecasting tool to reduce contrails that can trap heat during some flights between the U.S. and Europe. The companies said they tested the system by offering route options to avoid likely contrail-forming areas on about half of 2,400 flights during a trial that ran from January 2025 to May.
Boston transit police said a man wielding a butcher knife tried to slash bus tires and threatened to stab a bus driver at the Forest Hills station in Jamaica Plain on Friday before officers took him into custody. Richard Sullivan, superintendent of police for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said officers were called after the man was reported late Friday morning.
Temperatures are running far above normal for March across much of the United States, with some places seeing swings of at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit above typical. In four graphics, the Associated Press shows how the unusual early-season warmth is breaking records, largely concentrated in the West but also appearing in pockets across other regions.
Michigan’s Air Pollution Control Exemption law has provided long-running property and sales tax breaks for pollution control equipment, a system that leaves many local governments with little information about costs and limited say over approvals. A BridgeDetroit review found Sterling Heights and other municipalities lost an estimated $1.2 billion in property-tax revenue over the last decade, while the analysis also found state-granted exemptions totaling 333 over that period. City officials and state officials described gaps in reporting and local involvement, as questions linger about whether the incentives drive investment or subsidize routine compliance.
Summer heat shattered March records across parts of the U.S. Southwest, with some areas hitting 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 Celsius) as the wave pushed into a month not typically associated with such readings, Associated Press reported March 20. A World Weather Attribution flash analysis said the kind of heat seen this month would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank had largely avoided the Iran-Israel air war as Israel and Iran exchanged strikes, until a missile hit a beauty salon in Beit Awa. On Wednesday night, four women were killed when a missile struck steps from the salon, sending shrapnel through walls lined with manicure and eyebrow items, the Associated Press reported. The incident highlighted what Palestinians describe as a lack of adequate shelters and frequent delays for ambulances during alerts.
Spanish police said they found the body of James “Jimmy” Gracey, an Illinois college student who went missing in Barcelona while on spring break.
Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest is cutting about 110 acres on Grass Mountain under a 15-year U.S. Forest Service plan to create young forest habitat, prompting disputes between conservation advocates and hunting groups. On one side, Tracey Forest, whose Spirit Hollow retreat sits near the logging area, said her programs were moved after guests objected to the sound and that she was not consulted. On the other, the Ruffed Grouse Society and Forest Service officials said cutting will help create early successional habitat for wildlife such as songbirds.
A desert community in southwestern Arizona reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) on Thursday, breaking the U.S. record for the highest March temperature, the National Weather Service said. The record-setting heat wave scorched the Southwest as communities across the region saw record highs for the last day of winter.
The 19-year-old Mexican migrant Royer Perez-Jimenez died at the Glades County Detention Center in Florida while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement held him, ICE said. ICE said an officer found him unconscious and unresponsive early Monday, and the agency said staff began cardiopulmonary resuscitation before fire rescue deputies initiated life-sustaining interventions. The official cause of death remains under investigation.
An immigration judge denied the asylum claim for the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old photographed in a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack when he was detained with his father in a Minneapolis-area crackdown earlier this year, a family lawyer said. The judge ordered the family deported to Ecuador, and the family is appealing the ruling. The arrests and national coverage unfolded as federal immigration officers carried out a surge of raids that prompted protests and two federal shootings of American citizens.
Stevie Young, the guitarist for AC/DC, was hospitalized in Buenos Aires days before the band’s scheduled concerts in Argentina, according to a statement from the tour’s promoter. The 69-year-old was admitted for a “full series of tests” after he “was not feeling well,” and spokespersons said he was in good spirits ahead of the shows.
Newark Liberty International Airport is investigating a close call involving an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 and a FedEx Boeing 777 during landing operations, federal officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board is examining the Tuesday night incident, in which the Alaska plane overflew the FedEx aircraft on crossing runways, the FAA said.
Iranian Americans across the United States are marking Nowruz, the Persian new year, with a mix of sadness and tradition this week, after a January crackdown that killed thousands of demonstrators in Iran. In Los Angeles, Shima Razavi Gacek organized a candlelight vigil and a smaller Chaharshanbe Suri fire-jumping gathering. Other communities canceled parties, while some held quieter events or modified celebrations to reflect the war and grief.
KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AP) — After months when residents returned to northern Kiryat Shmona following an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, air raid sirens began sounding around the clock again as rockets and interceptors echoed overhead, residents said. They described days and especially nights spent racing for bomb shelters, with some families living in shelters and some still staying away despite earlier evacuation.
Hawaii’s Legislature is weighing a proposed ban on aquarium fish harvesting on the Big Island as state aquatic managers advance separate rules that would allow limited, permitted collections after years of court blocks. The measures collide as residents and conservationists argue reefs have declined, while pet-trade advocates and industry participants push for a controlled reopening.
Five southern European nations urged the European Commission on March 18 to activate the bloc’s civil protection mechanism to address an unmanned Russian tanker, the Arctic Metagaz, drifting in the Mediterranean amid fears of an environmental catastrophe.
Muslims around the world are bidding farewell to Ramadan and preparing to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month. Eid al-Fitr is typically greeted with congregational prayers and festivities, including family visits and new clothes, but this year some communities are observing it amid the Iran war’s spillover effects and other tensions.
On Wednesday, dozens of dogs and cats arrived in Athens with their owners on a government-organized evacuation flight from Abu Dhabi, Greece said. The special Aegean flight carried 45 pets and 101 people amid disruptions to airline travel from the war in the Middle East.
Firefighters and volunteers in western and central Nebraska were in their seventh day battling multiple wildfires, including the Morrill County blaze that has burned about 1,005 square miles and is the largest in Nebraska history, the Associated Press reported. Winds are expected to be less than earlier in the week, but authorities warned the fires could still spread quickly if flames cross containment lines.
A Maui mutual aid nonprofit is sending monthly cash to some Lahaina fire survivors who say they still struggle years after the August 2023 blaze, aiming to keep households stable during a slow recovery. The program, run through a “Kahua Card,” enrolls 69 households for one year, including a West Maui survivor who said the payments helped cut anxiety and let her buy more food and health-related supplies.
President Donald Trump attended a “dignified transfer” ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday for the remains of six U.S. service members killed in a KC-135 refueling aircraft crash in western Iraq. It marked the second time in three weeks the Republican president attended the military ritual since the start of the war with Iran on Feb. 28.
Americans still rank French bulldogs, retrievers and German shepherds among their favorites, but dachshunds have surged into the AKC’s top five for the first time in more than two decades, according to American Kennel Club rankings released Wednesday. The annual list reflects puppies and older purebreds added to the AKC’s registry last year, and it does not cover mixed-breed dogs or many popular designer crosses.
A New York City police officer who works security at Gracie Mansion was suspended without pay after the department said he shot a man in the head while off duty, police said Wednesday. The shooting happened around 9 p.m. Monday in the Bronx, and the victim, 30, was hospitalized in critical condition, police said. The officer has not been publicly named and has not been arrested or charged, police said.
A U.S. Marine Corps investigation found that a “one in a million” malfunction during a live artillery demonstration over Interstate 5 at Camp Pendleton last October sent shrapnel onto the freeway and struck two California Highway Patrol vehicles. The Marines said the artillery shell detonated early—before a planned altitude—and that the report found “no definitive answer” for why it happened. The incident occurred during a celebration of the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary attended by then–Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Multiple Latino leaders on Wednesday weighed new allegations that César Chavez sexually abused labor rights figure Dolores Huerta and others, prompting calls to rethink memorials and celebrations honoring the late union leader.
Shaquille O’Neal said he is offering to pay for the funeral of Jada West, a 12-year-old Georgia girl who died at a hospital after collapsing days earlier following a fight after school. O’Neal’s offer was announced in a joint news release by the sheriffs of Douglas County and Henry County, where the fight occurred and where O’Neal holds a role as community relations chief.
Providence, R.I., March 18, 2026 — Rhode Island’s Blackstone Valley Co-op won the Division 2 boys’ state championship 3-2 over Lincoln High School Wednesday after player Colin Dorgan and his teammates advanced through weeks of grief following a fatal ice rink shooting in Pawtucket. Police identified Robert Dorgan as the shooter, and authorities said the attack was targeted and that Dorgan later died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting happened Tuesday evening at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico, where a U.S. Air Force statement said one person was killed and another was injured. Military officials said the incident was the result of an isolated domestic dispute, and they did not identify either victim. The base was placed on lockdown for nearly three hours after reports of an active shooter.
A Florida hospital has sued to evict a patient who it says has refused to leave a room more than five months after she was discharged. Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare filed the lawsuit in Tallahassee seeking an injunction requiring the patient to vacate the hospital room and asking the county sheriff’s office to help if needed.
Pennsylvania regulators asked an administrative law judge to order UGI Utilities Inc.’s gas division to pay $2.6 million in civil penalties for a 2023 chocolate factory explosion that killed seven workers. The Public Utility Commission filed a formal complaint against the Denver, Pennsylvania-based utility, alleging violations of state and federal standards after gas ignited at the R.M. Palmer Company in West Reading.
Two crew members were killed and two others were injured in what the U.S. Coast Guard called a “confined space incident” aboard a freight barge moored in southeast Alaska, officials said. The barge Waynehoe was moored about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Ketchikan when crew members from a tugboat lost contact with them, the Coast Guard said.
Corpus Christi leaders told residents they could be as little as two months away from triggering emergency water measures as drought forecasts show little to no rainfall in the coming summer months. At a 10-hour City Council meeting, the city outlined multiple scenarios that would push it into a level one water emergency by May.
The Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers will use radar to keep helicopters separated from airplanes by specific lateral or vertical distances at more than 150 of the nation’s busiest airports. The agency acted after a deadly Jan. 2025 midair collision near Washington, D.C., in which federal investigators said controllers relied too heavily on visual separation. Officials also cited recent near-misses in Texas and California.
Florida environmental advocates are renewing a push to open a dam linked to the long-abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal, aiming to restore connections between the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers and improve conditions for fish and manatees. Their latest effort failed last week in the Legislature, when lawmakers did not pass a bill supporting a $70 million, multi-year restoration project.
Federal investigators said a suspicious package found outside a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa contained “possible energetic materials,” prompting an initial shelter-in-place order and heightened security. The FBI said Wednesday that an analysis of the material had not been completed and that the investigation was continuing. MacDill officials said the order was lifted about two hours later but the base remained on high alert.
As winters warm, ice that used to hold fast is becoming less predictable and more dangerous, the Associated Press reported. In northern Alaska, Elmer Brown and two friends went caribou hunting on frozen water last November; when the ice gave way, one friend drowned and Brown later died of hypothermia.
Cuba plunged into darkness this week after a blackout that marked the third major power-grid failure since December, while U.S.-Cuba tensions intensified under President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials described the outages as a result of Cuban government failure, and Trump suggested on Monday he could “do anything I want” after Cuba’s current leaders. In Cuba, the outages and transportation shutdowns have disrupted food supplies and medical care, according to the report.
Wisconsin lawmakers sent a $133 million package to tackle PFAS contamination, often called “forever chemicals,” to Gov. Tony Evers for his approval Tuesday. The Wisconsin Senate approved the bills as a rare bipartisan compromise after years of Democratic-Republican disputes over how to spend a PFAS trust fund.
Boston marked the 250th anniversary of the British evacuation of the city with a Tuesday procession through South Boston, including Revolutionary War reenactment drills and a ceremony at Dorchester Heights. The observance fell on March 17, 1776, when British troops withdrew from Boston, and it included Mass at St. Augustine Chapel and Cemetery before participants marched toward Dorchester Heights.
Orlando city crews began demolishing the long-shuttered Pulse nightclub on Wednesday to make way for a permanent memorial honoring the 49 people killed in the club’s 2016 mass shooting. The city purchased the property in 2023 and plans to open a $12 million memorial in 2027. The demolition comes amid broader disputes over LGBTQ+ symbols in public space.
LAS VEGAS — At the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Shark Reef Aquarium, aquarists say they feed 15 species of sharks three times a week inside a 1.3 million gallon tank. Zebra sharks can snatch herring from the aquarists’ tongs within seconds during scheduled feedings, and staff estimate the aquarium uses over 300 pounds of fish in a week.
San Francisco experienced its hottest March in at least two decades this week as a rare winter heat wave pushed unusually warm temperatures across the U.S. West, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Forecasters said parts of Arizona and Nevada could see record-breaking or earliest-ever triple-digit readings for the month, while some water providers urged residents to avoid outdoor watering.
Gunmen killed at least 15 people in attacks on two villages in northwestern Nigeria, according to authorities. The villages of Falale and Kadobe in the Jibia area of Katsina State were attacked in the early afternoon Tuesday, the state’s commissioner for home affairs said.
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett said a man killed by Dallas police in a standoff last week had worked as her security team member under a fraudulent identity. The Dallas Police Department said the man, identified as 39-year-old Robinson, had posed as “Mike King” and was killed after a hours-long standoff in a hospital parking garage.
Cleveland-area residents reported a bright fireball and a thunderous boom Tuesday morning, after a suspected 7-ton meteor broke apart over the region. The American Meteor Society said it received reports as far as Wisconsin and Maryland, and NASA later confirmed the object’s size and path.
The Associated Press reports that a Chinese national and a Kenyan man were charged in Nairobi, Kenya, after authorities found them in possession of hundreds of live ants stored in specialized tubes. The men, identified as Zhang Kequn and Charles Mwangi, also face a conspiracy charge.
For St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish pub has been showing up in suburban driveways across Massachusetts, offering a small-town version of a neighborhood bar. The Wee Irish Pub — built by brothers Matt and Craig Taylor — has been towed in for evening parties with music and Guinness, including an Andover-hosted party that drew about 20 people from five families.
A shooting at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico, left one person dead and another wounded, according to military officials. The base went into lockdown after reports of an active shooter near a convenience store, and the wounded person was taken for medical treatment.
A shooting at a Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Jasper, Georgia, left a gunman dead and a Veterans Affairs employee hospitalized on Tuesday afternoon, police said. Jasper police said officers confronted the suspect outside the clinic around 1:30 p.m., while the VA said the employee was taken by helicopter to a hospital.
Cesar Chavez celebrations in multiple cities were halted in recent days after the United Farm Workers distanced itself from annual events tied to the labor leader amid troubling allegations of abuse involving young women or minors. In a statement Tuesday, the union said it has not received direct reports and has no firsthand knowledge, and urged supporters to shift toward immigration justice activities and acts of service instead of Chavez commemorations.
Rome’s Colosseum reopened a newly restored semicircular piazza outside the arena, using travertine marble to recreate where two long-gone arcades once stood. The project, designed by architect Stefano Boeri, was built over the entrance area after restorers found coins, statues, animal bones and a gold ring during excavation.
Travel disruptions continued Tuesday in the U.S. as airlines worked to recover from powerful storms that had already snarled flight schedules a day earlier and compounded longer airport security lines during a partial federal shutdown.
Suspected suicide bombings in Maiduguri, Nigeria, killed at least 23 people and wounded 108 others, police said. The explosions struck Monday night in crowded locations including the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and areas near a major market, prompting a heavy security response and fears about further attacks.
At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings that targeted Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, police said. The attacks hit a hospital and two markets on March 16, an episode described by the Associated Press as among the deadliest in the city in recent history.
Rescuers in Kabul pulled more bodies from the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital after Afghanistan said an overnight airstrike by Pakistan killed more than 400 people. Afghanistan’s deputy spokesman and interior ministry cited a specific death toll, while Pakistan rejected the accusation, saying its strikes targeted military facilities and disputed the casualty figures.
Shigeaki Mori, a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor and historian who spent decades identifying 12 American POWs killed in the 1945 bombing, has died. He was 88. Editors of the English translation of his work said he died Sunday, and Japanese media reported he died at a Hiroshima hospital.
The Budapest public transit company is marking the 100th year of service for the city’s vintage electric “freight trams,” known as mukis, which still operate on the capital’s tram network. Acquired by the city in 1926, the wood-sided trams were built to move goods after World War I damaged much of the local freight infrastructure.
The FBI said the attacker who drove a car into a Michigan synagogue this week died during the incident after security personnel confronted him inside the building. The synagogue, Temple Israel in Oakland County, had spent months preparing for threats, including hiring a former police lieutenant as head of armed security and running active-shooter training with an FBI official.
War has already displaced nearly a million Lebanese, with aid groups warning of a humanitarian crisis as Israel’s strikes and evacuation orders force families into overcrowded shelters, tents and stadium corridors. In just 10 days after mass evacuations began, more than 800,000 people fled within Lebanon, aid organizations said.
War has displaced more than 800,000 people in Lebanon in a little over a week, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, and aid groups warn the country is sliding toward a humanitarian crisis. The displacement is driven by Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders that have forced families out of homes in Beirut’s southern suburbs and across parts of the country.
An armed man drove his car into a Michigan synagogue during an attack this week, and the attacker died after being shot by a private security guard, the FBI said. The FBI and local officials credited months of security upgrades at Temple Israel, including active-shooter training and an in-house security director.
The U.S. government identified a newly promoted Air Force major from Alabama and four other service members from Ohio and Kentucky as among six people killed in a refueling aircraft crash in Iraq. U.S. Central Command said the crash happened during a combat mission supporting operations against Iran but in “friendly” airspace, and that it was not due to hostile or friendly fire. Family members of the Alabama pilot described him as a father who had recently moved with his young children into a new home.
Offshore construction has finished on Vineyard Wind, a major Massachusetts offshore wind farm, with the installation of the final blades completed Friday night, a project spokesperson said. The project is the first to reach that construction stage during President Donald Trump’s tenure.
Spring technically arrives Friday in the Northern Hemisphere with the vernal equinox, which marks the start of the spring season for the north and the fall season for the south. At the equator, the sun will be directly overhead at noon as the planet’s tilt is neither leaning toward nor away from the sun.
Residents in and around Tehran reported dark, oily rain after airstrikes hit fuel oil depots and a refinery during the Iran-U.S.-Israel war, prompting warnings from health and environmental officials about potential exposure risks.
A woman in California whose pregnancy developed outside the uterus gave birth to a healthy baby after doctors found it had been concealed inside her abdomen behind an ovarian cyst. The Associated Press reported the case at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, where doctors said the outcome was extraordinary because abdominal ectopic pregnancies are extremely rare.
Dark, oily precipitation described as “black rain” has fallen in parts of Iran and beyond after strikes hit oil facilities, prompting warnings from health and environmental officials about potential harm from breathing the fumes or contacting the residue. Residents near Tehran reported burning eyes and difficulty breathing as the rainfall occurred after several fuel oil depots and a refinery were struck.
The vernal equinox, which marks the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, arrives Friday, March 20, 2026. The equinox occurs when the sun is directly overhead at the equator. At noon on the equator, the sun will be directly overhead.
A healthy baby boy was born in Los Angeles on August 18 after developing outside his mother’s womb—a medical anomaly occurring in about 1 in 30,000 pregnancies, doctors said. Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse from Bakersfield, California, did not know she was pregnant until days before giving birth.
Chaotic weather on Monday put more than half the U.S. population in the path of severe conditions, the Associated Press reported, spanning a surprising California heatwave, blizzards in parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes, and storms rolling into the East Coast. Airport delays and cancellations piled up in major hubs, while flooding and landslides affected parts of Hawaii and officials in Washington, D.C., postponed votes as agencies told some federal workers to go home early.
Vahid Salemi, an Associated Press photographer based in Tehran, said a photo showing black spots on clothespins captures how conflict has affected everyday life and the environment in the Iranian capital. In an interview accompanying the image, Salemi described how heavy smoke and thick rain clouds left homes darker in the morning and contributed to pollution visible as black marks.
The federal government has completed a land transfer in Arizona that cleared the way for copper mining at Oak Flat, a site used for religious ceremonies by the San Carlos Apache Tribe. A group of Apache women is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after an appeals court lifted an emergency injunction that had blocked the transfer. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the project supports the Trump administration’s goals for energy independence.
Afghanistan’s government accused Pakistan’s military of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul on Monday night. Pakistan denied the allegation and said its strikes targeted military installations and did not hit any civilian sites.
ATHENS, Greece — A Greek-flagged oil tanker was damaged in a suspected drone attack in the Black Sea as it approached the Russian port of Novorossiysk, Greek authorities said. The shipping ministry said the 24 crew members were unharmed and that the vessel’s seaworthiness was not threatened.
A Greek‑flagged oil tanker was damaged in a suspected drone strike in the Black Sea while approaching the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Saturday, Greek authorities said. The vessel, the *Maran Homer*, was chartered by U.S. oil giant Chevron and suffered material damage but sustained no injuries among its 24 crew members, and its seaworthiness was not compromised.
Afghanistan’s government accused Pakistan of conducting a precision airstrike that hit a drug‑rehabilitation hospital in Kabul on Monday night, killing at least 400 people and injuring roughly 250, its deputy spokesperson said on X. Pakistan denied targeting any civilian site, insisting its strikes were aimed at military installations used by the Taliban regime. The incident marks a sharp escalation in cross‑border fighting that has intensified over the past three weeks, prompting renewed calls for a ceasefire from the United Nations.
Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul late Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in cross-border clashes. Pakistan denied targeting any civilian site, calling the allegations baseless.
Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul late Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in cross-border clashes. Pakistan denied targeting any civilian site, stating its strikes hit military installations used by the Afghan Taliban regime to support terror proxies.
A photo series by Associated Press photographer Vahid Salemi captures black spots on clothespins, which he says reflect environmental damage from conflict in Tehran. Salemi described how smoke from explosions and heavy rain clouds left the city unusually dark on the day the image was taken.
HAVANA — Cuba’s entire electrical grid collapsed Monday, plunging 11 million people into darkness as the island’s long-festering energy crisis reached a breaking point. The government confirmed a “complete disconnection” of the national power system and warned that restoring service would be gradual due to the grid’s fragile state.
High winds toppled trees, damaged property and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the Associated Press reported Saturday. Further west, officials said at least one person died in a wind-driven wildfire in Nebraska.
The Oregon Army National Guard on Thursday used a helicopter hoist to lift an injured logger from steep terrain in Mount Hood National Forest, about 60 miles southeast of Portland, after a falling tree pinned him. Estacada Fire District officials said a ground and nearby air-ambulance response were slowed or made unsafe by dense trees and rugged access.
Storms, heat and Arctic cold are lined up for the United States in a single stretch of March weather extremes that spans from record warmth to heavy snow, dangerous winds and flash flooding, according to meteorologists and NOAA officials cited by the Associated Press. The outlook includes a heat dome over the Southwest, polar-vortex cold pushing into the Midwest and East, and back-to-back snowstorms for parts of the northern tier and Great Lakes, the AP reported. Hawaii is forecast to see downpours and flooding, and Texas is in line for high winds that could worsen wildfire conditions.
Nearly every kind of wild weather hit parts of the United States on Monday as cold and warm air collided, aided by a jet stream described by forecasters as unusually erratic and by scientists as partly influenced by human-caused climate change. Meteorologists said blizzard conditions struck around the Great Lakes, damaging winds and the threat of tornadoes moved through the Eastern states, and an extreme heat dome was building over the Southwest for later this week. Meanwhile, more than two feet of rain continued to fall in Hawaii, drought persisted across much of the country and a large fire burned in Nebraska.
A building collapsed during a planned demolition that went wrong Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least four people and injuring four others, officials said. Rescue workers were searching for people trapped under rubble after the Interior Ministry said the building had been earmarked for removal under the Nairobi River Regeneration Project.
A U.S. military refueling plane crash in western Iraq killed six service members who were supporting operations against Iran, U.S. officials said. Families of the victims described the airmen and their roles in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard.
High winds knocked out power across parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan on Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity, according to an outage tracker. Farther west, at least one person died in a wind-driven wildfire in Nebraska, where hundreds of square miles had burned by midday.
The United States is bracing for a stretch of March extremes that includes record-setting heat in parts of the Southwest, a forecast polar-vortex chill for the Midwest and East, heavy rain and flooding in Hawaii, and late-season snow in the northern Great Lakes region, according to National Weather Service and NOAA forecasts. Meteorologists said weather could swing from warm to cold and back again in many areas.
The United States is seeing multiple kinds of extreme weather in mid-March, with meteorologists citing a disturbed jet stream and springtime air-mass clashes. A blizzard dumped heavy snow around the Great Lakes, damaging high winds moved across parts of the East and raised tornado threats, and a Southwest heat wave is poised to break records as more rain fell in Hawaii.
A U.S. military refueling aircraft crash in Iraq killed six service members, U.S. officials said Friday, including an Alabama father who had been deployed less than a week. The Pentagon said the aircraft was operating in “friendly” airspace while supporting operations against Iran.
John Woodson Ficklin went from being a child of slavery in Virginia to a decades-long career as a White House butler, and his son, Wrory Ficklin, later worked for the National Security Council for 40 years. The Associated Press profiles the family’s near-80-year presence in presidential administrations, from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Barack Obama. The story traces the family’s roots to a grandfather born enslaved around 1854 and recounts milestones such as Woodson Ficklin’s selection for Jacqueline Kennedy’s funeral ushers in 1963.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said on Monday that she has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer but plans to continue working through treatment, remaining a top aide to President Donald Trump during a politically turbulent period. Trump also said her prognosis is “excellent” and that she will begin treatment right away.
In northeast Texas, rancher Bob Sanders has donated part of his water rights to a state program intended to preserve river flows for environmental purposes. The donation is aimed at protecting the health of the Big Cypress Bayou system that feeds Lake O’ the Pines and the state’s only natural lake, Caddo Lake, as drought and demand pressures grow.
Four airports serving Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia, halted all flights Friday evening after a strong chemical smell interfered with air traffic operations, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA Secretary Sean Duffy announced the ground stop, affecting Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Richmond International Airport.
U.S. Central Command said a military refueling plane supporting operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq in what the military described as “friendly” airspace, killing six U.S. service members. The Associated Press reported that the victims included Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, an instructor and boom operator, and Ohio Air National Guard Capt. Seth R. Koval, among others, as family members and service leaders described them.
An offshore wind project targeted by the Trump administration has begun sending power to New England’s electric grid, the developer said. Ørsted said Revolution Wind is now generating electricity and will scale up over the coming weeks to serve Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The collapse of a sewer pipe in January dumped about 244 million gallons of sewage into the Potomac River, prompting an emergency declaration and federal help, according to U.S. and Baltimore-area officials. Bacteria from the spill drifted past Washington for weeks, and experts said the episode underscores broader problems with failing sewer systems. The Associated Press report on the Potomac spill also points to continuing sewage backups into homes and to federal and local funding challenges.
Mezcal has surged in popularity in the United States, and the global demand is reshaping the landscape of Oaxaca, Mexico, where the agave used to make the spirit is grown and distilled. A study cited by environmental researchers says plantations have expanded rapidly, contributing to deforestation and soil erosion in two major growing regions, while waste from production and heavy water use add to local strain.
ABBEVILLE, La., (AP) — Jacob Sagrera grades and stacks alligator skins tagged for legal trade at his family’s Vermilion Gator Farm, where hides are prepared for luxury brands and tanneries. Advocates for the Louisiana program say the market-based system helps preserve a species once threatened by hunting, while opponents question whether farming normalizes demand that can fuel poaching.
A European Union border agency patrol boat carrying five people, including the Estonian ambassador to Greece, sank off Greece’s easternmost island, Kastellorizo, the Greek coast guard said. Four people were injured and airlifted to a hospital on Rhodes.
Vienna’s Alpine Club reported Friday that all but two of Austria’s 96 glaciers retreated over the last two years, highlighting accelerating climate change across the Alps. The club’s latest measurements show the Alpeiner Ferner in Tyrol and the Stubacher Sonnblickkees in Salzburg each lost more than 100 meters, and it said glacier tongues are continuing to disintegrate, including at Austria’s largest glacier, the Pasterze.
Siblings Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, owners of the Jet Set nightclub, appeared in court in Santo Domingo on Monday for the first hearing in a case over the 2025 roof collapse that killed 236 people. Prosecutors accused them of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary assault and battery, and a judge postponed the hearing until April 6. Outside the courthouse, families and supporters shouted at the brothers as they left, while lawyers for the Espaillats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Group chats have become part of everyday communication, but etiquette experts say the rules are often implicit and easy to miss. Rupert Wesson, a director at Debrett’s, said people should think about how messages affect recipients, keep chats aligned with their purpose, and use caution in workplace groups where messages can be forwarded.
30 Indigenous women traveled to Ecuador’s northern Amazon to witness oil extraction impacts and discuss threats from proposed oil expansion, an effort organized as a workshop ahead of possible new drilling. In Sucumbios province, activists and participants pointed to polluted streams, gas flaring and contamination concerns, while Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines did not respond to a request for comment.
Iranian women’s soccer players who had sought asylum in Australia reversed course and left Malaysia for Oman on Monday night, ending days of uncertainty in Kuala Lumpur, the Associated Press reported. The team’s departure followed a period in which five of seven squad members who had sparked a diplomatic dispute in Australia rejoined the rest of the team, while two players remained in Australia with government support.
Cuba’s energy officials reported an islandwide blackout on Monday as the country’s power grid struggles amid deepening energy and economic crises. The Ministry of Energy and Mines said it was investigating a “complete disconnection” of the electrical system and that crews were trying to restart thermoelectric plants.
Tokyo’s weather officials confirmed the first cherry blossom bloom in three Japanese cities on Monday, signaling the official start of the season. The Japan Meteorological Agency examined benchmark Somei Yoshino trees in Kochi, Gifu and Yamanashi and reported the early flowering.
A building collapsed during a planned demolition in Nairobi on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring four others, Kenya’s Interior Ministry said. Rescue workers from the army and other institutions were searching for anyone trapped under the rubble, the ministry said.
The massive sewage pipe that ruptured and leaked millions of gallons of raw waste into the Potomac River resumed operation Saturday after DC Water completed emergency repairs, the utility said. DC Water reported it finished testing to determine whether the 72-inch-diameter pipe could handle the flow.
Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed Monday across the eastern half of the U.S. as powerful storms hit at the same time a partial government shutdown left airport security screeners under strain. Flight-tracking data cited by the Associated Press showed more than 4,400 flights canceled and about 10,400 delayed. At major airport hubs, FAA ground stops and delays compounded the disruptions.
Photographer Alessandra Tarantino created a photo series showing how blind people experience art through touch, inspired by Picasso's light paintings. The Associated Press photographer based in Rome developed the project after joining a tactile museum tour.
A European Union border‑agency patrol boat sank off the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo on Monday, leaving five people on board—including Estonia’s ambassador to Greece—among whom four were injured and later airlifted to a hospital on Rhodes. Greek coast‑guard vessels and a passing sailboat rescued everyone and ferried the survivors to the island before the injured were flown to the larger island for treatment.
**HAVANA —** A nationwide power outage left Cuba’s 11 million residents without electricity on Monday, worsening an already severe energy and economic crisis. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced a “complete disconnection” of the grid and said crews were working to restart thermoelectric plants, while officials reported that power had been restored to only 5 % of Havana’s customers. The blackout marks the third major collapse of the island’s power system in four months.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The siblings who own the Jet Set nightclub where a roof collapse killed more than 230 people appeared in court Monday for their first hearing, only to be met with shouts of “Damn you!” and accusations of murder from a furious crowd. Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault, face a possible two‑year prison term if convicted, while the judge postponed the case until April 6.
Four airports serving Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia, halted flights for more than an hour on Friday evening after a strong chemical smell disrupted air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
A ruptured wastewater pipe that leaked millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River returned to operation Saturday after emergency repairs, DC Water said. The Potomac Interceptor ruptured on Jan. 19, sending 250 million gallons of untreated sewage into the river just north of Washington.
A Frontex patrol boat carrying five people, including the Estonian ambassador to Greece, capsized off Kastellorizo, Greece, the Greek coast guard said Monday. Four people were injured and airlifted to Rhodes, while the five were initially rescued and transported to the island.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 16 (AP) — The families of two Haitian journalists who were reported kidnapped last week pleaded Monday for information about them, with many fearing gangs had killed them. The journalists, Junior Célestin of Radio Télévision Megastar and Osnel Espérance of Radio Uni FM, were taken in downtown Port-au-Prince on Friday, Radio Uni FM said.
About 30 Indigenous women from seven Amazon communities traveled to Ecuador’s northern oil region on March 14 to see firsthand the contamination from decades of oil and gas extraction. They visited the Libertador field operated by Petroecuador, witnessed oil‑stained streams and gas flares, and returned to Nueva Loja to plan resistance to proposed new drilling concessions.
Iranian women’s soccer players left Malaysia on Monday night for Oman, ending days of uncertainty after five of seven squad members who sought asylum in Australia reversed course and rejoined the team in Kuala Lumpur, an Associated Press report said. The players boarded a flight arranged by the Iranian embassy after spending several hours at Kuala Lumpur’s airport, according to the report.
Japan’s government spotters have announced the first cherry blossoms in three cities, marking the official start of the sakura season. The announcement was made Monday after Japan Meteorological Agency officials inspected benchmark Somei Yoshino trees and found more than five flowers.
Louisiana alligator farms in Abb\u00e9ville are raising American alligators for meat and skins, and the state releases some young alligators back into the wild as part of the program, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The effort is being pitched by supporters as a way to keep wetlands and alligators from being forgotten, even as some animal rights advocates raise ethical objections.
All but two of Austria’s 96 glaciers have shrunk over the past two years, according to a new Alpine Club report released on Friday. The findings, which cover 2024‑2025, highlight rapid glacier loss across the Alps and underscore the growing effects of climate change on the region’s water supplies, power generation and tourism.
Construction has finished on Vineyard Wind’s offshore wind farm off Massachusetts, with the project installing the final blades on Friday night, a spokesperson said Saturday. The completion marks the first offshore wind project to reach that stage during President Donald Trump’s tenure.
An offshore wind project targeted by the Trump administration has started sending power to New England’s electric grid, the developer said March 14. Ørsted said Revolution Wind is now generating electricity and will increase output in the weeks ahead as it moves toward full operation.
An Oregon Army National Guard helicopter hoisted an injured logger to safety from a remote area of the Mount Hood National Forest on Thursday, after steep terrain and dense tree cover prevented other rescue options, fire department officials said. The Estacada Fire District said a falling tree struck and pinned the logger, who was reported in stable condition after airlifting to a local hospital.
More than half the U.S. population faced some form of extreme weather threats on Monday, with a mix of heat, blizzards and damaging storms affecting regions from the Midwest to the East Coast. The Associated Press reported that airport delays and cancellations piled up in some major hubs, while parts of the Mid-Atlantic saw schools close early due to forecast high winds.
Powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the United States on Monday, contributing to thousands of flight cancellations and delays as a partial government shutdown affecting airport security screening entered its second month. Flight-tracking data showed more than 4,400 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. were canceled Monday, while about 10,400 were delayed.
Cuban authorities arrested five residents after a protest in Moron early Saturday that partially destroyed the local communist party headquarters, as the island grapples with severe fuel shortages and blackouts. The demonstration, linked to energy supply issues and food access, marks a rare public challenge to the government amid ongoing crisis.
All but two of Austria's 96 glaciers have retreated over the past two years, the Austrian Alpine Club reported Friday, confirming the accelerating impact of climate change on the Alps.
NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador — About 30 Indigenous women from seven Amazon nationalities visited contaminated oil sites in Ecuador’s northern Amazon, witnessing broken pipelines, oil-stained streams, and gas flares. The tour, organized by activists, aimed to prepare communities for a possible government expansion of oil drilling. “Everything is contaminated, even the air,” said Julia Catalina Chumbi, a 76-year-old Shuar leader.
Hawaii lawmakers are advancing legislation to define legitimate farming operations and prevent landowners from exploiting agricultural tax breaks without genuine agricultural activity. The proposal comes as the state grapples with "gentlemen farmers" who maintain tax-exempt status while using farmland for residential or scenic purposes rather than productive agriculture.
Hospital authorities in Gaza said Israeli strikes Sunday killed at least 12 Palestinians, including two boys, a pregnant woman and eight police officers, with additional people wounded. Separately, Israel said it will reopen the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Wednesday with limited passenger traffic after a more than two-week closure.
Israel carried out airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday that Palestinian hospital authorities said killed at least 12 people, including children, a pregnant woman and eight police officers. Hospital officials said a strike hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp and another hit a police vehicle near the entrance to Zawaida, while Hamas’ interior ministry identified the police deaths.
At least 12 Palestinians, including two children and a pregnant woman, were killed Sunday by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. The strikes occurred as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to see daily violence.
The U.S. military said all six crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday are dead. The crash occurred while the plane supported operations against Iran, U.S. Central Command said, after an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace.” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said three of the crew members were from his state and deployed with the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing.
King penguin breeding in a sub-Antarctic island chain is starting earlier than it did in 2000, a study published in Science Advances has found. Researchers say the shift has increased breeding success by 40%, even as oceans warm and food webs change.
Warming seas have shifted when many species reproduce, often with mismatches that can hurt survival. But a new study found that king penguins on a sub-Antarctic island chain have been starting breeding about 19 days earlier than they did in 2000, and that breeding earlier has boosted success.
All six crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday are dead, the U.S. military said Friday. The aircraft had been supporting operations against Iran when the crash occurred in “friendly airspace,” U.S. Central Command said.
In the hours after an attack at a nearby Temple Israel, staff at Soul Café in Michigan made pizza and kept serving food to help people affected by the chaos, including parents reuniting with children. Rabbi Benny Greenwald, director of a Friendship Circle recovery home, said the response was rooted in “goodness and kindness.” Federal investigators said the FBI is investigating the attack as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.
In the aftermath of an attack at Temple Israel, staff at Soul Café in Michigan made pizza and cookies for people affected nearby, including children relocated from the synagogue’s early childhood center and first responders, the FBI said the incident is being investigated as. Rabbi Benny Greenwald and chef Zeb Versele described the food as a fast, practical way to help during lockdown and confusion.
A passenger bus carrying Indian pilgrims slipped off a mountain road in central Nepal and rolled down a mountainside, killing seven people and injuring nine, police said Sunday. The crash happened Saturday night on a route leading from the highway to the Manakamana Temple area near Shahid Lakhan village, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kathmandu.
Maui wildfires that devastated the island in August 2023 have been linked to higher levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts among residents, including people who were not near the burn zones, according to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry. The research from the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization and the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study says socioeconomic disruption—especially housing and job insecurity—explains much of the mental-health impact.
Ethiopia declared three days of mourning after landslides in the country’s south killed 80 people, the government said. Speaker Tagesse Chafo said the mourning would begin Saturday, as authorities recovered at least 80 bodies from the Gamo Zone area and continued search-and-recovery efforts hampered by heavy rain.
A new study finds the 2023 Maui wildfires triggered widespread depression and anxiety, with housing and job insecurity driving much of the psychological harm.
Ethiopia announced three days of national mourning on Tuesday after landslides in the Gamo Zone of the country’s south killed at least 80 people. Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives Tagesse Chafo said the period of mourning will begin on Saturday, while officials continue searching for the dozens of residents still missing. Heavy rains that have battered East Africa for weeks are blamed for the disaster, which has also displaced more than 3,400 people.
Maui’s 2023 wildfires were linked to significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety among residents across the island, according to new research published in JAMA Psychiatry on March 13, 2026. The study found that people who lived in burn zones had higher risks than unexposed residents, and that more than half of the mental-health impact was tied to increased housing and job insecurity.
Ethiopia announced three days of mourning Saturday after landslides in the southern Gamo Zone killed at least 80 people, with dozens still missing from the disaster triggered by heavy rains.
A broad and erratic patchwork of severe weather rumbled across much of the United States on Sunday, bringing heavy snow in the Upper Midwest and damaging winds across the Plains. Forecasters said a line of severe storms would spread eastward by Monday, with mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C., at greatest risk for high winds and tornadoes.
Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, 61, died Sunday in a car accident on a remote Andean highway while traveling to a political rally, according to local police. His Workers and Entrepreneurs Party said his body was taken to Huamanga in the Ayacucho region, where the accident occurred. The April 12 election is set against a backdrop of political instability following a corruption-driven ouster of a prior interim president in February.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Young adults say they are turning to analog hobbies to cut back on phone time, seeking activities that feel hands-on and can reduce stress. The trend ranges from needlepoint and knitting to gardening, origami and blacksmithing, some of which have been nicknamed “grandma hobbies” online despite attracting Gen Z and millennials.
More than 20 plaster casts of people who died in Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. went on display for the first time Thursday in a permanent exhibition, according to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. The casts are created by pouring liquid plaster into voids left by decomposed bodies in hardened ash.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed to weaken air pollution limits on ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment, reversing a Biden-era finding that tied manufacturing exposure to increased cancer risks. The EPA said the current standards “actively threaten” manufacturers’ ability to sterilize devices and jeopardize the domestic supply chain for essential medical equipment.
Tommy Thompson, the deep-sea treasure hunter who found the sunken S.S. Central America off South Carolina in 1988, was released from prison last Wednesday, federal Bureau of Prisons records reviewed by The Associated Press show. Thompson spent more than a decade incarcerated after refusing to answer court questions about the whereabouts of 500 gold coins from the ship’s treasure.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, hit back at Tom Bower, the author of a new book on Britain’s royal family, calling his writing “deranged conspiracy and melodrama.” In a statement issued Saturday, they accused Bower of “cross[ing] the line from criticism into fixation,” after excerpts published in The Times of London described claims involving Queen Camilla and the couple’s relationships with other royals.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Paralympians at the Milan Cortina Games have competed in unusually warm weather, with some athletes saying soft, slow snow has left them at a disadvantage and raised safety concerns. The conditions have prompted questions among athletes about whether the Winter Olympics and Paralympics should be held earlier in the year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday it would relax air‑pollution standards for ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical devices. The move would undo a 2024 rule that cut emissions by about 90% at nearly 90 facilities and contradict a 2016 classification of the gas as a human carcinogen. Environmental‑health groups say the change threatens communities near sterilization plants, especially those of color.
Tommy Thompson, who helped discover the sunken S.S. Central America treasure, was released from prison last week after spending more than a decade behind bars for refusing to answer questions about the whereabouts of some of the missing gold coins, federal records show. Thompson, 73, was released Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra died Sunday in a traffic accident on a remote Andean highway while traveling to a political rally, according to local police and a party statement. He was 61. The crash occurred in the rural district of the city of Pilpichaca, about 430 kilometers (267 miles) southeast of Lima.
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, criticized Tom Bower, author of a new book on Britain’s royal family, calling his writing “deranged conspiracy and melodrama.” In a statement issued Saturday, they said Bower “has long crossed the line from criticism into fixation.”
A broad patchwork of severe weather on Sunday brought heavy snow and damaging winds across parts of the Upper Midwest and Plains, while Hawaii continued to deal with flooding. Forecasters said storms with damaging winds and tornado risk were expected to spread eastward by Monday, including into the mid-Atlantic and the Washington area.
Some athletes at the Milan Cortina Paralympics have complained about warm, “tropical” conditions that left them skiing or snowboarding in softer snow and raised concerns about safety. As temperatures climbed during the Games, the warm weather also sparked debate over whether the Paralympics should be held earlier in the year when colder conditions are more reliable.
Young people are embracing analog hobbies and offline activities as a way to spend less time on phones and reintroduce hands-on creativity, an Associated Press report said. The shift spans needlepoint, knitting, gardening and other “grandma hobbies,” as well as areas like pottery and blacksmithing.
LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, issued a strong statement Saturday accusing author Tom Bower of writing a book containing “deranged conspiracy and melodrama.” The couple said Bower “has long crossed the line from criticism into fixation” as excerpts from his new work were published in British media.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed weakening air pollution limits on ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment, reversing a Biden-era rule aimed at sharply cutting emissions of the cancer-causing gas.
