Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won’t allow freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while sanctions and a U.S. blockade remain in place, underscoring the difficulty in reaching a peace deal with Washington despite efforts to revive talks this week.

The Islamic Republic “cannot accept that everyone benefits from ...Read more

President Donald Trump and Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, met face to face for the first time Tuesday evening, publicly cementing a rapidly expanding relationship between Washington and Caracas that recent polling suggests is deeply unpopular among Venezuelans.

Trump received Rodríguez at the Lotte New York Palace during a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The University of California, San Francisco's medical school illegally used race in admissions, discriminating against white and Asian applicants in favor of Black and Latino ones, the Department of Justice alleged Tuesday.

The allegations expand the Trump administration's scrutiny of University of California admissions after ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Months after an unsuccessful run in the gubernatorial primary, Katie Porter is stepping into a new role. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Porter to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors on Friday.

The 18-member board sets policy and provides guidance for the 73 districts and 116 colleges that make up the ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — After a San Jose police officer was fired earlier this year for abusing his access to the city’s Flock automated license-plate reader camera database, city leaders are pushing for tighter controls to curb unauthorized use.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Vice Mayor Pam Foley and councilmembers Domingo Candelas and George Casey...Read more

ST. LOUIS — Missouri's congressional map is before the U.S. Supreme Court once again, the third time the nation's high court has been asked to stop efforts to overturn a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court ruling.

The state court found that a Republican-drawn map passed last year had never taken effect because opponents gathered enough ...Read more

NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to another 15 years in prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting a TV production assistant in the heyday of his Hollywood career. The sentencing follows a yearslong legal saga for the disgraced film producer whose downfall sparked a global movement against workplace sexual abuse.

State Supreme Court...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A short-lived tropical depression could develop this week from a tropical wave off the coast of Africa and the remnants of what had been Tropical Storm Fay could redevelop, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In its 8 a.m. tropical advisory Wednesday, the NHC said chances had grown for development for an area of low ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a data center moratorium ordinance Wednesday aimed at blocking the controversial developments from popping up in Chicago for one year.

He described the ordinance, now in aldermen’s hands, as a temporary pause that would give the city time to develop long-term policies regulating concerns around ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday signed an executive order setting new guidelines that companies should follow when building data centers in Maryland, including a standardized review process and new state oversight of projects.

The Moore administration said the changes are intended to address concerns about transparency, environmental ...Read more

BALTIMORE — They lost at the ballot box. Their effort to put another question before voters failed. A planned lawsuit fizzled.

But opponents of Baltimore’s $900 million Harborplace redevelopment have kept fighting, regrouping after each setback and now joining forces again in a lawsuit challenging the project and proposed demolition of the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore County Public Schools staff unveiled proposals for the 2027-2028 school calendar on Tuesday, including options for starting the year before and after Labor Day and orientation days for sixth and ninth grade students.

Joelle Bielski, the district’s director of staff relations and employee performance management, said ...Read more

The conventional wisdom is that the Democratic Party has the advantage in the 2026 midterm elections and could become the majority party in one, or both, chambers of Congress. The margin of that anticipated victory is harder to predict.

And the size of a party’s majority makes a difference. To see why, it’s worth looking back to ...Read more

Recently, I moderated a national event that had college students speaking with election officials, something I often find myself doing this time of year. This year, a new question kept coming up: “If I’m voting by mail, can I trust my ballot will actually show up?”

For college students, such considerations have urgency. Many are...Read more

Even if you have never read it, you know the story of Mary Shelley’s second great work of political science fiction after “Frankenstein.” “The Last Man,” published in 1826 but set in the late 21st century, tells the tale of a lethal contagion spread by human conflict and war that sweeps the world and seemingly leaves one sole human ...Read more

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world’s best physics-based prediction systems.

This remarkable progress has been driven by three factors: massive amounts of weather data, advances in AI models and ...Read more

Look around you, and you’ll see rare earth elements at work. A phone vibrates because a magnet moves a weight. Its screen was polished with cerium powder. Its connection to the rest of the world crosses oceans on cables amplified with erbium. If you drove today, a rare earth magnet helped you steer, and a cerium compound scrubbed the ...Read more

“Families are messy, aren’t they?” a daughter commented during a series of focus groups I ran with caregivers of older adults with memory issues.

Many people would agree with that sentiment. The complexity can be compounded when caring for someone who has a disease such as Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia that impairs ...Read more

The numbers are clear: Americans aren’t getting enough fiber.

Research has consistently shown that high-fiber diets are linked to significant health benefits, including a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer, as well as improved arthritis symptoms.

Despite these benefits, there remains a significant ...Read more