Venezuela’s earthquake catastrophe entered its seventh day Wednesday with the official death toll climbing to 2,295, while a deepening crisis over missing persons, displacements and deteriorating conditions in the hardest-hit areas intensified pressure on the country’s fragile post-Maduro government.

The twin 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude ...Read more

NEW YORK — Daredevils Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climbed the Empire State Building Wednesday and unfurled a banner calling for peace.

Nikolau, 33, posted live footage of herself wandering around the skyscraper’s antenna while looking down at the crowds gathered 1,450-feet below. She and her 32-year-old fiance are no strangers to ...Read more

DENVER — New mandatory evacuations were issued Wednesday morning for the Aspen Acres fire burning in Pueblo and Custer counties, according to law enforcement.

Homes in the area of Red Creek Ranch were placed on pre-evacuation status early Wednesday morning, but were upgraded to mandatory evacuation orders shortly after 11 a.m. by the Pueblo ...Read more

BOSTON — As the town of Newbury and residents of Plum Island are locked in a dispute over flying American flags during this week’s Independence Day celebrations and protecting endangered shorebirds, a nonprofit is planning to sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to add more protections.

The Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter to U....Read more

SAN DIEGO — The decommissioned amphibious warship USS Juneau, which operated out of Naval Base San Diego for 25 years, was sunk during a dramatic live-fire training exercise in the Philippine Sea, roughly 200 miles from Guam, according to the Navy.

The multi-national attack occurred last Friday during Operation Valiant Shield and “brought ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court capped its term Tuesday with one decision overturning a long-standing campaign finance limit and another turning aside President Donald Trump’s attempt to unilaterally change birthright citizenship — a day, experts said, that exemplified this year at the court.

Throughout the term, they said the ...Read more

Twenty-five years ago, I attended a Fourth of July parade in Boston that has stuck with me.

The head drummer of the colonial fife and drum band was a Black man in a Revolutionary War costume, his dreadlocks peeking from under a powdered wig. As the parade stopped to lay a wreath at the Granary Burying Ground where founding fathers ...Read more

Data center projects continue to generate controversy around the country. In part, that’s because a variety of different groups have competing interests – some in favor of them, some opposed and others with no direct view on data centers themselves, but with concerns that relate to aspects of data center operations and effects.

As...Read more

Federal authorities have arrested nearly 350 suspected members of Tren de Aragua in a series of separate enforcement operations carried out across the country in recent months, marking one of the most aggressive U.S. efforts to date against the Venezuelan criminal organization, U.S. law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

At a news ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Wednesday took his first trip on his new luxe Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747 worth an estimated $400 million transferred for free from the oil-rich Middle East nation of Qatar.

“I’m excited about the first flight,” he told reporters ahead of his flight to North Dakota, where he planned to tour the new ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s homicide decline continued through the first half of 2026, with killings falling another 23% from the same period last year, according to data from the Baltimore Police Department.

The department reported Wednesday that the city recorded 50 homicides between Jan. 1 and July 1, down from 65 during the same period in ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the designation of several groups as terrorist organizations, using authority under a new law his office drafted.

The legislation lets the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, whose leader is appointed by the governor, label groups as domestic or foreign terrorists, a ...Read more

CHICAGO — Chicago ended 2025 with $219 million more than expected in its main operating fund thanks in large part to solid tax collections and many departments spending less than they were supposed to, a top official in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration said as the city unveiled its annual financial report.

Adding to the good news: the...Read more

Three ransom notes delivered after “Today" show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared are not legitimate, according to a report.

The debunked messages include a pair of ransom notes received by media outlets in early February — just days after Guthrie was reported missing — as well as a third note that was sent out ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Immigrants detained at two federal facilities in California have launched a boycott in protest of increasing and, in their view, burdensome prices at the facilities' commissaries for items including tampons, coffee and soup.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed a grievance letter and spoke with three detainees who are involved in the ...Read more

Alphabet Inc.’s Google was ordered to pay almost $2 billion to Klarna Group Plc’s Pricerunner unit in a dispute over the search-engine giant’s abuse of power in the market for comparison shopping services.

The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm, which issued the judgment on Wednesday, dismissed most parts of the claim in which ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The state of Michigan is working to identify the cause of a "sudden and large" increase in an infection that causes gastrointestinal issues.

State health officials have identified 174 cases of cyclosporiasis across southern Michigan since June 22. Typically, the state averages about 50 such cases a year.

The cases have ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Wednesday took his first trip on his new luxe Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747 worth an estimated $400 million transferred for free from the oil-rich Middle East nation of Qatar.

“I’m excited about the first flight,” he told reporters ahead of his flight to North Dakota, where he planned to tour the new ...Read more

NEW YORK — A daredevil couple climbed the spire of the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday to unfurl a banner about love.

Police were called to the iconic skyscraper where the pair, both dressed in black, climbed from the observation tower to the top of the spire about 12:15 p.m.

The couple then released a banner that ...Read more