In Mariupol, Ukraine, AP journalists documented the siege’s toll as the city lost power, communications and access to burial and evacuation, with Russian shelling and airstrikes hitting hospitals, streets and the maternity facility. The reporting, published March 16, 2022, described mass casualties including children, a blackout that cut off television and radio, and appeals for humanitarian corridors that Ukrainian officials later said largely failed.
Mariupol, Ukraine, has been hit by relentless shelling and airstrikes that have left residents unable to bury loved ones and have pushed the city deeper into chaos, according to Associated Press reporting from March 2022. AP described children and mothers among bodies being stacked in a mass grave on the outskirts, as hospitals and neighborhoods endured frequent attacks. The AP team reported that the city has been encircled by Russian forces and that roads were mined and the port blocked.
A drone strike hit a market near Sudan’s border with Chad in the Darfur region on Thursday, killing four people and wounding more than two dozen civilians, Doctors Without Borders said. The medical group said the strike hit fuel reserves at the Adikong border market in West Darfur and marked the second fatal drone attack in Adikong in less than a month.
ROTC students at Old Dominion University subdued and killed a gunman after he opened fire in a campus classroom on Thursday, leaving one person dead and two wounded, federal authorities said. The FBI said the former Army National Guard member had spent eight years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State and was on supervised release when he carried out the attack.
Irán atacó el miércoles el Aeropuerto Internacional de Dubái y también barcos comerciales, mientras Estados Unidos e Israel bombardeaban Teherán, en una escalada que preocupa por el impacto en las rutas de petróleo del golfo Pérsico. El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU aprobó una resolución que exige un alto a esos ataques contra vecinos. En paralelo, autoridades de Bahréin y de Irak reportaron incendios y el cierre de terminales petroleras tras ataques vinculados con el conflicto.
An American military refueling plane involved in the U.S. operation against Iran crashed in Iraq and rescue efforts were underway, U.S. Central Command said Thursday. Central Command said the crash involved two aircraft, with one landing safely and the other going down in western Iraq. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was hurt, and the military said the event was “a loss.”
Iran launched a series of drone and missile strikes on March 11 that hit the world’s busiest airport in Dubai, merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf and oil facilities in Bahrain and Iraq, while the United States and Israel bombed Tehran in retaliation. The United Nations Security Council voted 13‑0 to demand an immediate halt to Iran’s attacks on its neighbors, a resolution that China and Russia abstained from supporting.
A drone strike at a market in Sudan’s West Darfur region near the border with Chad on Thursday killed four people and wounded more than two dozen civilians, Doctors Without Borders said. The strike hit fuel reserves at the Adikong border market, the medical group said.
Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said a gunman opened fire in a business school classroom before Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students subdued him, authorities said. The FBI said one person was killed and two were wounded in the shooting on Thursday.
An American military refueling plane taking part in the operation against Iran crashed in Iraq, and U.S. Central Command said rescue efforts were under way Thursday. The military said the crash was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire, and described the plane as “a loss.” U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the KC-135 tanker involved had at least five crew members aboard.
Towering lava fountains from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano reached about 1,000 feet (300 meters) Tuesday, triggering temporary closures at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and parts of Highway 11 as tephra and ash fell. The episode began Tuesday morning and marked Kilauea’s 43rd fountaining event since it began in December 2024, according to a livestream. Hawaii County opened a shelter at a district gymnasium for residents and tourists affected by the road closure or falling ash, and the National Weather Service issued an ashfall warning.
Disastrous landslides in southern Ethiopia following a week of heavy rains have killed at least 50 people and left 125 others missing, an official said March 12. The landslides occurred in recent days in Gamo Zone districts including Gacho Baba, Kamba and Bonke, where rescuers pulled one person alive from the mud, officials said.
Towering lava fountains from Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island surged to an estimated 1,000 feet (300 meters) on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, forcing temporary closures at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and a partial shutdown of Highway 11. Officials opened an emergency shelter for residents and tourists, but no one had used it shortly after it opened, county spokesperson Tom Callis said.
Disastrous landslides in southern Ethiopia have killed at least 50 people and left 125 others missing following a week of heavy rains, a regional disaster official said Thursday. One person was rescued alive from the mud, according to the Gamo Zone director of disaster response.
Lava fountains up to 1,000 feet high from Kilauea volcano prompted temporary closures at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and part of Highway 11 on Tuesday. The eruption, now in its 43rd episode since December 2024, sent bright-red lava and smoke into the air but remained confined to the summit crater, officials said.
President Donald Trump’s administration sued California on Thursday over state rules aimed at curbing air pollution from cars, a dispute that could reshape the timeline for electric-vehicle adoption. The lawsuit challenges California’s authority to enforce vehicle-emissions standards, even those that California says were already approved under less strict federal requirements.
The federal government filed a lawsuit on March 12 against California’s vehicle‑emission program, accusing the state of overstepping its authority to set stricter rules for cars. The suit targets standards that the California Air Resources Board says will stay in force despite the litigation. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s office blasted the action as an attack on the state’s efforts to lower gasoline prices and expand electric‑vehicle options.
Minnesota local governments are pressing state lawmakers for bonding bill funding to expand and repair drinking, wastewater and stormwater systems, citing aging infrastructure, updated requirements and rising construction costs. In testimony and interviews during the 2026 legislative session, officials and lawmakers said water projects account for a large share of requests and could be harder to fit into budgets without borrowing authority. The debate over a bonding bill has included concerns from some lawmakers about using it for political leverage and about the lack of dedicated recurring funding.
Oregon lawmakers approved $2.1 million to buy Abiqua Falls and surrounding land after the nonprofit that owns the falls listed it on Redfin. The proposal came as fans of the 92-foot waterfall worried the site could be closed off.
Oregon lawmakers approved $2.1 million to buy Abiqua Falls after the nonprofit that owns the site put the waterfall up for sale through Redfin, according to the Associated Press. The falls, about 30 miles east of Salem, have drawn public interest and hiking access for decades, and the listing raised concerns among conservation supporters.
A man shot by Bridgeport police last year died after an ambulance delay, a newly released state investigation says. The inspector general found the shooting was justified but raised questions about what happened afterward, including that a first ambulance was redirected to transport an officer. The man’s family said the delay could have affected whether he survived.
René Redzepi, the founder and chef behind Denmark’s famed Noma, stepped down after abuse and assault allegations drew new attention online. In a Thursday Instagram post, he said Noma had taken steps to change its culture and that his resignation acknowledged that “an apology is not enough.”
Nevada’s NV Energy says the state is on track to miss clean energy standards it is required to meet by 2030 for the first time, blaming rapidly rising electricity demand from data centers serving artificial intelligence. Utility regulators in April will review a draft plan addressing shortages, with potential fines if the renewable portfolio standard isn’t met. Sierra Club officials and an industry group said the scale of new load is pressuring the state’s ability to build enough renewable power.
Colin Dorgan, a senior hockey player for Blackstone Valley Co-op in Rhode Island, scored the game-winning goal in double overtime on March 11, 2026, to advance his team to the state championship game. The win came nearly a month after he lost three family members in a youth hockey rink shooting in Pawtucket. Dorgan wore a patch on his jersey honoring his mother, brother and grandfather as he returned to the ice.
Winter heat wave conditions sent temperatures into the 90s across Southern California, with the National Weather Service warning that the mid-March warmth could raise the risk of illness. The weather service said the stretch is expected to run about 20 degrees warmer than normal for much of the week.
NV Energy predicts missing 2030 renewable target as AI-driven data centers strain grid, prompting utility to seek more natural gas.
Nevada’s largest utility, NV Energy, warned on Saturday that a surge in data‑center projects could push the state past its 2030 renewable‑energy target. The utility says demand from prospective data centers may require 47 percent more power than it projected two years ago, forcing it to consider greater reliance on natural gas to meet immediate needs. State officials and environmental groups say the shortfall threatens the clean‑energy standards approved by voters in 2020.
High school hockey player Colin Dorgan scored a game-winning goal in double overtime to advance the Blackstone Valley Co-op toward the Rhode Island state championship game, nearly a month after a shooting at a youth rink killed three of his family members. Dorgan, who wore a patch on his jersey honoring his mother, brother and grandfather, scored in a semifinal against Portsmouth High School on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at Schneider Arena on the campus of Providence College in Providence.
State officials say water projects dominate Minnesota’s $1 billion bonding bill requests, as rapidly growing communities such as Big Lake, Henderson and Becker scramble for state aid to upgrade aging wastewater and drinking‑water systems. Lawmakers are debating whether to approve the funding, with some Republicans warning that the bill could be used as political leverage, while local leaders stress the urgency of securing clean water for expanding populations.
President Donald Trump has said he would accept the results of a Pentagon investigation after U.S. officials and a second person briefed on findings of a preliminary military probe told The Associated Press that outdated intelligence likely led to a deadly missile strike on an Iranian elementary school. The strike killed more than 165 people, many of them children, in the opening hours of the conflict, according to the preliminary investigation findings described by the AP.
LOS ANGELES — With spring still a week away, Southern California faced an unusual March heat wave on Thursday, with temperatures topping 90 degrees and forecasters warning of increased illness risk. The National Weather Service said temperatures would be about 20 degrees warmer than normal through Friday, prompting officials to open cooling centers and urge residents to stay hydrated and avoid outdoor activities during peak heat.
Severe storms spawned tornadoes that killed at least two people in northwest Indiana and leveled buildings in Kankakee, Illinois, officials said Wednesday. The storms also brought 1 to 2 inches of rain and hail across parts of the region, while tornado watches remained in effect in parts of multiple states.
California state lawmakers grilled Department of Motor Vehicles Director Steve Gordon at a Senate informational hearing Tuesday on road safety and DUI enforcement after an increase in road deaths. Lawmakers pressed Gordon on why the DMV has limited data on actions against dangerous drivers, and on how the agency investigates major crashes and repeat reckless driving offenders.
Severe storms produced multiple tornadoes Tuesday across parts of Illinois and Indiana, leveling homes, toppling trees and power lines, and overloading a 911 center south of Chicago with calls, officials said. In Indiana, Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran asked residents not to come to affected areas while crews responded, and Illinois weather officials said damage assessments were still underway.
A 12-year-old girl in suburban Villa Rica, Georgia, died days after she collapsed in the street following a fistfight near a school bus stop, police said. The investigation is reviewing evidence including cellphone video, and prosecutors will decide later whether to bring charges.
It’s still technically winter, but Southern California is bracing for unseasonably hot weather, with forecasters predicting temperatures near 93 degrees in downtown Los Angeles. The National Weather Service said the warm spell could be about 20 degrees above normal for mid-March, raising the risk of heat illness and prompting officials to urge residents to limit daytime outdoor activity.
Syngenta said it will stop producing paraquat, a herbicide banned in more than 70 countries, by the end of June, including at its facility in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Paraquat is repackaged and distributed in the United States from Syngenta’s St. Gabriel site, where residents and environmental groups have tied industrial pollution concerns—often described as “Cancer Alley”—to elevated cancer risk.
U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have damaged at least four cultural and historical sites, including palaces and an ancient mosque, UNESCO said after verifying the damage. The U.N. cultural agency said it also sent advance coordinates to help parties avoid harm, as it reported further damage linked to fighting in and around Iran’s protected landmarks.
Lews, N.Y., residents and environmentalists are pressing back against a proposal to conduct howitzer testing in the Adirondacks, saying it could disrupt private land and wildlife and trigger a rare public hearing. The Adirondack Park Agency scheduled the hearing for April 22 after the applicant sought approval for non-explosive barrel tests about 10 miles west of Lake Champlain.
Latvia’s State Security Service said two people set fire to a train and rail equipment in August 2025, and later filmed the attack for propaganda. The agency said the video was provided to the people who commissioned the arson. The case was described alongside a pattern of sabotage and cyberattacks officials in Europe and the United States say are linked to Russia.
A giant steel pipe rose more than 10 meters out of a construction site in Osaka, Japan, and nearly reached an elevated road overnight, local officials said. Police were notified early Wednesday after a pedestrian saw asphalt pieces falling from the pipe as traffic snarled around the area. By Thursday, firefighters cut a hole in the side of the pipe and injected water to push it back down.
An artisanal mine collapsed in the Central African Republic on Thursday morning, killing eight people and injuring five others, miners at the scene told The Associated Press. The incident occurred in Nourroum, a mining town in Ouham-Péndé prefecture in the northwestern part of the country.
A drone strike hit a secondary school and a health care center in southern Sudan on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, mostly schoolgirls, according to hospital and medical group officials. The attack struck a village in White Nile province, where a hospital director said 10 people were wounded.
ODAKA, Japan — Fifteen years after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns at three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors on March 11, 2011, only about one-third of Odaka's pre-disaster population of 13,000 have returned to this northeastern Fukushima town. Tomoko Kobayashi, who operates the Futabaya Ryokan family inn in Odaka, has spent much of that interval conducting radiation surveys and sharing data as part of citizen-led efforts to make the homecoming viable for others.
A Baltimore police officer was shot in the leg Tuesday while responding to a burglary call, and the gunman was killed by a second officer in a confrontation that left two civilian women endangered, Police Commissioner Richard Worley said. The wounded officer was in stable condition at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Venezuelan lawmakers began debating a bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodríguez to regulate the country’s mining industry and create conditions aimed at attracting foreign investment, including investors seeking safeguards after past expropriations. The debate started Monday in Caracas after Rodríguez announced the measure last week during a visit by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
Six members of Iran's women's national soccer team have been granted humanitarian visas to remain permanently in Australia after most of their teammates declined last-minute asylum offers at Sydney Airport and boarded a flight home Tuesday night, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday. Seven players had accepted visas before the team reached the airport; one of the seven later changed her mind and returned to Iran — a reversal that inadvertently disclosed the remaining six women's safe-house location to the Iranian embassy, forcing Australian authorities to move them immediately to a new site.
The State Department has authorized up to $40 million in emergency funds to charter flights for Americans leaving the Middle East, officials said Tuesday, as those government-organized aircraft have flown at less than 40 percent of capacity on average and the department faces mounting criticism over its response to travel disruptions caused by the Iran war.
A proposed settlement among California's Insurance Department, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, and State Farm would hold homeowner insurance rate increases to 17 percent — less than the 30 percent the company had sought — while condo and rental-unit policyholders would receive refunds with interest, the parties disclosed last week. State Farm, California's largest home insurer with roughly 20 percent of the state market, obtained approval for emergency rate increases last May after the Los Angeles-area wildfires placed the company under severe financial strain. The settlement would save the company's California policyholders a combined $530 million, according to Consumer Watchdog.
A man was taken into custody after driving a van into a security barrier outside the White House early Wednesday, authorities said. The U.S. Secret Service said the crash happened just before 6:30 a.m., and the man was arrested immediately. The Secret Service said criminal charges were pending and a bomb squad checked the vehicle and determined it was safe.
A court hearing scheduled for Wednesday for Cher’s son Elijah Allman on allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home was canceled, according to authorities. Allman, 49, had been arrested March 1 and was being held at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections. His attorney, Sarah Landres, took the case before the hearing, and officials said they were continuing the case to an undetermined date.
Lewis, N.Y., is holding a rare public hearing on a proposal to test a large howitzer in a rural Adirondack Park town, drawing sharp opposition from residents and environmentalists. Critics say the blasts could disturb nearby private property and wildlife, while the project backer says the tests would involve non-explosive rounds and support national security research.
Death Valley National Park in California is seeing a once-in-a-decade superbloom of wildflowers after steady rainfall and warm temperatures helped long-dormant seeds germinate, the National Park Service said. Park ranger Matthew Lamar said the bloom is the best the park has seen since 2016, and ecologists said deserts can still teem with life even when they appear barren.
A Virginia boater, Nicholas Lailas, has filed a class-action lawsuit against DC Water in federal court in Maryland, seeking compensation tied to a Jan. 19 collapse of a sewer pipe that leaked millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. The lawsuit says DC Water, which owns and operates the Potomac Interceptor, failed to keep the ruptured pipe in a reasonably safe condition.
Paris Hilton said she is launching a new national initiative to help women-owned businesses affected by disasters, a broader version of support she launched after the 2025 Los Angeles fires. She will donate $350,000 to the Back in Business Recovery Fund and work with 11:11 Media Impact and GoFundMe.org, according to The Associated Press.
A major fire destroyed a four-story building next to Glasgow Central Station, shutting down the station and disrupting rail services as firefighters worked to douse the blaze on Monday. The fire broke out Sunday afternoon in a vape shop on Union Street, and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said there were no injuries reported.
A Georgia high school teacher died after what authorities described as a prank turned deadly, and prosecutors have charged a teen with vehicular homicide. Authorities said Jason Hughes, 40, was struck by a pickup truck after he tripped and fell as the students were leaving his home in Gainesville late Friday.
Los Angeles police took a woman into custody after she fired gunshots outside Rihanna’s gated home in the Beverly Hills area, authorities said. No injuries were reported, and police said it was not immediately clear whether the singer was home when the shooting happened Sunday afternoon.
A large fire erupted Tuesday morning aboard an unmanned barge loaded with scrap metal on the Delaware Bay and burned into the evening, drawing U.S. Coast Guard responders, fire departments from Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, and environmental monitors from two states. No injuries were reported.
Southern Green Bay — once dismissed as too polluted to support commercial fishing — has become the last significant refuge for Lake Michigan whitefish, an iconic species that has nearly vanished from the open lake after invasive mussels stripped away its food supply. Commercial harvests in the bay's Wisconsin waters surged from fewer than 100,000 pounds in 2000 to more than 800,000 pounds in 2024, even as catches from the wider lake collapsed. But population models now show whitefish stocks in the bay have shrunk by roughly half from their mid-2010s peak, and scientists warn that climate-driven ice loss threatens the species' last stronghold in the lower Great Lakes.
Sharks are intercepting catch directly off hooks at the highest rates recorded in roughly 20 years of state data collection in Hawaiʻi, with depredation incidents now occurring on at least one in four licensed fishing trips in Hawaiian waters, an aquatic biologist with the state said. The surge has pushed many small-boat fishers who pursue prized bottomfish such as ehu, onaga and opakapaka to the edge of abandoning their livelihoods, according to a fishing industry advocate.
Police in Norway said they were investigating an explosion early Sunday outside the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, the capital. Officials said no injuries were reported, and they were searching for those responsible and their motive.
China's National People's Congress unveiled two major economic plans this week that outline Beijing's strategy for managing sluggish domestic demand and intensifying U.S. technological competition. The 2026 annual plan ranked "building a robust domestic market" as its top priority, while the accompanying five-year plan placed greater emphasis on achieving technological breakthroughs — targeting artificial intelligence, semiconductors, biotechnology, and 6G mobile networks among its core goals.
A bus caught fire in the town of Kerzers, about 25 kilometers west of Bern, killing at least six people and severely injuring three others, police said March 10. Police said an unspecified “voluntary act” could have caused the fire, and they said an investigation was under way.
In Amsterdam, a “singing circle” at the Concertgebouw is bringing people with dementia and other neurological conditions together with carers for hourlong music sessions. Participants, including 58-year-old Megan Worthy, said singing helps them feel connected and regain moments of memory and identity. The project is run by opera singer Maartje de Lint, who said music can help keep the brain active.
A bombing at the Dali nightclub in Peru’s Trujillo region injured 33 people, including minors, authorities said Saturday. The blast happened in the pre-dawn hours at the venue along the northern coast, according to a statement from the local Emergency Operations Center.
A roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle killed four people, including two officers, and wounded about two dozen others in Wana in northwestern Pakistan, a police official said. The explosion struck the city of Wana in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, he said.
Authorities in Peru arrested three people after a bombing at a nightclub in Trujillo injured 33 people, including minors, and the number of injured rose to 44, according to health officials. The explosion happened in the pre-dawn hours Saturday at the Dalí nightclub in La Libertad, local emergency officials said.
Three Palestinians were killed Sunday in a violent clash with Israeli settlers near Khirbet Abu Falah, east of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said, bringing to six the number of Palestinians killed in the territory in less than one week. Two of the men died from gunfire and a third from suffocation, which the military attributed to tear gas. All three were buried in a joint funeral. The Israeli military condemned the attack and said it had opened a criminal investigation against the settlers involved.
The Iran war's disruption of global oil and gas supply chains has prompted U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and some energy analysts to argue that the conflict may accelerate a shift to homegrown renewable energy — even as other experts warn that fossil fuel shocks more often push nations toward dirtier alternatives. Bombed refineries, disrupted shipping channels, and surging fuel prices have reignited a debate that last surfaced when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, only to fade as European nations replaced natural gas with coal.
Thousands of civilians fled the opposition-held town of Akobo in eastern South Sudan after the army ordered the United Nations to close its nearby base, officials said March 8. The exodus began late Saturday night, as fighting was reported west of Akobo and local officials said women, children and elderly people crossed into Ethiopia.
Federal meteorologists said the Lower 48 states averaged 37.13 degrees Fahrenheit (2.85 degrees Celsius) from December through February, making the winter the second-warmest on record. NOAA climate monitoring chief Russell Vose said the warmth was driven primarily by conditions west of the Mississippi River, while some parts of the East experienced cold spells.
A new study finds that complaints about uncomfortable heat in underground subway systems rise as outdoor temperatures climb, reflecting how warmer weather can translate belowground. Researchers analyzed more than 85,000 social media posts and Google Maps reviews from 2008 to 2024 in New York, Boston and London.
The National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report on an Arizona police helicopter crash says there were signs of a mechanical problem involving the helicopter’s main rotor, rather than bullet impacts. The crash killed Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper paramedic Hunter Bennett, 28, and pilot Robert Skankey, 61, on Feb. 4 during a police gunfight with a suspect.
Devices left plugged in can draw “phantom energy,” also called vampire energy, even when they are off—raising household bills and adding to power demand from emissions-producing sources, Associated Press reported. The story highlights how leaving phone chargers, game consoles, smart TVs and other equipment connected can account for a portion of home energy use, and quotes experts on steps households can take.
Lebanese officials and the family of a retired security officer who vanished in December say Israel covertly abducted him to extract information about the fate of an Israeli airman missing for four decades. The retired officer, Ahmed Shukr, a former captain with Lebanon's General Security Directorate, was last seen on Dec. 17, 2025, entering a stranger's vehicle in the eastern Lebanese city of Zahle. Days before the Associated Press reported the disappearance, Israeli commandos carried out a raid in the Bekaa Valley village of Nabi Chit, digging in a family cemetery in what the Israeli military said was a search for evidence about the fate of navigator Ron Arad, who parachuted from his jet over Lebanon in 1986 and was never seen in Israel again. Lebanon's Health Ministry said the raid and subsequent airstrikes killed 41 people and wounded dozens. No Israeli casualties were reported.
A renewed deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has found no confirmed trace of the aircraft, Malaysia's Air Accident Investigation Bureau said Sunday, on the 12th anniversary of the Boeing 777's disappearance with 239 people aboard. The search, conducted by Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity between March 2025 and January 2026, surveyed about 7,571 square kilometers of ocean floor in the southern Indian Ocean — roughly half the contracted area — without locating wreckage. Families of those aboard are pressing the Malaysian government to extend Ocean Infinity's contract and to pursue similar no-find, no-fee arrangements with other deep-sea exploration companies.
BOGOTÁ — Colombians voted Sunday for a new Congress and selected presidential candidates from three major political coalitions, with the election shadowed by government allegations of fraud at the Venezuelan border and a security alert for political violence in rural regions dominated by illegal armed groups. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said authorities detected about 2,400 people allegedly attempting to enter Colombia through an unauthorized border crossing with Venezuela in Norte de Santander, despite announced border closures during the vote. President Gustavo Petro described the incident as "large-scale fraud" and an "avalanche of illegal voting." Hours later, Sánchez said authorities had responded and no people remained in the area, and that an investigation had been opened.
Canadian police airlifted 23 people to safety Sunday after an ice shelf broke away from the shore of Georgian Bay in southwestern Ontario, drifted more than a mile into open water, and split into sections that left some victims partially submerged in near-freezing temperatures, the Ontario Provincial Police said. All 23 were returned to shore by mid-afternoon with minor injuries.
At least 25 people died after overnight flash floods inundated Nairobi on Friday and Saturday, drowning motorists and electrocuting residents as waters submerged vehicles and residential areas across Kenya's capital. George Seda, the Nairobi police chief, said some victims drowned while others were electrocuted, and warned the death toll may rise as search and rescue operations continue. Kenya Airways diverted flights to the coastal city of Mombasa, and the Kenyan military was deployed overnight to assist emergency services.
MINNEAPOLIS — The firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has done little to ease the economic damage to immigrant-owned and immigrant-serving small businesses in Minneapolis, where business owners, activists, and educators said Friday the losses from the nation's largest immigration enforcement surge continue to mount. Daniel Hernandez, who runs Colonial Market in south Minneapolis, said 10 of the 12 Latino small businesses renting space from him remain shuttered, and only one — an Ecuadorian ice cream shop — has been able to reopen since the operation began in December. "I don't know if my business will survive, being honest," Hernandez said. "The amount of damage is so big that I am afraid."
A private jet that crashed in Bangor, Maine on Jan. 25, killing all six people aboard, remained on the ground 8 minutes longer than Federal Aviation Administration guidelines allow after receiving a deicing treatment, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday in a preliminary report on the crash. The Bombardier Challenger 600, owned by a Texas law firm and bound for France from Houston, lost control at liftoff during a snowstorm, came down upside down on the runway and burst into flames.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, vanished from her home in the Tucson, Ariz., area on Feb. 1, and the case remained unsolved more than a month later, the Associated Press reported. Her daughter, NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, has made repeated public appeals and offered a $1 million reward for information. The disappearance has drawn attention to what researchers call ambiguous loss — a form of psychological suffering caused by an unresolved absence that leaves families neither able to mourn nor to stop hoping.
Tyler Jaggers, a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer based in Astoria, Oregon, died Thursday evening after sustaining injuries during a medical evacuation mission off the Washington coast, the Coast Guard reported. Before his death, his family carried out a hospital-room marriage proposal on his behalf, and the Coast Guard awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross — one of the military's highest honors for heroism in flight.
Cuban officials said Saturday that crews had repaired a broken boiler at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, ending a massive blackout that left millions in the island's western region without power since Wednesday. The failure marked the second major outage to strike western Cuba in three months.
A fire burned more than 60 cabanas and shops in Punta Zicatela, a small beach town on Mexico's Pacific coast in the southern state of Oaxaca, early Friday, leaving no casualties, according to local Mayor Román Valencia.
California has no system to track ski injuries or deaths at its resorts, leaving safety experts, families, and skiers without reliable data to assess slope risk — a gap that has persisted despite multiple fatal incidents this winter and more than a decade of failed legislative attempts to mandate reporting. In February alone, a 21-year-old skier was found dead on a black diamond run at Northstar California Resort, a fatal collision there followed within two weeks, and an avalanche killed nine backcountry skiers near Lake Tahoe, according to a CalMatters investigation distributed by the Associated Press. Not one of more than two dozen resorts contacted by the outlet responded with accident, injury, or fatality data.
The U.S. issued a license Friday authorizing dealings with Minerven, Venezuela's state-owned gold mining company, as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum concluded a visit to Caracas where he met with acting President Delcy Rodríguez and representatives of more than two dozen American mining and minerals companies, the Associated Press reported.
The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the state's authority to close Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX rocket launches, with justices pressing both sides on where constitutional limits on public beach access begin and end. Environmental and indigenous groups sued the Texas General Land Office and Cameron County over a 2013 state law permitting some counties to temporarily bar the public from Gulf Coast beaches during space flight activities. The case tests the scope of the Texas Constitution's Open Beaches Amendment, which grants the public an "unrestricted right" to use public beaches.
The U.S. military plans to exhume the remains of 88 sailors and Marines killed aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and buried as unknowns at a Honolulu cemetery, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Thursday. The disinterments are scheduled to begin in November or December, agency director Kelly McKeague said in a statement, with DNA compared against samples collected from family members of missing crew. The decision reverses years of military resistance and follows a three-year grassroots effort to assemble the family DNA database needed to make identification feasible.
Authorities searched through rubble and debris in southern Michigan on Saturday after suspected tornadoes killed four people, including a 12-year-old boy, in a storm system that also claimed two lives in eastern Oklahoma on Friday. The National Weather Service confirmed an EF3 tornado with winds of at least 150 mph struck the Union Lake area near Union City, Michigan, and sent survey teams to assess additional tornado tracks across both states.
Savannah Guthrie made an off-camera appearance Thursday at NBC’s “Today” show studios to thank colleagues for their support since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing from an Arizona home a month ago. NBC said Guthrie will return to the air at some point but is focused on supporting her family and helping bring Nancy home.
Extreme weather events in which a heat wave triggers a sudden, severe drought have been spreading across the globe at an accelerating pace, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. Researchers from South Korea and Australia found that by 2023, these heat-first drought extremes covered as much as 16.7% of Earth's land in a given year — up from roughly 2.5% in the 1980s. The rate of increase over the final 22 years of the study period was eight times higher than in the two preceding decades, the authors said.
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for survivors Friday afternoon after the commercial fishing vessel Yankee Rose sank off Cape Cod, killing both people aboard. The vessel was found overturned about 3 nautical miles northeast of Race Point in Provincetown on Thursday, just before noon, after Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a notification of the capsizing.
Minnesota cities and advocacy groups are pressing the state Legislature for $250 million to keep the state's lead service line replacement program running beyond 2027, when both state and federal dollars supporting the effort are projected to run out. The state has allocated $243 million for lead pipe removal since 2023 and drawn roughly $350 million from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but neither funding stream extends past 2027 without fresh appropriations.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday issued its first construction permit for a commercial non-light-water reactor in more than 40 years, authorizing TerraPower to build a sodium-cooled nuclear plant near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The permit is also the NRC's first commercial nuclear construction permit of any kind in eight years, the commission said. TerraPower said construction on the reactor is set to begin within weeks, with completion of the up to $4 billion plant targeted for 2030.
A missile strike in Beit Shemesh on Sunday killed three children in one family and demolished a synagogue and nearby homes, according to Israeli rescue services and the family’s account. Tamar Biton, speaking after her children’s identification, said she remained hopeful they could be rescued from underneath rubble despite losing Yaakov, Avigail and Sarah.
The West Virginia Senate passed legislation on March 5, 2026, to loosen inspection requirements for certain aboveground storage tanks used by the oil and gas industry, a move that environmental advocates said could increase risks to the state's drinking water supplies.
The Greek government has acquired the first verified photographs documenting the May 1, 1944 Nazi mass execution of 200 prisoners at the Kaisariani firing range in Athens, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni announced Thursday, after purchasing the archive from a Belgian private collector for 100,000 euros ($115,700). The 262-image collection, taken by German Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer during his 1943–44 posting in occupied Greece, includes scenes of prisoners transported from the Haidari prison camp outside Athens to the firing range east of the city center, where they were shot in groups of 20 in reprisal for a resistance ambush that killed a German military commander in southern Greece.
Governments stepped up repatriation flights and other evacuation routes as an Iran war escalated and airspace restrictions disrupted travel, leaving hundreds of thousands stranded across the Middle East, according to the Associated Press. France said a flight carrying its citizens arrived in Paris early Wednesday, while countries including the United States, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Italy and Mexico reported additional departures and plans to bring people home.
A Texas judge ordered Camp Mystic to preserve flood-damaged cabins and other areas of the summer camp after last year’s deadly floods that killed 25 girls and two counselors. The ruling followed a lawsuit from the family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, whose body was not recovered after she was swept away during the July 4 disaster, and it requires the camp to stop demolishing or altering certain areas.
More than 6 million Americans face the highest risk of severe weather Friday as the season's first major storm outbreak threatens the nation's heartland, with strong tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds expected across Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the national Storm Prediction Center said Thursday. Another 22 million people face a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Omaha and Milwaukee. Emergency managers across the affected states urged residents to identify shelter locations and monitor National Weather Service warnings before storms arrive.
Defense attorneys for Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man charged with sparking the deadly Palisades Fire, called Thursday for his release from federal custody and asked U.S. prosecutors to dismiss the case against him, citing deposition testimony they say shows the Los Angeles Fire Department failed to extinguish an earlier blaze that grew into a wildfire that killed 12 people. Rinderknecht, 29, has been held in jail since October, when he was charged in connection with one of the most destructive wildfires in California history.
An architect on the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's proposed White House ballroom is significantly oversized and should be scaled back, warning the project could permanently alter the nation's most recognizable historic landmark. David Scott Parker, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects with more than 35 years of experience, shared his assessment with the Associated Press as the National Capital Planning Commission prepared to meet Thursday to vote on whether to approve the 90,000-square-foot project.
Savannah Guthrie made an off-camera visit Thursday to NBC’s “Today” show studios, her first since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing from her Arizona home about a month ago. A “Today” spokesperson said Guthrie plans to return to the air at some point but is focused on supporting her family and helping bring Nancy home.
Thika, Kenya, is home to Mary Mwangi, a breast cancer survivor who started knitting during recovery and now makes affordable knitted prostheses for women after mastectomies. Her “New Dawn Cancer Warriors” group says the handmade devices—selling for $10—provide comfort and restore confidence for people who cannot access reconstructive surgery. The group has sold more than 600 prostheses over the past three years, with support from organizations that donate them.
NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian fighter jet crashed during a training flight in the northeast, killing its two pilots, the Indian air force said Friday. The Su-30MKI, a two-seater long-range fighter, crashed in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district after taking off from an airbase late Thursday, officials said.
An emergency shelter for women in Hilo, Hawaii, has received county and state funding without being inspected by county fire prevention officials since it opened about five years ago, and bedrooms in the facility lack required emergency exits, according to reporting shared with The Associated Press. A current resident said the rooms have “no operable window” escape options and that none of the seven units includes an operable window.
A mine collapse at the Rubaya coltan site in eastern Congo left at least 200 people dead, Congolese authorities said. The M23 rebel group that controls the mine disputed the toll, saying only five people were killed and blaming the deaths on “bombings.”
Britney Spears was arrested near her Southern California home on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, authorities said Wednesday. The California Highway Patrol said she was taken to a Ventura County jail and booked early Thursday, and that chemical test results are pending. A statement from Spears’ representative called the arrest “inexcusable,” adding that she plans to comply with the law.
Cleveland police said Wednesday they were working to identify two young half-sisters whose bodies were found buried inside suitcases on the city’s east side. The bodies were recovered Monday in the Collinwood neighborhood after a tip from a dog walker, police said.
Demand for minerals used in technology and the energy transition could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040, the United Nations political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the U.N. Security Council. DiCarlo said trade in raw and semi-processed minerals reached about $2.5 trillion in 2023.
In Danbury, Connecticut, the fire department has begun using a new dispatch system that starts with softer alert tones and a computerized voice to describe incoming emergencies. The change aims to reduce stress for firefighters as they respond, with officials pointing to the profession’s heart health risks and citing research on how alarm volume affects heart rates.
Greenland fishermen in Ilulissat and around Nuuk say warming weather linked to climate change is making sea ice less reliable and shifting where fish can be found, leaving catches and income harder to predict. The article follows fishermen who describe getting stuck in ice one year and facing unusually wet conditions the next, alongside industry and marine experts who warn the disruption could worsen overfishing near shore.
The Hawaii state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted unanimously to support acquiring Hā‘ena Beach Park on Kaua‘i and nearby Maniniholo Dry Cave, parcels Kaua‘i County has owned since 1925. The transfer is not final and the timeline is uncertain, but supporters say the change could bring visitor and parking caps similar to those at nearby Hā‘ena State Park. Local residents and advocates have said the beach park’s popularity has led to crowded conditions and traffic hazards that make access difficult for them.
A blackout left millions of people without power in Havana and western Cuba on Wednesday, in the latest outage affecting an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and an aging power grid. Cuban officials said the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant east of Havana triggered the outage and that restoring parts of the National Electric System could take at least 72 hours.
A baby macaque abandoned by his mother near Tokyo is spending less time with an orangutan plushie meant to help him cope and learn monkey social cues, zoo staff said. The zoo began limiting viewing time and asked visitors to be quiet after the monkey’s cuddling routine went viral online last month.
Sri Lanka transferred more than 200 Iranian sailors from the navy logistics ship IRIS Bushehr to shore after the vessel sought assistance while anchored outside Sri Lanka’s waters, as tensions rose in the Indian Ocean following the U.S. sinking of an Iranian warship. The Sri Lankan navy said 204 sailors were taken to Welisara Naval Base near Colombo, where they underwent border control procedures and medical tests.
Vermont lawmakers are considering legislation that would ban disposal of leachate from the state's only operating landfill into the watershed feeding Lake Memphremagog, an international waterbody shared with Quebec, amid concerns about contamination from PFAS — synthetic compounds known as "forever chemicals." The bill, H.652, was heard by the House Environment Committee in February and is backed by residents of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, a rural region that hosts the Coventry landfill but generates less than one-tenth of the state's total waste.
The commercial fishing vessel Yankee Rose overturned and sank about three nautical miles northeast of Race Point off Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard said, leaving one crew member recovered and transported for medical care and a second crew member still missing.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that Venezuela's government has pledged to protect foreign companies seeking to invest in the country's mineral sector, concluding a two-day visit to Caracas that advanced the Trump administration's effort to build alternative critical-mineral supplies as competition with China over key raw materials continues. Burgum said acting President Delcy Rodríguez acknowledged concerns about security risks in areas long controlled by guerrillas, criminal gangs and military officials who profit from illegal extraction.
A 20-year-old Wisconsin man was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for setting fire to Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman's district office in Fond du Lac, after telling police he acted because the federal government was shutting down TikTok in violation of his constitutional rights, according to court records. Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker also sentenced Caiden Stachowicz, of Menasha, to seven years of extended supervision.
A coalition of Michigan environmental organizations has until the end of 2026 to raise $6 million to purchase 440 acres of Sibley Prairie — a globally imperiled lakeplain habitat in Brownstown Township near Detroit — after striking a purchase agreement with Fritz Enterprises, the scrap metal recycling company that has owned the land for decades. As of mid-February, the groups had raised just over $500,000 toward that goal, with a total fundraising target of $9.7 million when restoration costs and an endowment fund are included.
Maine’s lobster catch declined for the fourth straight year in 2025, state fishing regulators said Friday, citing high operating costs, inflation and a changing ocean. Regulators said the 2025 harvest fell to 78.8 million pounds (35.7 million kilograms), the lowest total since 2008.
Lawmakers in Hawaiʻi are pressing the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to stop allowing some pest-infested goods into the islands after testimony suggested inspectors have been exercising discretion to let “lightly infested” shipments pass. The dispute centers on Senate Bill 2760, which would expand the department’s authority to inspect additional non-agricultural items and allow fines for violations.
The traveling exhibit “I am an American: The Nisei Soldier Experience” opened in San Francisco’s Presidio this week, honoring Japanese Americans who fought for the United States in World War II while their families were held in government-run internment camps. The exhibit, presented by the National Veterans Network and partners including the National Museum of the United States Army, includes artifacts, family photographs and bios shared by relatives.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor and four other U.S. service members were among four Americans killed in the Iran war on Sunday, the Pentagon identified on Tuesday. Friends and relatives described the reservists, including two men whose identities were still pending, as dedicated parents and reservists serving in logistics in Kuwait.
In military-heavy communities around Fort Campbell, which hosts the 101st Airborne Division, families are weighing the unknowns of the U.S. war against Iran with memories shaped by deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Veterans, state officials, and nonprofit leaders around the Tennessee-Kentucky base described both pride in service and anxiety about what comes next.
A study published Wednesday in the journal *Nature* found that roughly 90% of scientific studies and hazard assessments have underestimated baseline coastal water heights by an average of 1 foot (30 centimeters), raising the prospect that climate change's rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners previously calculated. The error stems from a mismatch between the ways sea and land altitudes are measured — a gap researchers called a "methodological blind spot" that is most pronounced in the Global South, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia.
Vatican restorers have begun cleaning Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel, removing a chalky white film of salt that has built up over the fresco since its last major restoration about three decades ago. The Vatican said the work is taking place on floor-to-ceiling scaffolding and aims to finish by Easter in the first week of April.
A small plane attempting an emergency landing in the frigid Hudson River crashed Monday night, authorities said. The pilot and a student aboard escaped the wreckage and swam to shore near Newburgh, New York, for help.
Moorhead, Minn. residents gathered Sunday for the annual March 1 opening of a 77-year-old Dairy Queen walk-up, despite single-digit cold. The temperature was 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 Celsius) when the shop opened, and customers queued for ice cream treats such as milkshakes and Blizzards.
A triceratops skeleton that stood in a Wyoming museum for decades will be auctioned online in March as the dinosaur fossil market hits record highs. The fossil, dubbed “Trey,” will go up for bids from March 17 to 31 on Joopiter, an online auction platform founded by Grammy-winning artist Pharrell Williams, with a preauction estimate of $4.5 million to $5.5 million.
A deckhand on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” died after being reported to have fallen overboard in Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard received a notification Feb. 25 from the Aleutian Lady about the incident about 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and recovered Meadows unresponsive about 10 minutes later.
Two months after a statutory deadline, California’s Office of the State Fire Marshal published a report on whether the state should allow mid-rise apartment buildings with a single stairway. The draft takes a “fairly dim” view of “single stair” reform but offers conditions for legislators to consider if they proceed.
Iranian airstrikes targeting targets near Amazon Web Services facilities have damaged infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the company said. AWS said two data centers in the UAE were “directly struck” and that a Bahrain facility was damaged after a drone landed nearby, prompting structural repairs and power disruptions.
More than two dozen Doctors Without Borders (MSF) workers remained unaccounted for in South Sudan a month after attacks on MSF facilities, the medical charity said. MSF reported that 26 of 291 colleagues working in Lankien and Pieri were missing, after staff fled areas where fighting continued and communications were disrupted.
The trial of four former high-ranking Argentine navy officers began Tuesday in a court in Santa Cruz province over their alleged responsibility for the 2017 sinking of the submarine ARA San Juan, which killed all 44 crew members. Prosecutors say the officers faced charges including dereliction of duty and aggravated negligent destruction, and the defendants maintain their innocence.
A small plane struck two homes in Phoenix on Wednesday before crashing nose-down in a backyard, injuring the student pilot, the flight instructor and a man inside one of the homes, Phoenix fire officials said. One wing of the Piper P-28 was torn off during the impact and came to rest on the roof of the first home the aircraft struck. The plane then landed beside the backyard swimming pool of the second home.
A gunman opened fire at a crowded bar on Austin’s Sixth Street early Sunday and was later fatally shot by police, Austin police and the FBI said. Police said the early shooting left three people dead and wounded more than a dozen others, and that investigators were looking into whether the attack was a possible act of terrorism.
Hundreds of thousands of travelers scrambled for new connections on Sunday after the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran that shut down much of the Middle East to air travel, forcing airlines to cancel flights and leaving airports unsure when they would reopen. Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar closed their airspace, and airspace in southern Syria was also shut, with disruptions rippling as far as Europe and Asia.
Travelers stranded by a widening Middle East war began departing the United Arab Emirates on limited evacuation flights Monday, even as most commercial air traffic across the region remained suspended, the Associated Press reported. The limited flights began as the U.S. State Department urged Americans in 13 countries, including the UAE and other Gulf states, to “depart now via commercial means due to serious safety risks,” while airspace closures and cancellations continued to reduce options.
Iranian attacks into the United Arab Emirates shook Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Saturday, prompting airspace closures, emergency reassurance from officials and damage at key sites including Dubai International Airport, according to UAE officials and the state-linked Dubai Media Office.
Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on a trading junction in the central Magway region killed more than two dozen people and wounded 20 others, a resistance group and independent media said Sunday. The attacks occurred twice Sunday morning near Pyaung village, west of Mindon township, according to a military spokesperson for the Thayet District Battalion No. 4. The military had not commented on the strike by Sunday evening.
Savannah Guthrie, her sister Annie Guthrie and brother-in-law Tommaso Cioni visited Nancy Guthrie’s home outside Tucson, Arizona, on Monday, their first sighting at the property since the 84-year-old went missing. The trio returned with flowers and a memorial at the edge of the property as authorities continue to investigate what happened to Nancy Guthrie.
A shooting early Sunday at a crowded Cincinnati nightclub and concert venue wounded nine people, police said. Interim police chief Adam Hennie said the victims were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
Ramadan in Gaza City has brought sorrow to many families grieving relatives killed in Israeli strikes, as the holy month arrives with relatives buried under rubble and daily life squeezed into tents and makeshift shelters.
The death toll rose to 22 Saturday after a military cargo plane crashed near La Paz, Bolivia, damaging vehicles and scattering newly printed banknotes, a police commander said. Police said 29 people were injured, most of them passengers traveling on public transportation where the plane came down.
NAIROBI, Kenya — A helicopter crashed in Kenya’s Nandi County on Saturday, killing six people, including lawmaker Johana Ng’eno, police said. Police chief Samuel Mukuusi said the helicopter went down minutes after takeoff and burst into flames in a hilly area, and he said an investigation into the cause has begun.
Police released a body-camera video showing the chaotic aftermath of a deadly shooting at a Rhode Island youth hockey rink last week, including confusion over who the shooter was and efforts by officers and bystanders to help victims. The video, released by the Pawtucket Police Department, shows an officer rushing into the arena and repeatedly asking where the gunman was as people try to stabilize those who were shot.
America and Israel’s attack on Iran disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond Saturday, as countries in the region closed parts of their airspace and struck key hub airports used to connect Europe, Africa and Asia. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha suspended or rerouted large volumes of traffic, stranding travelers and forcing airlines to cancel or divert flights. U.S. and Gulf-based airlines said passengers should check flight status as disruptions evolve.
Cher’s son Elijah Allman was arrested after Concord police responded to reports that he was disturbing people at St. Paul’s School, a private high school in New Hampshire, police said. Allman, 49 and the son of the late Gregg Allman, was charged with several misdemeanors including two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening, police said.
Un avión Hércules C-130 de la Fuerza Aérea Boliviana que transportaba dinero se salió de la pista tras aterrizar en un aeropuerto cercano a La Paz y chocó con vehículos en una carretera, según autoridades. El accidente dejó al menos 15 personas fallecidas y varios heridos, mientras autoridades suspendieron por el momento el aterrizaje y la salida de aeronaves en ese aeropuerto.
The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border, lawmakers said. The drone was reportedly operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Aviation Administration closed additional airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles southeast of El Paso, in the mistaken-identity case.
A Los Angeles firefighter testified in a newly released deposition that he warned colleagues a brush fire was still smoldering before a later blaze erupted in the hills above the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. The testimony, included in a lawsuit filed by fire victims, surfaced publicly this week after city attorneys sought to keep the deposition confidential for a month.
A Bolivian Air Force cargo plane carrying newly printed currency crashed near La Paz on Friday, leaving at least 15 people dead and damaging vehicles on a nearby highway, officials said. Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto before ending up in a nearby field.
A fog-laden Washington sky caused an hourlong ground stop at Reagan National Airport on Friday, leading passengers including former President Joe Biden to wait for their commuter flight. Biden, accompanied by Secret Service and local police, was traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, for an evening event with the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Shoppers in upstate New York earlier this month found a live owl resting on a shelf inside a local antique store, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said. The agency said the incident occurred Feb. 21 in East Durham, about 127 miles (204 kilometers) north of Manhattan.
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing the Silver Branch Vegetation Management Project in Michigan’s Ottawa National Forest, a plan that would clear-cut about 25,000 acres over decades and also includes gravel mining expansion, road building and habitat work. Environmental groups and other opponents say the proposal could threaten endangered species habitat, increase runoff and spread invasive species. Forest Service officials say the project focuses on forest maintenance and health, including protecting habitat for species such as the northern long-eared bat and Kirtland’s warbler.
Jeff Galloway, who popularized a run-walk-running method for marathons and everyday jogs, died Wednesday at age 80, his family said. A hemorrhagic stroke led to emergency neurosurgery in Pensacola, Florida, where he died, daughter-in-law Carissa Galloway said.
In Brazil’s Amazon, the Akuntsu Indigenous community faced extinction with only three women left after the last man died in 2017, according to officials. In December, the youngest woman, Babawru, gave birth to a boy, shifting expectations for the group’s future, an Associated Press report said.
Families in Guadalajara, Jalisco, are hanging thousands of fliers with photos of people who were forcibly disappeared, saying authorities are trying to make it easier to remove the signs ahead of the FIFA World Cup. The conflict follows violence after the killing of the cartel leader known as “El Mencho,” and some search groups say they have had to suspend investigations.
A family grieving Renee Good said she was “slow to anger, quick to love” after the 37-year-old was fatally shot Jan. 7 in Minneapolis during a federal crackdown involving immigration agents, according to an Associated Press report. Her parents and brothers spoke in Colorado about her life and their grief, as protests followed her death and another U.S. citizen was killed weeks later.
Joelle Haley, whose son was born prematurely and treated in Detroit, has been crocheting colorful yarn octopi for babies in the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The donated plush “octopi,” called Amigurumi, are placed in bassinets to give preemies something soft to focus on while clinicians keep tubes and wires in place.
Jerusalem photographer Leo Correa described how he captured Ramadan Friday prayers at sunrise as Palestinians crossed the Qalandia checkpoint to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City. Correa said the photo was taken at about 7 a.m., when women gathered to enter the checkpoint under early morning light. He also described Israeli restrictions that limit Friday entries from the West Bank, with eligibility tied to age and gender.
Billions fewer birds are flying through North American skies than decades ago, and their population is shrinking faster, a new study in the journal Science found. Researchers linked the accelerating declines to a combination of intensive agriculture and warming temperatures, with the losses becoming more rapid in regions that warm the most.
A 20-year-old woman identified in court documents as KGM testified Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom that social media was “all day long” for her as a child and that her early use contributed to depression and suicidal thoughts. The testimony came as the jury hears evidence in a landmark trial selected as a bellwether for thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.
Cuban officials said their troops fired on a speedboat carrying Cubans from the United States and that the confrontation killed four people and wounded six. The Cuban government accused the passengers of trying to infiltrate Cuba to carry out terrorism. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the incident was not a U.S. government operation.
An Oregon jury ordered PacifiCorp to pay $305 million to 16 wildfire victims in the latest verdict in a class-action lawsuit tied to the state’s 2020 Labor Day weekend fires, court records show. The award follows a 2023 trial in which a jury found the utility liable for negligently failing to cut power during a windstorm despite warnings from top fire officials.
Ghana’s navy and air force rescued 71 fishermen whose boats were attacked off the coast of Ghana by unidentified gunmen, a local official said Thursday. The attackers robbed the fishermen late Wednesday, stealing outboard motors and leaving them stranded at sea, before the military recovered them the next morning.
Greenpeace is fighting a North Dakota court order requiring it to pay an expected $345 million to Energy Transfer after a jury found three Greenpeace entities liable over protests tied to the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
House members are considering an aviation-safety bill after a deadly midair collision near Washington last year, but the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the House package is “watered-down” and does not match the NTSB’s recommendations. Jennifer Homendy, whose agency investigated the Jan. 29, 2025, crash that killed 67 people, said the bill’s locator-system requirements fall short of what she said is needed to prevent another tragedy.
Pawtucket police said Gerald Dorgan has died from wounds suffered in a deadly shooting during a youth hockey game at an ice rink in Rhode Island last week. Authorities said the attack also killed Dorgan’s daughter and grandson and left others wounded.
Parts of the Northeast remained battered by snow and power outages Wednesday after a massive storm left icy piles across the region from Maryland to Maine, including areas such as Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, officials said record-setting snowfall stranded some residents for a third straight day, while utility crews worked extended shifts to restore electricity as more light snow moved through overnight.
A 21-year-old student in Rhode Island died after carbon monoxide poisoning in his car during a major snowstorm and power outage, Newport police said. Police said the exhaust pipe was obstructed by snow after the student used the vehicle to charge his phone. The Associated Press also outlined how carbon monoxide poisoning happens, the symptoms, and safety steps during outages.
The Trump administration has ended federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a ground-dwelling bird known for elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains. Thursday’s delisting by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formalized a court ruling that found the species was listed improperly. The move ends Endangered Species Act protections that required energy developers and ranchers to reduce disruptions to habitat and mating areas called leks.
Crews in Florida on Wednesday battled a wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve that had burned more than 25,000 acres near the Everglades immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The state said the fire posed no threat to the jail at the time, with officials attributing the safer conditions to higher humidity and the fire’s direction.
Planned power outages in California, intended to reduce wildfire risk, have forced multiple districts to close schools or lose attendance during winter wind events, according to reporting on Riverside County districts. Officials said delayed or insufficient notice made it hard to prepare, while state funding rules tied to attendance can magnify the financial impact of disruptions.
The nor’easter that struck parts of the Northeast with nearly 3 feet of snow in some places intensified into a “bomb cyclone” and produced thundersnow and lightning, meteorologists said. By about midday Monday, Providence, Rhode Island, set an all-time snowfall record, while Warwick, Rhode Island, reported more than 3 feet. Forecasters also warned people shoveling the wet, heavy snow to avoid overexertion.
Cody Roberts, accused of hitting a wolf with a snowmobile, taping the animal’s mouth shut, displaying it in a rural Wyoming bar and later killing it, has agreed to a plea deal that would spare him a trial. Prosecutors in Sublette County reached the deal last week and filed it in court Wednesday. Under the agreement, Roberts would pay a $1,000 fine and serve 18 months of probation.
A nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who disappeared after U.S. Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a Buffalo doughnut shop was found dead five days later, prompting a police investigation and renewed scrutiny of how federal agents handle vulnerable people, according to authorities and advocates. Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan said the incident showed a “dereliction of duty,” while U.S. Customs and Border Protection defended the actions. Police said the county medical examiner ruled the death “health related,” a characterization the Erie County Department of Health later disputed.
CHICAGO — Mourners filed into a Chicago auditorium Thursday to pay final respects to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. as cross-country memorial services began in the city he called home. Jackson, 84, will lie in repose for two days at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition before services move to Washington, D.C., and South Carolina.
A fire at an Ohio hog farm complex killed about 6,000 pigs and sent smoke visible for miles, officials said Feb. 26. Central Townships Joint Fire District Chief Brian Bennington said two of five large agricultural buildings were heavily involved and the fire took about five hours to control, with no people hurt.
Police bodycam and dashcam videos released to the media show former WWE executive Vince McMahon driving a 2024 Bentley Continental GT at more than 100 mph on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut last July before crashing into the rear of another car. State police said McMahon was cited for reckless driving and following too closely, and a judge later allowed him to enter a pretrial probation program that could erase the charges if he completes it.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday grilled the Trump administration and nonprofits chosen to run a $20 billion “green bank” program over the termination of their contracts, questioning whether officials invented reasons to block the program and whether the nonprofits were demanding control of money that was not theirs. The case is before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after a three-judge panel last September agreed the administration had broad power to cancel the contracts.
A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in a head-on crash in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said. The crash occurred Dec. 22, 2023, in Hudspeth County, and prosecutors said Domenick Chavez was driving on a suspended license and at highway speeds.
Enbridge has started work to reroute part of its Line 5 oil pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation in northern Wisconsin after years of legal disputes. About 12 miles of the aging pipeline run across the reservation, and Enbridge began clearing trees Tuesday in the new right-of-way, according to a company spokesperson.
A former Pennsylvania police officer accused of child rape was killed early Wednesday in a gunfire exchange with police in Bala Cynwyd, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. Francis Connell Collier, 38, had been charged in Delaware County with sexually assaulting two girls more than two decades ago, and Morton police said he resigned after being placed on unpaid administrative leave.
A North Dakota judge said he will order Greenpeace entities to pay damages expected to total $345 million in a lawsuit tied to protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline more than a decade ago. The ruling, issued in court filings Tuesday, is expected to trigger appeals in the North Dakota Supreme Court by both sides.
Refill stores have spread as consumers and retailers look for practical ways to reduce packaging waste, with stores offering customers the chance to bring containers and refill soap, shampoo and cleaning supplies. But experts say whether refilling delivers climate and waste benefits can depend on what refilling replaces, how often containers are reused and whether the routine fits into everyday life.
Five miners trapped after a mudslide flooded an underground shaft at the Ekapa Mine in Kimberley, South Africa, were described by the mine’s owners as “now presumed deceased,” and the company shut the operation and filed for liquidation, AP reported Feb. 25. The closure also puts about 1,200 jobs at risk, according to the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa.
The U.S. House on Tuesday rejected the ROTOR Act, a bill designed to require aircraft operating around busy airports to use additional locator technology to prevent midair collisions, such as the January 2025 crash near Washington, D.C. House and Senate leaders said they will keep working on a broader aviation-safety package, but the House vote underscored a dispute over whether the final bill should mandate “ADS-B In” systems that can help provide pilots with detailed traffic information.
A deadly shooting during a youth hockey game in Rhode Island has claimed a third victim, Pawtucket police said Wednesday. Gerald Dorgan died of wounds suffered in the Feb. 2026 attack that also killed his daughter, Rhonda Dorgan, and grandson, Aidan Dorgan.
Hawaii lawmakers have advanced bills that would remove cruise ships from a statewide green fee and replace the charges with an about $10-per-passenger fee, a change state projections show could reduce climate-related funding by millions. The move comes as the cruise industry challenges the green fee in federal appeals court, with oral arguments in a Cruise Lines International case scheduled for April.
The Trump administration ended federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a ground-dwelling bird known for elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized the delisting Thursday, formalizing a federal court ruling that found the species was listed improperly. The decision strips away Endangered Species Act requirements aimed at avoiding harm to the bird’s habitat, including mating areas called leks.
Mourners streamed through a Chicago auditorium Thursday to pay final respects to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. as cross-country memorial services began in the city the longtime civil rights leader called home. Jackson’s family said he will lie in repose for two days at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago before services in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina.
A fire at a hog farm complex in London, Ohio killed about 6,000 pigs, officials said, and sent smoke that could be seen for miles across the rural area. Central Townships Joint Fire District Chief Brian Bennington said no people were hurt and about 1,500 hogs survived and were taken elsewhere.
In San Antonio, the passenger in a car during a fatal 2025 shooting by a federal immigration agent in Texas died Saturday in a crash, according to a lawyer for the slain man’s family. Joshua Orta had given a statement to attorneys earlier that disputed the government’s account of how Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot.
Mystic Seaport Museum workers in Connecticut dug out a 113-foot historic wooden whaling ship after a record-breaking Northeast snowstorm, using rubber and plastic shovels to avoid damaging decks and preserving ship materials. Officials said crews also began clearing snow across the museum’s waterfront property as the museum prepared to reopen with limited exhibits.
Thick plantings of pollution-blocking trees are scheduled to be planted along Frontage Road near the I-880 freeway in West Oakland next month, as the Prescott Greening project moves into the ground-breaking phase. The landscape work includes removing older trees, upgrading irrigation and regrading the site, with planting expected to begin in March.
Millions across the northeastern United States dug out Tuesday after a major storm blanketed the region with snow, canceled flights and disrupted transit, killing at least one person. While conditions improved in some areas, the National Weather Service warned another storm forming near the Great Lakes could bring more snow as it moves toward the Northeast.
In Assisi, Italy, the bones of St. Francis of Assisi are going on public display for the first time, an exhibition expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the hilltop Umbrian town. Assisi Mayor Valter Stoppini said nearly 400,000 people have already registered to pray before the relics, and the total could reach about half a million before the bones return to their tomb on March 22.
A SWAT standoff in Ypsilanti, Michigan, lasting more than 30 hours and involving multiple agencies drew backlash over how law enforcement handles psychiatric crises. Ruben Peeler, 53, was subdued after barricading himself in an apartment bedroom while armed with a katana sword, police said, and has been charged with multiple felonies including assault with a dangerous weapon.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged the state to block Camp Mystic's summer reopening Monday, saying it would be "naive" to allow the troubled youth camp to resume normal operations before a full investigation into last July's flood deaths. Twenty-eight people died in the disaster — 25 campers, two counselors, and the camp's executive director — according to lawsuits filed the same day. "It would be naive to allow Camp Mystic to return to normal operations before all of the facts are known," Patrick wrote in a letter to Department of State Health Services Commissioner Jennifer Shuford. "Camp Mystic should have decided on their own to suspend operations this coming summer, but it appears they are planning for camp in 2026."
Severe floods in southeastern Brazil have killed at least 25 people and left 43 others missing in the state of Minas Gerais, officials said Tuesday. The torrential rains began Monday in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Uba, about 310 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro, forcing about 440 residents to evacuate their homes.
A man with a long criminal history fatally shot a Missouri sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop south of Highlandville on Monday and later killed a second deputy in a gunbattle hours afterward, authorities said. Two other deputies were wounded, and the suspect, Richard Dean Bird, was also killed, Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole said Tuesday.
Volunteers scoured the desert near Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, defying an explicit request from the Pima County Sheriff's Department to stop. Guthrie, 84, has been missing since Jan. 31, and authorities believe she was kidnapped from her home.
Federal workplace safety regulators announced proposed penalties totaling $246,609 on Tuesday against a Colorado dairy and two contractors over their failure to protect six workers who died from hydrogen sulfide gas exposure in August 2025. The deaths occurred after a manure pipe disconnected in an enclosed space at Prospect Ranch in Keenesburg, about 35 miles northeast of Denver, shocking rural communities in the region.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel joined the U.S. men's hockey team in their locker room Sunday after they won the Olympic gold medal in Milan, videos of the moment show. In footage circulating online, Patel drank from a bottle of beer and sprayed beer around the locker room while the athletes celebrated. After one player draped his gold medal around Patel's neck, he jumped up and down with the team. The celebration drew swift criticism from those questioning whether Patel's use of a government plane to travel to Milan represents an appropriate use of federal resources.
New Zealand's only flightless parrot could experience a record breeding season in February after a bumper crop of rimu berries triggered rare mating activity among the critically endangered birds. Conservationists hope the surge will result in more chicks than ever before, moving the kakapo closer to recovery after a decades-long effort that has grown the population from just 50 birds to more than 200.
Britain's Queen Camilla met Monday with Gisèle Pelicot, a French rape survivor and author whose memoir has drawn international attention during a tour of the United Kingdom. The two women spoke for about 30 minutes over tea at Clarence House in London. Camilla, who has long campaigned against domestic violence and sexual abuse, told Pelicot she had read her newly published memoir in just two days. "I couldn't put it down," the queen said. "I've met so many survivors of rape and sexual abuse I never thought I could be shocked by anything any more, but I was shocked at your case. It left me speechless."
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear arguments in a case brought by Boulder, Colorado, accusing Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil of deceiving the public about fossil fuels' role in climate change. The ruling marks the court's first major engagement with lawsuits seeking to hold the energy industry financially liable for climate-related damage including wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms.
Families of nine Camp Mystic flood victims filed a federal lawsuit against six Texas Department of State Health Services officials Monday, seeking damages for what they allege was a failure to enforce state law requiring youth camps to have evacuation plans. The state licensed Camp Mystic knowing it lacked an adequate evacuation plan, the suit alleges. The camp's emergency instructions directed children to stay in their cabins during floods, contrary to Texas regulations requiring youth camps to develop disaster evacuation procedures. Twenty-seven Camp Mystic staff members and campers died when heavy rain sent the Guadalupe River flooding into the historic Hill Country camp on July 4, 2025.
Peruvian authorities recovered the bodies of a father and son killed by a mudslide in Arequipa after intense rains triggered a broader flooding crisis affecting roughly 5,500 homes across the country's southern region on Monday. The deaths mark the first confirmed fatalities from the disaster, which authorities attributed to the El Niño Costero climate phenomenon. The two men were swept away by the mudslide in a neighborhood built directly over an ancient natural watercourse. Experts said the homes were constructed across a path that has carried torrents of water for centuries during periods of heavy rain.
A severe winter snowstorm across the northeastern United States, violence following a powerful cartel leader's killing in Mexico, and a partial government shutdown converged Monday to disrupt air travel, with airlines canceling more than 5,600 flights. The overlapping crises cascaded through ground transportation networks and complicated border operations.
Vermont's Fish and Wildlife Department is reducing moose hunting permits by more than half this year, from nearly 180 to 85, in response to a parasite outbreak that kills calves and weakens adults. The cuts are concentrated in the Northeast Kingdom, where winter ticks—which can infest a single moose by the tens of thousands—have become a serious threat. As climate change shortens Vermont's winters, ticks have gained a longer window to attach to moose in fall and survive through spring, intensifying their ecological impact.
Maine policymakers convened this month to address an electricity affordability crisis triggered by a record winter cold snap and historic natural gas prices. On Jan. 27, natural gas prices on the New England grid hit their highest level since tracking began in 2003, driving wholesale electricity prices to $441.8 per megawatt-hour—more than three times the January 2025 average of $135.08 per megawatt-hour. The surge prompted urgent discussions among state leaders about how to modernize Maine's aging electrical grid and reduce reliance on natural gas for peak demand. Philip Bartlett II, chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, described the situation as a crisis of affordability. "The biggest challenge we're facing right now is affordability," Bartlett said at a Feb. 5 legislative forum hosted by the nonprofit E2Tech in Augusta.
California aims to install six million heat pumps by 2030 as part of an ambitious climate strategy, but the state's soaring residential electricity prices—among the nation's highest and rising faster than inflation—threaten to undermine that goal. A Harvard University study finds that while heat pumps would save typical households money in the southern United States and Pacific Northwest, California presents a mixed picture where many homeowners would face higher monthly bills by switching from gas furnaces.
Six planets will line up in the night sky at the end of February, with four visible to the naked eye if skies are clear. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn can be spotted from the ground, while Uranus and Neptune require binoculars or telescopes, according to NASA.
The Mexican army killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, on February 23 during an operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said. The death of the leader of the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación—Mexico's fastest-growing drug trafficking organization and one of the world's largest fentanilo suppliers—triggered immediate and widespread cartel retaliation across the country, with hundreds of highway blockades, arson attacks, and assaults on authorities.
Brazil's government revoked a decree authorizing private concessions for waterways on Monday, marking a significant victory for Indigenous peoples who spent 33 days protesting at a Cargill facility in Santarem, in the state of Para in northern Brazil. The decision came after thousands of Indigenous representatives argued that dredging projects would threaten the Tapajos River, their territories, and the ecological balance of the world's largest rainforest.
The Dominican Republic experienced a country-wide blackout Monday, the second such outage in three months, when its main power plants abruptly stopped supplying energy before noon. By mid-afternoon, the system was operating at nearly 30% of its capacity, according to the state-owned Dominican Electricity Transmission Company.
Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama faced online mockery in early February after wearing a traditional fugu smock during a visit to Zambia. Rather than dismiss the criticism, Ghanaians rallied to defend the garment as an important part of their cultural heritage, prompting their Tourism Minister to declare Wednesdays as "Fugu Day" on February 10.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook parts of Malaysia early Sunday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake struck shortly before 5 p.m. GMT (early morning local time on Feb. 22) with a depth of 620 kilometers, with its epicenter 55 kilometers north-northwest of Kota Belud in Sabah. No tsunami warning was issued, and no immediate damage was reported.
New blizzard warnings issued by the National Weather Service from New York City to Boston as a rapidly intensifying winter storm approached for Sunday brought preparations from city officials to local businesses. The weather service said 1 to 2 feet of snow could fall in many areas, with damaging winds and possible flooding.
New York City and New Jersey announced travel bans, airlines canceled more than 3,500 flights, and Broadway shows were shuttered Sunday evening as a fierce winter storm moved toward the Northeastern United States, prompting blizzard warnings from Maryland to Massachusetts. The National Weather Service warned of 1 to 2 feet of snow across many areas, combined with heavy winds and visibility as low as a quarter-mile. Snow began falling across New Jersey and New York as officials urged residents to avoid travel.
Authorities have completed recovery of all nine backcountry skiers killed by an avalanche near Lake Tahoe, concluding a four-day search and rescue operation hampered by heavy snow and whiteout conditions. The avalanche struck at approximately 11:30 a.m. Tuesday on Castle Peak near Truckee, California, on the final day of a three-day ski tour that the group had decided to cut short to avoid an impending snowstorm.
President Trump approved emergency federal assistance to Washington, D.C., on Saturday to help address a sewage leak that dumped 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Trump's approval after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested federal help and declared an emergency following the Jan. 19 rupture of a 72-inch underground pipeline known as the Potomac Interceptor.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the United Kingdom and its European allies should immediately deploy noncombat troops to Ukraine to demonstrate Western commitment to the nation's independence, departing from prevailing strategy that ties any ground deployment to a ceasefire agreement.
PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $575 million to resolve the federal government's claims for damages stemming from six wildfires in Oregon and California in 2020 and 2022, federal officials announced Friday. The settlement concludes allegations that PacifiCorp's electrical lines negligently started four fires in Oregon in 2020 and two fires in California.
Blizzard warnings were issued Saturday for parts of the U.S. East Coast, including New York City, New Jersey and the Boston area, as a rapidly intensifying winter storm was expected to bring Sunday heavy snow and damaging winds. The National Weather Service forecast 1 to 2 feet of snow in many areas, along with strong, steady winds that officials said could make travel dangerous or impossible.
Students in Linda Davis’ kindergarten and first-grade classes in Savannah, Georgia, mourned Thursday after the teacher was killed Monday in a crash involving a driver fleeing a traffic stop by U.S. immigration officers, authorities said. Local officials questioned whether the pursuit was necessary, and federal immigration officials said the driver was illegally in the country.
The Galápagos National Park released 158 juvenile hybrid giant tortoises on Floreana Island on Friday, aiming to restart a native ecosystem after the species disappeared there more than 150 years ago. The park said the tortoises, aged 8 to 13, were selected for their genetics and released to coincide with the season’s first winter rains.
A house fire in North Carolina that killed Dennis Hamlin, the father of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, has been ruled accidental, Gaston County Emergency Management & Fire Services said. The agency said investigators found the blaze began in a bedroom but determined the “cause of ignition” was undetermined.
The natural El Niño cycle, which can warp weather worldwide, is both adding to and being shaped by a warming climate, meteorologists said. A new study says a recent switch between La Niña and El Niño can help explain why global temperatures spiked to a new level over the past three years. Separately, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is adjusting how it calculates when the Pacific flips into a new phase, a change that is expected to alter how often El Niño versus La Niña is declared.
Two people were killed and seven others were wounded in a shooting that erupted around 2:45 a.m. Saturday in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom entertainment district, Police Chief Rick Edwards said. The shooting occurred during an apparent street fight involving at least two shooters, Edwards said.
At least five people were killed in a string of avalanches in western Austria on Friday, authorities said. Intense snowfall and unstable snow conditions created especially hazardous terrain across the Tyrol region, where heavy precipitation over the past week had drawn crowds of skiers and snowboarders to mountain areas.
Shy, scaly anteaters hunted for their keratin scales are disappearing from Africa and Asia faster than conservation efforts can catch them. More than 500,000 pangolins were seized in anti-trafficking operations between 2016 and 2024, according to CITES, the international authority on endangered species trade. The World Wildlife Fund estimates the actual toll is far higher—over a million taken from the wild in the past decade alone.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Friday at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan since a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas began in October. Israel restricted Palestinian entries from the occupied West Bank to 10,000 people, allowing only men over 55, women over 50, and children under 12.
Thousands of people in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, learned of a shooting at a youth hockey arena after a gunman opened fire during an event Monday and was later killed, according to Pawtucket police and witnesses. Michael Black, who was in the stands, said he realized the sounds were gunfire and lunged toward the shooter’s handgun to help stop the attack.
Six women were killed in a California avalanche in the Sierra Nevada, and the families of two survivors said the group had been close friends and experienced backcountry skiers. Rescue efforts continued after the Tuesday avalanche in the Castle Peak area near Soda Springs, a Nevada County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said Thursday.
The Trump administration’s revocation of a scientific finding that climate change endangers public health is likely to hit communities of color and low-income areas hardest, public health experts said. In Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where residents live near extensive fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities, residents and advocates said the change could mean more illness and higher death rates, with lawsuits challenging the rollback filed in federal court.
President Donald Trump's Board of Peace announced at its inaugural meeting in Washington that member countries had pledged $7 billion to rebuild the Gaza Strip. But in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians live in displacement camps or the rubble of their destroyed homes, the pledges stirred little hope. "They're all liars," said Faraj Abu Anze, among thousands in a sprawling tent camp on the Mediterranean coast. "We see nothing of that on the ground."
The iconic Indian banyan tree that survived the devastating August 2023 Maui wildfire is showing deeper damage than initially apparent, with arborists discovering fungus and beetle infestations beneath its scorched bark. County officials are planning an extensive assessment to determine when Lahaina Banyan Court Park might reopen to the public, with reopening possible by the end of the year if the tree is healthy enough.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday weakened limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants, continuing the Trump administration's effort to reduce environmental protections on fossil fuels. The agency announced the move at the Mill Creek Generating Station, a coal plant along the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, saying it would save the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Trump administration said Friday it backs a 10-year deadline for replacing lead pipes across the country, supporting one of the strongest drinking water standards in three decades. The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court it will defend the strict rule against a legal challenge by a utility industry association.
Authorities in Idaho were searching for a suspect who stole an ambulance outside a hospital and drove it into a nearby building that houses U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices. Police said the suspect poured an accelerant on the ambulance and that office entrance doors were shattered.
Detroit police said they found the bodies of three men inside a home while searching for a missing person. The men, ages 65, 66 and 72, were found after investigators said they were bludgeoned and stabbed late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Police were seeking tips and searching for a suspect as authorities worked to determine a motive.
Blizzard warnings issued for New York City, New Jersey and Boston as a rapidly intensifying storm builds ahead of its Sunday arrival, the National Weather Service said. The agency warned that the system could bring 1 to 2 feet of snow in many areas and damage from strong winds, with some flooding possible in parts of New York and New Jersey.
Rescue crews worked Friday near Castle Peak in California’s Sierra Nevada to lower the risk of additional slides so they could recover people killed in Tuesday’s avalanche. Officials said mitigation efforts were designed to intentionally release unstable snowpack, and they investigated whether controlled explosions were needed after earlier indications. In parallel, authorities said they are looking into the avalanche, including whether criminal negligence played a role.
Recovery from Tuesday’s deadly avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada backcountry continued into Thursday after a storm kept lashing the remote area and left more slides a possibility, authorities said. Eight people died and one remained missing as rescuers worked through unstable snow conditions, with six survivors. Experts said the recovery underscored a core backcountry rule for rescuers: do not create more victims while trying to reach others.
Organizers for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics say they plan to power venues with clean electricity and use certified renewable sources for the Games’ demand, including when temporary power is needed. Italy’s Enel will supply 85 gigawatt-hours, with the organizing committee describing the effort as a way to push sustainability practices across major events.
A toucan named Sam escaped its owner in the Las Vegas area in November and has survived on its own for months, prompting a local rescue group to try to capture it before conditions worsen. The group says Sam has been spotted around the Las Vegas desert, including about 50 feet up in a palm tree, and that his health appears to be declining.
Students and staff at a Savannah-area school mourned teacher Linda Davis after she was killed Monday during a morning commute when her car was hit by a pickup driver fleeing an ICE stop, according to local and federal authorities.
Discarded household batteries leak heavy metals like cadmium and nickel into soil and water when they reach landfills. Some can also overheat and cause fires in garbage trucks and recycling centers. Safely disposing of batteries takes just a few steps, and their materials can be recycled into new products, experts say.
Lead was detected in seven of ten homes tested on a single block of New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward, according to a water quality investigation by Verite News and the Associated Press. Testing data from the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans shows that 70 percent of more than 1,100 households tested between 2022 and 2025 contained lead in their drinking water. The water utility predicts that between 50 percent and 60 percent of its 150,000 service lines will eventually require replacement to address the contamination.
Six in ten U.S. adults have experienced severe cold weather or extreme winter storms in the past five years, according to a new AP-NORC poll conducted February 5-8, 2026. The finding represents a marked increase from February 2025, when about five in ten Americans reported the same experience.
A camp in northeastern Syria that had housed families of suspected Islamic State members is now largely empty after hundreds of women and children were repatriated to their countries or transferred to other facilities in recent weeks, officials said Friday. The UN refugee agency assisted in returning 191 Iraqi citizens from Syria's al-Hol camp to Iraq on Thursday, according to Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the agency's representative in Syria. About 600 Syrians were moved from al-Hol to Akhtarin camp in northwestern Aleppo province, with transfers ongoing, a Syrian government official said. "With this repatriation, and with today's return of several vulnerable Syrian families supported by UNHCR and partners, Al‑Hol camp will now be practically empty," Vargas Llosa said.
The Trump administration’s revocation of a scientific finding that links climate change to public health dangers is likely to affect communities of color the most, public health experts say. In Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” residents and advocates argue that the loss of federal protections could mean more illness and death from air pollution. On Wednesday, a coalition of health and environmental groups sued the EPA over the revocation.
Six women were killed in a Tuesday avalanche in the Sierra Nevada near Donner Summit, California, according to families and authorities, as two friends survived and rescuers searched for a ninth person. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said recovery efforts were delayed by dangerous weather and that the agency’s crews could not safely reach victims.
An avalanche—mass snow moving down a slope—often forms when the snowpack is deep and the slope angle reaches about 30 degrees or more, according to the National Avalanche Center and regional avalanche groups. With each winter, the National Avalanche Center says about 25 people on average die in avalanches in the United States, and it warns that some days are dangerous and some days are not.
Drone strikes in Sudan’s Kordofan region are taking a growing toll on civilians and disrupting aid operations, analysts and humanitarian workers said Feb. 18 as the war nears its three-year mark. At least 77 people were killed in various attacks this week, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces blamed for many of the strikes, according to Sudan Doctors Network.
A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, challenging the agency’s decision to rescind a 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare. The groups filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after the EPA finalized the repeal last week. The dispute centers on whether the Obama-era determination can be undone and what that could mean for Clean Air Act regulations governing greenhouse gases.
The number of days when weather is hot, dry and windy enough to spark extreme wildfires has nearly tripled over the past 45 years around the world, a new study found. Researchers say more than half of the increase is driven by human-caused climate change and that the “synchronous” nature of the risk is expanding, including across the Americas.
Hawaii lawmakers are considering proposals that would let residents kill feral chickens and could classify the birds as a “controllable pest” on public land in Honolulu, according to AP. Supporters say wild chickens are harassing residents and students, while opponents cite cultural and animal-welfare concerns and urge alternatives first.
Italy’s Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics organizers and power provider Enel said the Games will rely on clean electricity, backed by renewable-energy “guarantee of origin” certificates and a plan for rare backup power. The effort is part of a broader sustainability push that organizers say must also confront emissions from travel by athletes and spectators.
A deadly avalanche in California’s remote Sierra Nevada backcountry has killed eight people and left one person missing, with six survivors as a storm fueled additional slide risk, authorities said. Recovery efforts were set to resume Friday as rescuers worked to retrieve victims two days after the group was caught in the snow.
Officials in California’s Sierra Nevada are using avalanche mitigation techniques to lower the risk of additional slides while they continue efforts to recover the bodies of people killed in a Tuesday avalanche near Castle Peak, northwest of Lake Tahoe. The Nevada County Sheriff’s office and other investigators are also looking into how the deadly storm and decisions by a backcountry tour company factored into the tragedy.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency and asked President Donald Trump to provide federal resources to help the city respond to a Potomac River sewage system leak. Bowser’s request seeks a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration and asks for full reimbursement for repairs that have included help from the Environmental Protection Agency.
LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas-area rescue group is trying to catch a toucan named Sam after the bird escaped its owner in November and survived for months in the desert. The group says the toucan has been spotted at limited locations, including about 50 feet (15 meters) up in a palm tree, while bird experts warn Las Vegas conditions and the bird’s likely diet could be taking a toll.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Students in kindergarten and first grade classes at Herman W. Hesse K-8 School mourned the teacher who was killed Monday when a pickup truck crashed into her car during a pursuit by U.S. immigration officers, local and federal authorities said. Linda Davis, 52, was killed less than a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the school where she worked with special needs students.
Authorities in Meridian, Idaho, said a suspect stole an ambulance from St. Luke’s hospital, poured an accelerant on it, and drove it into a nearby office building that houses U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices. Police said the incident occurred at about 11:10 p.m. Wednesday and that a suspect remains at large as investigators work with federal agencies.
Fishermen in the eastern Caribbean said they fear for their safety after a U.S. military strike killed three people aboard a boat the U.S. said was suspected of carrying drugs. In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the president of the National Fisherfolk Organization urged fishermen to take precautions while sea conditions and visibility complicate identification of other vessels.
In Chicago, adult children of the late Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. held an emotional tribute Wednesday, a day after his death. The family said Jackson, who was battling a rare neurological disorder, will be honored next week with services at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and at a South Side church.
Gloucester, Massachusetts, authorities are using deep-sea technology to try to locate the wreck of the 72-foot fishing boat Lily Jean, which sank off Cape Ann in late January, killing all seven aboard. Winter weather has slowed the search in waters more than 300 feet deep, officials said Wednesday.
More than 100 people turned out for the first of two public hearings on a draft environmental impact statement for an Air Force plan to add telescopes atop Haleakalā, a Maui conservation district and home to threatened and endangered species. Opponents said the report does not sufficiently address potential harm to cultural resources and biodiversity, and they raised concerns that the expansion could increase military risk for the island.
Eight backcountry skiers were found dead and one remained missing after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe on Feb. 18, authorities said. The slide in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains is described as one of the deadliest avalanches in U.S. history.
5 people died in crashes involving more than 30 vehicles on Colorado’s Interstate 25 near Pueblo after wind-blown dirt reduced visibility, authorities said Tuesday. The Colorado State Patrol said the death toll rose from four after one hospitalized person later died, and it called the airborne dust a “brown out.”
Crews in Northern California have found the bodies of eight backcountry skiers near Lake Tahoe and were searching for one more after they were caught in an avalanche during a winter storm, authorities said Wednesday. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said investigators would look into the decision to proceed with the trek despite avalanche warnings issued earlier.
Alcoa will pay the Australian government $36 million (55 million Australian dollars) to settle claims it cleared tracts of endangered forest without required approvals between 2019 and 2025. The payment follows an “unlawful” assessment by federal authorities and comes as regulators still review a proposal by the company to expand mining operations in Western Australia.
Some Republican lawmakers in Alabama have approved a bill that would limit the state’s ability to set environmental regulations stricter than federal standards, framing the change as preventing regulatory overreach. The legislation, approved by the Alabama House and Senate, goes to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey for a decision after critics said it would raise barriers to addressing health risks from pollution, including PFAS.
A backcountry ski trip organized by Blackbird Mountain Guides in California’s Sierra Nevada was struck by an avalanche as a winter storm moved into the state, authorities said. The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an avalanche watch for the area before the group’s return plan Monday, and it later raised the alert to a warning. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said eight people were killed and one person remained missing.
A Delta flight returned to Houston shortly after takeoff early Wednesday because of an unruly passenger, authorities said. The flight later departed again and arrived in Atlanta about 90 minutes behind schedule, Delta said.
In two lawsuits filed Tuesday, conservation and LGBTQ+ advocates sued the Trump administration over National Park Service policies they say remove or censor history and science from federal sites. One case in Boston targets changes to exhibits that discuss slavery and climate change, while another seeks to reverse the removal of a Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument in New York.
Indonesia is tightening state control over nickel, the country’s largest export and a key input for electric-vehicle batteries, as global demand shifts toward chemistries that use less of the metal. The measures come after years of betting nickel would underpin a domestic EV industry, a strategy that has drawn major Chinese investment and environmental concerns, Associated Press reported Feb. 18, 2026.
Rescue crews on skis and snowcats were racing Tuesday to reach six backcountry skiers trapped after an avalanche in rugged Northern California mountains near Frog Lake in the Castle Peak area, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Officials said 10 other skiers were reported missing as blizzard conditions and the risk of additional slides persisted.
Upstate New York authorities are investigating a fiery blast at Abundant Life Church in Boonville that injured five people, including the pastor and firefighters who responded to a gas-odor report.
A Guatemalan driver accused of fleeing a Georgia traffic stop by federal immigration officers crashed outside Savannah on Monday, killing Linda Davis, a special education teacher headed to work, authorities and school officials said. The driver, Oscar Vasquez Lopez, remained jailed Tuesday on charges including vehicular homicide, reckless driving and driving without a valid license.
A new campaign is encouraging people to protect mushrooms, lichens and other fungi threatened by climate change and habitat loss. AP visited groups and researchers in California who say citizen scientists and on-the-ground monitoring are helping fill a major knowledge gap about fungi worldwide.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it is ending tax credits for automakers that install automatic start-stop ignition systems in vehicles, a move announced with President Donald Trump at the White House. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described the technology as something “everyone hates” and said the credits are now “over, done, finished.”
Elevate Prize winners announced Tuesday will receive $300,000 each in unrestricted funding plus organizational support, as the foundation looks to boost leaders’ public profiles. Among this year’s 10 winners is Mónica Ramírez, whose Justice for Migrant Women is based in Fremont, Ohio.
Four people died in crashes involving more than 30 vehicles, including six semitrailers, on Interstate 25 south of Pueblo, Colorado, after heavy winds blew dirt across the highway and sharply reduced visibility, authorities said. The Colorado State Patrol said 29 people were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to severe.
Conservation groups and an Iñupiat organization filed lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, including a lease sale set for March 18. The plaintiffs argue the sale would make ecologically sensitive lands available for leasing despite protections in place for decades.
Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, and other elite skiers competing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics are raising alarm about the accelerating melt of the world's glaciers, saying the warming climate threatens the high-altitude ice where their sport depends. The athletes' warnings come from host city Cortina d'Ampezzo, where glaciers once visible from town have dramatically shrunk, with many reduced to tiny patches of ice at high elevations in the Dolomites.
Strikes on a market in Sudan’s Kordofan region killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens on Sunday, a rights group said. The group said drones hit a market in Sudri locality in North Kordofan province during busy hours as the war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces nears its three-year mark.
Motorcycle-bomb attackers struck a police station in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least two people including a child and wounding several others, police said Monday. Later, a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle attacked a security checkpoint in Bajaur district, where troops returned fire and police said they killed at least eight fighters. Pakistani officials said a girl was killed when a nearby house roof collapsed and rescuers were working to clear rubble at the checkpoint.
California was hit Monday by a winter storm bringing high winds, heavy rain and snow, with flash-flood warnings issued across Los Angeles County and evacuation warnings in areas scarred by last year’s wildfires. Forecasters said parts of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and nearby areas could see up to 8 feet of snow before the system moves through late Wednesday.
Kenya has launched a national carbon registry aimed at making it easier to track carbon credit projects and reduce double counting as scrutiny of offset markets grows, the government said Monday. The registry was unveiled in Nairobi by the Ministry of Environment and the National Environment Management Authority, which said it will serve as the central platform for tracking projects and verifying emissions reductions.
