As wildfire researchers warn that some communities do not have enough roads to evacuate safely, they are also raising a fraught question: Should fire-risk neighborhoods have designated refuge areas for people who cannot get out?

A new study that found wildfire deaths in California and across the U.S. between 2008 and 2024 were concentrated in ...Read more

Congress is looking to roll back state animal welfare laws as it wrangles over reauthorization of the federal farm bill.

The farm bill, which Congress generally reworks every five years, includes money and federal rules for food assistance programs, farm subsidies, and other ag-related programs.

A pending version of the legislation includes ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Arshia Esmaeilian had dreamed of coming to America as long as he could remember.

Esmaeilian and his brother were born in Iran but raised in Dubai, their parents believing the move could pave a more direct path to higher education in the West.

And it did. Esmaeilian graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry last month ...Read more

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — Until recently, this rural city about 45 minutes east of Atlanta was best known for its Blue Willow Inn cookbooks featuring recipes for Southern dishes such as baked pineapple casserole and kudzu blossom jelly.

Lately, however, the community has been trying to stave off a new identity of "prison town" as it fights the ...Read more

The Charlotte City Council voted unanimously Monday to implement a 150-day moratorium on data centers after months of debate over how to handle the increasingly controversial projects.

Council members say the plan will give them time to learn more about the facilities and consider how to approach future data center developments within the ...Read more

President Xi Jinping vowed to expand China’s trade, agriculture and technology cooperation with North Korea, while avoiding public mentions of its neighbor’s nuclear program in a meeting with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

In comments made Monday in the North Korean capital, Xi pledged “unwavering support” for Kim, saying China is ready to �...Read more

DENVER — Geo Group, the private prison company that operates Colorado’s sole immigrant detention center, filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a just-signed state law that requires more regular inspections of detention facilities in Colorado.

The suit, filed in federal court in Denver, seeks to invalidate House Bill 1276, which Gov. Jared ...Read more

BEIRUT — Israel and Iran suspended military attacks on each other Monday, heeding President Trump’s call to end a flare-up that threatened to derail a brittle two-month ceasefire and engulf the Middle East in all-out conflict once again.

Iran’s military said in a statement on Iranian state media that it had “delivered a painful ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has drawn up a plan to surge U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to New York City, a move that threatens to escalate tensions with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul over the president’s migrant crackdown.

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said Monday he’d warned Hochul of the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Two weeks before Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey nominated Brian O’Hara for a second term as police chief and a month before O’Hara resigned under pressure, city attorneys received a document alleging that a high-ranking veteran officer had been punished by his superiors for providing damaging information to a law firm ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Even before President Trump’s latest wave of unfounded claims of election fraud in California, a significant share of voters in the state expressed concerns about federal interference in the electoral process, according to a new poll.

Trump on Monday claimed on his social media site that the race for Los Angeles mayor ...Read more

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall notice for a brand of baby wipes with the potential to cause a bacterial contamination that could result in serious or life-threatening infections in newborns and young children, and those with compromised immune systems.

The recall of the wipes — Target brand Up & Up Fragrance Free and ...Read more

WOODLAND, Calif. — Kimberlee Guillory, the sole survivor of accused Davis serial stabber Carlos Dominguez’s 2023 rampage, returned Monday to testify at the former UC Davis student’s murder trial in Yolo Superior Court.

Guillory, stabbed as she sat in her tent in a downtown Davis encampment, was the third and only surviving victim of the ...Read more

Iran and Israel agreed to ease strikes against each other after a flare-up in violence threatened to derail peace negotiations and led President Donald Trump to appeal for de-escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement Monday that Israel would hold its fire in Iran for now but would respond should Tehran ...Read more

U.S. investigators have concluded their latest search for a Michigan woman who disappeared more than two months ago in the waters surrounding the Bahamas.

The U.S. Coast Guard wrapped up its renewed effort to find 56-year-old Lynette Hooker on Friday, the agency said in a statement.

It wasn't immediately clear what evidence the search may have...Read more

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake was felt throughout western Cuba on Monday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

According to the U.S. government agency, its epicenter was located at sea, 73 miles west-northwest of Mantua, one of Cuba’s westernmost municipalities in the province of Pinar del Río. The agency initially reported the ...Read more

MIAMI — Just over an hour into opening statements into the vessel homicide and manslaughter trial of George Pino, who crashed his boat into a Biscayne Bay channel marker almost four years ago, killing a teenage girl, the Doral real estate broker broke down in tears. His reaction suspended the proceedings so he could be medically evaluated.

As...Read more

BOSTON — A judge ruled former State Trooper Michael Proctor can not delay his deposition for a wrongful death suit against Karen Read, but because of scheduling issues, it will be postponed anyway.

Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea said that he found both the original affidavits in support of the motion to delay as well as ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City schools with falling enrollment will not face budget cuts this fall, continuing a policy that guarantees each school in the system receives at least as much funding as it did the year before, even if they’re expecting fewer students.

Staring down a multibillion-dollar budget gap, Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced pressure ...Read more