Colombian officials identified the remains of Camilo Torres, a priest who joined an armed guerrilla group and was killed in combat nearly 60 years ago, the Unit for the Search of Missing People said Monday. The agency said forensic and genetic tests and historical document reviews confirmed that bones found in Bucaramanga two years ago belonged to Torres, who was killed in a firefight with Colombia’s army in February 1966.
An injured cormorant in Bremen, Germany, pecked at the door of an emergency room at Klinikum Links der Weser until staff noticed and called firefighters, the Bremen fire department said. Medical staff and firefighters removed a triple fishing hook stuck in the bird’s beak and treated the wound before releasing the bird back on the hospital grounds, officials said.
Historians and archaeologists are racing to locate Great Lakes shipwrecks before invasive quagga mussels destroy the sites, the Associated Press reported. The mussels have covered virtually every wreck in the lower Great Lakes, forcing divers and researchers to document what they can before details disappear.
Pawtucket, Rhode Island police said a shooting during a youth hockey game at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena left three people dead, including the shooter, and three other people hospitalized in critical condition on Monday night.
Singapore will begin charging a levy on flights departing from Changi International Airport to help fund sustainable aviation fuel, a cleaner alternative to conventional jet fuel, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said. The surcharge will apply to flights departing after Oct. 1 and tickets sold after April 1, with charges ranging from 1 Singapore dollar (about 75 U.S. cents) for some economy routes to 41.60 Singapore dollars (about $32) for certain premium flights.
Gaza residents and heritage workers are trying to preserve what remains of historic religious and cultural sites as the Israeli military offensive against Hamas has left much of the enclave in ruins. In Gaza City, people have been assessing damage to landmarks including the Great Omari Mosque, while organizations carry out limited “rescue work” at badly hit locations as full restoration faces obstacles.
A weekend storm system sweeping across the Southeast brought tornado warnings to parts of Mississippi and Louisiana before moving into Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, with tornado watches in place on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. The system also knocked out power in several states and prompted winter-weather and flood preparations farther west and north.
The U.S. ocean regulator plans to propose “modernized” rules for protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales, shifting away from vessel-speed slowdowns that critics say are essential to preventing collisions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it plans a “deregulatory-focused action” to reduce “unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens” while maintaining conservation for the whales.
The Trump administration is urging other nations to press Vanuatu to withdraw a United Nations draft resolution supporting strong action on climate change, including provisions calling for reparations tied to international obligations, the State Department said in guidance sent to U.S. embassies and consulates.
Kenya has launched a national carbon registry in Nairobi to track carbon credit projects and emissions reductions, aiming to improve integrity and attract climate finance as scrutiny of offset markets grows. The registry was unveiled by the Ministry of Environment and the National Environment Management Authority and is expected to become fully operational this year.
Two golfers in Washington, D.C., sued the federal government to stop the Trump administration from overhauling East Potomac Golf Course, a more-than-100-year-old public course in East Potomac Park that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The suit, filed against the Department of the Interior, alleges the administration would violate the 1897 law that created the park and the National Environmental Policy Act. It also comes amid a series of legal fights over Trump efforts to change prominent public spaces in Washington.
Mardi Gras season returns to New Orleans with a new option for parade-goers: biodegradable “PlantMe Beads” designed by researchers at Louisiana State University. The beads, 3D-printed from a starch-based material and filled with okra seeds, are being offered this Carnival season through multiple krewes.
Phoenix, Arizona, is home to a large, established colony of rosy-faced lovebirds that has survived in the desert by clustering around people and heat sources, and experts say their lifelong bonds may offer a Valentine’s Day lesson about keeping partnerships strong. An AP report describes how the birds formed the city’s best-known colony outside Africa, how they display affection, and what happens when a partner is lost.
LONDON — Larry the cat will mark 15 years on Sunday as the British government’s official rodent-catcher and its unofficial “first feline,” a fixture at 10 Downing St. described as a steady presence through multiple prime ministers. The gray-and-white tabby is credited with “photo-bombing” arrivals and has been photographed catching the occasional mouse, even as his age has slowed his patrols.
A Sunday off-trail avalanche in northern Italy on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif killed two skiers and injured another, officials said. The incident occurred in the Couloir Vesses freeride area near Courmayeur and the Val Veny. Authorities said one victim was taken to a hospital in serious condition but later died.
Companies are testing ways to remove planet-warming carbon dioxide by dumping minerals, nutrients, and organic material into oceans, an approach critics say could outpace the science. The industry is already selling “marine carbon credits,” while researchers and regulators in multiple countries raise questions about how well the removals last and what the ecosystem impacts could be.
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, died Friday after battling stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, her family said. The teen had spoken publicly for the release of her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, who was held in a Chicago-area deportation case tied to “Operation Midway Blitz.” An immigration judge in Chicago ruled days before her death that Maldonado was conditionally eligible for “cancellation of removal,” according to an attorney representing him.
Rio de Janeiro police say officers dressed as characters from “Money Heist” and “Friday the 13th” to blend into Carnival crowds and catch cellphone thieves during festivities. The civil police said the undercover officers in Santa Teresa followed suspects after seeing a cellphone snatched and arrested two people with five phones.
Revelers in the Brazilian coastal town of Paraty are covering themselves in mud for a Carnival tradition in which participants roll in silty shallows and march as a unified crowd, not in glitter and sequined outfits. AP reported on the event, which traces back to friends who in 1986 decided to explore the mud after entering the city’s historic center. Organizers and participants say the practice reflects a shared experience regardless of social status.
The Associated Press examined what could happen if one in 10 Americans changed everyday habits tied to climate pollution—how people eat, drive, heat homes and buy clothing. In calculations based on federal agency data and other sources, the outlet found that those individual switches could avoid tens of billions of pounds of carbon pollution each year.
The seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River missed another deadline to agree on a plan to address record drought and water shortages, according to a joint statement released Saturday by the governors of Arizona, California and Nevada. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo called on Upper Basin states to offer more concessions as negotiations continue.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Indian Health Service said this month it will phase out the use of dental fillings containing mercury, known as dental amalgams, and fully switch to mercury-free alternatives by 2027. The change will affect millions of patients served by the federal agency for Native Americans and Alaska Natives, where the percentage receiving amalgams has already fallen in recent years.
Milan’s historic Duomo has brought a restored 15th-century statue back into public view through an “Adopt a Statue” program launched by the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo’s conservation authority. The Bearded Saint with Book, restored for display at Piazzale Cadorna behind glass at the headquarters of FNM, is one of several sculptures whose restoration is funded by donors under conservation-approved loan agreements.
Hundreds of people and their dogs gathered at a Carnival street party in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday to protest violence against pets, organizers said. At the event, Marco Antonio Marinho, the Blocao’s chief organizer, urged people to keep pets comfortable and safe during festivities. The protest also drew attention to the January killing of a dog in southern Brazil that triggered national anger, the Associated Press reported.
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is marked by four days of street celebrations that can test even experienced revelers, who say pacing, hydration and basic hygiene planning matter as much as the festivities. Veterans speaking to The Associated Press offered guidance for people heading to the city’s street parties before the celebrations end on Ash Wednesday.
Searchers have discovered the wreck of the Lac La Belle, a luxury steamer that sank in a Lake Michigan storm in 1872, closing a quest that began nearly 60 years ago. Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn said the ship was found about 20 miles offshore in waters between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Four people died after a small plane crashed early Friday on a mountain near the Colorado ski resort community of Steamboat Springs, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration said the crash involved an Epic E1000, a six-seat turboprop plane.
Liquidity and sustainability are shaping how Zimbabweans celebrate Valentine’s Day, with some sellers promoting “money bouquets” made from U.S. dollar notes and others offering gifts recycled from scrap metal. At a flower market in Harare, florists said demand for cash-and-flower arrangements is rising as people seek gestures that feel meaningful in difficult economic times. In Harare’s shops and workshops, artists also are turning discarded metal into long-lasting keepsakes for partners.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday that a settlement among the operator of the Green River Reservoir dam, state agencies, and conservation and recreation groups will keep the hydroelectric facility operating—for now. Under the deal, Morrisville Water & Light will withdraw its request to decommission the dam and instead pursue a new federal license while the state reviews water-quality requirements that govern how the dam operates.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it found incomplete, outdated or inadequate procedures and practices at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh after an August blast that killed two workers. OSHA fined U.S. Steel $118,214 and issued 10 citations, saying the shortcomings “exposed” employees to an explosion or explosion hazard when a gas valve ruptured.
North Mississippi senators on Thursday urged Mississippi lawmakers to improve disaster response after a January winter storm left thousands without power nearly three weeks later. Sen. Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, told the Senate “we as a state failed them,” pointing to prolonged outages and delays in receiving supplies.
Across Louisiana wetlands near New Orleans, a coalition of local conservation groups is in the final year of a four-year project to plant 30,000 trees, aiming to restore a natural barrier that helps limit storm surge damage and erosion. The effort follows a loss of wetland habitat after Hurricane Katrina, when saltwater intrusion worsened conditions for native trees.
A grand jury indicted Terrell Storey on murder charges tied to a fatal Arizona state helicopter crash during a police shootout, authorities said Feb. 13. Prosecutors brought two counts of first-degree felony murder and dozens of additional charges after the Feb. 4 confrontation in Flagstaff. Storey is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 23, and officials said the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
State wildlife officials voted to permanently protect certain mountain lion populations under California’s Endangered Species Act, following weeks after a mountain lion wandered into San Francisco. The decision lists six groups of Central Coast and Southern California mountain lions as threatened, a status expected to trigger habitat protections and change how development projects are reviewed.
A genetic study published Thursday in the journal Science says researchers can use DNA testing to identify American chestnut trees likely to resist the disease that drove the species to functional extinction in the 1950s. The approach could shorten the time needed to plant the next generation of trees, potentially helping restore the tree’s historic range in the eastern United States.
The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a 2009 “endangerment finding” that determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, a legal basis for much of the federal government’s regulation of climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency said the rule rescinds that Obama-era finding, setting up legal challenges and potentially rolling back greenhouse-gas standards for cars and trucks and affecting rules for power plants and other sources, experts said.
Investigators in Arizona are asking residents near Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson to share surveillance footage of any suspicious cars or people from the month before she disappeared, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. The department said the alert went out across a 2-mile radius in nearby neighborhoods, as federal and local officers continue searching and analyzing evidence.
Scientists say genetic analysis could greatly speed efforts to restore American chestnut trees that were functionally wiped out in the mid-20th century by a deadly fungal blight and root rot. A new study in the journal Science reports that testing individual trees for disease-resistance genetic markers could shorten the time needed to plant disease-resistant generations and grow more competition in Eastern forests. The research is led by Jared Westbrook of the American Chestnut Foundation, with commentary from forest biotechnology professor Steven Strauss and other experts weighing in on what the approach could mean for the future of the species.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre held hands as they attended a vigil in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, for victims of the shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. At the event outside town hall, Indigenous leader sang a prayer and Carney and Poilievre spoke as hundreds gathered.
Families in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, mourned eight people killed in a school shooting this week, as authorities said an 18-year-old woman allegedly carried out the attack and then died by suicide. Authorities said the victims included five children and an assistant teacher, and that 25 others were injured.
President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin revoked the 2009 endangerment finding that has been central to U.S. greenhouse-gas regulation, and the announcement included multiple claims about climate and energy that the Associated Press challenged as false or misleading. In an AP fact check, experts and other records cited by the report disputed Trump’s assertions about the finding’s legal basis, the cost of wind power, and links between climate and public health.
Grieving families and lawmakers on Thursday urged Congress to move faster on aviation safety changes they say could have helped prevent last year’s midair collision near Washington, a crash that killed 67 people, including 28 members of the figure skating community. A Senate Commerce Committee hearing examined National Transportation Safety Board recommendations—dating to 2008—that would require aircraft around busy airports to use both parts of the ADS-B locator system.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights investigation into whether delayed evacuation notices during the Eaton Fire disproportionately harmed west Altadena, a historically Black community. Bonta said the investigation will focus on the Los Angeles County Fire Department and whether emergency response procedures contributed to delayed warnings and any race, disability or age disparities.
The U.S. military reported a Marine died after falling overboard from the USS Iwo Jima and said two sailors sustained minor injuries in a separate collision between two Navy ships in the Caribbean. The incidents were reported as the United States maintains an expanded military presence in the region, the Marine Corps and U.S. Southern Command said.
Surfers at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California, rescued six people after a small motor boat capsized following a collision with waves on Feb. 6, according to the Santa Cruz Fire Department. Vince Tuzzi said he saw the fast-moving boat and watched about 10 surfers, including two who were 14, paddle out to help as harbor patrol and ambulances arrived minutes later.
Africa was the world’s fastest-growing solar market in 2025, a new industry report says, driven by imports of Chinese-made solar panels even as global solar growth slowed. The report estimates Africa’s solar installed capacity rose 17% last year, while global capacity rose 23% to 618 gigawatts.
A shooting at a South Carolina State University residence complex killed two people and wounded a third late Thursday, prompting an eight-hour lockdown that ended Friday morning, authorities said. The university canceled classes through Monday, postponed its men’s basketball game, and made counselors available.
Two workers were killed and 11 others injured in an August 11, 2025 explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works outside Pittsburgh, federal investigators said. Six months later, employees and nearby residents say they remain shaken by the blast and concerned about air pollution from the plant.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has revoked its 2009 “endangerment finding,” a scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel pollution endanger public health and welfare. The decision, made Thursday, had served for 16 years as a legal foundation for greenhouse-gas limits on power plants, vehicles and other sources under federal law, and it could leave future climate rules in limbo as courts and challenges come into play.
A winter storm watch is in effect for much of Northern California as a cold system approaches, with communities bracing for several feet of snow and potential major travel impacts. The National Weather Service warned travelers to the Sierra Nevada and popular ski resorts to use “extreme caution.” A National Weather Service meteorologist in the Sacramento office said Saturday through Sunday morning is likely the “best travel window” before heavier snow moves in.
In Lagos, Nigeria, rock musician Bianca Okorocha, known as “Clayrocksu,” has taken her music from the stage to the streets ahead of Valentine’s Day, serenading commuters and handing out single-stem roses. She spoke with The Associated Press about wanting people to pause and feel loved in a city defined by fast pace and economic strain. She also said she wants Valentine’s Day to be seen as sharing love beyond romantic couples.
Law enforcement in Tucson, Arizona, is building additional evidence as the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, enters its third week. Authorities say Guthrie, 84, was last seen Jan. 31 at her home, and that her porch blood was found after she was reported missing. The FBI has released surveillance videos of a masked person it called a suspect, while investigators are also testing DNA and reviewing tips and leads.
Minneapolis is leaving in place two makeshift memorials for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens killed by federal agents last month, as officials consider how to manage the sites as grieving continues. City leaders said the locations will remain accessible in the short term while Minneapolis “actively [works] on next steps” through community engagement, and a mayor’s spokesperson said it is “too early” to decide whether the memorials will be made permanent.
MILAN — Three Italian women who volunteered at earlier Winter Olympics are back for the Milan Cortina Games as part of a volunteer workforce meant to keep events running around the clock. The Associated Press spoke with Cristina Romagnoli, Angela Frisina and Olivia Azzalin about returning to the Olympic family, their roles this year and what the experience has meant for them and their loved ones.
Montana, where few large data centers have been built so far, is facing proposals for new facilities as Big Tech expands for AI. Environmental groups and residents in places including Butte, Billings, Broadview and Great Falls say they have limited information about how much water the projects would use and how quickly approvals could happen.
At least 32 people were killed in simultaneous attacks on three communities in Niger state, Nigeria, police and a resident said Saturday. The attacks hit Tunga-Makeri, Konkoso and Pissa in the Borgu area, according to the Niger state police spokesman and residents.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, filed a $250,000 negligence lawsuit in New York after saying she tripped and fell while out walking in Rye. She said the fall happened on Aug. 28 when she encountered a large wooden block protruding from a steel plate in the roadway.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, told an international audience at the Munich Security Conference that Donald Trump will be “gone in three years,” using the event’s climate-focused discussions to criticize Trump’s approach to regulating carbon pollution. The trip comes weeks after Newsom appeared at the World Economic Forum in Davos and ahead of a return visit to South Carolina, where Democrats will hold an early presidential primary in 2028.
Authorities in rural Iowa identified Carter Johnson, a 19-year-old college baseball outfielder from South Dakota, as the sole fatality in a bus crash that overturned in a ditch, officials said. The crash injured 32 other members of a community college baseball team, and police said the bus went off the road for “unknown reasons.”
Thailand has begun using a birth-control vaccine on wild elephants to try to slow the growth of a population that increasingly encounters people as farms expand into forests, according to the government’s wildlife office. The program includes a trial on domesticated elephants and, in late January, the vaccination of three wild elephants in Trat province, with authorities now deciding which other areas to target. The move follows recent deadly human-elephant conflicts and comes amid criticism that it could undermine conservation efforts.
The Trump administration revoked an Environmental Protection Agency finding that climate change endangers public health, an idea President Donald Trump called “a scam.” Researchers say a large and growing body of peer-reviewed work links warming to increased illness and deaths, including heat-related fatalities and other health impacts.
A shooting at a school in remote northern British Columbia killed seven people, and police said two more were found dead at a nearby home, bringing the death toll to 10, including the suspect.
A passenger ferry capsized on the Nile River in Sudan, leaving at least 15 people dead, a medical group said Wednesday. The Sudan Doctors Network said the ferry sank in the Shendi district of northern Nile River province, and that six people survived.
Hundreds of Buddhist monks led by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara ended their 108-day Walk for Peace from Texas to Washington with a ceremony Wednesday at the Lincoln Memorial, drawing thousands. The group covered about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) over 15 weeks, and the final stretch included visits near George Washington University and on Capitol Hill.
The Nashville Public Library is making public a digital display of more than 200 love letters tracing the wartime courtship of William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean, a couple whose romance unfolded as World War II reshaped their lives. The letters were found in a Nashville home and donated to the Metro Nashville Archives in 2016.
Melania Trump visited the Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, celebrating an early Valentine’s Day with children and young adults receiving treatment for rare and serious diseases. During the visit, she said, “I don’t eat much sweets,” adding that “Sugar is not that healthy for us.”
The build-out of electric-vehicle charging in the United States has continued since Donald Trump returned to office, but the administration and Congress have introduced new steps that could delay it, according to reporting. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced new “fully American-made” requirements for chargers funded with federal money, while the administration and lawmakers have also moved to redirect or cut some EV-charging funds.
Patrick Marsh returned to the Bubble Inn cabin at Camp Mystic and recalled how a 50-yard walk to higher ground could have saved his 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Marsh Heaven, during the July 4, 2025, Texas flood. Now, Marsh and his wife, Dr. Jill Marsh, are pressing Alabama lawmakers to tighten camp safety rules beyond Texas, including emergency planning and weather-warning requirements.
The U.S. Forest Service is facing public opposition over a plan to conduct controlled burning over the next 15 years in parts of the Green Mountain National Forest near Lake Dunmore and Silver Lake. The project would cover four areas totaling 2,770 acres in Addison County and is scheduled to begin in spring 2027, with a public comment period that ends this week, according to the Forest Service and commenters.
The U.S. military reported Thursday a Marine who died after falling overboard during operations in the Caribbean and a separate collision between two Navy ships in the region. The Marine Corps said the Marine was declared dead Tuesday, after a five-day search led by Navy ships and aircraft. In a separate incident, the Southern Command said two sailors reported minor injuries and both ships were able to continue sailing safely.
The mascots for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games — the stoats Milo and Tina — are threatened as climate change causes them to shed winter-white coats before snow arrives. Environmental researchers say the mismatch between their camouflage and changing conditions can leave them more visible to predators. Organizers say the mascots are meant to convey Italian culture, but officials now say the climate message should be folded into their narrative.
Dutch novelist and travel writer Cees Nooteboom died Wednesday at age 92, his publisher De Bezige Bij said. The publisher said he died “very peacefully on his beloved island of Menorca” and did not provide a cause of death.
Multiple fire rescue units and state and academic officials helped pull a 410-pound manatee from a storm drain in Melbourne Beach, Florida, according to city and wildlife officials. The male manatee is now recovering at SeaWorld Orlando, where staff say he is breathing on his own and showing interest in food.
In Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, Ramón Pucha and his family have built a small “seed house” that preserves and grows threatened native plant species for replanting. Pucha, 51, said he travels into the forest—sometimes alone and for days at a time—to collect the seeds even when some trees no longer produce them yearly.
CLAIRTON, Pa. — In Clairton City School District, educators and nonprofit MicroSociety Inc. have turned one elementary school into a student-run “Beartopia,” where classrooms operate as businesses managed by students. The program, introduced at the start of the school year, uses elected student officers, daily roles for elementary grades and planned market days starting in February to build attendance and engagement, district leaders said.
Six months after an August 2025 explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works outside Pittsburgh killed two workers and injured 11 others, residents and workers say safety and air-pollution concerns remain unresolved. A Chemical Safety Board probe found a release of coke oven gas during valve work that contacted an ignition source and exploded, according to a report shared with residents and officials.
Hundreds of femminielli — a nonbinary gender identity with roots in Neapolitan culture — gathered Feb. 2 at a Catholic Mass in Mercogliano, outside Naples, for the annual Juta pilgrimage. The ceremony blended Catholic ritual with local folklore, as participants said the event offers faith and resistance amid violence and prejudice affecting LGBTQ people worldwide.
In Tucson, Arizona, the FBI and Pima County authorities searched homes and desert terrain for clues in the Feb. 1 disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s “Today” host Savannah Guthrie. Authorities said they had detained a man near the U.S.-Mexico border for questioning, then released him after hours, leaving investigators with fewer leads than a prior surge of activity had suggested.
BANGKOK — Thousands of people have poured out of scam compounds in Cambodia after a government crackdown and mass releases, but many say they are finding little help once they escape. The Caritas shelter that supports victims who leave the compounds has been overwhelmed and has had to turn away more than 300 people, according to Mark Taylor, who works on human trafficking issues in Cambodia.
ORLANDO, Fla. — A 16-year-old boy under investigation in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister, Anna Kepner, appeared in federal court in South Florida late last week, but the case details were largely closed because of the defendant’s age. Authorities have not publicly said whether the teenager has been charged, and juvenile cases in federal court are rare. Kepner’s death was ruled a homicide, according to the investigation described in court materials and reporting.
The Trump administration will revoke a 2009 government finding that concluded greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, the White House said. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue a final rule rescinding the finding on Thursday, with President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin set to formalize the change at a ceremony.
An immigration court blocked the deportation of Turkish Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, her attorneys said. The court determined on Jan. 29 that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had not proved Öztürk should be removed, according to court documents filed as the case is reviewed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mourners in southern Lebanon buried a father and his young son after they were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a car in the town of Yanouh. The Associated Press reported that the Lebanese health ministry said the boy was 3, and that relatives said the father, a police officer, and the child were on foot when the strike hit the vehicle.
Human-caused climate change increased the extremely high conditions that drove deadly wildfires in Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia, a new scientific assessment found. Researchers using the World Weather Attribution approach said the hot, dry and windy weather that fed blazes in central and southern Chile was made up to three times more likely by global warming. They also said fire-risk conditions in southern Argentina were made about 150% more likely.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro asked the country’s highest court to lift a suspension of an economic emergency decree that would let his government raise taxes without congressional approval, as floods in northern provinces killed at least 14 and displaced about 69,000 people.
A record snow drought paired with unusually warm temperatures is thinning mountain snowpacks across much of the American West, raising concerns about spring water shortages and an earlier wildfire season. Scientists said snow cover and snow depth are at their lowest levels in decades, and at least 67 Western weather stations have recorded their warmest December through early February on record. The Associated Press reported the impacts as winter recreation declines and utilities and water managers prepare for less runoff later in the year.
Tennessee Valley Authority said it now prefers to keep operating two coal-fired plants in Tennessee that it had planned to shut down, according to new filings ahead of a board meeting. The utility said regulatory changes and growing electricity demand are pushing it to rethink closure dates for Kingston Fossil Plant and Cumberland Fossil Plant, even as it plans to add more natural gas generation at the sites.
In Clairton, Pa., residents are weighing the promise of a new Japanese owner for U.S. Steel against a long record of pollution and economic decline. Six months after an Aug. 11 explosion at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works killed two people, a newly elected mayor has pledged to “fix” the city while neighbors say they have heard promises before.
SEATTLE reached a $29 million settlement with the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from India who was struck and killed by a speeding police officer as she crossed a street in 2023, according to city and court records. The city said the agreement is meant to provide “some sense of closure” to the family.
A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in Rio Rico, Arizona, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said. The detention came as the FBI released the first surveillance images from the night Guthrie vanished, showing a masked person outside her front door.
The family of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie has posted a series of videos on Instagram since she disappeared in Arizona, starting with pleas for contact and moving to increasingly urgent appeals for help as the FBI released surveillance images. On Feb. 10, Savannah Guthrie posted an FBI video and images of a masked person authorities say tampered with a camera on Guthrie’s front porch the night she went missing, and she urged anyone who recognizes the person to contact law enforcement.
California lawmakers and environmental researchers are warning that illegal cannabis grows on public land are leaving hazardous trash, pesticides and fertilizers that can linger for years, even after raids. The Associated Press reports that ecologist Greta Wengert and colleagues have cataloged nearly 7,000 abandoned sites on California public lands, and that only a fraction—587—have been cleaned at least partly.
Northern Europe’s deep cold has prompted Estonia officials to open a 20-kilometer ice road across frozen sea linking its two main western islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, the Associated Press reported. Authorities said the route opened Sunday with cars lined up to use it as ferries struggled to keep regular service.
Nearly two years after U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson was fatally shot by a Florida deputy responding to a disturbance call at his apartment, his mother said she still wants answers and accountability. At a news conference in Florida on Tuesday, her family’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, said silence, delay and distance have a human cost as the case proceeds in federal court.
The French artist Marc Ahr has been drawing spectators at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, calling himself the “unofficial painter of the Games.” At a luge event in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Monday night, he focused on people’s reactions while using a black pen to capture scenes during the women’s singles luge competition.
Opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo is growing over a U.S.-backed minerals partnership offered by President Felix Tshisekedi after he returned from a critical minerals summit in Washington last week. Critics say the deal, framed as a way to secure strategic minerals and infrastructure, could threaten Congo’s sovereignty and fail to deliver peace and stability in the mineral-rich east.
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, marked St. Haralambos Day with a church ceremony in which priests blessed jars of honey and prayed for the protection of bees. Beekeepers and worshippers said the tradition reflects worries about pesticides, pollution and climate change affecting bee populations.
The increase in Arctic marine traffic is raising black carbon emissions that warm the region and can ripple into global climate patterns, Associated Press reported. At the same time, countries are weighing a proposal at the International Maritime Organization to require cleaner “polar fuels” for ships operating north of 60 degrees latitude, AP said.
When a deadly fire swept through Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court housing complex last November, it displaced residents and killed 168 people. As Lunar New Year arrives Feb. 17, survivors in temporary units say authorities have not yet laid out long-term resettlement plans.
Human-caused climate change made the extreme weather that drove deadly wildfires in parts of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia up to three times more likely than it would be in a world without global warming, researchers said. The assessment also found human emissions increased the odds of high-fire-risk conditions by making hot, dry and gusty weather more probable, and warned that risk will rise further as greenhouse gases continue.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Monday that five of 10 workers missing from a mine operated by Canadian firm Vizsla Silver Corp. in Sinaloa have been identified among 10 bodies found in clandestine graves. The company said families informed it that its colleagues taken from the Concordia project site were found deceased, while authorities said the remaining bodies were awaiting identification.
A single-engine plane made an emergency landing on a busy Georgia road in Gainesville, striking three vehicles and leaving two people with minor injuries, authorities said. The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane landed on Browns Bridge Road after experiencing engine problems shortly after departure. One of the two pilots told air traffic controllers to let his wife and parents know he loved them.
Mogadishu, Somalia, has opened its first modern bowling alley, drawing locals and diaspora returnees to a recreation space amid ongoing security precautions. The Feynuus Bowling Center, which opened last year, has become a symbol of Mogadishu’s day-to-day revival after decades of civil war and al-Shabab attacks, the Associated Press reported.
Olympic fans and organizers in Cortina are adjusting to unusually warm late-winter weather as climate change reshapes snowfall patterns and temperatures, affecting snow quality and visibility for the 2026 Winter Games. The organizing committee has installed sensors and keeps observers to monitor conditions across a widely spread venue footprint, with forecasts indicating more above-average days ahead.
Two babies were among at least 53 people dead or missing after an inflatable migrant boat sank off Libya, the U.N.’s migration agency said on Monday. The boat with 55 African migrants left the western town of Zawaiya shortly before midnight Thursday, then capsized north of Zuwara on Friday morning.
Providence, Rhode Island, released new video footage from the day of a fatal Brown University shooting on Monday, after officials said they had withheld other public records and redacted the most graphic images. Mayor Brett Smiley said the city balanced transparency requests with what he called the potential downside effects of releasing certain footage.
Social media posts falsely identified a boy in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as a 5-year-old detained by ICE in Minnesota. An AP fact check found the boy was instead Lincoln Fox Ramadan, a child actor from California, according to his Instagram.
Brookfield, Connecticut, is seeing resistance to a proposed $272 million compression upgrade to the Iroquois Gas Transmission System that, residents and officials say, would increase noise, emissions and safety risks near a middle school. State Sen. Stephen Harding, a Republican who represents Brookfield, said he wants a full, transparent process that gives every constituent an ability to object, and he said the project should not be approved. Despite that pushback, Connecticut regulators have issued draft approvals while the state awaits final air-permit decisions, with litigation and calls for tighter scrutiny under way.
Savannah Guthrie pleaded for her mother Nancy Guthrie’s return Tuesday as the FBI said it is not aware of any ongoing communication between the family and suspected kidnappers more than a week after Nancy Guthrie went missing near Tucson, Arizona. The FBI said it has not identified suspects or persons of interest and is running a 24-hour command post while asking the public for information.
A drone attack by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said. The attack took place near Rahad in North Kordofan province, a day after a World Food Programme aid convoy was targeted nearby, according to U.N. officials.
Social media users are sharing timelines, photos, and theories as authorities continue searching for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, who police believe was taken from her home outside Tucson, Arizona, about a week ago. As the search draws national attention, law enforcement officials and experts warn that online speculation can also spread misinformation and harm investigations.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is heading into a challenging reelection bid as she seeks to lead the city through continuing backlash over last year’s deadly Palisades wildfire and persistent criticism of City Hall on homelessness and day-to-day services. The filing deadline for candidates to enter the contest is Saturday ahead of the June 2 primary election.
Mexican authorities said they found bodies and remains in Sinaloa in an area where a search is under way for 10 workers reported missing from a Canadian gold and silver mine. The Attorney General’s Office said one of the bodies had “characteristics of one of the people reported as missing,” and it reported arrests of four people believed to be tied to the disappearances.
Nevada lawmakers questioned state regulators on Tuesday about alleged workplace safety and environmental violations tied to Elon Musk’s Boring Company and its “Vegas Loop,” a tunnel network that ferries passengers around the Las Vegas Convention Center. The lawmakers spent hours grilling safety officials over violations the company has faced, while company representatives submitted written answers defending the project.
Search and rescue crews in Colombia on Saturday finished recovering the bodies of miners trapped earlier this week after a methane gas explosion at an informal coal mine, the country’s mining regulator said.
Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who clashed near a Winter Olympics hockey venue in Milan on Feb. 7, an Associated Press report said. The confrontation followed a peaceful march against the Games’ environmental impact and against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents providing security to a U.S. delegation.
PORTLAND, Maine — President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Friday to reopen a protected area in the Atlantic Ocean off New England to commercial fishing, rolling back marine protections created under former President Barack Obama and restored under President Joe Biden. Trump said the change would allow appropriately managed fishing without threatening the monument’s historic and scientific objects.
Law enforcement and the FBI are continuing to search for Nancy Guthrie, a Tucson-area mother whose family says she was abducted and whose blood was found on the front porch of her home. On Feb. 7, authorities released a man detained for questioning, while investigators said new images of an armed, masked person at Guthrie’s door could help solve her apparent kidnapping.
Savannah Guthrie urged potential kidnappers of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, to return her, saying the family is “prepared to pay” for the 84-year-old Arizona resident’s safe return. The plea came in a video posted Saturday as investigators search for Nancy Guthrie, who vanished from her home outside Tucson last weekend.
The Environmental Protection Agency reapproved the weed killer dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton, approving over-the-top spraying for two major crops in the United States. The EPA said it imposed new protections, including limits tied to application conditions and buffer zones, to manage drift risk. Advocates criticized the decision, saying recent court setbacks in 2020 and 2024 prevented similar expansions and that tighter rules do not address environmental harm.
China’s solar and wind expansion accelerated in 2025, but it also approved and brought online far more large coal-fired power projects than in the prior decade, according to a research report cited by Associated Press. The report, based on data from air-pollution and energy-tracking groups, raised concern that the world’s biggest carbon emitter may not cut enough emissions fast enough as it rolls out cleaner energy.
Backyard vegetable gardens can help people eat more fruits and vegetables while also reducing the climate impact of food, experts told the Associated Press. The advice is aimed at people planning now for spring planting, when many areas are still covered in snow.
Mexico said it made an “adjustment” to the protected area for the vaquita, the world’s most endangered small porpoise, to better balance conservation and fishing activity in the northern Gulf of California. Environmental groups and some scientists warned the change could increase the risk to vaquitas, while Mexico’s environmental authority said it came with stronger enforcement measures.
Co-workers across generations are increasingly pairing up in reverse mentoring programs, where younger employees share new digital trends and older colleagues bring experience and context. An Associated Press report on workplace wellness highlights examples from a Florida PR firm, Estée Lauder, and a Pennsylvania hotel, along with other workplaces where reverse mentoring is used to improve communication and training.
In Wisconsin, state testing of private drinking wells for PFAS has left residents of small towns scrambling to find safe water—sometimes only after levels in their wells were found thousands of times above federal limits. Across the U.S., many households that rely on private wells learn their water is unsafe far later than customers served by utilities, and some states have limited resources to test and clean up.
The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Sunday after a two-day closure, allowing a limited number of Palestinians to travel for medical treatment, Egyptian state media reported. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 17 medical evacuees and 27 companions began crossing into Egypt, with the same number expected to head into Gaza. Israel did not immediately confirm the figures.
Flash floods caused by storm Marta killed at least four people in northern Morocco, with local officials also reporting one person missing as the country dealt with days of heavy rain, the Interior Ministry said. The deaths included three children, authorities said, while mass evacuations were carried out in areas affected by water releases from overfilled dams.
Rescue teams pulled six people from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, with state media reporting at least nine deaths. Officials said the search continued for eight more people believed missing.
A truck carrying passengers crashed in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 30 people and injuring several others, authorities said. The accident occurred in Kano state’s Gezawa local government area, when the trailer lost control on a highway near Kwanar Barde town, officials said.
Truckee police said a 49-year-old man drove into pedestrians at the entrance of a Safeway grocery store in the mountain town of Truckee, Calif., injuring four people, including children, on Saturday afternoon. Town officials said the man, from Coalinga in California’s San Joaquin Valley, was booked on charges including assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism.
The investigation into the apparent kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, continued Sunday in the Tucson, Arizona area, a week after she was reported missing, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said. Savannah Guthrie released a social media video Saturday that addressed the potential kidnappers, saying the family had received their message and would pay for her safe return.
Mississippi residents were nearly two weeks without power after an ice storm knocked out electricity and left roads hard to navigate, the Associated Press reported Feb. 6.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has asked lawmakers to review a proposed list of $126 million in green fee-funded environmental projects, according to the administration. The projects include work on cesspools, beach restoration, invasive species, reforestation and mosquito control, with lawmakers set to debate which items receive funding as the Legislature negotiates the broader state budget.
Iran seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, state television reported, saying the vessels were smuggling fuel. The report did not say the tankers’ nationalities or what flags they flew. A Revolutionary Guard navy commander said the tankers carried about 1 million liters of fuel, including diesel, and that 15 crew members were taken into custody.
Gabor S. Boritt, a Civil War historian and longtime professor at Gettysburg College, has died. Born in Budapest in 1940 and described by his family as surviving World War II and the aftermath of Auschwitz, Boritt died Monday in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at age 86, according to his son.
A freight train derailed Thursday in Mansfield, Connecticut, sending cars carrying flammable liquid propane into nearby water, though officials said they do not appear to be leaking. Officials issued a shelter-in-place order for residents within half a mile of the derailment, and hazardous materials teams monitored the area with hazmat booms as a precaution.
Nearly 70 people were rescued from gondola cabins at Gore Mountain in upstate New York after a mechanical problem forced the ski lift to shut down, leaving skiers stranded for hours, authorities said. Staff and state park rangers climbed lift poles and used rope and body harnesses to lower people to the ground in an operation that took nearly five hours on Wednesday.
A fire tore through a Pennsylvania hospital campus in Dickson City, authorities said, prompting the evacuation of dozens of patients and a multi-agency emergency response. No injuries were reported as of Wednesday night, and the facility remained closed Thursday while crews assessed damage.
Three people were killed and six others were hurt Thursday after a 92-year-old driver collided with a bicyclist and then crashed into a grocery store in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood, authorities said. The woman was cooperating with investigators and undergoing a medical evaluation, police said.
Koko Networks, a Kenya-based bioethanol fuel company that expanded access to cleaner cooking stoves, shut down abruptly after failing to secure approvals needed for carbon-credit sales and bioethanol imports, leaving thousands of fuel supply points idle. Households that relied on refillable canisters, including residents of Nairobi’s Kibera, are now weighing a return to charcoal or finding money for more expensive liquefied petroleum gas.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter crashed while assisting officers responding to a shootout in Flagstaff that lasted nearly two hours, killing the pilot and a trooper on board, authorities said. The confrontation began after officers responded to a domestic violence call on Wednesday evening, and police said the suspect fired from multiple rooftops before being taken into custody. The state and federal aviation agencies are investigating.
Cortina d’Ampezzo is gearing up for the second Winter Olympics it will host, with snow and Olympic symbols shaping daily life as the 2026 Milan Cortina Games approach. In contrast, Milan—where most Olympics venues are farther out—shows far fewer signs that the Games are about to begin.
Authorities investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie outside Tucson have identified her from DNA found on blood on the front porch, and the FBI has increased its reward for information. The search began after Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day, with investigators working through doorbell-camera failures, door-to-door canvassing, and multiple messages tied to the case.
Authorities in Tucson, Arizona, are searching for missing Nancy Guthrie, with police saying they have not identified suspects or persons of interest in the five-day case. The search comes as investigators take seriously ransom notes sent to multiple media outlets, and federal and local officials have asked the public to stay alert for information. The unfolding drama has also revived comparisons to other high-profile abduction cases from U.S. history.
Three-dozen families that lost relatives in two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes asked a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Thursday to revive a criminal case against Boeing. The families argued federal prosecutors violated their rights when they agreed to dismiss the charge after a deal with Boeing. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it would issue a decision at a later date.
The U.S. government announced an additional $6 million in aid for Cuba as the island’s crisis deepens and tensions between Washington and Havana escalate. Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said the U.S. is imposing an “energy blockade” through moves that restrict oil supply.
The Trump administration said it wants to form a critical minerals trading bloc with allies and partners, using tariffs to help maintain minimum prices and secure access to materials that China controls. Vice President JD Vance made the case at a meeting hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations on Feb. 4 in Washington.
Authorities in Cyprus said a body found last month on a beach along the island’s southern coastline has been identified as Vladislav Baumgertner, a former CEO of Uralkali who had been detained in Belarus in 2013. Police on a British military base in Cyprus said DNA analysis confirmed the identification, and an investigation into the circumstances and cause of death is ongoing.
Energy Star, an Environmental Protection Agency-run program that helps consumers choose more efficient appliances, remains funded after President Donald Trump signed new budget legislation, an Associated Press report said. The program got $33 million in the legislation, slightly above 2024 levels, though environmental advocates said uncertainty about how it will be administered under a reduced EPA staff could affect its future.
Melania Trump met Wednesday in Washington with freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel and his wife, Aviva Siegel, whose captivity story is featured in her new film. The first lady said the couple met with her in New York in January 2025, after Aviva Siegel was freed, and that the meeting was captured on camera for the movie.
NBC “Today” host Savannah Guthrie posted a recorded video message to the person authorities believe kidnapped her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, asking for proof her mother is alive. Guthrie said her family is ready to talk but wants verification as law enforcement investigates, with no suspect identified.
A new study published in *Science Advances* estimates that long-term exposure to wildfire-smoke particle pollution contributes to an average of 24,100 deaths per year across the lower 48 states between 2006 and 2020. Researchers focused on fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which can lodge deep in the lungs and worsen chronic illness.
A diver who helped recover bodies from a deadly collision between a migrant speedboat and a Greek coast guard patrol vessel said Friday that most of the 15 people who died suffered severe head injuries. The collision occurred off the eastern Aegean island of Chios, and a search and rescue operation continued three days later for potentially missing people. The circumstances of the incident remain unclear, and Greek judicial authorities have launched an official inquiry.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said Trump administration officials are seeking to speed up permitting for reconstruction of tens of thousands of homes destroyed by last year’s Los Angeles wildfires, after the president signed an executive order aimed at reducing “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive” requirements. The officials met residents in Pacific Palisades and said they will review why more than 1,000 permit applications were sent back, as local leaders and state officials questioned the legality and criticized a lack of disaster funding.
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra announced Friday that the European Union will create a continentwide rapid reaction force of 300 firefighters to help respond to wildfires across the bloc. Hoekstra said the firefighters will be deployed “where needed” and that the unit’s creation was decided in the last year.
Nevada missed its 2025 greenhouse gas-reduction targets and is projected to fall further behind when the state’s 2030 bar is raised, according to a report Nevada released before the new year, as officials and lawmakers dispute how much policy changes can reverse the trend.
An avalanche in Slovakia’s High Tatras mountain range killed two Hungarian climbers, the country’s mountain rescue service said Friday. The service said bad weather prevented the use of a helicopter and the climbers had to reach a valley under Tupa peak on foot.
A 13-year-old boy swam for about four hours in cold, choppy waters off Western Australia to reach shore and raise the alarm after his mother and two younger siblings were swept out to sea, police said. Austin Appelbee, 13, swam about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to raise help late Friday and his family was later spotted by a helicopter around 8:30 p.m.
Repairs on a pipe rupture that sent sewage into the Potomac River northwest of Washington will take weeks longer than first expected because of an unexpected blockage inside the collapsed sewer line, DC Water said. The blockage, revealed by video inspection, will require treatment before crews can address the ongoing leak.
California is rolling out an updated version of CalEnviroScreen, the pollution and health “tracker” used to choose which communities receive state cleanup funding. State officials said the fifth update adds two new indicators—diabetes prevalence and small air toxic sites—and improves data used in other health and pollution measures. The changes, developed with eight community organizations, are part of a debate over whether the system still leaves some burdened neighborhoods out of the funding pipeline.
Private drinking wells leave millions of Americans vulnerable to PFAS contamination, an Associated Press investigation says, because federal testing rules mainly cover public water systems. The AP reports that many well owners learn about contamination only after it has spread near industrial sites, and that states’ policies for private-well testing vary widely. In Wisconsin, one family’s PFAS discovery has led to years of investigation and concern, with limited state resources for grants and well replacement.
In Harlem, a Muslim-owned thrift shop called Modify Thrift blends modest fashion with faith and sustainability, offering vintage pieces and cultural clothing alongside a community-focused mission. The shop opened last May on Malcolm X Boulevard, and its owner, Kadjahtou Balde, said the store aims to challenge stereotypes about Muslim women’s style and to help customers find clothing that fits their modesty needs.
An Ecuadorian Indigenous Quichua family is working to rescue and replant endangered Amazon plants on a 32-hectare farm, El Picaflor, in a remote area southeast of Quito. Ramón Pucha and his family say climate change and drought have reduced the forests’ seed output, pushing them to travel deep into the jungle to gather seeds. They warn that a new government plan to merge environmental responsibilities with the energy and mines ministry could weaken efforts to protect the landscape.
Firefighters in Norwalk, Connecticut, rescued a swan stuck in the frozen Norwalk River after donning cold-water rescue gear and using ropes to free the bird on Tuesday. The Norwalk Fire Department said the swan was taken to a veterinarian center, where it was reported to be doing well and expected to make a full recovery.
Many Americans say this winter cold spell feels unusually brutal, even though experts say it’s not unprecedented. Researchers and climate scientists tied the “shock” to people’s limited recent experience with bone-shattering cold and to a warming climate that has made such extremes rarer in recent decades. The Associated Press spoke with experts about how weather exposure changes perception and behavior, and about the risks posed by prolonged freezing temperatures.
Arizona law enforcement officers mourned a U.S. Marine pilot and a trooper paramedic after a law enforcement helicopter crash during a police shootout with a domestic-violence suspect in Flagstaff, authorities said. Police identified the suspect as Terrell Storey, 50, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and faces murder and assault charges on law enforcement. The cause of the crash remained under investigation Friday, with federal aviation safety investigators involved.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a $200 million plan for instant electric-vehicle rebates that would reduce upfront costs for buyers at the point of sale. The proposal, set to be overseen by the California Air Resources Board, would require automakers to match state funds dollar-for-dollar if the Legislature approves it.
In Colorado Springs, Derrick Johnson said the FBI contacted him after investigators found 189 decaying bodies stashed at a funeral home that had provided him cremation remains he later learned were not his mother’s. Johnson, whose mother’s name was Ellen Marie Shriver-Lopes, spoke to The Associated Press ahead of Jon Hallford’s sentencing.
FEMA will resume staff reductions that were paused during January’s severe winter storm, according to two FEMA managers, renewing concerns inside the agency about being able to handle disasters with fewer workers. The planned cuts affect term-limited hires known as the “Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery,” or CORE employees, FEMA managers said.
Mexican long-nosed bats are migrating farther north into the United States in search of agave nectar, with new DNA evidence showing the endangered species has moved beyond its previously known roost areas in New Mexico. Bat Conservation International said Tuesday that swabbing agave plants and hummingbird feeders in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest and analyzing the samples confirmed the bats are traveling about 100 miles farther north than researchers had documented before.
China opened many more coal power plants in 2025 than in recent years, even as solar and wind growth accelerated, according to a report released this week. The report found more than 50 large coal units commissioned last year and said China added 78 gigawatts of new coal capacity, raising questions about how quickly the world’s biggest emitter can cut emissions.
The search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, continued in the Tucson area after authorities said the 84-year-old was apparently kidnapped. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told The Associated Press on Friday that he remains concerned about her health because she “requires medication,” as days pass without proof she is alive.
California lawmakers from both parties announced a package of bills meant to curb dangerous driving, including proposals that would require ignition interlock devices for some offenders and tighten licensing consequences for repeat DUI cases. The Assembly Public Safety Committee chair, Democrat Nick Schultz of Burbank, said the effort aims to make communities safer after years of rising traffic deaths.
Maui County officials are planning a voluntary buyout program for certain oceanfront property owners in Lahaina as part of an updated wildfire disaster spending plan, Mayor Richard Bissen said. The proposal would shift $50 million from other hazard-mitigation projects to help fund buyouts, and county residents have until March 3 to comment on the revised action plan.
Wildfires burning in Argentina’s Patagonia have devastated more than 45,000 hectares of native forests in the past month and a half, forcing evacuations of residents and tourists, the Associated Press reported. The fires have intensified criticism of President Javier Milei’s austerity policies, which critics say have cut funding for the country’s wildfire response institutions.
Investigators have found signs of forced entry at the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The 84-year-old was reported missing after last being seen Saturday night in the Tucson area, and investigators believe she was taken against her will.
A migrant speedboat collided with a Greek coast guard patrol vessel off the eastern Aegean island of Chios, leaving at least 15 people dead, Greece’s coast guard said. The coast guard said 14 bodies were recovered, and it rescued 25 migrants, including about 11 children, transporting injured people and two injured coast guard officers to a hospital on Chios.
Portland, Maine, police confirmed Tuesday that six people died in a crash of a Bombardier Challenger 600 during takeoff in snowy conditions as the jet stopped in Bangor to refuel on a flight from Houston to France. The victims included a Houston lawyer-turned-concierge entrepreneur Tara Arnold, along with an executive chef, a master sommelier and pilots.
Savannah Guthrie asked for prayers for her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, after authorities said they believe she was taken against her will over the weekend from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Authorities in Arizona said they were seeking public tips but offered few new details about evidence at the home or about when they believe Nancy Guthrie was abducted.
Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of wintry weather Monday at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania, prompting a mix of cheers and boos from thousands who braved single-digit temperatures. In New York, Staten Island Chuck’s ceremony was streamed but closed to the public because of the cold, with Chuck also said to have predicted six more weeks of winter.
Doctors Without Borders said a hospital it runs in South Sudan was hit by an airstrike carried out by government forces late Tuesday. The group said the attack in Lankien, in Jonglei state, injured one staff member and destroyed the hospital’s main warehouse and medical supplies.
Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was taken against her will and are urging her safe return, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Monday. Nancy Guthrie was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at her Tucson-area home, where she lived alone, before her family reported her missing Sunday, sheriff officials said.
Brothers of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman who was killed in January by a federal immigration officer, asked Congress on Tuesday to rein in what they described as violence tied to immigration enforcement. Luke and Brett Ganger spoke during a congressional hearing convened by Senate Democrats to spotlight use-of-force complaints involving Homeland Security officers.
Argentina’s worst wildfires in decades have ripped through drought-stricken Patagonia, burning thousands of hectares in Los Alerces National Park. The blazes, which erupted in the UNESCO World Heritage site’s 259,000-hectare area, have forced evacuations and renewed criticism of President Javier Milei’s austerity cuts to firefighting and park-protection agencies.
Severe cold and prolonged power outages continued Monday across parts of the eastern U.S., as states from the Carolinas north dug out from snow and ice and more than a week of outages lingered for some households. In North Carolina, four unoccupied homes on Outer Banks islands collapsed into the Atlantic, while farmers in Florida waited for temperatures to rise enough to assess damage to crops.
A federal judge cleared the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project for construction to resume Monday, the fifth such project affected by the Trump administration’s December pause to be put back on track. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the government failed to show offshore wind is an imminent national security risk that warrants halting the projects in the United States.
Schools across the Southeast have extended weather-related closures into a second week after winter storms knocked out power and made roads too icy for travel, the Associated Press reported. Some districts turned to limited remote learning while others prepared to add school days to make up lost instructional time.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they found the bodies of at least four decapitated women near their border with Haiti and are investigating the deaths. Police spokesman Diego Pesqueira said the victims were Haitian and that Dominican authorities are investigating only one case because just one body was found on the Dominican side of the border. He said investigators believe the women were killed and then thrown into a river that carried the bodies across where they were later discovered.
The Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the death of a Northern Arizona University student found unresponsive at a fraternity house after an initiation event, according to court documents released Monday. Police said three 20-year-old fraternity leaders were arrested on criminal hazing charges. The university said it temporarily suspended the chapter while it conducts its own investigation.
The father of a 5-year-old boy detained by U.S. immigration officers in Texas denied government assertions Monday that he abandoned his son while being pursued by authorities, according to statements to ABC News reported by The Associated Press. Adrian Conejo Arias said his son, Liam, became sick while in federal custody and that he was denied medicine. Homeland Security’s assistant secretary said the facts have not changed and reiterated that Arias fled on foot before he was arrested.
At least three firefighters were injured Monday when a natural gas leak caused an explosion and fire at a mental health center in Nashua, New Hampshire, authorities said. The Greater Nashua Mental Health facility had about 40 people inside when someone called 911 to report an odor of gas, and all occupants evacuated safely, the State Fire Marshal said.
A fishing boat sank in frigid waters off Gloucester, Massachusetts, killing all seven people aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard identified the victims Monday, and said it launched a formal investigation after suspending a search for survivors.
The Vatican said Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” fresco is undergoing a three-month cleaning at the Sistine Chapel, its first major restoration in three decades. The Vatican Museums said the chapel will remain open to visitors during the work, though scaffolding will partially obstruct views.
Norwegian skier Nikolai Schirmer delivered a “Ski Fossil Free” petition to the International Olympic Committee on Feb. 4, ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The petition, signed by more than 21,000 people and athletes, urges the IOC and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation to evaluate fossil-fuel marketing ahead of next season.
Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania, saw his own shadow Monday morning, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced. The shadow sighting is traditionally taken to mean six more weeks of winter and not an early spring.
Forecasters warned Monday that dangerous extra-cold conditions are expected to persist across a large swath of the United States, stretching from the Gulf Coast to New England. The warning comes after a weekend bomb cyclone brought heavy snow and disrupted travel, including flight cancellations, prompting advisories for millions more as communities recover.
A storm is described as “bomb cyclone” when it undergoes rapid intensification, dropping its central pressure by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meteorologists say those fast-strengthening systems can bring blizzard conditions, intense winds and heavy rain that contribute to dangerous impacts such as downed trees and power outages.
An 18-year-old Swiss national died in a Zurich hospital from injuries sustained in a Swiss Alpine bar fire, bringing the death toll to 41 about a month after the New Year blaze in Crans-Montana, prosecutors said. The victim died Saturday, and prosecutors said they would provide no further information on the investigation’s status.
Lagos authorities have carried out demolitions in the waterfront community of Makoko, displacing thousands of residents as homes were torn down and people say there was limited notice, leaving some families sheltering in makeshift setups. An AP account described bulldozers demolishing houses starting in late December and continuing into January, including the home of fisherman Victor Ahansu, whose family now lives on a canoe with his baby twins. Officials from the Lagos state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development declined to comment on the allegations.
Children with cerebral palsy, autism, ADHD and other conditions in Taiwan are using horse therapy at a center in Taoyuan to find comfort and support through riding and interacting with horses, the Associated Press reported. Parents and therapists say the structured sessions help many children feel at ease, try new experiences and build confidence.
Griffin, a city south of Atlanta, advised residents not to drink their tap water after a fuel spill at Atlanta’s airport may have contaminated the Flint River, according to city officials. The city told residents to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth while it tests the water supply and relies on an unaffected reservoir in nearby Pike County, the Associated Press reported.
After Lee Zeldin, newly named EPA administrator, announced new restrictions on five chemicals on New Year’s Eve, the Make America Healthy Again movement is now pressing for broader environmental changes at the agency. Advocates say they have gained unusually direct access to EPA leadership as part of a broader political alliance tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Trump-era shifts. EPA officials say a “MAHA agenda” coming in coming months will respond to priorities raised by MAHA advocates and communities.
A passenger bus left a road in southern Turkey’s Antalya province on Sunday and overturned on a highway slip road, killing nine people, a senior official said. The provincial governor said 21 people were injured, including seven with critical wounds, and that the driver was among the fatalities.
A 6-year-old and four other people were wounded when gunfire erupted during a small-town parade in Clinton, Louisiana, authorities said. The East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office said the shooting occurred shortly after the midday start of the Mardi Gras in the Country Parade on Saturday.
Freezing temperatures and long power outages can quickly create medical emergencies, including hypothermia and frostbite, emergency-room doctors warn. In guidance shared with The Associated Press, clinicians urged people without electricity to stay warm in confined spaces, dress in layers, keep dry, and watch for symptoms that require a 911 call.
A research team has outfitted 12 grizzlies on Alaska’s North Slope with collar cameras to capture close-up footage of how the bears feed, rest and interact through the year. Washington State University doctoral student Ellery Vincent and Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jordan Pruszenski said the project is now producing video clips that show post-hibernation feeding and seasonal shifts in diet.
NASA delayed the first Artemis moonshot with astronauts after near-freezing temperatures were expected at the launch site, pushing the target to no earlier than Feb. 8. The decision came after NASA canceled plans for a fueling test of its 322-foot (98-meter) moon rocket due to the cold, and NASA said the next critical dress rehearsal is set for Monday weather permitting.
Punxsutawney Phil is set to deliver his Groundhog Day weather verdict on Monday at Gobbler’s Knob in rural Pennsylvania, with club handlers and a crowd expected to listen for his “groundhogese” cues about what comes next. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club says Phil’s annual call traditionally means either six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Blizzardlike conditions from a “bomb cyclone” brought heavy snow to parts of the Carolinas on Saturday, while tens of thousands of homes and businesses in parts of Tennessee and Mississippi remained without power after an earlier ice storm. Temperatures plunged and extended across much of the East Coast as officials warned of dangerously cold conditions, hypothermia and frostbite.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for seven people after a commercial fishing vessel sank off Massachusetts in rough, frigid waters, officials said. The search began Friday after an alert from the 72-foot Lily Jean, about 25 miles off Cape Ann, and was scaled back Saturday after crews exhausted all reasonable efforts, according to the Coast Guard.
Winter storm conditions and power outages left many residents in the U.S. South facing dangerous cold, with experts warning that hypothermia risk rises after days without heat. As another storm loomed, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he shared “strong concerns” with Nashville Electric Service, and forecasters warned arctic air would push temperatures into the teens in cities such as Nashville.
A major investigative collaboration reported that PFAS used to make stain-resistant carpets contaminated waterways and drinking water across the South, with effects that can persist for decades. The investigation links PFAS contamination to carpet mills in northwest Georgia, where workers used the chemicals starting in the 1970s, and to the spread of those compounds through manufacturing wastewater and the Conasauga River.
Mexico’s Southeast Gateway pipeline, which brings U.S. natural gas to serve Mexico’s power needs and eventually the Yucatán Peninsula, has drawn resistance from coastal communities and environmental groups. Residents and Indigenous activists say they were not consulted under Mexico’s constitution, while opponents warn of leak and reef impacts and a wider threat to the country’s climate goals.
Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was not flying his Cessna before it crashed last month in North Carolina, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released Friday. The report said the pilot at the controls had flight credentials, but the person in the right seat had not been qualified as the copilot, and investigators are still examining what caused the in-flight instrument problems.
The latest wave of dangerous cold is adding urgency to winter-storm recovery in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee, where hundreds of National Guard troops were mobilized to clear debris and help people stranded without electricity. The National Weather Service said arctic air moving into the Southeast will push temperatures into the teens (minus 10 Celsius) Friday night, with tens of thousands of homes and businesses still dark in the region.
A small plane crash in rural Norte de Santander in northeast Colombia killed all 15 people on board, authorities said Wednesday. The victims included Diógenes Quintero, a member of the House of Representatives, and a social leader running for Congress.
Winter’s brutal grip on the U.S. East continues, with subfreezing temperatures forecast to spread deep into Florida and a powerful coastal winter storm potentially threatening the Atlantic coast this weekend. Meteorologists said the biggest uncertainty is the storm’s track, including whether it will deliver significant snow from the Carolinas northward or veer farther offshore.
A small plane crashed in a rural part of Colombia’s Norte de Santander province on Wednesday, killing all 15 people aboard, including a member of Congress, authorities said. Satena, the airline that operates the flight, said it had not received prior warning of adverse weather conditions that could have prevented the trip, and it is awaiting the results of a formal investigation.
A small plane crashed Wednesday in Colombia’s Norte de Santander province, killing all 15 people on board, authorities said. The flight involved a member of Congress, human rights advocates, and staff from humanitarian groups, as investigators worked to determine what caused the crash.
A small plane crashed Wednesday in a rural area of Norte de Santander province in northeast Colombia, killing all 15 people on board, authorities said. Among the victims were Diógenes Quintero, a member of the House of Representatives for Catatumbo, and Carlos Salcedo, a social leader who was running for Congress.
As heavy cold and snow pushed across parts of the U.S., doctors, orthopedic specialists, emergency officials and roadside-safety advocates urged people to slow down to avoid slips, falls and ice-related injuries. They also warned that thin lake ice can vary in thickness even after brief stretches of freezing weather.
After a massive weekend storm left deep snow and bitter cold across parts of the United States, some people may consider eating snow—such as snow cones, “snow cream” or “sugar on snow.” Doctors and snow scientists say the treats can be safe only with caution, including where the snow came from and what contaminants it may carry. Specialists also warn against eating snow as a survival strategy because it can worsen hypothermia.
The New Orleans City Council on Wednesday (Jan. 28) passed a one-year ban on data centers and started a process to clarify zoning rules for future proposals. Council members said the moratorium is meant to pause development while officials define how data centers should be treated in city zoning, addressing concerns raised by neighbors about energy and water use.
The Sorrell family in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, brought a newborn calf inside after it was found frozen in single-digit temperatures, according to Macey Sorrell. After warming and caring for the animal, the calf was able to reunite with its mother the next morning and is doing well, she said.
In Honda, Colombia, the yearly fish migration known as “la subienda” brings artisanal fishers a key window to catch enough fish to pay debts and fund home repairs. But fishers say warmer, drier conditions are changing the river’s behavior, delaying reproduction and shrinking the seasonal fishing that underpins local income.
A deadly gas explosion in a Bronx high-rise last weekend was traced by prosecutors to an intruder who disconnected a stove to steal and sell it, according to a criminal court complaint. Samuel Calderon, 55, was charged with murder along with burglary and other counts and was held without bail after an arraignment, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The blast killed Ronald McAllister, 60, and injured more than a dozen other people, officials said.
A deadly car crash in Nigeria involving former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua and multiple minibus accidents in South Africa in recent days have underscored Africa’s weak road safety record. The continent has the world’s highest road fatality rate despite having only about 3% of the world’s vehicles, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa.
BELGRADE, Serbia — A small, run-down 19th-century mansion on a central street in Belgrade has survived as a theater known as Takovska17, keeping period furnishings and a heritage listing intact while much of the surrounding neighborhood has changed. Built in 1894 and protected, the house has hosted intimate productions staged by local troupes for audiences of a few dozen, according to an Associated Press report.
A federal judge on Tuesday allowed Vineyard Wind, a near-complete Massachusetts offshore wind project, to continue despite a Trump administration stop-work order tied to national security concerns. The ruling in U.S. District Court in Boston halted the administration’s order as developers and states pursue legal challenges to the broader pause of East Coast projects.
Scientists on a research vessel off central California spotted a waved albatross, a bird typically found in the Galapagos Islands, about 3,000 miles away. The sighting, near Point Piedras Blancas, marks only the second recorded observation of the species north of Central America, and marine ornithologists said it raises questions about how and why it strayed so far.
People sometimes hear loud booms or feel light shaking when temperatures stay bitterly cold, meteorologists say. The noises can be “frost quakes” or “cryoseisms,” caused when water in the soil quickly freezes and expands.
Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources said cougars were confirmed 31 times in the state in 2025, the highest number of confirmed observations since the animals were wiped out in the early 1900s. The count includes evidence that cougar cubs were discovered in Michigan, indicating at least one family is raising young in the state.
South Dakota’s deposits of minerals classified as “critical” have renewed interest from mining and exploration companies, even as Native American and environmental groups raise concerns about water and land impacts. The debate comes as federal and other research identifies where the state holds reserves and as state lawmakers have considered—but not passed—changes to how lithium mining is regulated.
Africa recorded a disproportionate share of the world’s road deaths despite having about 3% of the globe’s vehicles, as high-profile crashes in Nigeria and South Africa renewed attention on road safety across the continent. A deadly crash in Nigeria involving former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua and two minibus accidents in South Africa days apart killed at least 25 people, the Associated Press reported. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-road-safety-cars-crashes-d4e243d9807bbb60f9804d575094310e">https://apnews.com/article/africa-road-safety-cars-crashes-d4e243d9807bbb60f9804d575094310e</a>
Scientists on a research vessel off central California spotted a waved albatross, marking just the second recorded sighting of the bird north of Central America, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The bird was seen about 23 miles (37 kilometers) off the coast of Point Piedras Blancas, roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to the report.
In Honda, Colombia, artisanal fishermen look to the annual “subienda,” a freshwater fish migration that typically runs between January and February, to earn money and pay debts. The tradition—tied to the local economy and celebrated with a carnival and reign of the Subienda—now faces disruptions, fishermen say, as hotter, drier conditions change river levels and delay fish reproduction.
For some families, the memories of the night a passenger plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River are now tied to small items like children’s luggage and ice skates. One year after American Airlines Flight 5342 and the helicopter crashed, emergency responders and officials recalled the search they carried out in near-zero visibility and hazardous river conditions.
Jackson, Miss., officials said conditions worsened Wednesday as subfreezing temperatures and widespread power outages stranded vehicles on major highways in parts of the U.S. South. Mississippi sent 135 snowplows and National Guard troops equipped with wreckers to clear stretches of Interstates 55 and 22 gridlocked by abandoned cars, while officials warned people at home were running low on food, medicine and fuel.
Death Valley National Park in California said Scotty’s Castle will reopen for limited tours after years of flood-recovery work. The National Park Service plans more tours in the coming months, with full reopening “eyed for a few years from now,” according to Abby Wines, the acting deputy superintendent.
The federal investigation into the crash of a private jet at Bangor International Airport that killed six people has been hampered by deep snow and other winter conditions, the airport director said Wednesday. The director, Jose Saavedra, said the airport will remain closed until at least 9 a.m. Thursday while authorities work at the scene and medical officials identify the victims.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited Niscemi in Sicily on Wednesday after a cyclone triggered a massive landslide that left homes teetering on a newly formed cliff. Authorities have evacuated more than 1,500 people and set up a 150-meter-wide “no go zone” to keep residents away from the unstable area, the Italian Civil Protection said.
A federal judge ruled that ConocoPhillips Alaska can proceed with planned winter oil and gas exploration in a portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska after rejecting a bid to halt the project while lawsuits play out. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason said conservation groups and a group aligned with Iñupiat interests did not show they have a “fair chance of success” on the merits of their claims. The decision follows a court filing that a mobile drilling rig toppled onto snow-covered tundra while being transported last week.
Florida residents are preparing for below-freezing nights and the chance of snowflakes, while a major winter storm system moves east toward the Carolinas this weekend. National Weather Service forecasters in Miami and the Tampa Bay area said a cold front earlier this week has already lowered temperatures, and the region could see record-setting freezes.
San Diego has sued federal agencies over razor wire fencing built on city land near the Mexican border, alleging the barrier damaged sensitive habitat and trespassed on municipal property. The complaint, filed in federal court on Jan. 5, names the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, as well as top officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Shirley Raines, a social media creator and nonprofit founder who became known as “Ms. Shirley” for bringing food, hygiene supplies and beauty services to people experiencing homelessness, died Wednesday at 58, her organization Beauty 2 The Streetz said. Raines’ cause of death was not released.
The family of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis intensive care nurse who was shot while filming Border Patrol officers during an immigration enforcement operation, has retained a former federal prosecutor to represent them in the aftermath of his death, an attorney said Tuesday.
Anchorage broke its January snowfall record Tuesday after another winter storm dumped more than 10 inches of snow on the city, leading to early school dismissals and traffic disruptions. By 3 p.m., the National Weather Service office in West Anchorage had measured 10.6 inches of new snow, bringing the month’s total to 39.7 inches, the most ever recorded for January.
FROID, Mont. — Border Patrol arrested longtime Froid mechanic Roberto Orozco-Ramirez on Sunday, the U.S. government charged him in federal court in Great Falls, and a judge set a preliminary hearing for Feb. 5. Residents and supporters from across the community packed Wednesday’s hearing, challenging the government’s characterization of him as dangerous.
Families of the 67 people killed when an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport gathered Wednesday evening to mark the one-year anniversary of the deadliest aviation accident on U.S. soil since 2001. At the memorial ceremony in Washington, family members renewed calls for federal safety reforms, one day after National Transportation Safety Board investigators testified that the crash was "100% preventable." The collision occurred on January 29, 2025, when the aircraft struck the icy Potomac River. Among the dead were 28 figure skaters bound for a national competition. Everyone aboard both aircraft died in the collision.
The Trump administration proposed to approve ozone air-pollution plans submitted by eight states, a move the EPA said would remove the need for a federal “Good Neighbor Plan” for those areas. The proposal came Wednesday, when the agency said it found the states “have adequate data” showing they are not interfering with ozone attainment requirements under national air standards.
Hundreds of Indigenous people have been protesting for nearly a week at a Cargill facility in Santarém, northern Brazil, alleging the federal government signed a decree without consulting affected communities. The Tapajós and Arapiuns Indigenous Council says the decree, signed in August by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, would allow the federal government to consider private concessions for Amazon waterways and shift maintenance, dredging and traffic management responsibilities to operators.
Subfreezing temperatures and widespread power outages stranded drivers and left residents in parts of the U.S. South running low on food, medicine and other essentials, officials said Wednesday. In Mississippi, authorities dispatched 135 snowplows and National Guard troops equipped with wreckers to help clear ice-clogged Interstate 55 and Interstate 22.
The Hague District Court on Wednesday ordered the Dutch government to draw up a plan to protect residents on the Caribbean island of Bonaire from the effects of climate change. The court also ruled the government discriminated against Bonaire’s 20,000 residents by failing to take “timely and appropriate measures” before impacts became irreversible.
Federal regulators said staff at Bristol Health & Rehab Center outside Philadelphia reported a natural gas odor on Dec. 23 and brought in utility workers hours before an explosion killed residents and an employee in late December. The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board describes a roughly three-hour gap between an odor complaint and the blast, and it traces the leak to a valve in a meter set in the basement boiler room.
Families of the 67 people killed when an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport on January 29, 2025, gathered Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the crash. The collision, which killed all 67 aboard both aircraft flying from Wichita, Kansas, was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001.
President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown contributed to a sharp drop in the U.S. population growth rate, with the nation reaching 342 million people and growing at just 0.5 percent in 2025, according to estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Immigration increased by 1.3 million people in 2025, down from 2.8 million the year prior, marking a striking reversal from 2024's nearly 1 percent growth rate—the highest in two decades.
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that a helicopter route near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and years of safety concerns not addressed contributed to a deadly midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter a year ago that killed 67 people. The NTSB held a daylong hearing and adopted recommendations focused on airport training, staffing and safety practices, as well as changes within the FAA and Army.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency could still support winter storm response even if a partial government shutdown begins at midnight Friday, experts and former FEMA officials said, despite warnings from the Trump administration. They cited a remaining balance of about $7 billion to $8 billion in FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which pays for disaster response and recovery work.
The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed eliminating federal oversight of interstate air pollution by approving eight states to regulate ozone emissions as they determine appropriate, the Environmental Protection Agency said. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described the action as "cooperative federalism," replacing what he called a "heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all, federal mandate." The affected states are Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Tennessee, which the EPA under the Biden administration had found had not sufficiently controlled emissions traveling across state lines. Environmental groups said the proposal would harm downwind states by allowing industrial pollution to travel without federal constraint. "Letting states off the hook while their pollution continues harming air quality in neighboring states is dangerous," said Zachary Fabish, a Sierra Club lawyer.
Staff at a Pennsylvania nursing home reported a smell of natural gas in the basement on the morning of December 23, hours before a deadly explosion ripped through the building, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board released Wednesday. The explosion at Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol, just outside Philadelphia, killed two residents and an employee and injured about 20 people, including a utility worker who had been at the facility investigating the odor. Part of the building collapsed, trapping people inside.
Vermont’s state government is failing to meet and monitor goals aimed at reducing the amount of energy the state consumes, according to a report by the Vermont State Auditor’s Office. The findings, led by auditor Doug Hoffer, focus on shortcomings in two energy-management initiatives used to guide agencies’ efforts and implement projects in state buildings. The report was published after the Department of Buildings and General Services did not measure progress and lacked systems to track key aspects of energy use, Hoffer said.
Bitter cold and a wide winter storm pushed winter storm deaths higher across parts of the eastern United States as crews worked to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers. The cold reached as far south as Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina, and forecasters said it was expected to get worse in coming days. The Associated Press reported at least 50 deaths in states dealing with the storm and outages.
California's Department of Toxic Substances Control released draft regulations that would require hazardous waste facilities to assess cumulative pollution impacts in surrounding communities. The regulations are seven years overdue and do not go far enough to protect vulnerable residents, according to environmental advocates. "It's not enough to 'consider' cumulative impacts," said Angela Johnson Meszaros, an attorney for Earthjustice. "Communities want strong guidelines for when a permit should be denied. The draft doesn't deliver that."
Two companies—Organic West Milk Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America—supplied dried milk powder contaminated with botulism bacteria that has sickened 51 babies across 19 states, the Associated Press has learned. Organic West Milk, a California company, supplied the milk that Dairy Farmers of America processed into powder at its Fallon, Nevada plant. The contamination source has not yet been identified, and the Food and Drug Administration has emphasized that the investigation into the outbreak remains ongoing.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday determined that the midair collision that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C., one year ago was "100% preventable" and resulted from systemic failures at the Federal Aviation Administration. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the FAA ignored repeated warnings about helicopter traffic dangers for years, including a request from a regional supervisor in 2023 to reduce air traffic and documented concerns from a 2013 near miss at Reagan National Airport.
The nation's population grew by just 0.5% in 2025, reaching 342 million people, according to Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday, as immigration declined sharply from the previous year.
The remains of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage recovered from Gaza, were announced Monday, ending a yearslong hostage saga that had stalled Israel’s ceasefire negotiations with Hamas. Israeli officials said Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer, was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and his body was held in Gaza until it was recovered after an extended search.
An Israeli soldier held two Italian Carabinieri officers at gunpoint on Sunday in the West Bank near Ramallah, drawing a strong protest from Italy and a pledge of investigation from Israel. Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani summoned Israeli Ambassador Jonathan Peled to Rome, where Peled expressed regret and committed to an investigation.
An Associated Press investigation found that Bangladeshi migrant workers were lured to Russia with false promises of civilian jobs — as janitors, cleaners, and chefs — only to be coerced into military service and sent to fight on the front lines of the Ukraine war. Three workers who escaped told AP they were presented with Russian military contracts upon arrival in Moscow, sent to army camps for weapons training, and threatened with violence, imprisonment, and death when they resisted. Documents including travel papers, military contracts, medical reports, and photographs corroborated the accounts.
President Trump signed an executive order Friday directing federal agencies to streamline permits for rebuilding homes destroyed by the January 2025 Los Angeles area wildfires, White House officials said Tuesday. The order seeks to preempt state and local permitting rules, allowing builders to "self-certify" compliance with building standards.
At least 50 people have died as bitter cold and a massive winter storm gripped the eastern United States, with forecasters warning that conditions could worsen significantly this weekend. The storm dumped deep snow across more than 1,300 miles from Arkansas to New England and left parts of the South coated in treacherous ice, leaving more than 410,000 homes and businesses without power Tuesday evening. Freezing temperatures that reached as far south as Tennessee and North Carolina were expected to plunge again overnight, with parts of northern Florida forecast to sink to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
At least ten people died from exposure to extreme cold in New York City since late Friday, as temperatures plummeted to 9 degrees Fahrenheit and raised questions about the city's preparedness to protect its most vulnerable residents. The victims, several of whom were believed to be homeless, were found in different locations across the five boroughs — on park benches in Queens, steps from a Manhattan hospital, and beneath an elevated train line in the Bronx. At least six of the deaths occurred early Saturday, when the temperature in the city fell to minus 13 degrees Celsius.
A 77-pound mountain lion that wandered into San Francisco's affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood was captured Tuesday, ending a daylong search that began when the animal was first spotted Monday morning. Officials tranquilized the male cougar in a garden between two apartment buildings and safely transported it for examination and testing before eventual release to the wild.
A NASA research plane landed safely on January 27 after a mechanical issue prevented its landing gear from deploying, according to the space agency. The WB-57 touched down at Ellington Airport, southeast of Houston, and slid across the runway on its belly, with yellow fire and white smoke bursting from beneath it. All crew members are safe, NASA said.
UPS announced Tuesday that it has retired its entire fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes, less than three months after one crashed during takeoff in Louisville, killing 15 people — the three-person crew and 12 others on the ground. CEO Carol Tome said during a fourth-quarter earnings call that the company decided to "accelerate our plans and retire all MD-11 aircraft in our fleet." The Nov. 4 crash resulted when the plane's left engine fell off the wing, leaving the aircraft unable to climb beyond 30 feet before it struck a nearby recycling plant and auto salvage yard.
Three brothers — ages 6, 8, and 9 — died Monday after falling through an icy pond in Bonham, Texas, during a massive winter storm gripping the United States, authorities said Tuesday. Their mother, Cheyenne Hangaman, jumped into the freezing water to try to save them but was unable to.
Vermont's state government is failing to meet its longstanding energy reduction goals, according to a recent audit by State Auditor Doug Hoffer. The Department of Buildings and General Services, which oversees the State Energy Management Program, has not been measuring the state's progress despite a legal requirement to report on it every two years.
A business jet crashed during takeoff in Maine on Sunday night as a snowstorm moved into the area, killing six people, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and investigators. The Bombardier Challenger 600 flipped over and burned at Bangor International Airport around 7:45 p.m., as visibility diminished. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and is expected to focus early on weather conditions and questions about whether ice accumulated on the wings.
Maine's forests face a mounting threat from six invasive pests and diseases expanding despite recent control successes, state forestry officials warned at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show on January 14. A combination of deep freezes and targeted control efforts have knocked back some pests, but warming winters from climate change and drought are undermining those gains and creating vulnerability to new outbreaks, said Mike Parisio, entomologist for the Maine Forest Service.
At least six people have died during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign, with videos contradicting federal accounts of at least two of the deaths. The most recent death was a 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse shot by a Border Patrol officer on Jan. 24. Videos showed his hands held only a phone when the officer opened fire.
A University of Michigan student from Myanmar has been unable to return to the U.S. to complete his degree after President Trump imposed a travel ban on 12 countries, leaving him stranded abroad following a summer internship. Patrick Thaw had planned to resume his studies in Ann Arbor but found re-entry impossible once the ban took effect in January 2026.
The U.S. Postal Service has eliminated evening mail collection throughout Vermont, implementing a strategy that extends first-class mail delivery from two days to three days for many state residents. The change, called Regional Transportation Optimization, is part of the "Delivering for America" restructuring that began under former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and continues under his successor, David Steiner. USPS did not publicly announce the change until it was revealed through a regulatory filing in January.
A severe winter storm brought crippling ice to the South and heavy snow to the Northeast, killing more than 110 people and leaving nearly half a million homes and businesses without power or heat as of Tuesday, January 26. More than 130,000 customers remained without power in Mississippi, while more than 110,000 were without electricity in the Nashville, Tennessee, area and about 90,000 more in Louisiana, according to power outage tracking data.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A bereaved father in Shifa Hospital said he could not accept his 15-year-old son’s death after an Israeli strike killed him and his 13-year-old cousin as they searched for firewood. Yusuf Zawara said he was trying to wake his son, wiping blood from his face while the boy lay dead on a morgue floor, as winter cold and a lack of power continue to compound daily survival in Gaza. The incident came amid a broader dispute over Israel’s targeting decisions and Gaza casualty figures.
In the fire-ravaged town of Lirquén in south-central Chile, veterinarians and volunteers have set up a makeshift mobile clinic to treat animals rescued from wildfires. The clinic, described by Chile’s investigative police canine brigade, provides first aid and decides whether the most severe cases need referral to veterinary hospitals as the fires burn.
The U.S. Commerce Department announced Monday a $1.6 billion investment in USA Rare Earth, an Oklahoma-based company, providing funding and financing to advance rare earth mining operations in Texas and build a magnet manufacturing facility in Oklahoma. The Commerce Department will receive equity stake and future purchase rights as part of the agreement. The investment is part of a broader Trump administration effort to reduce American dependence on China, which processes more than 90% of the world's critical minerals.
California sued the Trump administration, seeking to block federal approval of plans to restart two oil pipelines along the state’s coast, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed Friday, challenges a Trump-era shift away from regulatory barriers to offshore oil drilling.
A private jet crashed on takeoff at Bangor International Airport in Maine on Sunday night, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Bombardier Challenger 600 was carrying eight people when it went down around 7:45 p.m. There was no immediate word on the conditions of those aboard. The crash occurred as a major winter storm swept across New England and the eastern United States, dumping snow, sleet and freezing rain across the region.
A major winter storm that grounded 11,400 flights, left hundreds of thousands without power, and killed at least 25 people across much of the American East is likely to cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars, but economists sharply disagree over how much. AccuWeather announced a preliminary estimate of $105 billion to $115 billion in damage, drawing immediate pushback from other experts who say the number is far too high and lacks sufficient detail.
Katie Gowell went into labor at her home in Patten, Maine, on June 1, 2025, expecting her family physician to deliver her fifth child. When a prolapsed umbilical cord—a medical emergency that cuts off oxygen—suddenly developed, her doctor, Dr. Rose Fuchs, kept the cord in position during transport. But the nearest hospital, Houlton Regional, had stopped delivering babies one month earlier, forcing an emergency diversion 40 minutes away.
A New York police officer who fatally shot a raccoon at Rockaway Beach on Thursday has been placed on modified duty pending review, the police department said Monday. The shooting followed a 911 call reporting a vicious animal at the beach. However, bodycam footage published by the Daily News shows a markedly different sequence: the raccoon walking slowly across the sand with no visible group of people present before an officer fired multiple shots.
At least 30 people are dead from a colossal winter storm that blanketed a 1,300-mile stretch from Arkansas to New England with deep snow and left more than 560,000 without power Monday evening. The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh received up to 20 inches of snow with wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and forecasters warned that a fresh influx of arctic air will sustain freezing temperatures in regions already buried in snow and ice.
Maine's forests face an expanding pest threat as climate change weakens natural defenses against infestations. While recent cold snaps and coordinated pest-control efforts have slowed some prominent insect and disease populations over the past two years, warming winters are likely to allow pests to move inland and establish in forests that had been protected by cold, state forestry officials warned at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show on January 14.
Six people died when a Bombardier Challenger 600 business jet crashed during takeoff at Bangor International Airport in Maine on Sunday evening as a snowstorm moved into the area. The aircraft flipped over and burned about 7:45 p.m. as visibility diminished, according to airport director Jose Saavedra and National Transportation Safety Board officials. All six people aboard the jet were killed, the airport said Monday.
Shoveling snow can be hazardous to the heart, particularly during severe winter storms, according to health authorities. Pennsylvania health officials reported three deaths related to snow removal this past weekend in people aged 60 to 84. The American Heart Association warns that the combination of heavy exertion and cold temperatures creates heightened risk for heart attack, stroke, and cardiac arrest.
Mississippi residents began confronting the consequences of the worst ice storm in more than 30 years on Monday as they huddled in darkened, freezing homes with no clear timeline for restored electricity. Recovery could take a week or more, officials said, leaving tens of thousands without heat or running water across a band stretching from eastern Texas through north Louisiana and Mississippi into Tennessee.
Una enorme tormenta invernal provocó cancelaciones y retrasos generalizados el domingo en Estados Unidos, con nieve, aguanieve y lluvia helada afectando a millones de viajeros. El Servicio Meteorológico Nacional dijo que la amenaza alcanzaba a casi 180 millones de personas —más de la mitad de la población— en un área que va desde el sur de las Montañas Rocosas hasta Nueva Inglaterra.
Americans increasingly gripped by anxiety about flying following a January aviation disaster that killed 67 people, according to recent polling, travel statistics, and reports from mental-health professionals. The collision between an American Airlines jet and a helicopter over Washington, D.C., has intensified fears not only among those with pre-existing aviation anxiety but also among people who previously felt comfortable on planes. U.S. air travel declined in March and early April compared with the previous year, with airlines citing both economic factors and concern about recent aviation incidents.
A massive winter storm canceled more than 11,400 flights on Sunday as the system swept from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, threatening nearly 180 million people and triggering widespread disruptions at the nation's busiest airports. The worst impacts hit the Northeast, where major hubs including LaGuardia, Philadelphia, and Washington National were forced to ground aircraft. By Sunday afternoon, some airports were closed entirely, with cancellation rates exceeding 90 percent at major terminals.
Rescuers in Indonesia's West Java province searched for 72 missing residents Sunday after a predawn landslide Saturday buried approximately 34 houses in Pasir Langu village and killed at least 25 people, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency. The landslide struck on the slopes of Mount Burangrang, covering an area stretching more than 2 kilometers with mounds of mud up to 5 meters high. About 230 residents living near the site were evacuated to government shelters.
The captain of an oil tanker intercepted by the French navy in the Mediterranean Sea was in custody for questioning following the seizure of the vessel on suspicion of violating international sanctions against Russia. The Grinch, which departed from Murmansk in northwestern Russia, is suspected of operating as part of Russia's 'shadow fleet' — a network of over 400 vessels used to evade economic penalties imposed over the war in Ukraine.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said U.S. officials approved a request to extend FEMA temporary housing assistance for survivors of the 2023 Maui wildfires until February 2027. Green said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem approved the extension in a news release.
A predawn landslide triggered by torrential rains in Indonesia’s West Java province killed at least eight people on Saturday, and 82 others were missing, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Rescuers searched through deep mud and debris after the 3 a.m. slide swept away homes in Pasir Langu village. The disaster followed days of heavy rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in the area.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday discussed findings from the investigation into last January’s collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. The crash is also the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001, and Thursday marked its first anniversary.
The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a hearing on Jan. 29, 2025, when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing 67 people, the agency’s investigators said. The NTSB is expected to detail multiple contributing factors and recommend changes aimed at preventing similar tragedies, after the FAA made temporary restrictions permanent around Reagan National Airport.
A massive winter storm dumped sleet, freezing rain and snow across much of the U.S. on January 25, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and halting air and road traffic. The storm affected areas from New Mexico and Texas to New England—a 2,000-mile stretch—making it unprecedented in geographic scope. About 213 million people were under winter weather warnings as of Sunday morning, the National Weather Service said.
A massive winter storm swept across the United States on Sunday, January 25, canceling more than 11,400 flights and disrupting travel for millions of passengers. The system threatened approximately 180 million people—more than half the nation's population—spanning from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, according to the National Weather Service.
A car crashed through the entrance of the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Friday evening, striking a ticket counter and injuring six people, airport officials said. The driver was taken into custody, and airport police were investigating, the Wayne County Airport Authority said.
A gas explosion early Saturday triggered a fire that raced through the top floors of a 17-story apartment building in the Bronx, killing one person and injuring 14 others, authorities said. Firefighters responded shortly before 12:30 a.m. to the building, where flames engulfed parts of the 16th and 17th floors as temperatures dropped into the single digits overnight.
Heavy snow and rainfall over three days have killed 61 people and injured 110 across Afghanistan, the country’s disaster management authority said. The government said 458 homes were destroyed or damaged and that access to cut-off villages remained difficult.
Thousands of flights across the United States were canceled as a winter storm brought heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain, causing power outages and dangerous icy roadways across parts of the country, the National Weather Service said Saturday night. The storm threatened nearly 180 million people in a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England.
Minneapolis residents are sheltering immigrant children separated from their parents as federal immigration agents escalate enforcement operations across the Twin Cities. More than 2,000 federal agents have been deployed in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported more than 3,000 arrests since early December. The volunteers providing shelter also arrange rent payments for families afraid to work, deliver meals, and establish emergency custody arrangements.
Paris men's Fashion Week concluded Sunday with a consistent message from major designers: invest in quality tailoring built to last. Collections from Hermès, Sacai, and Junya Watanabe showcased an emphasis on craft and longevity, signaling a shift in men's fashion toward permanence.
A major winter storm canceled more than 13,000 flights and brought dangerous ice and heavy snow to nearly half of the United States over the weekend, threatening about 180 million people across a path stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England, according to the National Weather Service.
California lawmakers advanced a bill that would speed up spending approved by voters for climate-related projects, including water improvements and wildfire and drought preparedness. The measure, introduced by Assemblymember David Alvarez, would exempt certain funding tied to Proposition 4 from review under California’s Administrative Procedure Act. The bill moved from the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Thursday and is expected to face a floor vote in the Assembly next week.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest among wedding guests in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least seven people and wounding 25, police said. The attack occurred at the home of Noor Alam Mehsud, a pro-government community leader in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local police chief Adnan Khan.
Syria's defense ministry announced Saturday that it has extended a ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces for another 15 days, following the expiration of an initial four-day truce. The extension comes as U.S. forces oversee the transfer of accused Islamic State detainees from Syrian prisons to detention centers in Iraq.
U.S. officials have extended federal housing assistance for survivors of catastrophic 2023 wildfires on Maui, granting relief to nearly 1,000 displaced households. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem approved Hawaii Governor Josh Green's request on Friday to continue Federal Emergency Management Agency temporary housing assistance until February 2027, more than a year longer than previously scheduled.
A Chilean court on Friday ordered the pretrial detention of a 39-year-old man accused of starting the Trinitarias wildfire, which has killed at least 20 people amid wildfires burning across the country’s central and southern regions. The Guarantee Court of Concepción in Biobío accepted a request from prosecutors to extend detention as investigations continue. Prosecutors said the fire was sparked by the suspect’s wood-burning stove and spread through embers.
Un deslave registrado antes del amanecer del sábado en la isla indonesia de Java, provocado por lluvias intensas, dejó al menos ocho personas muertas y 82 desaparecidas, informaron las autoridades. El fenómeno ocurrió en la localidad de Pasir Langu, en el distrito de Bandung Occidental, en la provincia de Java Occidental. Los rescatistas buscaron sobrevivientes mientras trabajaban con lodo espeso y escombros.
A car crashed through the entrance of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Friday evening, striking a ticket counter and injuring six people, according to airport officials. The driver was taken into custody, though the cause of the crash was not yet known.
A major winter storm swept across the United States starting Saturday, canceling 12,200 flights and stranding travelers nationwide. Weather forecasters warned that damage from the storm could rival that of a hurricane, with ice and snow pounding multiple regions.
The family of a homeless man who died after a bulldozer crushed his tent during an Atlanta encampment sweep last year has filed a lawsuit against two nonprofits. The suit, filed Friday, accuses Partners for HOME and SafeHouse Outreach of failing to check whether the man was in his tent before a bulldozer was deployed to clear the site.
A small population of little fire ants recently found inside a coastal refuge on Maui has alarmed invasive-species workers who have been trying for years to slow the spread of the stinging insects. The Maui Invasive Species Committee detected the ants at the Waihe‘e Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge on the north shore, the committee said, and officials warned the discovery could lead to a broader infestation across land that supports education programs and restoration work.
Brazilian women held a singing contest Friday inside a Rio de Janeiro prison, dressing for a “Voice of Liberty” competition designed to spotlight talents and boost confidence ahead of release. Contestants performed in front of prison officials, volunteers and fellow detainees in a multipurpose hall, with scores awarded by a panel that included actor and TV presenter David Brazil and singer Maurício Mattar.
Investigators in Colorado confirmed Friday that journalist Hunter S. Thompson's 2005 shooting death was a suicide, following a review requested by his widow with new concerns about the original investigation. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation determined that Thompson's body "was not moved or 'staged' after death," and that "all speculative theories could not be substantiated."
Classically trained dancers from La Scala's academy are among approximately 1,200 volunteers rehearsing since November for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony, scheduled for Feb. 6. The ceremony is being prepared in a cavernous tent near Milan's San Siro stadium, where creative director Marco Balich is orchestrating the event. About 60,000 people are expected to attend live, including a U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance, while millions will watch on official broadcasters worldwide.
King Charles III has released a documentary explaining his vision for addressing climate change through the concept of "harmony" — the idea that restoring balance between humans and nature is essential to solving global problems. "Finding Harmony: A King's Vision" debuts on Amazon Prime on Feb. 6, with Kate Winslet narrating and featuring experts including Tony Juniper, former head of Friends of the Earth in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Emily Shuckburgh, a University of Cambridge climate scientist.
Winter snow and ice removal in the United States typically relies on rock salt, but experts say the cheap de-icer has significant drawbacks. Environmental damage, pet safety risks, and temperature limitations have prompted consideration of alternative products. Several alternatives—including calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and newer formulations—offer different trade-offs in cost, effectiveness, and environmental impact.
Smartphone weather apps have significant limitations during complex winter storms because they oversimplify forecast data, according to meteorologists interviewed by The Associated Press. As a multistate winter storm brought heavy snow, ice and subzero temperatures across the United States, experts recommended consulting human forecasters via local news broadcasts, online streams or detailed weather service websites rather than relying on apps' simplified icons and numbers.
Freezing rain fell in Texas on Friday as a massive winter storm began a trek that threatened to bring ice, snow, sleet and bone-chilling cold to about half the U.S. population over the weekend. Forecasters warned of potential damage that could rival that of a hurricane, particularly from ice-coated trees and power lines.
Winter storms create different types of precipitation — snow, sleet and freezing rain — depending on the structure of the atmosphere, with the presence or absence of warm air layers between cold zones determining which hazard reaches the ground.
Firefighters and security forces battling deadly wildfires in central Chile have faced attempted attacks, unauthorized drone flights and arson, as the death toll rose to 21. The National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) said the fires have destroyed 45,700 hectares (176 square miles) of woodland and a handful of towns, according to its latest report released Thursday.
California lawmakers are proposing a package of consumer-protection and insurer-timing rules for wildfire claims after survivors described problems ranging from delayed communication to payouts that fall short of rebuilding costs. The bills include requirements to notify policyholders when adjusters are assigned and to speed up payments, as well as larger penalties for insurers that violate fair-claims practices during declared emergencies.
Torrential rains and severe flooding across parts of southern Africa have killed more than 100 people in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, authorities said, destroying thousands of homes and damaging infrastructure and crops. Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe have faced unusually heavy rains since late last year, with rescue operations continuing as officials expect the death toll to rise.
California sued the Trump administration on Friday for approving Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp.'s plans to restart two oil pipelines along the state's coast, escalating a dispute over federal authority to override state regulation of facilities in California's jurisdictional waters. Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal administration "has no right to usurp California's regulatory authority." The Trump administration, through the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, defended the approval, saying it would bring "much needed American energy to a state with the highest gas prices in the country."
Little fire ants have reached a critical tipping point on Maui, with detections surging sharply in 2024 after years of controlled spread, according to the Maui Invasive Species Committee. The invasive species, first discovered on the island in 2009, was found at an average of two new locations per year until 2024, when that pattern shattered with eight new sites identified in a single year.
A massive sewer pipe ruptured late Monday in Maryland, sending an estimated 40 million gallons of sewage daily into the Potomac River upstream from Washington, D.C., as crews scrambled to contain the overflow ahead of a major winter storm. DC Water, which operates the region's sewer system, is installing pumps to divert the flow around the break while repair work proceeds.
An approaching ice storm threatens to cut power to millions of people across the eastern two-thirds of the United States this weekend. In the South, where a majority of homes are heated by electricity, losing power means losing heat — a danger that utility officials say ice storms pose more severely than hurricanes. Electricity heats the majority of homes in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. When ice accumulates on power lines and trees, the added weight brings infrastructure crashing down.
Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from Chula Vista, introduced legislation Thursday to accelerate $10 billion in climate spending California voters approved through Proposition 4. Assembly Bill 35 would exempt the bond funding from review under the Administrative Procedure Act, a regulatory process that has caused lengthy delays in implementing voter-approved infrastructure projects.
The family of Cornelius Taylor, a 46-year-old man who died when a bulldozer crushed his tent in an Atlanta encampment, filed a lawsuit Friday against two nonprofits it says are partly responsible for his death. The lawsuit names Partners for HOME and SafeHouse Outreach, alleging their employees failed to check whether Taylor was in his tent before the bulldozer was deployed during a January 2025 encampment sweep near Ebenezer Baptist Church. The city had requested the clearance ahead of celebrations for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it is making permanent the temporary safety rules adopted after an airliner collided with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport. The changes include requiring military aircraft to broadcast their locations and barring air traffic controllers from relying on visual separation in the shared airspace around the airport.
An avalanche killed nine members of a single family in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, while heavy snowfall in neighboring Afghanistan killed 11 people across six provinces on Thursday. The winter weather also stranded thousands of tourists near Pakistan's capital and isolated entire towns across Afghanistan, disrupting supply routes and emergency response efforts.
As a severe winter storm brought record cold to much of the United States, President Donald Trump questioned whether global warming is real. In a post on his Truth Social account Friday, Trump asked "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???" and called the expected temperatures "rarely seen." More than a dozen scientists told The Associated Press the president misunderstands the difference between local weather and long-term climate change. Global warming has continued and is accelerating, they said, even as winter and cold still occur in a warming world.
Bottom trawling and scallop dredging — industrial fishing methods that rake the seabed — continue in about 95% of Scotland's coastal waters, including within designated marine protected areas, according to marine conservation groups. The practice persists despite the Scottish government's designation of 37% of the country's waters as marine protected areas, with only a small fraction of those areas having management measures in place to enforce protection.
A Swiss court released Jacques Moretti, co-owner of Le Constellation bar, on bail Friday with strict conditions. The court set bail at 200,000 Swiss francs and required Moretti to remain in Switzerland, deposit his identity documents with prosecutors, and report to police daily. The bar fire on Jan. 1 in the Alpine resort of Crans-Montana killed 40 people and injured more than 100.
When major winter storms move in, they bring snow, sleet, freezing rain or extreme cold depending on atmospheric conditions. The type of precipitation that reaches the ground is determined by how warm and cold air layers stack in the atmosphere above.
Animal advocates say they raced to rescue more than 200 dogs from a rural property in Tupelo, Mississippi, before a major winter storm. With 80 dogs left, the group planned to bed them down in a warehouse and wait out the weather, after shelters declined to help because of travel safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday that it will make permanent the safety rules imposed after a January 2025 collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people. The rules, effective Friday, require military aircraft to broadcast their locations and prohibit air traffic controllers from relying on visual separation near the airport.
California lawmakers are proposing multiple bills to tighten insurance regulations following year-long complaints from wildfire survivors about delayed claims, inadequate coverage, and poor insurer communication. The legislation, introduced by Democratic state senators and the state's Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, would require insurers to provide faster notifications, increased coverage limits, and greater transparency in handling disaster claims.
Venezuela's legislature gave initial approval Thursday to a bill that would loosen decades of state control over the country's vast oil sector, opening the door to private companies operating fields independently and settling disputes in international courts. The bill represents the first major overhaul of the oil industry since late socialist leader Hugo Chávez nationalized portions of it in 2007. The measure follows intense pressure from the Trump administration, which has pushed the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez to invite greater investment from U.S. energy companies in Venezuela's flagging oil industry.
The Trump administration has canceled multimillion-dollar solar projects in Puerto Rico aimed at helping low-income families as the island grapples with chronic power outages and a deteriorating electrical grid. The U.S. Energy Department said the grid cannot reliably accommodate more distributed solar power, a justification that industry officials sharply disputed.
Kindness at work can mean limiting meetings, giving honest feedback, and bending rules when circumstances warrant, according to workplace experts. As the pace of work accelerates, small acts of kindness—from supporting employees through family crises to protecting time for reflection—improve engagement and productivity.
Millions of Americans from New Mexico to the Carolinas prepared Friday for a potentially catastrophic ice storm expected to batter the country through the weekend, the National Weather Service said. The system threatened heavy snow and crippling ice that could knock out power for days and make travel nearly impossible across major metropolitan areas. More than 170 million people — roughly half the U.S. population — were in the path of the storm, according to the agency.
Thousands of power line workers were placed on standby and hundreds of flights were canceled Thursday as a massive winter storm moved toward the eastern two-thirds of the United States, threatening widespread power outages and wind chills as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Workers in Covington, Ky., are installing the final features of a two-year restoration of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, a Catholic landmark nicknamed "America's Notre Dame" for its French Gothic exterior modeled on the Paris original. New terra cotta gargoyles — replicas cast from precise scans of 32 worn originals — have been fitted to the cathedral's towering facade in recent weeks, with 26 rooftop chimeras remaining as the final step before a targeted March completion.
Rescuers in southern Japan spotted wreckage believed to be from a sightseeing helicopter that went missing with three people aboard near Mount Aso, authorities said Wednesday. The helicopter lost contact during what was expected to be a 10-minute flight over the volcano on Monday, according to an operator and local authorities.
NASA and families of fallen astronauts gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. All seven crew members aboard were killed when the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986.
The U.S. Army has ordered several dozen additional active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minneapolis if needed, a defense official said Wednesday. The preparation orders involve an Army military police brigade at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and a separate group of soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska amid protests tied to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
As celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence culminate on July 4, a new privately funded initiative called “Be The People” will kick off to connect “hundreds of millions of Americans” with efforts to tackle local issues, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The campaign is backed by a network led by Brian Hooks, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit network Stand Together, which aims to change perceptions about whether individuals can help solve problems such as poverty, addiction and violence.
Warming in Antarctica is forcing three species of penguins to begin breeding earlier than they did a decade earlier, according to a study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on Tuesday. Researchers found Antarctic breeding-ground temperatures rose by 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) from 2012 to 2022, and breeding started about two weeks earlier. The shift could create food problems for chicks for two species that already face extinction risk later this century.
The U.S. House voted 214-208 on Wednesday to lift a 20-year federal ban on mining near Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, passing a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that now heads to the Senate. If approved there, the measure would go to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in Gaza’s Khan Younis area dig with their bare hands through plastic items to burn to ward off cold and damp winter conditions, as war continues into a truce period, according to the Associated Press. The AP report described the scene in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis on Thursday amid skepticism about a new “Board of Peace” announced by U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Russia launched a nighttime attack on Ukraine’s power grid that Zelenskyy said included more than 300 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, amid ongoing U.S.-led peace talks. The strikes, Zelenskyy said, knocked out heating to more than 5,600 apartment buildings in Kyiv, where officials said nearly 80% of the affected buildings had had heating restored after an earlier major barrage on Jan. 9. The attack also drew condemnation from Ukraine’s foreign minister and the U.N. human rights chief.
Chile is facing a severe wildfire emergency in its central and southern regions, with deadly, fast-moving fires that have killed at least 20 people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate. Scientists and fire experts say the blazes are being driven by extreme heat, drought and wind, along with how human-shaped landscapes interact with a warming climate. The government has declared a rare “state of catastrophe” to coordinate the response, including military support.
A fire at a shopping plaza in Karachi, Pakistan, has killed at least 67 people, officials said Thursday, after police and a hospital official confirmed that additional remains were found among the wreckage. Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed said rescue teams were still searching the severely damaged Gul Plaza where the blaze began Saturday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he owes Indiana Gov. Mike Braun key lime pie and stone crabs after Indiana beat the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 to win the college football national championship. DeSantis said the wager was tied to which team won Monday night in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Authorities said two more teenage girls died Thursday after a school bus crash in South Africa’s Gauteng province, raising the death toll to 14. The driver of the private minibus, Ayanda Dludla, was charged with murder, prosecutors said.
The Trump administration has canceled solar projects in Puerto Rico worth millions of dollars, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. The cancellations come as the U.S. territory struggles with chronic power outages and a fragile electric grid.
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, said they are expecting their fourth child, a son, in late July. The couple made the announcement in a social media post Tuesday, saying both mother and baby are doing well.
Hawaii plans to deploy state sheriff’s deputies for expanded traffic enforcement statewide, state officials said this month, as traffic deaths increased again last year. The effort will add deputy teams to help Honolulu and neighbor island police, with overtime funded through $2 million in federal highway safety money, according to the state’s transportation director. The move comes after statewide traffic deaths rose to 129 last year, the highest fatalities on Hawaii roadways since 2007.
Rising coal demand across Southeast Asia is outpacing the region’s renewable-energy push, according to the International Energy Agency, complicating efforts to cut emissions tied to global warming. The trends are also raising questions about Indonesia and Vietnam’s 2022 Just Energy Transition Partnerships and about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves to reverse climate policies.
President Trump's Air Force One returned to Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday evening about an hour after departing for Switzerland, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The crew identified a minor electrical issue after takeoff and decided to turn around out of an abundance of caution. Trump subsequently boarded an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic travel, and continued to Davos for the World Economic Forum shortly after midnight.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced 31 deregulatory actions within President Trump's first 100 days in office, targeting federal pollution standards from methane emissions to the legal framework obligating the EPA to regulate climate-changing pollution. Zeldin called the actions the agency's "greatest day of deregulation." The EPA also froze research grants, shrank its workforce, and removed references to climate change and environmental justice from its websites. Environmental advocates said the moves signal the EPA's new direction will prioritize deregulation over public health protections. Texas, the nation's top oil and gas producer and home to the Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth metropolitan areas, faces particular exposure to the rollbacks because state environmental officials have shown limited interest in strengthening enforcement as federal standards weaken. Conservation groups fear the changes will bring higher pollution and health risks to communities near industrial sites.
A stretched polar vortex is set to bring dangerous winter weather to much of the United States starting Friday, with forecasters warning of subzero temperatures, heavy snow, and damaging ice across a region spanning from New Mexico to New England. About 230 million people face temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, while approximately 150 million are expected to experience snow and ice, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologists trace the system's origins to a warming Arctic and record-low sea ice levels that have disrupted weather patterns across the Northern Hemisphere.
Winter weather brings serious hazards — including carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia, and burst pipes — that can threaten lives and homes, according to public safety officials and health experts. With proper preparation, people can substantially reduce their risk, experts say.
Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky died from an abnormal heartbeat caused by an accidental overdose of multiple drugs, according to a toxicology report released Tuesday by North Carolina authorities. Naroditsky, 29, was found dead at his Raleigh home in October. The report said he tested positive for methamphetamine and kratom, an opioid-related substance increasingly found in energy drinks, gummies and supplements.
A Barcelona-area commuter train crash killed at least one person and injured 37 others after a retaining wall fell onto the tracks, Spanish regional authorities said Tuesday. The crash in Catalonia, near Gelida about 35 minutes from Barcelona, came two days after a separate deadly train collision in southern Spain.
Beth Brown, a company director of health and well-being, said she was moved by a colleague’s message during a difficult stretch that included caring for her 6-month-old daughter with COVID-19 and arranging her mother’s funeral. Brown described her partner on a major project checking in rather than pushing to review remaining tasks. The Associated Press story highlights how workplace kindness can show up in everyday management and in workplace policies.
Forecasters warned that a new winter storm arriving late this week could bring widespread ice across parts of the South, from Texas to the Carolinas, potentially causing power outages. The National Weather Service said heavy snow, sleet and treacherous freezing rain are expected to begin Friday in much of the U.S. midsection and then shift eastward through Sunday. The storm’s exact track and timing remained uncertain on Tuesday.
Sagamu, Nigeria — The driver in a deadly car crash that injured British heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and killed two of his friends in Nigeria was arraigned on Tuesday on four counts, including dangerous driving causing death. Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, appeared in Ogun state court following the December accident near Lagos on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, officials said.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has revoked grazing permits in Phillips County, Montana, that American Prairie used to sustain its bison herd, the Department of the Interior said Friday. The decision follows a three-and-a-half-year dispute involving the Montana livestock industry, backed by Gov. Greg Gianforte and the state attorney general, and American Prairie, a conservation nonprofit.
Streaks of shimmering green and red bands lit up Alaska skies on Tuesday as the aurora reached wide areas overnight and early Tuesday morning, including Anchorage. The vivid displays followed a major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center said.
Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname arrested nearly 200 people in a joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said Thursday. The operation, carried out in December, was backed by Interpol and European Union support, authorities said.
Parts of the United States could see the northern lights Monday night after a major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field, according to a forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. The forecast came amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, the center’s service coordinator said.
Millions of Americans from New Mexico to the Carolinas are bracing for a potentially catastrophic ice storm and heavy snow that forecasters say could knock out power for days. The storm is expected to begin early Friday and continue through the weekend, with Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston facing conditions that could make travel very difficult or nearly impossible.
Paris Fashion Week menswear opened Tuesday with industry figures and guests mourning the death of designer Valentino Garavani, whose career spanned decades and linked Rome and Paris couture. Valentino, 93, died at his Rome residence, his foundation said in a statement.
Rhode Island lawmakers are considering whether to end Mr. Potato Head specialty license plates after Hasbro announced it would move its headquarters to Boston, according to a proposal filed in January. The measure would have the state Division of Motor Vehicles stop offering the plate, which currently costs about $40 and directs half of that amount to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
South African authorities revised the death toll in a school bus crash to 12 children and said Tuesday that the driver has been arrested and faces criminal charges. The crash happened early Monday morning, when a privately operated minibus collided head-on with a truck while carrying children to schools south of Johannesburg.
A major winter storm is moving toward the eastern two-thirds of the United States, with officials and utilities warning of widespread power outages, dangerous ice, and bitter cold. Forecasters said the storm could begin Friday in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, then spread east through the Deep South and toward New England.
A winter storm expected to arrive Friday will bring long-lasting subzero temperatures and damaging ice and snow across much of the United States, meteorologists said. The storm could stretch from New Mexico to New England, with many areas facing temperatures of 20 degrees (minus 7 C) or colder and others hit by snow and ice.
A surfer suffered minor injuries after being bitten by a shark off Australia’s east coast on Tuesday, the fourth shark attack in three days near Sydney and the New South Wales coastline, officials said. The attack happened at Point Plomer, about 460 kilometers (290 miles) north of Sydney, around 9 a.m. local time. The surfer was taken to a hospital and later discharged.
Winter weather can bring hazards including carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia and frozen pipes that can burst and damage homes, U.S. public safety officials and experts said. The Associated Press report highlighted steps people can take to stay warm and safe during winter storms and cold snaps.
The U.S. military on Wednesday began transferring Islamic State detainees held by Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria to secure facilities in Iraq, marking a significant shift in the region's security architecture as Syria's government consolidates control. Under an agreement, detainees are being transferred from Hassakeh province to Iraq, with plans to eventually relocate as many as 7,000 people held in Syrian detention camps.
Three Antarctic penguin species are breeding about two weeks earlier than they did a decade ago, driven by rapid warming in one of the world's fastest-heating regions, researchers reported this week. For two of the species — the chinstrap and Adelie penguins — the timing shift threatens their survival as rising temperatures disrupt the food supply their chicks depend on.
Stephen Spencer Pittman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal arson charges related to a fire that damaged Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi. The 19-year-old defendant appeared in court with bandaged burn wounds on his hands and ankles. Magistrate Judge LaKeysha Greer Isaac denied bond, ordering him held in federal custody pending trial. The fire occurred January 10, shortly after 3 a.m., with no injuries reported.
An ice storm is forecast to emerge late this week and continue through Sunday, with forecasters warning of a "potentially catastrophic" weather event that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide swath of the South from Texas to the Carolinas. The system will result from arctic air diving south from Canada colliding with moisture streaming up from the Gulf of Mexico, the National Weather Service said Tuesday. "If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic," said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina, citing the potential for ice to weigh down power lines and trigger widespread outages.
The U.S. Department of the Interior revoked grazing permits that American Prairie, a conservation nonprofit, had been using to sustain a herd of approximately 900 bison on federal public lands in Phillips County, Montana, the agency announced Friday. The decision concludes a 3.5-year dispute between the nonprofit and Montana's livestock industry, backed by Gov. Greg Gianforte and state officials, over whether bison qualify as production animals under federal law.
Early morning commuters, dog walkers and joggers in Anchorage, Alaska looked up Tuesday to find streaks of green and red light shimmering across the sky as an intense geomagnetic storm produced one of the season's most vivid aurora displays. The light show stretched far beyond Alaska, reaching San Francisco, Chicago, Canada and countries across Europe, the Associated Press reported.
SHREWSBURY, Mass. (AP) — A car rammed the front of the police station in Shrewsbury on Monday afternoon and ended up entirely inside the lobby of the red brick building. Police said the driver of a 2022 BMW SUV was taken into custody and transported to a nearby hospital for injuries from the crash.
The aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of U.S. states—and possibly farther south—Monday night following a major disturbance in Earth's magnetic field, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center. Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center, said the intensity of the current geomagnetic and solar radiation storm has not been seen in more than two decades.
More than 100 vehicles smashed into each other or slid off Interstate 196 southwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday as lake-effect snow reduced visibility and prompted Michigan State Police to close the freeway in both directions. The pileup involved more than 30 semitrailer trucks and produced numerous injuries; no deaths had been reported. Stranded motorists were bused to Hudsonville High School while multiple towing companies worked to clear the wreckage.
A small part of Florida’s western Panhandle turned “the Snowy State” again for a second year in a row as a cold front moved through on Sunday morning, briefly turning some rain showers into snowflakes. The National Weather Service said the frigid air behind the front was just enough to produce snow in parts of the region, while elsewhere winter weather threatened to disrupt weekend plans and sports.
Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile on Sunday killed at least 18 people, forced tens of thousands to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of homes, authorities said. Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a “state of catastrophe” for the country’s central Biobío region and neighboring Ñuble region, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Santiago.
Ohio's Department of Natural Resources has released a $2.5 million IMAX documentary, "Ohio: Wild at Heart," that is drawing large crowds at science museums statewide as it chronicles the state's transformation from a 1969 industrial catastrophe into a nationally recognized model for conservation and outdoor recreation.
A car rammed into the front of the Shrewsbury Police Department on Monday afternoon, ending up entirely inside the lobby of the red brick building, police said. The driver of the 2022 BMW SUV was taken into custody and transported to a nearby hospital with injuries from the crash. No officers, staff or members of the public were injured.
High-speed trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday after one derailed and jumped onto the track in the opposite direction, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens, Spain’s transport minister said. The derailment happened near Córdoba at 7:45 p.m., involving a train traveling from Málaga to Madrid and another going from Madrid to Huelva, rail operator Adif said.
An explosion at a factory in China’s Inner Mongolia region on Sunday killed two people and left 66 others hospitalized, according to Chinese state media. Xinhua said the blast occurred at around 3 p.m. local time at a plant in Baotou.
Karachi firefighters extinguished a fire at a multistory shopping plaza on Sunday after nearly 24 hours of efforts, officials said. The blaze killed six people, including a firefighter, and left dozens missing, authorities said.
Southern California Edison filed court complaints Friday accusing Los Angeles County and local water agencies of missteps that, in the utility’s view, made the 2025 Eaton Fire more deadly. The company also filed a separate complaint against Southern California Gas, alleging gas leaks and gas-fed fires helped fuel the blaze.
Three avalanches across Austria killed eight skiers, authorities said Saturday, with one incident in western Austria and others near Salzburg and in central Austria. The deaths included a female skier fatally buried at about 12:30 p.m. in the Bad Hofgastein area, according to the Pongau mountain rescue service.
Ukrainians in and around Kyiv are enduring freezing temperatures at home as Russian strikes damage energy infrastructure and leave many households without electricity, according to emergency repair crews and residents. In the Kyiv region town of Boryspil, workers said they are restoring power only for a few hours at a time as outages last days and the cold deepens. The situation has created dark streets and widespread hardship during what officials described as the longest and broadest outages since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
More than 100 vehicles crashed on Interstate 196 in western Michigan on Monday after snow from a winter storm blanketed the state, prompting police to close both directions of the highway, authorities said. The Michigan State Police said there were numerous injuries but no deaths were reported. Officials expected the road to be closed for several hours while vehicles were removed.
A Nicaraguan immigrant was found dead at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas last week, federal officials said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Victor Manuel Diaz appeared to have killed himself on Wednesday at the tent complex at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss base in El Paso.
A shooting at the Chribska town hall in the northern Czech Republic left one person dead and six others wounded, police said on Monday. The wounded included three police officers and the town’s mayor.
Israel’s military has drawn a “yellow line” in Gaza after a ceasefire in October, but Palestinians say the markers are at times invisible or placed differently than maps show. The Associated Press reported that Israeli troops have killed Palestinians near the line, including children, and that residents live in fear of being shot after crossing or lingering close to it. The reporting is based on Gaza Health Ministry figures and interviews with Palestinians and Israeli military statements.
A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States to discuss a U.S.-led push to end the nearly four-year war, as Russian attacks again targeted Ukraine’s power grid. Kyiv said the strikes were cutting electricity and heating in freezing temperatures, undermining what it called small opportunities for dialogue.
Southern California Edison filed cross-complaints in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, accusing Los Angeles County, seven water agencies and the Southern California Gas Company of a series of failures the utility says made last year's Eaton Fire more deadly. The filings shift blame to other parties even as investigators continue to examine evidence suggesting that one of Edison's own idled power lines may have ignited the blaze.
Firefighters in Chile are battling wildfires that have killed at least 19 people and forced about 50,000 evacuations after the fires spread across the country’s central and southern regions, the National Service for the Prevention of Disasters said. President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe for the Biobio and Ñuble regions, allowing the government to coordinate more closely with the military.
Indonesian search teams recovered a body during the search for 11 people after a turboprop plane crashed while approaching mountainous terrain on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. The recovery was reported Sunday by Muhammad Arif Anwar, who leads Makassar’s Search and Rescue Office.
The death toll from a massive fire at a shopping plaza in Karachi, Pakistan, rose to 23 on Monday as rescuers recovered more bodies from the badly damaged building, police said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze late Sunday, nearly 24 hours after it erupted, allowing rescue teams to enter and search inside, authorities said.
Flooding in Mozambique has displaced more than 300,000 people in Gaza province, the governor said Monday. Mozambique’s president, Daniel Chapo, has canceled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, because of severe flooding affecting central and southern parts of the country.
South Africa declared a national disaster on Sunday over torrential rains and floods that have killed at least 30 people in the country’s north, the government said. The declaration, announced after a declaration by the head of the National Disaster Management Center, allows the national government to coordinate the response to the disaster.
(Adamuz, Spain) Spanish regional officials said the death toll from a high-speed rail collision rose to at least 40 on Monday, as emergency crews continued searching for bodies. Andalusia’s president, Juanma Moreno, said the accident happened the previous night in southern Spain when a train’s tail jumped the track and derailed a second train approaching in the opposite direction.
About 10,000 elephant seals are returning to California's Año Nuevo State Park this winter for their annual pupping season, when massive bull seals battle for beach territory and mothers nurse newborn 75-pound pups on the sand dunes, drawing wildlife watchers eager for a glimpse of the largest seals on the planet. The spectacle runs from mid-December through March at the park roughly 90 minutes south of San Francisco, according to park docent Laura Stern.
A high-speed train derailment in southern Spain has left at least 39 people dead and injured more than 150, according to authorities. The crash has renewed attention on how deadly rail accidents can be, even as major accidents have fallen in Europe since 2010, the European Union has said.
Authorities said five skiers were killed in a pair of avalanches in western Austria’s Salzburg Pongau region on Saturday. Four people were killed in the Gastein Valley snow slide, and a woman died in Bad Hofgastein, authorities said.
Longtime climate activist Bill McKibben said in Vermont this week that President Donald Trump’s stance against solar and other low-cost green energy will push electricity bills higher and could affect GOP fortunes in the 2026 elections. The Associated Press reported McKibben made the comments after installing a new set of plug-in solar panels on his home, adding to systems he has used for about 25 years.
A company plans to test deep-sea desalination off Southern California that would use ocean pressure to power reverse osmosis and produce freshwater, aiming to reduce both energy use and environmental impacts from traditional plants. OceanWell’s planned “Water Farm 1” is designed to sit about 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the ocean surface and would produce up to 60 million gallons (nearly 225 million liters) of freshwater a day, the company said.
Elephant seals have returned to California’s Año Nuevo State Park for the winter breeding season, when visitors can watch bull seals battle and mothers nurse pups. The park’s docent-led guided walks run during the pupping season from mid-December through March.
The FAA on Friday urged U.S. aircraft operators to “exercise caution” when flying over the eastern Pacific Ocean near Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing “military activities” and possible satellite navigation interference. The warning was issued in Notices to Airmen, or NOTAMs, that warn of potential risks at all altitudes for aircraft during overflight as well as arrival and departure phases of flight.
Robina Aminian’s family said she was killed during nationwide protests in Iran and that her mother later searched for her body in overcrowded morgues, AP reported. The family said they buried Aminian, a Kurdish woman studying fashion in Tehran, in a roadside pit after authorities demanded money to release the body. Amnesty International and human rights organizations described broader difficulties for relatives trying to retrieve and bury loved ones amid limited access and security crackdowns.
A massive fire swept through a multistory shopping mall in Karachi, Pakistan, late Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring about a dozen others, police and rescue officials said. Firefighters and rescue workers rushed to the Gul Plaza shortly after 10 p.m. local time after reports of the blaze, officials said.
The world’s first legally binding treaty to protect marine life in international waters took effect Saturday, setting a framework for marine protected areas on the high seas. The agreement, decades in the making, governs vast ocean areas beyond any country’s control and aims to counter destructive fishing, shipping impacts, plastic pollution and overfishing, along with threats from potential deep sea mining and climate change.
Ohio is using an IMAX film to highlight its wildlife conservation work and the “restorative power” of outdoor recreation, the Associated Press reported. The documentary, “Ohio: Wild at Heart,” features the state’s top-ranked park system and is drawing crowds at science museums, with plans to bring it into classrooms next year.
Indonesian officials said a passenger aircraft carrying 11 people lost contact with ground control Saturday while approaching a mountainous area in South Sulawesi, and a search and rescue operation has been launched. The turboprop ATR 42-500 was last tracked in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, and emergency procedures were declared after radio contact was lost. Weather at the time included clouds and about 8 kilometers of visibility, officials said.
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck northern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least one person and damaging dozens of mud-brick houses, authorities said. The tremors were felt in several districts in the northwest and triggered landslides in the Hunza Valley and nearby towns, blocking several roads.
A Minneapolis couple says an immigration officer rolled a tear gas canister under their SUV, flooding the vehicle with toxic fumes after the family became caught between protesters and federal officers during an immigration operation this week. The Jackson family said the incident left both parents and several of their six children, including an infant, needing hospital treatment. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said officers were responding to crowds of “rioters and agitators” and did not target the family or “their innocent children.”
A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop said clergy should get their “affairs in order” in a warning that Christians may be entering a “new era of martyrdom.” Bishop Rob Hirschfeld made the comments at a vigil for Renee Good, who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Sharks’ teeth may become structurally weaker as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, according to a German study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Researchers exposed blacktip reef shark teeth to water conditions reflecting today’s ocean acidity and projected acidity for the year 2300, finding more cracking and corrosion in the more acidic water.
Separate road crashes in Pakistan killed at least 24 people and injured 45 others on Saturday, officials said. A truck plunged into a canal in Sargodha in Punjab, and a passenger bus overturned on the Makran coastal highway in Balochistan.
A trial is set to begin in Peru on Tuesday for five men accused in the killing of Kichwa Indigenous leader Quinto Inuma Alvarado, prosecutors said in a case advocates describe as rare for environmental defenders in the Amazon. The 2023 killing has been closely watched by Indigenous groups and international observers as a test of whether Peru can curb violence tied to illegal logging and drug trafficking.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Monday that the country has discovered a new natural gas deposit near the disputed South China Sea, off Palawan. Marcos said the “significant discovery” northwest of Palawan, near the existing Malampaya gas field, could help avert a potential power crunch in Luzon. The undersea reservoir, called Malampaya East 1, was found about 5 kilometers east of the main Malampaya field.
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a commemorative Muhammad Ali “Forever Stamp” in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday, featuring a photo of the boxing legend in his fighting prime. Postal officials said the stamps went on sale that day.
Scientists have uncovered mummified remains of cheetahs from caves in northern Saudi Arabia, with ages ranging from about 130 years to more than 1,800 years. Researchers excavated seven cheetah mummies and the bones of 54 other cheetahs near the city of Arar, according to a study published Thursday in *Communications Earth & Environment*.
Three separate shark attacks off Sydney in a little over 24 hours left a man and a boy critically injured, police said. A third boy escaped injury after a shark bit part of his surfboard near Dee Why Beach.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A truck and a school minibus collided in South Africa’s Gauteng province Monday, killing at least 13 children, police said. Authorities said the crash occurred around 7 a.m. as the private vehicle transporting students was heading to schools southwest of Johannesburg.
Sri Lanka unveiled a rare purple star sapphire weighing 3,563 carats in Colombo on Saturday, and the owners said they are ready to sell the gem. The stone, named “Star of Pure Land,” is estimated to be worth at least $300 million, and a consultant gemologist said it is the world’s largest documented natural purple star sapphire.
Multiple train crashes in Spain this week have killed at least 46 people and injured dozens, prompting renewed scrutiny of safety on the country’s rail network. A high-speed derailment and collision Sunday night near Adamuz in Andalusia left at least 45 dead, Spain’s transport minister and other officials said.
An explosion at a restaurant in downtown Kabul on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded about a dozen more, police and an Italian charity said. The blast happened in the Shahr-e-Naw district, and the cause was under investigation, Afghan authorities said.
A winter storm swept across the Midwest and East Coast on Saturday, producing whiteout conditions in northeastern Ohio, sub-zero wind chills from the Plains to the Northeast, and near-freezing temperatures as far south as Florida, the National Weather Service said. The Weather Prediction Center forecast "impactful snowfall" from the western Florida Panhandle to Maine beginning late Saturday, with below-average temperatures expected to persist into early next week.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday issued a series of advisories urging U.S. aircraft operators to "exercise caution" when flying over the eastern Pacific Ocean near Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. The agency cited "military activities" and possible satellite navigation interference. The 60-day alerts warn that "potential risks exist for aircraft at all altitudes, including during overflight and the arrival and departure phases of flight."
Climate activist Bill McKibben predicted this week that rising U.S. electricity prices will become the defining pocketbook issue of the 2026 midterm elections, drawing a direct comparison to the food inflation that cost Democrats in 2024. McKibben spoke in Ripton, Vermont, shortly after installing his fourth solar panel system on his home, as federal clean energy tax credits expired and the Trump administration continued to restrict offshore wind development. National average electricity costs rose from 15.94 cents per kilowatt-hour when President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 to 17.98 cents in October — a 12.8% increase in 10 months that exceeded the rate of increase over the prior two years combined, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A federal judge ruled Friday that work on a Virginia offshore wind project could resume, the third such decision this week against the Trump administration’s pause on offshore wind leasing. The ruling allows Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to continue while the company’s legal challenge proceeds.
Halena Herrera and the families of three other victims returned to Manhattan court on Friday as a judge sentenced Daniel Hyden to 24 years to life for a July 4 crash that killed four people at a holiday barbecue at Corlears Hook Park. The court said Hyden was drunk when his pickup struck a group in the park, killing Ana Morel, Lucille Pinkney, Lucille Pinkney’s son Herman Pinkney and Herrera’s best friend, Emily Ruiz.
Un juez federal permitió el jueves que el proyecto de energía eólica marina Empire Wind en Nueva York reanude la construcción mientras considera una orden del gobierno del presidente Donald Trump para suspenderlo. El fallo, dictado por el juez de distrito Carl J. Nichols, fue una victoria para Equinor, el desarrollador del proyecto.
Orcas put on a show with breaches and tail slapping off Seattle on Friday, drawing dozens of people to the shore in West Seattle. Whale watchers identified the pod as Bigg’s killer whales, a group that hunts sea mammals in the Salish Sea.
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an appeal from Bayer, the global agrochemical manufacturer, seeking to block thousands of state court lawsuits that allege the company failed to warn users its Roundup weedkiller could cause cancer. The justices will consider whether the Environmental Protection Agency's approval of Roundup without a cancer warning should preempt those state-court claims.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed creating a new agency with $2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and other critical minerals, aimed at reducing dependence on China. The proposal was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, and Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, as the Trump administration takes steps that it says are meant to loosen China’s grip on the market.
President Donald Trump this week appointed four members to the Commission of Fine Arts, restoring a quorum to the federal panel that must review his proposed 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom addition. The appointments, revealed in court papers filed Thursday, set up a Jan. 22 commission meeting at which the administration's East Wing Modernization project is on the agenda. The panel had been unable to meet for months after Trump dismissed six of its members last fall.
Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing a lawsuit in North Carolina that alleges she interfered in a security guard’s marriage and contributed to its breakup. The complaint, filed in Moore County and later moved to federal court, seeks at least $75,000 in damages from Sinema. The suit alleges that Sinema pursued Matthew Ammel even after learning he was married and includes claims about communications, employment, and paid treatment.
Michigan hunters will be able to validate kills using the Hunt Fish mobile app starting March 1, after the state's Natural Resources Commission approved optional electronic kill tags on Wednesday. The change applies to deer, bobcat, bear, fisher, marten and otter. Hunters who choose the digital tags will no longer need to display paper kill tags on certain animals.
Federal auto safety regulators have granted Tesla a five-week extension to respond to a government investigation into its Full Self-Driving software, which has been linked to dozens of reported incidents involving vehicles running red lights, traveling the wrong way on roads and colliding with other vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set a new response deadline of Feb. 23, extending the original Jan. 19 date, according to the agency.
A New Jersey man convicted of murder for driving drunk through a holiday barbecue at a Manhattan park, killing four people, was sentenced Friday to 24 years to life in prison. Judge April A. Newbauer imposed the sentence against Daniel Hyden, 46, of Monmouth, New Jersey, in state court in Manhattan. Hyden had been convicted in November at a non-jury trial of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges in the deaths of four people at Corlears Hook Park on July 4, 2024.
A pod of Bigg's killer whales breached and slapped their tails for about an hour off Alki Beach in Seattle's West Seattle neighborhood on Friday, drawing dozens of spectators to the shoreline. Whale watchers identified the animals as Bigg's killer whales, a population that hunts sea mammals and inhabits the Salish Sea, and said the pod appeared to be hunting.
German scientists who exposed blacktip reef shark teeth to increasingly acidic water found the teeth developed cracks, holes, root corrosion and structural degradation — raising the possibility that ocean acidification driven by fossil fuel emissions could weaken sharks' grip on their position at the top of the marine food chain. The researchers collected more than 600 discarded teeth from aquarium-held sharks and tested them against both today's ocean acidity and the acidity projected for 2300. Their findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
A federal judge in Virginia on Friday granted a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, making it the third East Coast offshore wind project this week to win a court order blocking the Trump administration's 90-day lease suspension. The ruling followed similar orders earlier in the week that cleared Empire Wind off New York and Revolution Wind serving Rhode Island and Connecticut to restart work.
TUBA CITY, Ariz. (AP) — An 8-year-old girl who was reported missing on Navajo Nation land in northern Arizona was found dead Friday, authorities said. Navajo Nation officials said Maleeka Boone was last seen Thursday evening in the Coalmine Canyon area, about 240 miles (386 kilometers) north of Phoenix.
Curtis International expanded a minifridge recall in the United States after reports of fires, bringing the total number of Frigidaire-branded units covered to about 964,000, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The company on Thursday recalled an additional 330,000 minifridges with model number EFMIS121 sold at Target.
An explosion on a residential street in central Utrecht, Netherlands, injured at least four people on Thursday, emergency services officials said. The blast caused a fire and damaged buildings, but the cause was not immediately known.
Unseasonably warm weather has left much of Nevada and the broader Colorado River Basin with low snowfall, raising concerns about spring melt and summer water supplies. As of Jan. 1, Nevada’s statewide snowpack was 74% of the median, but several basins were far lower, and meteorologists said precipitation has arrived more as rain than snow. State and federal agencies and regional water officials are watching the outlook closely as Colorado River reservoir levels remain well below capacity and negotiations continue over future operations.
A 55-year-old woman was jailed after driving into the front entrance of a South Florida federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, police said. The crash happened around 11 p.m. Wednesday, and authorities reported no injuries.
A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators on Thursday introduced legislation to create a new independent agency funded with $2.5 billion to stockpile rare earth elements and other critical minerals, stabilize prices, and encourage domestic and allied production. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., sponsored the Senate bill; Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., introduced the House companion. The move comes as the Pentagon has separately committed billions of dollars in equity stakes and partnerships to reduce American dependence on China, which processes more than 90 percent of the world's critical minerals and has used that leverage to extract trade concessions from Washington.
A construction crane crashed onto a moving passenger train in northeastern Thailand on Wednesday, derailing the train and killing at least 32 people, authorities said. The accident occurred in Nakhon Ratchasima province, about 200 kilometers (135 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a section of a planned high-speed rail project.
California Community Foundation CEO Miguel Santana said the organization’s wildfire recovery fund has raised more than $100 million since the LA-area fires began Jan. 7, 2025, and that survivors still face long-term barriers such as insurance and limited access to capital. In an interview with The Associated Press, Santana described how the fund deployed $30 million in its first month and used survivor surveys to guide its work into the second year of recovery.
An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three other crew members Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA's first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. The crew was taken to a hospital for medical checks and standard recovery procedures.
A federal judge on Thursday cleared New York's Empire Wind offshore wind project to resume construction, handing Norwegian energy company Equinor a victory and dealing the Trump administration its second federal court defeat this week in its effort to halt East Coast offshore wind development. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled that construction could proceed while he considers the merits of the government's suspension order. Nichols faulted the administration for failing to respond to key points in Equinor's court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure when it issued the freeze.
Pope Leo XIV met Thursday with relatives of Italian teenagers killed or injured in a New Year’s Eve bar fire in Switzerland, telling them he wanted to share “a moment” amid their grief and urging them to seek hope. Families later met with Italian government officials, who said Italy will seek participation in the Swiss and possible European investigations.
Scientists have excavated the mummified remains of seven cheetahs — along with bones from 54 others — from caves in northern Saudi Arabia, in a find a study author described as "entirely without precedent" for the species. The remains, uncovered near the city of Arar, range in age from approximately 130 years to more than 1,800 years old.
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a Muhammad Ali commemorative Forever Stamp in the champion's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday, with 22 million stamps going on sale the same day. The stamp features a 1974 Associated Press photograph of Ali holding his gloves in a fighting stance, his last name in bold black and red lettering. Friends and family of the late champion gathered for the ceremony, hosted by broadcaster Bob Costas.
Nevada closed out 2025 with its lowest snowpack in more than 40 years, as unseasonably warm temperatures pushed precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow across much of the West, federal hydrologists said. The snow drought has left mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada to the Colorado Rockies far below normal, threatening spring and summer water supplies for farms, cities and the already-strained Colorado River system.
Curtis International, a Canada-based appliance distributor, expanded a minifridge recall Thursday to cover roughly 964,000 Frigidaire-branded units sold in the United States, after six fires linked to a newly recalled model compounded dozens of incidents reported under a larger recall last year. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said electrical components in the affected fridges can short circuit and ignite the plastic casing, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.
A Southern California startup is developing technology it says would use the natural pressure of the deep ocean to power seawater desalination, cutting energy consumption by about 40% compared to conventional land-based plants. OceanWell plans to anchor reverse osmosis pods 1,300 feet below the surface of Santa Monica Bay, roughly four miles off the coast, using the ocean's own weight to force seawater through membranes that strip out salt and impurities. The company says its planned Water Farm 1 would produce up to 60 million gallons of drinking water daily while also reducing two environmental harms that have made conventional desalination the subject of years of legal challenges: concentrated brine discharged back into the sea and intake systems that draw in and kill marine life.
The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday passed legislation aimed at loosening federal efficiency standards for showerheads, advancing a measure aligned with President Donald Trump’s order to reduce water conservation requirements. The bill, dubbed the Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing, or Shower ACT, passed 226-197, with 11 Democrats voting for it.
Denmark's top diplomat said Wednesday that a "fundamental disagreement" with President Donald Trump over Greenland persists after Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt held talks at the White House with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two sides agreed to form a working group to address differences, but Rasmussen said Trump's push for U.S. sovereignty over the semiautonomous Danish territory had not softened. "It remains clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland," Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting.
A 90-mile section of California's Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast fully reopened Wednesday, three years after a series of landslides and a roadway collapse shut the scenic route connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. The California Department of Transportation said the opening came three months ahead of schedule.
Iredell County sheriff's deputies are investigating an alleged break-in and theft at the North Carolina home of retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, who died along with six others in a plane crash last month. The alleged burglary at Biffle's Mooresville home was reported Jan. 8, according to an incident report from the Iredell County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Darren Campbell said Wednesday that investigators believe someone entered a safe in the home.
Four astronauts departed the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX capsule on Wednesday in NASA's first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight, after an unidentified crew member developed a health problem requiring ground-based diagnosis. The returning crew — American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui, and Russia's Oleg Platonov — aimed for a Thursday morning splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. NASA officials declined to identify the affected astronaut or disclose the nature of the health concern, citing medical privacy.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that Boeing documented four failures of a critical engine-mounting component on three aircraft as far back as 2011, but at the time concluded the defect would not threaten flight safety — years before a UPS cargo plane lost its left engine during takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 4, 2025, killing 15 people.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that air leakage accounts for more than a quarter of the energy used to heat or cool a typical American home — a hidden drain that energy experts say can be meaningfully reduced with about $100 in hardware store supplies and a free afternoon. With winter cold keeping millions of households running their furnaces at capacity, energy auditors and home-improvement specialists say small, inexpensive fixes can cut heating costs and reduce energy use throughout the year — and provide the same benefit in summer when the same gaps allow cool air to escape.
A federal district judge appointed by President Donald Trump sharply questioned the administration's legal justification for pausing construction on a major offshore wind farm near New York on Wednesday, telling government attorneys their court briefs failed to address key procedural challenges raised by the project's developer. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said the government's filing did not even acknowledge the developer's argument that the administration acted arbitrarily, and said he planned to rule Thursday.
Firefighters at Sky Valley Fire in rural Snohomish County, Washington, used the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone to revive six puppies that officials believe ingested or inhaled fentanyl, Battalion Chief Brandon Vargas said Tuesday. The animals recovered and will be available for adoption within about a week — and some firefighters who treated them have expressed interest in giving them a permanent home.
A St. Johns County sheriff's deputy captured a runaway emu west of St. Augustine last Friday after the large flightless bird kicked at the officer with its talons and fled before being cornered, secured with a makeshift lasso, and returned to its owners unharmed, the sheriff's office said.
Hawaiʻi lawmakers and a Honolulu city council member are considering whether to reinstate mandatory written tests at driver's license renewals, a practice the state abandoned in 1997, after 129 people died on Hawaiʻi roads last year — the highest toll in 18 years. A Honolulu City Council committee was set to take up the proposal Thursday afternoon.
Verizon resolved a nationwide outage Wednesday that knocked out cellular voice and data services for millions of U.S. customers for more than 10 hours, the company confirmed. Disruption reports began appearing around noon ET, and Downdetector, which tracks outage complaints, logged more than 1.5 million before 5 p.m. The New York-based carrier said service was fully restored by 10:20 p.m. ET but did not disclose what caused the failure.
California wildlife officials said Tuesday they have stopped actively searching for two juvenile gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack, which killed or injured at least 92 calves and cows in Northern California's Sierra Valley over a seven-month period in 2025. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said its expert biologists and law enforcement officers had been unable to locate or approach the animals closely enough to safely capture them.
A ferry boat accident near Diré in Mali’s Timbuktu region killed dozens of people after the boat hit rocks and sank, local officials and relatives said Tuesday. The accident occurred Thursday while families and farmers were trying to reach the Niger River town after nightfall, when docking is banned due to security measures, according to officials.
Six puppies in rural Washington were revived after a suspected fentanyl overdose and are expected to be available for adoption soon, including by some Sky Valley Fire staff. Two people dropped off three of the sickened puppies at the fire station Sunday, and officials said authorities later found three more puppies that also needed treatment. A sheriff’s animal cruelty or neglect investigation is underway, and the puppies are being held in quarantine before they go up for adoption.
JACKSON, Miss., Jan. 14, 2026 — A synagogue congregant who was 17 when the Ku Klux Klan bombed Beth Israel Congregation in 1967 watched the historic church burn again after an early Saturday fire. At 75, Beverly Geiger Bonnheim said it was “horrifying and disbelieving” to see the blaze, and she questioned what history would bring next.
Global climate monitoring teams reported that Earth’s average temperature in 2025 hovered among the three hottest on record, with recent years suggesting warming may be accelerating. The groups said 2025 was very close to 2023, and that the past three years are approaching the 1.5 C limit set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Maui residents displaced by the 2023 wildfires on the Hawaiian island are waiting to learn whether FEMA rental assistance for staying housed will be extended beyond February, a decision expected in the coming weeks. The choice could determine whether about 1,000 households must leave FEMA-managed housing or seek new rentals in a market with few available units and steep rent increases.
US greenhouse gas emissions rose 2.4% in 2025 compared with the year before, reversing recent reductions, according to a study released Tuesday by the Rhodium Group. Researchers said a cool winter, higher natural gas prices, and rising electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining contributed to the increase.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced new groundwater-use rules for the Ranegras Plain Groundwater Basin in the state’s western edge after the state agency determined plummeting water levels are causing land subsidence. The designation, announced Monday during Hobbs’ address to the Legislature, creates a framework for basin management plans and requires water users to track and report usage. Affected users and agribusiness operators say they will challenge the rules as groundwater declines continue.
A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction while he reviews the merits of an administration order to pause it. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that construction on the Empire Wind project could proceed as he considers the government’s request to suspend the work. Equinor, the developer behind Empire Wind, said it welcomed the decision.
The Republican-controlled House voted 226-197 on Tuesday to pass legislation loosening federal water efficiency standards for showerheads, with 11 Democrats crossing the aisle to advance a bill that would allow stronger water flow from shower nozzles than current federal rules permit. The measure — formally named the Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing Act, or Shower ACT — is part of a broader House effort to encode President Donald Trump's executive actions into federal law, according to the Associated Press.
A part that Boeing said had failed on other McDonnell Douglas-built MD-11 jets years earlier broke on a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Kentucky after takeoff, killing three pilots and 12 people on the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The NTSB said Wednesday it is reviewing whether a 2011 Boeing service bulletin and UPS’s response were adequate, after investigators found cracks in components that held the left engine to the wing.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will stop calculating the monetary value of lives saved and health care costs avoided when setting standards for fine particulate matter and ozone, ending a decades-long practice used by administrations of both parties to justify clean-air rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed new constraints on states' and Native American tribes' authority to block or impose conditions on pipelines, dams, and other major infrastructure projects through water quality reviews under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The proposed rule would narrow the scope of those reviews and impose strict deadlines, reversing Biden-era rules that allowed broader environmental evaluation.
The University of Arizona is pursuing a three-building plan to partially reopen the Arizona State Museum without depending on a $50 million funding request that the Arizona Board of Regents declined in 2024, university officials said. The museum, which holds artifacts spanning more than 13,000 years of cultural history and has been closed to the public since August 2024, could see its South Building reopened once archaeological collections are relocated off campus.
Metro-North Railroad has agreed to pay more than $182 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families of five passengers killed and roughly 30 others injured in a 2015 commuter train collision in Valhalla, New York, the Associated Press reported Monday. The settlement resolves more than a decade of litigation stemming from a February 3, 2015, evening rush-hour crash in which an SUV became trapped on the tracks at a grade crossing about 20 miles north of New York City. A 2024 jury found Metro-North bore 71 percent of the liability for the passengers' deaths and 63 percent for the death of the SUV driver.
California’s Highway 1 near Big Sur fully reopened Wednesday after three years of closures and repairs following landslides and a roadway collapse, the Associated Press reported. The reopening came around midday, Caltrans said, and officials pointed to the route as a key connection for tourism along the state’s central coast.
Scientists in Antarctica inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores as glaciers melt worldwide. The Ice Memory Foundation opened the frozen sanctuary at Concordia station on Wednesday to preserve samples for future research.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The FBI said it has found no surveillance or other video of a Border Patrol agent shooting and wounding two people in a pickup truck during an immigration enforcement operation in Portland last week. In a court document made public Monday, the FBI said agents reported that one of their colleagues fired after the driver repeatedly rammed a rental car and put the truck in reverse.
Federal officers in Minneapolis said a federal officer shot a man in the leg after being attacked with a shovel and a broom handle while trying to make an arrest. The incident happened Wednesday, after months of clashes tied to an immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where officials say protests and confrontations with federal agents have become more frequent.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Jan. 14, 2026—A St. Johns County deputy captured a runaway emu after it escaped in a rural area west of St. Augustine and returned the bird to its owners unharmed, the sheriff’s office said. The deputy responded to reports of the emu’s escape last Friday, authorities said.
Blasting heat at home but still feeling cold? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that air leakage accounts for more than a quarter of the energy used to heat or cool a typical home. The Associated Press reports that homeowners can often cut those losses with low-cost sealing fixes.
A judge has sealed a more than $182 million settlement reached over a 2015 train-and-SUV collision at a suburban New York rail crossing that killed six people. Most of the settlement with Metro-North Railroad is set to go to the families of five passengers killed in the crash in Valhalla, about 20 miles (32 km) north of New York City, after an earlier jury found the railroad largely liable.
Rio de Janeiro’s BioParque zoo gave animals popsicles and other frozen treats Tuesday as the city faced another day of extreme summer heat, according to zoo officials. Jaguar and monkey enclosures were among those receiving the iced diet designed for thermal comfort.
Wildlife crews have stopped the active search for two juvenile gray wolves in California’s Sierra Valley that were part of a pack accused of killing dozens of cows and calves last summer, an official said. The two wolves were members of the Beyem Seyo pack, and the change followed weeks of efforts to locate them for capture.
Strong winter winds collapsed walls onto tents for Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people, hospital authorities said Tuesday, and a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight. The Associated Press reported that Israel’s military also said it exchanged fire Tuesday with people spotted near troops in southern Gaza, killing at least two in western Rafah.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants for projects exclusively in states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found the terminations violated the Constitution's equal protection clause, saying the administration offered no legitimate basis for targeting recipients based on their states' electoral preferences. The decision was the second federal court ruling in a single day to halt the administration's rollback of clean energy programs.
President Donald Trump's motorcade took an alternate route to Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday after a suspicious object was discovered during pre-arrival security sweeps, the White House said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said further investigation of the object prompted the route change.
JACKSON, Miss. — A 19-year-old man appeared in federal court Monday on charges he set fire to a historic Mississippi synagogue because it was a Jewish house of worship, the FBI said, after his own father alerted authorities upon discovering burn injuries on his son's face, hands, and ankles.
QUITO, Ecuador — Five human heads were found hanging from ropes on a beach in southwestern Ecuador, police said Sunday, as the country faces violence linked to drug trafficking. Ecuadorian media published images of the bodies near Puerto López, a small fishing port on the country’s coast.
Iranian authorities’ crackdown on nationwide protests has left at least 2,571 people dead, according to an Iranian activists’ group and a U.S.-based monitoring outlet, as communications were severed and Iranians began calling abroad again for the first time in days. Activists said at least 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated people were among the dead, with more than 18,100 others detained.
A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project serving Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume construction, dealing the Trump administration a legal setback on the same day President Donald Trump declared the United States "will not approve any windmills." Senior Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the government failed to explain why it could not take action short of a complete construction halt on Revolution Wind while it considers national security concerns, and did not provide sufficient reasoning for its change in position.
Five Hawaiian crows reintroduced to the forests of East Maui in November 2024 have all survived their first year in the wild, researchers with the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project said. The birds, known in Hawaiian as ʻalalā, are among roughly 110 of their kind remaining worldwide; the species was declared extinct in the wild in 2002.
A 10-year-old dressed in tribute to movie character Joe Dirt took top honors Monday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show's annual mullet contest in Harrisburg, where about 150 competitors vied before a crowd of more than a thousand spectators. Drew Fleschut of Dallas, Pennsylvania — wearing a red-and-black shirt and carrying the character's signature mop — claimed the top prize, the rear bumper of a Corvette, at the event billed as the day's "mane" attraction.
A break in a 36-inch water main left more than 100,000 residents in El Paso, Texas, with little to no water service starting late Saturday night, officials with El Paso Water said Sunday. The outage affected about 38,000 customer connections in the border city of roughly 700,000 people and caused more than 15 municipal reservoirs to drain. Authorities issued a boil water notice, set up water distribution centers, and said full restoration was not expected until midweek.
Southern California Gas Co. has proposed blending up to 5% hydrogen into the natural gas infrastructure of Orange Cove, a predominantly Latino farming town of roughly 10,000 in California's Central Valley, as part of a state-directed program to test whether existing pipelines can carry cleaner fuel. Residents who oppose the plan say they face health risks they cannot easily avoid and were not given a meaningful role in the decision.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday a package of safety reforms for the state's assisted living facilities, including mandatory annual fire-department inspections and evacuation drills, following a fire last summer that killed 10 residents at a Fall River facility — the state's deadliest blaze in more than 40 years.
Mattel Inc. introduced an autistic Barbie on Monday, expanding its Fashionistas line with a doll developed over more than 18 months in partnership with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. The nonprofit, which advocates for the rights and improved media representation of autistic people, worked closely with Mattel to shape design features reflecting how some autistic people experience and process the world around them.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed limiting how states and federally authorized tribes can use Clean Water Act Section 401 to block or delay major projects over water-quality concerns, including pipelines and some data-center infrastructure. The EPA said the change would add “transparency, efficiency and predictability” to reviews while still allowing states and tribes to protect their environment.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it will stop calculating the dollar value of health care costs avoided and deaths prevented from rules that curb fine particle pollution and ozone. The EPA said it will continue estimating compliance costs for businesses and will keep working on its pollution-rule economic methods, while environmental and public health advocates criticized the change.
Freezing rain and icy conditions disrupted travel across central and eastern Europe on Tuesday, forcing airlines and ground transport to pause or limit service in several countries. Airports in the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary postponed flights, while some rail and bus routes were canceled or delayed.
Minneapolis’ St. Paul’s-San Pablo Lutheran Church held a special Sunday service called “Lament and Hope” amid fears in immigrant communities after a woman was fatally shot by an immigration officer, the Associated Press reported. The church’s pastor, Rev. Hierald Osorto, led prayers and worship as immigration enforcement activity continued in the area.
A South Carolina police officer was shot and wounded while sitting in his patrol car Sunday in Greenville, city officials said. The officer was released after treatment at a hospital, and authorities said a suspect was killed in a later shootout.
A new 3 1/2-minute video posted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on X shows minutes before a federal immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The footage, filmed by a bystander, was posted Sunday and has added context to a national debate over whether the officer acted in self-defense or recklessly.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers urged the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature to act on his priorities in his final year, even if it requires lawmakers staying in session longer than planned. Speaking to reporters Monday, Evers said there is still time for lawmakers to advance proposals including protecting funding for SNAP and tackling PFAS pollution.
Muhammad Ali is being honored with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service announced. A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the “Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp” is planned for Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, where people can buy stamps featuring a black-and-white Associated Press photo of Ali from 1974.
Railroads and federal regulators have failed to implement most recommendations from major rail accident investigations, according to an analysis by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. The analysis found the Federal Railroad Administration fully implemented only five of 81 National Transportation Safety Board recommendations from 2015 through 2024.
A federal judge ruled Monday that work on Revolution Wind, a major offshore wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut, can resume while courts consider challenges to a Trump administration order that paused multiple offshore wind farms over national security concerns. The decision came as developers including Orsted and Equinor sought to block the freeze in separate court proceedings.
Richard "Dick" Codey, a former acting governor of New Jersey and the longest-serving legislator in the state's history, died Sunday at his home after a brief illness. He was 79. Codey's wife, Mary Jo Codey, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. "Gov. Richard J. Codey passed away peacefully this morning at home, surrounded by family, after a brief illness," the family wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.
President Donald Trump said Friday the United States "is going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not," renewing his push to acquire the Danish autonomous territory. But geologists and industry experts say Greenland's rare earth deposits face years of logistical, geological, and financial hurdles that would persist regardless of who controls the island.
A person was arrested on suspicion of arson Sunday after a fire heavily damaged Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi — the state's largest synagogue and the only one in Jackson — which the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 for its congregation's role in the civil rights movement. The fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday; no congregants or firefighters were injured, authorities said.
Eighteen Buddhist monks in saffron and ocher robes are walking single file across the American South, drawing thousands of onlookers to churchyards, city halls and town squares along a 2,300-mile route from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. Led by the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, who makes the trek barefoot, the group has attracted large crowds across six states since setting out on Oct. 26, 2025. On Saturday, thousands gathered at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, where Mayor Daniel Rickenmann issued the monks a formal proclamation.
California plans to run pilot projects that blend hydrogen into natural gas used by homes and businesses, as regulators weigh how to set safety rules. The proposal has drawn scrutiny in Orange Cove in California’s Central Valley, where residents have raised concerns about health risks and lack of transparency as the state and Southern California Gas Co. prepare test plans.
Hawaiʻi’s critically endangered crow, the ʻalalā, is still alive more than a year after five birds were released into Maui’s Kīpahulu Forest Reserve, according to people involved in the project. The birds were among only about 110 ʻalalā left in the world, and conservationists say the reintroduction effort outside the Big Island is showing promise as researchers monitor their foraging and acclimation.
A packed crowd celebrated the mullet hairstyle Monday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, where about 150 competitors competed for top prizes. The top award — a rear bumper of a Corvette — went to 10-year-old Drew Fleschut of Dallas, Pennsylvania, who wore a red-and-black shirt as an homage to the movie character “Joe Dirt” and carried Joe’s trademark mop.
Milan prison on Saturday hosted a concert led by Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, using string instruments made from wood salvaged from migrant smuggling boats. The Cherubini Youth Orchestra played violins, violas and cellos marked by faded blue, green and yellow paint from the seized boats, at the Opera prison in Milan, AP reported.
More than 100,000 residents in El Paso, Texas were left with little to no water after a main break late Saturday night, officials said. A boil water notice was issued and water distribution centers were set up, with officials saying repairs could take until midweek for service to return to normal.
Filipino rescuers detected “signs of life” in a garbage avalanche that killed at least four workers and left more than 30 others missing in central Philippines, the Cebu City mayor said. Officials said 12 workers were rescued with injuries after the mound of garbage collapsed Thursday at a waste management facility in Binaliw, Cebu City.
A Swiss court in the Valais canton ordered three months of pretrial detention for the manager of a bar in Crans-Montana after a New Year’s Eve fire killed 40 people and injured 116. The court said the detention was justified by a possible flight risk raised by prosecutors.
Syrian security forces began deploying Saturday in a neighborhood in Aleppo after days of intense fighting with Kurdish fighters, leaving dozens dead and injured, the Associated Press reported. The violence prompted authorities to stop civilian flights at Aleppo International Airport until further notice, state television reported.
Los Angeles police responded Sunday after a U-Haul box truck was driven down a street crowded with marchers supporting the Iranian people, sending protesters scrambling and then running after the speeding vehicle. Police said the driver was taken into custody and could face charges. The incident occurred as demonstrators gathered in Los Angeles’ Westwood neighborhood to protest Iran’s government, police said.
Trump on Friday wore a new “Happy Trump” lapel pin at the White House, but told reporters he is “never happy” and “never satisfied.” Asked about the accessory during an event with oil executives discussing future U.S. control of Venezuela’s energy industry, he said, “That’s called a Happy Trump.” The president has worn a similar design before, including during a February ceremony swearing in Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Railroads and federal regulators have failed to implement many safety recommendations from major crash investigations, a new analysis by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland finds. The report says the Federal Railroad Administration has fully implemented only five of 81 National Transportation Safety Board recommendations issued from 2015 through 2024.
Muhammad Ali will be honored for the first time with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service said. A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the “Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp” is planned for Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, his birthplace.
Buddhist monks and their rescue dog are walking single file across the U.S. South as part of a “peace walk” that began Oct. 26, 2025, in Texas and is scheduled to end in mid-February in Washington, D.C. Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, who is leading the trek barefoot, said the group’s hope is that people they meet will continue practicing mindfulness and “find peace.”
A Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian city of Voronezh killed one person and wounded three others, local officials said Sunday, after debris from a drone fell on a house. In Kyiv, thousands of residents were still without power following an intense Russian bombardment, and officials said many apartment buildings were left without heat during daytime temperatures around minus 8 degrees Celsius.
Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, Russian officials said Saturday. The strike came after Russia launched a hypersonic missile and other weapons that disrupted Kyiv’s power supply and heating, Ukrainian officials said.
Raging wildfires in Argentina’s Patagonia have burned nearly 12,000 hectares of scrubland and native and planted forests, threatening local communities, according to firefighting authorities. The fires began nearly a week ago in the Andean area of Chubut province and have put a power plant and a school at risk, authorities said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the Trump administration on Friday in federal court in Washington, asking a judge to reverse a Dec. 22 Interior Department order that suspended construction on two offshore wind projects off Long Island expected to power more than 1 million homes. James called the stop-work order — which the Interior Department justified on national security grounds — arbitrary and legally unsupported, noting that the projects had cleared more than a decade of federal, state and local safety and security reviews.
Brazil’s largest soy producers said this week they are withdrawing from the soy moratorium, a voluntary pact that has helped limit planting on land cleared from the Amazon. The withdrawal, disclosed by the industry association ABIOVE, threatens the agreement’s survival and challenges President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s pledge to end deforestation by 2030.
An explosion from a gas cylinder killed at least eight people, including the bride and groom, at a home in Islamabad early Sunday after a wedding reception, police and officials said. Seven others were injured, and part of the house collapsed, according to Islamabad police.
Erich von Däniken, the Swiss author whose books popularized theories that ancient civilizations were visited by extraterrestrials, died at 90. His representatives said on his website that he died the previous day in a hospital in central Switzerland.
Erich von Däniken, el autor suizo cuyos bestsellers sobre posibles orígenes extraterrestres de civilizaciones antiguas lo convirtieron en una figura popular entre entusiastas de lo paranormal, falleció a los 90 años. Sus representantes informaron que murió el día anterior en un hospital en el centro de Suiza, según su sitio web, y su hija Cornelia confirmó la información a la agencia suiza SDA.
Former New Jersey acting Gov. Richard “Dick” Codey died Sunday at 79, his wife confirmed to The Associated Press. Codey had served as acting governor twice and was the longest serving legislator in state history.
A guard at a construction site near a 2026 Winter Olympic venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo died during an overnight shift in frigid temperatures, authorities confirmed Saturday. Italian officials said the worker died of a heart attack, while Italy’s infrastructure minister called for a full investigation.
President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would “do something on Greenland whether they like it or not,” renewing his push to take control of the Arctic island from Denmark as part of an effort to reduce reliance on China for rare earths. The report describes why Greenland’s remoteness, infrastructure gaps and the geology of deposits have so far blocked commercial rare-earth mining. It also quotes experts who say the focus on Greenland has been more about geopolitical posturing than a fast supply solution for critical minerals used in products such as electric-vehicle magnets and wind turbines.
A person was arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire damaged the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, authorities said. No congregants or firefighters were injured in the blaze, and the investigation involved local and federal law enforcement.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Walker Howe, best known for “What Hath God Wrought,” has died at 88, his death being confirmed by a University of California, Los Angeles spokesman. Howe died on Dec. 25, according to the spokesman, and was a professor emeritus at UCLA.
Thousands of tourists were stranded at Kittilä airport in Finnish Lapland after flights were canceled due to severe cold, the Associated Press reported. The temperature at the airport fell to minus 37 degrees Celsius (minus 34.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday morning, Yle reported.
A 24-year-old man is in custody in Mississippi after authorities said he killed six people during a Friday night rampage, including a 7-year-old girl. The suspect, Daricka M. Moore, was arrested at a police roadblock just before midnight in Cedarbluff, authorities said.
Venezuelan government releases of detainees continued into a third day on Saturday, after the government pledged a goodwill effort to free political prisoners. Families gathered outside prisons in Caracas and other cities hoping loved ones would be among those released.
President Donald Trump wore a “Happy Trump” lapel pin during an East Room appearance on Friday while discussing future U.S. control of Venezuela’s energy industry, and he told reporters the pin was made “called a Happy Trump.” The AP reports the cartoon pin has a likeness of Trump with a large head, and Trump said it was given to him by someone he did not identify.
Forty-five wounded veterans and their supporters cycled along Florida's Overseas Highway on Friday in the annual Florida Keys Soldier Ride, an event organized by the Wounded Warrior Project that combines physical challenge with peer support for service members injured during their military service. The group started the day with a 17-mile ride from a Key Largo VFW post to the Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, then traveled another 10 miles — including over the Seven Mile Bridge — before stopping for the night in Big Pine Key. The event continues through the weekend and concludes Sunday at the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon.
South Dakota's Department of Transportation is midway through a $72 million project to rebuild and widen 15 miles of U.S. 385 through the central Black Hills, where the crash rate runs more than double the state average, according to DOT data. The project, which began in 2024 and is scheduled for full completion in 2027, aims to cut that crash rate by 50 percent by eliminating tight curves, expanding sight lines and widening road shoulders from as little as 2 feet to as much as 8 feet.
An avalanche of garbage and debris buried workers at a landfill in the Philippines on Thursday, killing two people, injuring a dozen and leaving 36 missing, officials said Friday. Rescue teams pulled 13 people from the rubble overnight, but one later died, authorities said.
PURCELL, Okla. — Severe storms swept through Oklahoma around sunrise Thursday, spinning off two confirmed tornadoes near Purcell and Shawnee that damaged homes, outbuildings and a hotel, downed trees and power lines, and knocked out electricity across much of Purcell, officials said. There were no immediate reports of major injuries or deaths.
NASA announced Thursday it is cutting a mission aboard the International Space Station short after one of its four crew members experienced a medical issue, the agency said — marking what officials described as the first medical evacuation in the space station's history. The affected astronaut is stable, and the agency's top medical officer said the situation does not constitute an onboard emergency. The four-person crew will return to Earth in the coming days, ahead of their originally planned schedule. NASA also canceled the year's first planned spacewalk as a result of the medical issue.
ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — Ted Koerner feared he might never see his old golden retriever, Daisy Mae, again after his house burned down in the Eaton Fire. A year later, Koerner says the pair is home at last, with Daisy Mae playing in his backyard in Altadena beneath a 175-year-old heritage oak.
Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Officer Terry Bennett, 32, died Thursday from injuries he suffered on December 23 when a passing vehicle struck him as he helped a motorist who had run out of gas, the department announced. The driver remained at the scene. No charges have been filed, and the incident remains under investigation, a department spokesman said. Bennett is survived by his wife and son.
The Trump administration on Wednesday began the process of withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the principal body through which nations negotiate, monitor, and enforce agreements to limit global warming. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the move, which also included simultaneous withdrawals from a U.N. climate science panel, a biodiversity initiative, the Green Climate Fund, and several other international environmental collaborations. Climate experts said the action goes further than Trump's earlier withdrawals from the Paris Agreement.
For office workers confined to windowless cubicles and back-to-back meetings, even small doses of nature — a lunchtime walk to a nearby garden, a potted plant on the desk, or a video call taken on a wooded path — can ease stress and sharpen focus, workers and workplace wellness advocates said.
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI will spend $20 billion to build a data center in Southaven, Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Thursday, calling it the largest private investment in the state's history. The facility, named MACROHARDRR, is being built in DeSoto County near Memphis, Tennessee, and is expected to begin operations next month.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Federal and state officials concealed evidence from a federal appeals court showing that the Department of Homeland Security had agreed to reimburse Florida for building the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention center in the Everglades, environmental groups said Wednesday in court filings. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity said the newly disclosed records — obtained through a public records request — should now be considered as judges decide the facility's permanent fate. The Everglades facility remains open and continues to hold detainees.
Jonathan Christ Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with stealing more than 100 sets of human remains from Mount Moriah Cemetery, a historic burial ground on Philadelphia's outskirts, Delaware County authorities said. Officers stopped Gerlach as he walked back toward his car carrying a crowbar and a burlap bag that contained the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones, according to police.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Fifteen minutes before Brown University sent its first active-shooter alert on Dec. 13, students were already documenting the attack on Sidechat, an anonymous campus message board, according to an Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours following the shooting. The attack, which killed two students at the Ivy League institution, unfolded during finals week inside Barus and Holley, an academic building on the Providence campus.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation is rebuilding and widening a 15-mile stretch of U.S. 385 through the central Black Hills, using dynamite blasts and excavators to improve safety on a road with a high crash rate, officials said. The $72 million project began in 2024 and includes full road closures south of Pactola Reservoir that require a 40-mile detour through Rapid City.
Federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, outside a hospital on Thursday, authorities said. The shooting came a day after an officer in Minnesota fatally shot a woman, according to authorities cited by The Associated Press.
Nearly 15 years after his first Soldier Ride, Bill Hansen joined dozens of wounded veterans cycling along the Overseas Highway on Friday for the annual Florida Keys event. The ride, organized by the Wounded Warrior Project, began in Key Largo and traveled through the Keys, including the Seven Mile Bridge, with the group continuing into the weekend.
A woman in Minneapolis was fatally shot by an immigration officer Wednesday, the Associated Press reported, in what the news agency said was at least the fifth death linked to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown launched last year. The Department of Homeland Security said the officer fired in self-defense as the 37-year-old tried to run down officers with her vehicle.
NEW YORK — A new pipe organ arrived at the Church of the Epiphany on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a project the Episcopal congregation describes as part of its rebirth after a series of setbacks that included a fire, flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic. Parishioners helped unload and install the instrument, while church leaders said the effort is meant to strengthen community ties and expand how the church offers music beyond Sundays.
Block Communications Inc. announced Wednesday it will cease publication of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 3, closing one of Pennsylvania's oldest newspapers after the company said two decades of financial losses had become unsustainable. The announcement came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined PG Publishing Co. Inc.'s emergency appeal to halt a National Labor Relations Board order requiring the company to honor health care coverage terms from an expired union contract.
SALT LAKE CITY — Two people were killed and six others were injured in a shooting in a parking lot behind an LDS church Wednesday night while mourners attended a memorial service inside, police said. No suspect was in custody, and authorities said they did not believe the shooting was targeted at a religion. Police are reviewing license plate readers and nearby surveillance video as they search for a suspect.
Poor communities threatened by aging sewer systems face new hurdles as federal grant and loan support promised under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is canceled or targeted for elimination under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to an Associated Press investigation. The reporting centers on Cahokia Heights, Illinois, and other majority-Black areas in Alabama and Georgia where sewage overflows and flooding have damaged homes and exposed residents to untreated waste, while local officials and advocates say help has been reduced.
Spencer Pratt, a reality television personality who lost his home in the deadly Palisades wildfire, said Wednesday he intends to run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2026, framing the effort as “a mission” to “expose the system.” Pratt, a Republican, made the announcement at a fire-anniversary rally that criticized state and local government’s handling of the Jan. 7 blaze.
Scores of U.S. wastewater systems are failing to meet federal pollution limits, but the Trump administration has moved to cut or end some Environmental Protection Agency programs and grants aimed at communities most affected, The Associated Press reported. Advocates say the cuts, including steps tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, could widen health and economic disparities as communities struggle to fund maintenance and upgrades.
Federal officers in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Good after a Honda SUV moved toward an ICE agent, according to federal officials and videos captured by bystanders, but policing experts said the officer’s actions appear to run counter to widely taught use-of-force practices. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism,” while President Donald Trump said the officer acted in self-defense.
Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State address Thursday to present California as a national model, saying the state must stand up to Republican President Donald Trump’s “assault on our values.” Speaking to lawmakers in Sacramento, the Democrat also defended his record and highlighted initiatives on homelessness, crime and climate policy as he nears the end of eight years as governor.
As the U.S. pressures Venezuela after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro, environmental experts are warning that Washington’s push to revamp and boost Venezuela’s oil production could worsen pollution and increase planet-warming emissions. They cite the heavy, “very dense, very sloppy” nature of the crude, decaying infrastructure, high methane and flaring rates, and a history of spills that have left ecosystems in fragile regions struggling to recover.
The Trump administration on Wednesday finalized a plan to rescind federal regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, the 56-year-old law requiring federal agencies to assess a project's environmental impacts before granting approval. The White House Council on Environmental Quality, led by Katherine Scarlett, said the action eliminates bureaucratic delays that have slowed energy and infrastructure projects for years.
President Donald Trump's renewed effort to acquire Greenland from Denmark fits into a little-known pattern in U.S. history dating back more than 150 years. From informal discussions after the Civil War to a formal $100 million gold offer in the aftermath of World War II, American administrations have repeatedly viewed the world's largest island as a strategic prize — and Denmark has consistently declined.
Abbie, a 9-year-old golden retriever mix being transported from a South Carolina shelter to a planned new home in Maine, escaped from a New Jersey Turnpike service area early Saturday and wandered roughly 25 miles before a volunteer drone team using thermal imaging located her in a wooded area the following day, according to Final Victory Animal Rescue and Woodbridge Township police. Officers rescued the dog around 2 a.m. Sunday, about 15 miles from where she had bolted during a bathroom break.
A 21-year-old woman in eastern Caracas, Mariana Camargo, said she ran through the streets when explosions erupted during a U.S. military operation in Venezuela. The Associated Press photographer Matías Delacroix captured images during the night, including a photo of Camargo sprinting while people behind her also ran.
M23 rebels held a symbolic funeral in Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, for 22 people killed in a Jan. 2 drone strike in North Kivu province, the Associated Press reported. The rebels said the attack targeted their military positions in Masisi territory and that the victims were civilians. Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya criticized the event on X, saying it was indecent.
Ted Koerner moved back into his rebuilt Altadena home shortly before Thanksgiving with his 13-year-old golden retriever Daisy Mae — among the first of thousands of homeowners displaced by the January 2025 Los Angeles area wildfires to complete a rebuild.
One year after the Palisades and Eaton fires killed 31 people and destroyed roughly 13,000 homes and residential properties across Los Angeles County, fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt, the Associated Press reported. About 900 homes are under construction, but more than 600 properties where single-family homes were destroyed have already been sold as survivors unable to afford rebuilding leave their communities behind. Insurance payouts falling far short of construction costs — which can easily exceed $1 million — have left most survivors unable to commit to rebuilding projects. Less than 20% of people who experienced total home loss had closed out their insurance claims by December, according to a survey by the Department of Angels, a nonprofit formed after the disaster to advocate for recovery efforts.
Severe storms moved through Oklahoma around sunrise Thursday, producing two tornadoes and high winds that damaged buildings, downed trees and caused power outages, officials said. A tornado rated at least an EF1 struck near Purcell, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, while another tornado was confirmed by radar in the Shawnee area.
Mount Etna in Sicily is erupting again, and guides who take tourists to see the volcano say new restrictions imposed by local authorities have gone too far. In Catania, authorities have suspended or limited excursions to lava flows after a round of eruptions in recent weeks, prompting guides to stage a strike and protest.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. participation in 66 international organizations, agencies, and commissions — including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Population Fund — following an administration-wide review of U.S. involvement in global bodies.
Google and Character Technologies, the company behind the Character.AI chatbot, have agreed to settle a Florida lawsuit alleging the chatbot contributed to the February 2024 suicide of a 14-year-old boy, according to court documents filed this week in federal court. The companies have also agreed to settle similar suits filed in Colorado, New York, and Texas on behalf of families who alleged the chatbot harmed their children. Settlement terms were not disclosed in any of the filings; each agreement must still be approved by a judge.
Hawaii's state Department of Land and Natural Resources plans to revive the Beach and Water Safety Task Force, a body charged with placing warning signs at dangerous beaches that has not convened since 2012, according to reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat distributed through the Associated Press. The announcement follows a decade in which about 800 people drowned in the waters off Hawaii's roughly 1,000-mile coastline.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday suspending U.S. support for 66 international organizations, agencies, and commissions — including the United Nations population agency and the foundational UN climate treaty — according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a presidential decision that had not yet been publicly announced.
Winter storms swept snow, ice and freezing rain across all six New England states on Wednesday, forcing dozens of school districts to cancel classes or delay start times while highway authorities in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts reported numerous accidents and vehicle spinouts. No serious injuries had been reported as of late Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported.
Brown University students turned to Sidechat, an anonymous campus message board, during the Dec. 13 shooting at the Ivy League campus in Providence, Rhode Island, as they tried to figure out what was happening before official alerts arrived. An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 Sidechat posts from the 36 hours after the attack describes how students documented the chaos in real time.
The Coast Guard rescued nine crew members from a grounded commercial crab boat in Alaska’s Bering Sea after near gale-force winds and rough seas left the vessel stuck off Saint George Island, officials said. The crew members were hoisted to a helicopter from the 134-foot (41-meter) Arctic Sea, and taken to Saint Paul Island.
A Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer who was struck by a car last month while helping a motorist who had run out of gas has died from his injuries, the department announced. Terry Bennett, 32, had been hospitalized since Dec. 23, when he was hit by a passing vehicle while assisting on the roadside.
A dead whale was found on the bow of a container ship docked at a marine terminal in New Jersey, and authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of death. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said the whale was reported Sunday by the U.S. Coast Guard at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in Gloucester City.
Federal and state officials withheld evidence, environmental groups say, in a fight over a Florida immigration detention center in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, said newly obtained emails and documents show officials had discussed and approved federal reimbursement before a lower-court judge ordered the facility to wind down.
Eco-friendly toilet paper can have different environmental impacts depending on where the material comes from and how it is made, experts say. Researchers and environmental groups recommend starting with recycled-content options and looking for independently vetted certifications, and they say reducing overall use—such as with bidets—can also cut waste.
An AP-NORC poll released this week found that medical expenses were the most common reason people donated to crowdfunding campaigns, with health care costs and “long road to recovery” themes featuring prominently. The survey also found that many Americans have only limited confidence in whether crowdfunding sites charge reasonable fees and whether campaigns use money responsibly.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, died Tuesday at 80, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said. The foundation announced his death in a post on X, calling him “a steadfast guardian of his father’s legacy.” His wife said he was called “home to be with the Lord” on Sunday, Jan. 4.
San Jose’s City Council has acknowledged the city is not on track to reach its carbon neutrality goal by 2030, citing an updated review of greenhouse gas emissions. The admission was part of an administrative update approved Dec. 2 to the city’s Climate Smart San Jose plan to cut carbon emissions.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday began the process to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, part of the UN’s climate-fighting system, according to experts and treaty specialists. They said the move will leave the U.S. isolated and could damage both American interests and global efforts as the world approaches internationally agreed temperature thresholds.
Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, according to the Associated Press. Family members and neighbors are mourning her, while state and local officials and protesters have rejected the Trump administration’s characterization of the encounter. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said video recordings show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan and a conservative radio and television commentator, died Sunday, January 4, 2026. He was 80. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced his death Tuesday on the social platform X, saying no cause of death had been announced.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued all nine crew members of a commercial crab boat Monday after the vessel lost steering in near-gale conditions and grounded on a remote island in Alaska's Bering Sea, the Coast Guard said. The rescue was completed without injuries, according to the agency.
A dead fin whale was found on the bow of a container ship docked at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, the U.S. Coast Guard reported Sunday, triggering a federal investigation and a removal effort by wildlife rescuers. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a New Jersey-based animal rescue organization, said Tuesday it was working to tow the carcass away so a necropsy could be conducted to determine the endangered animal's cause of death. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed Tuesday that its enforcement office had opened an investigation into the death.
San Jose's City Council formally acknowledged Dec. 2 that the city is not on track to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, after the city's most recent greenhouse gas inventory found emissions edged up between 2021 and 2023, reversing earlier progress. The council approved the admission as part of an administrative update to Climate Smart San Jose, the city's emissions reduction plan.
Indiana U.S. Rep. Jim Baird was hospitalized after his vehicle was struck in a car accident, his congressional office said Tuesday. The 80-year-old Republican, who represents the 4th Congressional District in west central Indiana, is expected to make a full recovery. President Donald Trump said Baird's wife was also hospitalized in the crash.
A 9-year-old golden retriever mix named Abbie escaped from a shelter van at a rest stop along the New Jersey Turnpike and wandered for about 25 miles before being found safe with help from a drone. Rescuers tracked her using thermal imaging from an unmanned aircraft and she was rescued by Woodbridge Township police around 2 a.m. Sunday, according to Final Victory Animal Rescue.
An Israeli strike in Gaza on Monday hit a tent housing displaced people, killing a 5-year-old girl and her uncle and wounding two other children, hospital officials said. The strike occurred in the Muwasi area northwest of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, officials at Nasser Hospital said, though the report could not independently verify the details.
The Trump administration has finalized a plan to roll back regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires federal agencies to consider environmental impacts before approving energy and infrastructure projects. The White House Council on Environmental Quality on Wednesday rescinded regulations tied to NEPA environmental review, according to the administration.
The Palisades and Eaton fires killed 31 people and destroyed 16,246 structures across Los Angeles County on Jan. 7, 2025, and one year later only 10 homes have been rebuilt, according to city and county data compiled by the Associated Press.
Altadena residents say hazards from the Los Angeles area wildfires in January 2025 still linger inside homes a year later, including lead and asbestos. In the hardest-hit neighborhoods, some people returned to houses that were professionally cleaned but later testing found elevated contamination on floors and other surfaces.
Philippines officials raised the alert level at Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay after activity increased, prompting the evacuation of nearly 3,000 villagers from the volcano’s permanent danger zone, authorities said Wednesday. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and local officials said the measure followed intermittent rockfalls and deadly pyroclastic flows as officials raised the alert to level 3 from level 2.
Power was being restored Wednesday to thousands of households in Berlin that had been without electricity in freezing temperatures for four days after authorities said high-voltage lines were attacked. The outage followed a fire on a bridge carrying power cables over the Teltow Canal in southwest Berlin that knocked out service for tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
One year after the Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted in the Los Angeles area, fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt in Los Angeles County, leaving many neighborhoods still marked by ash, dirt lots and unanswered insurance questions. The fires killed 31 people and destroyed about 13,000 homes and other residential properties after burning for more than three weeks.
Deaths of on-duty law enforcement officers in the United States fell nearly 25% in 2025, according to an annual report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Total fatalities dropped from 148 in 2024 to 111 last year, with declines recorded across all major categories. The report was shared with the Associated Press ahead of its release Tuesday.
A Craigslist ad offering $1,500 a day for children to pose as day care attendees in Minneapolis spread across multiple social media platforms this week as purported evidence of fraud at Minnesota day care centers. The cohost of an online prank show told the Associated Press his team placed the ad as bait — not as documentation of any actual scheme.
Captain Brandon Fisher, the Alaska Airlines pilot praised by the heads of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Boeing executives for safely landing Flight 1282 after a door plug panel separated from the aircraft in January 2024, has sued Boeing in an Oregon court. Fisher's lawyers allege that Boeing, despite a federal finding that the blowout resulted from a manufacturing defect, attempted to shift blame onto him and the crew — leading some passengers to name Fisher in their own litigation against the manufacturer.
The city of Southfield, Michigan, has agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Timesha Beauchamp, a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who was declared dead by paramedics at her home in August 2020, only to be found gasping for air when a funeral home worker unzipped her body bag hours later. Beauchamp was rushed to a hospital but never recovered. She died two months after the incident.
California’s push to cut oil use while phasing out fossil fuels is raising concerns that refinery closures could contribute to higher fuel prices in Nevada, especially in the Las Vegas area. Recent refinery shutdowns in California and planned closings involving Phillips 66 and Valero have analysts warning of price spikes as Western states rely on fuel transported from the Golden State. The issue has prompted Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo to form a fuel resiliency subcommittee, which he says will develop long-term strategies to protect the state’s infrastructure and energy supply routes.
Clashes between residents and a gold mining company in northern Afghanistan left four people dead and five others injured, Afghan officials said Wednesday. The violence broke out Tuesday in the Chah Ab district of Takhar province, according to the Interior Ministry.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will propose a drinking-water limit for perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel and explosives that can harm thyroid function, especially in infants. The agency said Monday it is moving only because a federal court ordered it, and it does not expect the rule’s overall public-health benefits to justify its costs. The EPA will seek public comment on how strict the limit should be and require water utilities to test for perchlorate.
Malaysia’s centenarian former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is recovering in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur after a fall left him with a broken right hip, his family said Wednesday. His daughter Marina Mahathir said the injury is serious but not life-threatening. Mahathir was rushed to the National Heart Institute on Tuesday for observation and treatment.
Greece’s government said Monday that a major radio communications failure that shut the country’s airspace the day before is unlikely to have been a cyberattack, while authorities continue investigating the cause. Flights across Greece were grounded, diverted or delayed for several hours after noise was reported on multiple air traffic communication channels.
Hawaii plans to revive a Beach and Water Safety Task Force that has not met since 2012, state officials said, as the state faces criticism for a long gap in placing warning signs at dangerous beaches. The move comes after pressure from the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association and reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat.
Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of Anne Frank, died at 96 in London, where she lived, her death was announced Saturday. She spent decades after the war educating young people about the Holocaust and warning against prejudice.
A man who broke windows at Vice President JD Vance’s Ohio home was detained early Monday, the U.S. Secret Service said. The Secret Service said the suspect, William D. DeFoor, was detained shortly after midnight by agents assigned to the vice president’s residence east of downtown Cincinnati.
Winter weather brought snow, ice, freezing rain and dangerous driving to New England on Wednesday, prompting school cancellations and delays across the region. Dozens of districts shut for the day or started later because road conditions made it unsafe to run buses during the morning routes. Several hazardous winter-weather advisories were in effect, and highway officials reported numerous accidents and vehicle spinouts.
Pipeline safety regulators have issued a record $9.6 million fine to Third Coast Midstream after an oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana in 2023, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said the spill involved 1.1 million gallons of oil and stemmed from safety failures including emergency procedures. The record penalty was assessed Monday.
One of the world’s rarest whale species, the North Atlantic right whale, is having a better breeding season than in some recent years, federal scientists said. Researchers recorded 15 calves off the southeastern United States this winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.
Authorities in Colorado ended a four-day search for additional mountain lions after a solo hiker was fatally attacked on the Crosier Mountain trail east of Rocky Mountain National Park. The woman, Kristen Marie Kovatch, died from injuries consistent with a mountain lion attack, a coroner said Monday.
Swiss police said Monday they have identified everyone injured in a fire that tore through a crowded New Year’s celebration at a bar in Crans-Montana, putting the total at 116. Authorities also previously said 40 people were killed in the blaze in the resort town in Switzerland. More than two-thirds of the injured remain hospitalized, police said.
Offshore wind developers and state officials sued after the Trump administration suspended leases for five offshore wind projects on the East Coast for at least 90 days, setting up a legal fight over national security claims. Equinor and Ørsted filed civil suits in the District of Columbia late Tuesday, and Connecticut and Rhode Island sought a preliminary injunction on Monday for a separate project. The administration said the pause is intended to protect national security and military readiness, but it did not disclose specifics.
Venezuela’s military held a funeral in Caracas on Wednesday for dozens of soldiers killed in a U.S. operation that Venezuela said captured former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The ceremony came a day after acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a seven-day mourning period for the slain officers, according to the report.
Four people injured in an explosion at a Pennsylvania nursing home two weeks earlier filed a negligence lawsuit in Philadelphia on Monday, naming the facility and a natural gas utility. The suit seeks damages, alleging the defendants knew of a gas leak and failed to evacuate and protect residents and workers.
Snow and ice grounded hundreds of flights and snarled roads and rail across parts of Europe on Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 passengers stranded overnight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, authorities said. In Paris, snow blanketed areas around the Eiffel Tower and Louvre and disrupted travel. In Germany, power was being restored to thousands of households after an outage that authorities said began four days earlier.
U.S. flu infections surged over the holiday period, with 45 states reporting high or very high activity during the week of Christmas — up from 30 states the prior week — and federal health officials warning that the season is severe and likely to worsen. New government data released Monday showed that by some measures the current season already rivals last winter's flu epidemic, one of the harshest in recent memory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated at least 11 million illnesses, 120,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths from influenza have occurred so far this season.
A Hampton Inn franchise in Lakeville, Minn., about 20 miles south of Minneapolis, canceled reservations for federal immigration agents and informed them they would not be permitted to stay at the property, according to screenshots posted on social media by the Department of Homeland Security. Hilton and the property's local operator, Everpeak Hospitality, each issued apologies within hours, saying the cancellation violated their policies.
A Federal Aviation Administration notice warned pilots about a slackline that would be strung across a mountainous area of Arizona in the days before a deadly Jan. 2 helicopter crash, according to federal aviation records. The crash killed the helicopter pilot and three family members after authorities said it struck the line near Telegraph Canyon, about 64 miles east of Phoenix.
Guyana said it has suspended gold mining licenses for 107 Brazilian permit holders and threatened deportation as part of a crackdown on suspected gold smuggling. The Geology and Mines Commission said it acted after accusing the miners of producing large amounts of raw gold but failing to declare or sell most of it to the government or authorized buyers.
A year after the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles area history scorched Altadena and Pacific Palisades, homeowners whose structures survived are confronting a continuing health crisis: lead, asbestos and other toxic compounds left behind by smoke and ash. Despite professional cleanings, six out of 10 smoke-damaged homes in the Eaton Fire area still show dangerous contamination levels, according to a November report by the volunteer group Eaton Fire Residents United. Many residents say their insurance companies are refusing to cover adequate testing and remediation, leaving families living in homes they fear may be harming them.
A year after twin wildfire infernos ripped across Los Angeles County on Jan. 7, 2025, rebuilding is still underway and the death toll remains a stark measure of what extreme conditions can do, the Associated Press reported. The Palisades and Eaton fires spread rapidly across the county, leaving thousands of structures destroyed and federal disaster aid still pending.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will propose a drinking water limit for perchlorate, a chemical used in rockets, fireworks, and other explosives — but only because a federal appeals court ordered it to act. The agency said it would seek public comment on limits of 20, 40, and 80 parts per billion and require roughly 66,000 water utilities to test for the chemical, while also arguing that the expected cost to utilities would outweigh the public health benefit.
Two major California oil refinery closures are raising alarms about fuel shortages and price spikes in Nevada, which depends on the Golden State for roughly 88% of its gas, diesel and jet fuel, energy industry experts and state officials said. Phillips 66 shuttered its Los Angeles-area refinery in October, and Valero has submitted notice of plans to close a Bay Area facility by April 2026. Combined, the two plants produced 284,000 barrels of oil per day — about 17% of California's total refining capacity.
Federal pipeline safety regulators on Monday issued a record $9.6 million fine against Third Coast Midstream, the Houston-based company whose 2023 pipeline failure spilled 1.1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana's coast. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said Third Coast's violations were systemic — including inadequate emergency procedures, insufficient risk assessments, and improper maintenance of the 18-inch Main Pass Oil Gathering pipeline — contributing to a leak that operators allowed to continue for nearly 13 hours before shutting down the line.
Colorado wildlife authorities ended a four-day search for mountain lions Monday after killing two of the predators near the trail where a Fort Collins woman was fatally attacked on New Year's Day, though a third lion spotted in the area was never found. Kristen Marie Kovatch, 46, died of asphyxia caused by neck compression, the Larimer County Coroner's Office said, with injuries consistent with a mountain lion attack. Her death was ruled an accident.
Four people hurt when a natural gas explosion killed two at a suburban Philadelphia nursing home filed a negligence lawsuit Monday in Philadelphia court, claiming the facility operator and a gas utility knew of a gas leak days before the Dec. 23 blast and failed to evacuate residents and workers.
Researchers have identified 15 North Atlantic right whale calves during the current winter birth season off the southeastern United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday — a count higher than two of the last three winters, but far short of what scientists say the species needs to halt its slide toward extinction.
Small farms across South Dakota are capitalizing on rising consumer demand for locally grown food by building diversified operations that combine produce sales with agritourism, specialty events, and direct-to-consumer marketing — even as the state's count of USDA-certified organic producers has dropped sharply since 2022. At Bear Butte Gardens near Sturgis, co-owners Michelle and Rick Grosek have developed their 80-acre certified organic farm into a year-round destination since opening in 2010, adding overnight rentals, fiber festivals, cooking classes, and farm tours alongside sales to local grocers and restaurants.
A Boeing 737 Max 9 door-plug panel blew out shortly after takeoff in January 2024, and an Alaska Airlines pilot who helped land the plane safely is now suing Boeing. Captain Brandon Fisher filed the lawsuit in Oregon, alleging Boeing tried to blame him and the rest of the crew despite findings by U.S. safety investigators.
Swiss authorities said fire safety inspections had not been carried out since 2019 at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, where a New Year’s Day blaze killed 40 people and injured more than 100. Investigators said sparkling candles on top of Champagne bottles ignited the fire in the bar around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. The Valais region’s chief prosecutor said a criminal investigation has been opened into the bar’s managers.
Indonesia’s conservation park released a video Tuesday showing the progress of a giant panda cub 40 days after his birth in the country. The cub, named Satrio Wiratama and nicknamed “Rio,” was examined for the first time outside the incubator by veterinarians at the Indonesian Taman Safari park in Cisarua, West Java.
Orthodox Christians attended Epiphany ceremonies on Tuesday marking Christ’s baptism, as Greek officials used the moment to highlight worsening water scarcity. In Marathon, north of Athens, a priest cast a wooden cross into Lake Marathon, an artificial reservoir whose level has fallen sharply.
Indonesian rescuers recovered a third body Tuesday from a tour boat that sank during a Christmas holiday trip in Indonesia, officials said. Two sons of Spanish soccer coach Fernando Martín remained missing after the Dec. 26 sinking in the Komodo National Park area.
Indiana U.S. Rep. Jim Baird was hospitalized after his vehicle was struck in a car accident, and his office said Tuesday he is expected to make a full recovery. His office said he was “extraordinarily grateful for everyone’s prayers during this time.”
Snow and ice hit parts of Europe on Tuesday, causing deadly accidents and widespread travel disruptions, the Associated Press reported. In France, authorities in the Landes region said at least three people died in accidents, while officials in the Île-de-France area reported additional deaths and ordered trucks off the road as snowfall triggered major traffic jams.
A new conservation sanctuary in southeast Texas will protect winter habitat for the endangered whooping crane, organizers said. The International Crane Foundation, The Conservation Fund and the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program announced the acquisition of more than 3,300 acres for the birds, which migrate each winter from Canada to Texas.
ALTADENA, Calif. — Missi Dowd-Figueroa, a 44-year-old registered nurse and mother of three, lost her 1898 farm-style house when the Eaton Fire swept through this Los Angeles-area suburb in January 2025. A year later, she planted roughly 500 sunflowers on the empty lot where her home once stood — and broke ground on a new one.
Crews cleared mud from key California highways Sunday as forecasters warned that more thunderstorms were on the way, after a week of downpours coinciding with record-breaking King Tides caused flooding, road closures, and rescues of people trapped in cars across the San Francisco Bay Area. Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to three inches of additional rain possible through Monday night, the National Weather Service office in Eureka said. A man died in Santa Barbara County after being swept into a creek during the storms, the county sheriff's office said Saturday.
A Cessna 172N crashed and caught fire Sunday at Provincetown Municipal Airport on Cape Cod, killing the pilot, the only person aboard, city officials said. Firefighters and other emergency responders extinguished the blaze at the crash site near the seaside community at the very tip of Cape Cod.
Energy analysts and oil industry experts said Saturday that President Donald Trump's plan to revitalize Venezuela's oil industry following the U.S. military seizure of President Nicolás Maduro faces a years-long rebuilding timeline and approximately $100 billion in required investment before production could return to historic levels — and that global oil markets are unlikely to feel an immediate impact.
Scientists said Thursday that 2025 was one of the three hottest years on record and that human-caused climate change worsened extreme weather during the year. The analysis, released by the World Weather Attribution group, came as people in many countries faced dangerous heat, drought and flooding.
More than 3,300 acres of winter habitat for whooping cranes—one of North America’s rarest birds—was acquired for protection along the Texas coast, conservation groups said. The sanctuary, announced Thursday, is meant to safeguard the cranes’ migration route and support continued recovery of the last self-sustaining wild flock. Officials and scientists said threats such as development and climate change remain.
The suspected fatal mountain lion attack happened on New Year’s Day on a remote trail in Colorado’s mountain lion habitat east of Rocky Mountain National Park, authorities said. The woman’s body was found on the Crosier Mountain trail, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife said wounds were consistent with a mountain lion attack. Wildlife officials tracked down and killed two mountain lions in the area as they searched for a possible additional animal.
Heavy rain and what authorities described as the most severe king tides in more than two decades flooded a 15-mile stretch of Northern California roadways on Saturday, prompting car rescues and road closures from the Sausalito area to San Rafael. A man died after being swept into a creek during the same storm in Santa Barbara County to the south.
Rain continued in parts of California as crews cleared mud from highways and officials warned of additional thunderstorms after downpours and high tides caused flooding, road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars, the Associated Press reported. Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to three inches of rain possible through Monday night in already saturated areas.
Altadena, Calif., wildfire survivor Missi Dowd-Figueroa has been planting sunflowers on the lot where her home once stood, gradually turning fire-scarred ground into a garden while she works toward rebuilding. The registered nurse lost an 1898 farm-style house in the Eaton Fire, one of two deadly wildfires that tore through the Los Angeles area last January. A year later, she is among those still grappling with grief and few who have been able to rebuild so far.
A private helicopter crashed Friday morning in a remote mountainous area of Arizona, killing all four people aboard, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said. The crash occurred around 11 a.m. near Telegraph Canyon, about 64 miles east of Phoenix, and may have been caused when the aircraft struck a recreational slackline strung across the mountains.
Tech companies and developers racing to build data centers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing are losing a growing number of local zoning fights across the United States, as residents from farming towns to growing suburbs organize to block proposals they say threaten their communities' character, water supply and electric rates. Between April and June, Data Center Watch — a project of AI security consultancy 10a Labs — counted 20 proposals valued at $98 billion across 11 states that were blocked or delayed amid local opposition and state-level pushback, amounting to roughly two-thirds of the projects it was tracking during that period.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it was still searching the eastern Pacific Ocean for people who jumped off alleged drug-smuggling boats when the U.S. military attacked the vessels days earlier, with harsh weather and the passage of time sharply diminishing the likelihood that anyone survived. The search began Tuesday afternoon after the military notified the Coast Guard that survivors were in the water roughly 400 miles southwest of the border between Mexico and Guatemala.
More than 100 firefighters battled a three-alarm blaze Friday evening at a three-story apartment complex under construction in southeast Denver, officials said. The fire was still burning more than two hours after it started, according to Denver Fire. No injuries had been reported.
Berlin authorities said a fire on a cable bridge damaged high-voltage power lines, leaving about 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in four districts of the city without electricity for days. The outage affected heating and internet services, and officials are investigating the blaze as possible arson with “left-wing extremists” blamed.
A passenger boat capsized along the Yobe River in Garbi town in Nigeria’s Yobe state, leaving at least 25 people dead and 14 others missing, emergency services said. The boat overturned mid-journey after leaving residents heading toward the local market and others involved in fishing or farming, AP reported.
Indonesian rescuers recovered a second body Sunday as they searched for a Spanish soccer coach and two of his children missing after a tour boat sank in Indonesia during Christmas, the Maumere Search and Rescue Office said. The body was found floating near Padar island, about 2 kilometers from the sinking site, said Fathur Rahman, the office chief.
Hundreds of people marched in silence Sunday in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, to honor victims of a New Year’s Eve bar fire that killed 40 people and left many others severely injured. The somber procession followed a Mass at Chapelle Saint-Christophe, with mourners later gathering outside Le Constellation as they left bouquets and tributes at a makeshift memorial.
A solo hiker authorities believe was killed by a mountain lion on a remote Colorado trail on New Year’s Day had “wounds consistent with a mountain lion attack,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. Officials are investigating the death after wildlife tracked down and killed two mountain lions in the area and searched for a possible third.
A federal appeals court on New Year’s Eve blocked Hawaii from enforcing a cruise-ship passenger “climate change tourist tax” while an appeal proceeds. Cruise Lines International Association challenged the law, saying it violates the Constitution by taxing cruise ships for entering Hawaii ports.
Heavy rains and snowfall across Afghanistan triggered flash floods in several areas, killing at least 17 people and injuring 11 others, officials said Thursday. Most of the casualties occurred after Monday in districts hit by the flooding, according to Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Heavy rain and high tides caused flooding in parts of Northern California on Saturday, prompting road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars, authorities said. In the Marin County area, roadways were flooded after the downpour coincided with “King Tides,” which are linked to stronger gravitational pull, according to a county sheriff’s sergeant.
Starting this year, Californians will pay a 1.5 percent surcharge — capped at $15 — every time they buy a product with a non-removable battery, from power tools and gaming consoles to singing greeting cards. The fee, which took effect January 1, expands the state's electronic-waste recycling program to cover the lithium-ion batteries now embedded in thousands of everyday consumer products. The change stems from Senate Bill 1215, authored by former state Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat who represented parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, and signed into law in 2022 by Gov. Gavin Newsom. California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery estimates about 7,300 tons of batteries reach landfills illegally or by accident each year.
California's 2025 push to regulate data centers' surging electricity demand ended with a single surviving measure: a law directing state utility regulators to publish a report on cost impacts by 2027. Stronger proposals — including a separate electricity rate for data centers, grid battery mandates, and electricity-disclosure requirements — collapsed under pressure from Big Tech, business groups, and Gov. Gavin Newsom. The lone survivor, authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, began as a plan to shield households and small businesses from higher energy bills by creating a distinct rate structure for data centers. By the time it passed, that core provision had been stripped out.
A yellow Labrador named Phoenix fell through the ice on a pond in Westerly, Rhode Island, on New Year's Day and had to be pulled to safety by firefighters wearing ice rescue suits, the Misquamicut Fire Department said Thursday. The dog was out for a walk with his owner when he wandered onto a thin layer of ice and broke through to the center of the pond. Phoenix was declared free of injuries, and both fire departments involved called the rescue "a successful first call of 2026."
A private helicopter crashed in a mountainous area of Arizona on Friday, killing all four people aboard, officials said. The crash took place around 11 a.m. near Telegraph Canyon, about 64 miles east of Phoenix.
About 40 people were killed and at least 115 others were injured after a fire ripped through a bar celebration in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, shortly after midnight on Thursday, police said. Authorities said the number of deaths was not immediately final and that work was under way to identify victims and notify families. Valais Canton officials said it was too early to determine what caused the fire and that there was no suspect.
Conservationists in Kenya are mourning the death of Craig, a famed “super tusker” elephant, who died on Saturday at age 54. Craig lived in Amboseli National Park, a protected area in southern Kenya, and was known for immense, ground-sweeping tusks and a calm presence, the Kenya Wildlife Service said.
Un incendio arrasó la celebración de Año Nuevo en un bar de Crans-Montana, un centro turístico alpino suizo, menos de dos horas después de la medianoche del jueves, informó la policía. Las autoridades estimaron “unas 40” muertes y reportaron 115 heridos, la mayoría de ellos de gravedad.
A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Gambia on New Year’s Eve, leaving dozens missing, Gambian President Adama Barrow said late Friday. Barrow said at least 102 survivors were rescued and seven bodies were recovered from the crash near the village of Jinack in the North Bank region.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the managers of a bar in Crans-Montana where a fire at a New Year’s party killed 40 people, the Valais region’s chief prosecutor said Saturday. Beatrice Pilloud said the investigation was opened on Friday night and would help “explore all the leads,” without naming the managers. The blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. Thursday at Le Constellation bar in the Alpine resort town.
A Kenyan barber known online as “Chief Safro” is drawing attention for giving haircuts with unconventional tools, including a razor-sharp shovel blade. Safari Martins, based on the rural outskirts of Nairobi in Kiambu, Kenya, has built a following on Instagram and TikTok by having each cut filmed by a helper.
Americans looking for a fresh start in 2026 can pair common New Year’s resolutions with steps that also cut climate impact, the Associated Press reported ahead of the holiday season ending. The story highlights practical changes tied to saving energy, reducing food waste, and buying less while improving organization.
More than 100 firefighters battled a large blaze Friday evening that tore through a three-story apartment complex under construction in southeast Denver, officials said. Firefighters were still working to extinguish the fire more than two hours after it started, according to Denver Fire’s division chief of operations.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Fernando Moreno, who has been on dialysis for about two years while waiting for a kidney transplant, has been connected to a pilot program that pairs patients with volunteer strangers using social media outreach. The effort, based in Pennsylvania hospitals and supported by the Gift of Life Donor Program, is testing whether “angel advocates” can improve the odds of finding living kidney donors for patients who have limited social networks.
A fire inside a busy Swiss Alpine bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana killed 40 people during New Year celebrations, and injured more than 100, according to authorities. In statements released after the disaster, survivors and residents described searching for missing relatives and rushing to help people trapped behind the smoke.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it is still searching for people who jumped from alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific after a U.S. military attack days earlier, with the odds of finding survivors diminishing. The search began Tuesday afternoon for people reported to be in the water about 400 miles (650 kilometers) southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The first New Year’s Eve since a deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street, in which 14 people were killed, will be marked with an expanded police and National Guard presence in New Orleans. National Guard members arrived Tuesday to help with safety measures as city officials continue work on long-term security changes, nearly a year after the attack.
Starting this year, Californians will pay a new fee every time they buy a product with a non-removable battery, including items such as power tools, gaming devices and some greeting cards, under a law signed in 2022. The 1.5% surcharge, capped at $15, is intended to expand a state-backed recycling program for lithium batteries.
As meteorologists warn of storms that can “bomb out,” residents may wonder what a bomb cyclone means. The term refers to storms that undergo “bombogenesis,” when their central pressure drops rapidly over a short period.
Indonesian authorities raised the alert level for Mount Bur Ni Telong in Aceh to its second highest level after increased volcanic activity and earthquakes, an official said. The 2,624-meter stratovolcano in Bener Meriah recorded multiple quakes on Tuesday evening, and scientists elevated the alert after monitoring showed heightened activity.
A federal appeals court blocked enforcement of Hawaii's first-in-the-nation climate change tourist tax on cruise ships on New Year's Eve, halting a levy that had been set to take effect Jan. 1, 2026. Two judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted injunctions pending appeal after Cruise Lines International Association challenged the law as an unconstitutional tax on vessels entering Hawaii ports.
Associated Press journalists reported several uplifting moments from around the world in 2025, including a surprise phone call after the election of the first American pope and a Nobel prize announcement delivered before dawn. The year’s calmer scenes also included a wedding held in a typhoon-flooded church in the Philippines and a youth theater production that returned after a wildfire.
Many people light scented candles and use fireplaces during the holiday season, but experts warn that burning flames can add pollutants to indoor air and worsen respiratory problems for some residents. In colder months, people also spend more time indoors, which can trap contaminants inside, according to the American Lung Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Hong Kong will welcome 2026 without fireworks over Victoria Harbor after a massive apartment fire in November killed at least 161 people. The tourism board instead held a music show in Central on Wednesday night, with a light display at midnight on the facades of eight landmarks.
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and members of the imperial family greeted New Year well-wishers at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Friday, waving from the palace balcony as people shouted “banzai.” Standing with his wife, Masako, and other relatives, Naruhito wished the crowd a happy new year after a statement released in advance. The annual appearance draws large crowds despite the palace’s central location and restricted grounds.
A group of Buddhist monks is continuing a multi-state walking trek for peace toward Washington, D.C., after two members were injured when a truck hit their escort vehicle in Texas. The group said it reached Georgia and planned to walk through the area east of Atlanta on Tuesday, marking day 66 of the journey.
A power outage can become dangerous quickly, depending on how long it lasts and the temperature outside. In guidance shared with the Associated Press, disaster and utility experts urged people to prepare in advance, sign up for emergency alerts and plan how they will keep food safe, stay warm and respond if conditions become unsafe.
Rhode Island firefighters rescued a yellow Labrador named Phoenix after the dog fell through thin ice on New Year’s Day while walking with his owner, according to the Misquamicut Fire Department. The rescue took place in Westerly, Rhode Island, after volunteer firefighters were dispatched for a water rescue early Thursday morning.
President Donald Trump plans to renovate the Courses at Andrews, the military golf courses inside Joint Base Andrews near Washington, according to the White House and a report by AP. Trump is working with golf course designer Jack Nicklaus, and plans are described as early-stage, with costs and funding not yet determined.
The Trump administration has reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency in its first year, cutting federal limits on air and water pollution while promoting fossil fuels, according to an Associated Press review. The changes mark a sharp departure from the agency’s long-standing mission to protect human health and the environment.
A Walt Disney World worker in Florida was injured Tuesday while trying to stop a 400-pound prop boulder from rolling into seated spectators during the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Associated Press reported. A second worker stopped the boulder before it reached the audience.
Tatiana Schlossberg, a journalist and grandchild of the late President John F. Kennedy, died at 35 after a battle with leukemia, her family announced Tuesday in a statement posted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Schlossberg had written publicly about her diagnosis and treatment, and her work covered climate change and the environment.
Rain and even thunder are forecast for the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, where organizers said they are making only small changes for a New Year’s Day parade that typically stays dry. Across the country, forecasters also predict wintry cold for New York City’s Times Square midnight ball drop, with snow flurries possible.
A Walt Disney World employee was knocked to the ground Tuesday while trying to stop a 400-pound prop boulder that rolled off its track toward seated spectators at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Orlando, Florida, according to Disney. A second worker intervened and stopped the boulder before it reached the audience. Disney said Wednesday it would not disclose the injured employee's condition, citing privacy reasons, and that it was reviewing why the prop moved off its track.
With 2026 arriving, a new set of state laws is taking effect that spans climate policy, alcohol enforcement, prescription drug pricing and vehicle licensing. Hawaii plans to raise a tourist lodging tax to fund climate resilience projects, while Utah expands rules intended to keep alcohol out of the hands of people convicted of drunken driving. California, Washington and Georgia are also among the states introducing changes involving insulin pricing, minimum wage increases and specialty license plates.
Rescue crews discovered the bodies of three hikers, including a 19-year-old man, on Mount Baldy in Southern California on Monday evening. High winds hampered initial rescue efforts, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Florida wildlife officials said 52 black bears were killed during the state’s first black bear hunt in a decade, which ran from Dec. 6 to Sunday. The hunt was limited to 172 permit holders who won vouchers through a random lottery drawn from more than 160,000 applicants. Critics, including the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, questioned the hunt’s management and said the state withheld details about the kill count.
Open‑water swimmer Erica Fox, 55, was identified as the victim of a fatal shark attack off Davenport Beach in Santa Cruz County, California, after she went missing on Dec. 21 while swimming with the Kelp Krawlers club. Authorities recovered her body Saturday and confirmed her identity through her Garmin watch and a shark‑deterrent band found on her ankle.
Gale warnings are issued when high sustained winds or frequent gusts are expected over bodies of water, and they can also create dangerous conditions on land. The National Weather Service typically issues gale warnings when wind speeds are faster than 35 knots, or about 40 mph (64 km/h). Meteorologists say strong winds can raise the risk of capsized boats, damage from flying debris and hazardous driving conditions, and they can make cold weather feel colder through wind chill.
A group of about two dozen Buddhist monks reached Georgia on Tuesday, day 66 of a walking trek across much of the United States to promote peace, pressing on despite injuries sustained last month when a truck struck their escort vehicle outside Houston. The group, which set out from Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 26, planned to walk Tuesday from the town of Morrow to Decatur, on the eastern edge of Atlanta, where they invited the public to a Peace Gathering that afternoon.
In the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, a slate of U.S. House members on both sides of the aisle has announced they will not seek re-election. The departures include Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, Republican Reps. Harriet Hageman, Dan Newhouse and Elise Stefanik, and Democratic leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, according to retirement and candidacy announcements tracked by The Associated Press.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a former U.S. senator and House member from Colorado known for advocacy on Native American issues, died Tuesday at 92, according to his daughter, Shanan Campbell, who confirmed his death to The Associated Press. The Democrat who later joined the Republican Party was remembered for his bipartisan work on children’s rights, organized labor, and fiscal conservatism.
Arctic air pushing across the Great Lakes and Northeast brought heavy snow, strong winds and frigid temperatures on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone storm system left tens of thousands of customers without power across the Midwest, the National Weather Service said. Forecasters said temperatures could drop below freezing as far south as the Florida panhandle, with blustery winds adding to dangerous wind chills.
A strengthening bomb cyclone barreled across the northern U.S. on Monday, bringing blizzard conditions, dangerous travel and power outages to parts of the Midwest before it shifted attention toward the East Coast. Forecasters said the storm intensified rapidly as pressure dropped, sending sharply colder air and strong winds across the Plains and Great Lakes.
Dennis Hamlin, 75, the father of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, died Sunday night after a blaze engulfed the family’s two‑story home near Stanley, North Carolina, while his 69‑year‑old mother, Mary Lou Hamlin, was rushed to a burn center in critical condition, officials said.
A midair collision between two helicopters near Hammonton Municipal Airport in southern New Jersey killed two pilots, including one who died after police identified the victims. Authorities on Monday identified the men as Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71, and said only the pilots were aboard.
A swimmer who went missing after a shark attack off the Northern California coast last week has been identified as open-ocean swimmer Erica Fox, officials said. Authorities recovered her body Saturday from the ocean south of Davenport Beach in Santa Cruz County, the sheriff’s office said.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Rescue crews responding to a report that a hiker fell on a remote mountainside near Mount Baldy found three people dead, authorities said. The incident unfolded Monday during strong winds that prevented a helicopter from landing on an initial attempt.
Florida officials say 52 black bears were killed during the state’s first black bear hunt in a decade, which ran from Dec. 6 to Sunday. The hunt was limited to 172 permit holders chosen from more than 160,000 applicants, and critics questioned whether the state’s kill count was accurate amid concerns about limited oversight and transparency.
Michigan saw about $540 million in climate-related federal grants canceled or held up after President Donald Trump took office, according to an analysis compiled by Atlas Public Policy. The shift also corresponds with changes in state and automaker plans for clean-energy manufacturing, including cancelled or delayed electric-vehicle and battery projects, the reporting says.
HAMMONTON, N.J. — Two helicopters collided midair over Hammonton Municipal Airport on Sunday, killing one pilot and critically injuring the other, authorities said. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to reports of the crash about 11:25 a.m. and firefighters later extinguished flames engulfing one helicopter.
Hawaii will become the first state to raise its tourist lodging tax for climate-related projects as new 2026 laws take effect across the U.S., a federal minimum wage increase, and other state changes targeting public health and road safety. In Utah, restaurants and bars will have to check customers’ IDs before serving alcohol, including for customers of any age, and California will begin selling state-branded insulin.
South Korea has outlined plans to retire most of its coal-fired power plants by 2040 and cut emissions by 2035, but the country’s climate goals are drawing scrutiny amid negotiations to increase U.S. liquefied natural gas purchases tied to trade talks with President Donald Trump. At recent UN climate talks, South Korea’s new Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said the shift is central to its carbon-cutting pledge. Climate advocates and energy analysts say adding more LNG could undercut the planned move away from fossil fuels, even if gas burns cleaner than coal.
The U.S. military said it conducted another strike against a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people, according to the Pentagon’s Southern Command. The latest attack brought the total number of known boat strikes to 30 and the number of people killed at least 107 since early September, the Trump administration said.
Gale warnings are issued for areas near oceans, sounds or lakes when high sustained winds or frequent gusts are expected over water. Meteorologist Patrick Saunders of the National Weather Service said gale warnings are typically issued when wind speeds exceed 35 knots, about 40 mph (64 km/h). Weather officials say strong winds can also create hazardous conditions away from shore, including dangerous driving conditions and a higher risk of frostbite in extreme wind chill.
When meteorologists warn that a storm could "bomb out," they are describing a specific and potentially dangerous atmospheric process. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines bombogenesis as occurring when a storm's central pressure drops at least 24 millibars within 24 hours — a threshold that, when crossed, classifies the event as a bomb cyclone.
Power outages triggered by winter storms, heat waves, wildfires, or accidents can turn serious — or even fatal — depending on duration and outside temperature, emergency preparedness experts said. The American Red Cross, the American Public Power Association, and the Consumer Energy Alliance urged U.S. residents to build emergency kits and establish plans before the next outage strikes.
South Korea has pledged to retire most of its coal-fired power plants by 2040 and cut carbon emissions by 2035, but it is also in talks tied to U.S. trade demands that could increase imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas. At United Nations climate talks, South Korea’s new ministry laid out the coal phaseout and emissions goals, while climate and energy experts said the parallel push for LNG could lock the country into fossil-fuel dependence. The potential U.S.-Seoul energy deal would include large-scale investment and LNG purchases alongside negotiations shaped by Trump-era tariffs.
A rapidly strengthening bomb cyclone barreled across the northern United States on Monday, unleashing blizzard conditions, dangerous wind chills and widespread power outages from the Plains to the Great Lakes before turning east toward the Atlantic coast, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota plunged to as low as minus 30 °F, and more than 220,000 customers were left without electricity, with Michigan alone accounting for a third of the outages, officials reported.
An Arctic blast brought heavy snow, strong winds and frigid temperatures to parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone swept through the Midwest and left tens of thousands without power. The National Weather Service said blustery winds pushed temperatures below freezing as far south as the Florida panhandle, and warned of dangerous travel conditions as the system moved toward Canada.
The holiday travel rush turned hazardous as a winter storm brought snow and disruptions across the U.S. Northeast and Great Lakes between Christmas and New Year’s. New York City received about 4 inches of snow, while at least 1,500 flights were canceled Friday night, according to FlightAware. Meanwhile, California reported four deaths related to earlier flooding and mudslides and warned of gusty Santa Ana winds later in the week.
A new storm hitting already waterlogged Southern California on Christmas Day prompted evacuation warnings in a mountain town and high-surf advisories along parts of the coast, the National Weather Service said. In Wrightwood, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department issued an evacuation warning after rescuers freed people trapped in cars during an earlier mudslide.
Police identified two New Jersey pilots who died after their helicopters collided midair Sunday near Hammonton Municipal Airport in Hammonton, about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said Kenneth Kirsch, 65, was pronounced dead after being flown to an area hospital, while Michael Greenberg, 71, died at the crash site.
Volunteers with Seuk’s Army say a fatal rescue-flight crash in 2024 helped spur a volunteer network that now moves far more animals to foster and rescue groups across the United States than it did before the tragedy. On a recent Sunday at Culpeper Regional Airport in Virginia, volunteers unloaded dogs and cats, including Jenny and her seven puppies, as part of a weekly airlift marking the crash anniversary.
A powerful winter storm is sweeping east from the Plains and is expected to intensify as it moves across the United States, with snow, ice, thunderstorms and strong winds affecting holiday travel areas. The National Weather Service warned of possible whiteout and blizzard conditions in parts of the Upper Midwest and of dangerous wind chills as cold air presses south from Canada. In the South, a sharp cold front is expected to end days of record warmth by bringing rain and much colder temperatures.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The father of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin died and his mother was critically injured after a weekend house fire heavily damaged the North Carolina home where they lived, officials said Monday. Firefighters found the father and mother with catastrophic injuries after arriving at the two-story house near Stanley, and the father later died at a hospital.
Hawaii’s Big Island will ban people from feeding feral cats on county property starting at the beginning of the new year, in a bid to protect endangered native species. The measure targets cat feeding at places such as transfer stations, where cats congregate for food provided by longtime residents who say the cats should not be harmed.
Michigan has lost about $540 million in climate-related federal grants since President Donald Trump took office, according to an Atlas Public Policy database cited by Bridge Michigan. The cancellations come as auto and battery manufacturers have scaled back or halted some electric-vehicle projects and shifted investment toward gas and hybrid production.
HAMMONTON, N.J. — Two helicopters crashed midair Sunday in New Jersey, killing one pilot and critically injuring another, authorities said. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to the aviation crash report at about 11:25 a.m. and that flames were extinguished at the scene.
As 2026 begins, several U.S. states will roll out new laws that include a Hawaii tourism “Green Fee” aimed at climate impacts and a California program to sell state-labeled insulin. Other changes taking effect range from tighter Utah alcohol-identification requirements for bar and restaurant customers to new vehicle license plates in Georgia that feature “America First.”
New Orleans will begin a National Guard deployment Tuesday to add security for New Year’s celebrations, officials said Monday, a year after a deadly vehicle attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 people. The Guard’s presence is expected to focus on the French Quarter area and not include immigration enforcement, New Orleans police spokesperson Reese Harper said.
Families with young children across the United States are finding service opportunities alongside their youngest members despite widespread age restrictions at nonprofit organizations, with some parents founding their own programs after established groups turned toddlers away, the Associated Press reported. Many nonprofits require volunteers to be at least 18 years old, leaving families searching for alternatives during the holiday season, when demand for family-friendly service opportunities rises as parents look for ways to model charitable giving and community engagement.
Millennial and Generation Z Christian influencers are drawing growing audiences across digital platforms by offering biblical guidance on dating, mental health, parenting and racial justice — filling gaps that Sunday sermons often leave unfilled. The trend comes as organized religion loses ground among young Americans: only 41% of people ages 18 to 35 surveyed in 2023 and 2024 said they believe in God with certainty, down from 65% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. Podcasts like "Girls Gone Bible," co-hosted by former Hollywood actors Arielle Reitsma and Angela Halili, now draw more than a million listens or streams each month and sell out live events across the country.
Smartphone users looking to step away from their screens over the Christmas holiday season have several options available — from built-in phone settings and outdoor activities to physical device lockboxes — according to a technology guide published Dec. 18 by the Associated Press. The tips, compiled by AP technology reporter Kelvin Chan, cover both existing smartphone features and behavioral strategies backed by research on screen time and mental health.
A pilot program at three Pennsylvania hospitals is testing whether volunteer strangers — dubbed "angel advocates" — can use their own social media networks to help kidney patients with limited social connections find living donors. The Great Social Experiment, founded by Los Angeles filmmaker David Krissman, launched in May 2025 with 15 patients at Temple University Hospital, UPMC-Harrisburg and Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Early results show at least three patients have found donors across the two hospitals that have reported outcomes.
Setting a home thermostat a few degrees higher while away — rather than shutting the air conditioner off entirely or leaving it running at the usual temperature — is the best balance of energy savings, comfort, and humidity control for most U.S. households, three experts told the Associated Press. The recommendation applies broadly but varies by climate, building type, and the length of absence.
