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Brent oil tops $100 as US-Iran war shows little sign of abating

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Brent oil topped $100 a barrel for the first time since July, as fresh tensions between the U.S. and Iran heightened concerns about energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

The global crude benchmark rose about 3% in London. The U.S. military destroyed five Iranian tankers in response to attempts to hit a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic ...Read more

Ludovic Marin/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Europe to send Kyiv US air defenses for Russian winter blitz

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European countries will buy Ukraine more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems and send missiles from their own stocks to help Ukraine repel an expected Russian winter onslaught.

The influx of missiles will arrive both through individual donations and a NATO program that lets European countries purchase U.S. weapons for Kyiv. The commitments ...Read more

Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Serb strongman calls snap vote echoing Putin's power move

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Serbia will hold a snap vote on Oct. 25, setting in motion a political playbook that may see the embattled President Aleksandar Vucic transition to the role of prime minister.

Vucic signed an official decree on the snap ballot and parliament’s dissolution on Wednesday. The vote, long demanded by opposition groups, seeks to try to resolve ...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

NYC finally starts coming clean on secret WTC records

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NEW YORK – With the start of the release of hidden World Trade Center 9/11 documents held by New York City, we can begin to understand the critical questions of who knew what and when about the environmental health disaster released when the twin towers fell and the soaring plume of white dust rose, covering Downtown.

Mayor Mamdani and the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

2.1-magnitude earthquake recorded in Maryland county overnight

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BALTIMORE — A 2.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Cecil County early Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake was recorded around 12:41 a.m. near Rising Sun. It had a 5.1-kilometer depth, officials with the USGS said.

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What happened to LA's 'perfect' Mediterranean weather? Humidity challenges a birthright

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LOS ANGELES — Southern California was built on many myths — but its weather was not one of them.

Generations were lured to the region with promises of perfect weather, that "mild Mediterranean-type climate" that could heal the sick and grow practically everything. The railroads advertised the L.A. climate as a last resort for the world's ...Read more

Kristian Carreon/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

He lied about his resume. Five ex-wives say he used them for their money. His next move? Running for Congress

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SAN DIEGO — He’s been accused by five ex-wives, a business partner and an elderly San Diego woman of using them for their money. He’s been convicted of check fraud, charged with lying on election paperwork and disciplined for practicing healthcare without a license.

Now he’s the Republican candidate for Congress in South County.

Jeff ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Large, fast-burning wildfires are making it hard for Colorado forests to recover

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DENVER — Large, fast-moving wildfires are devastating Colorado’s forests and they may not be able to recover to become the dense, dark-green habitats that people are used to seeing in the mountains, according to a recently published study.

Scientists at Colorado State University and Western Colorado University collected data from 3,500 ...Read more

OCTAVIO JONES/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

FEMA is off the chopping block, but disaster aid is still a guessing game

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State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided.

But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving states with uncertainty about whether they can expect ...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois law aimed at wrongful abuse claims follows years of debate between advocates and doctors

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CHICAGO — Starting next year, Illinois will have new safeguards in place to prevent parents from being wrongly accused of child abuse or neglect when their children visit a doctor or hospital emergency room for unexplained injuries or ailments.

For advocates, the law speaks to the horrific circumstances families can endure when a medical ...Read more

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How Sudan's civil war is erasing thousands of years of cultural memory

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KHARTOUM, Sudan — The ancient statues of the deities Heket and Beset, too heavy to move, were used for target practice. The 4,000-year-old skeletal remains from the bio-archaeology lab? Scattered or scorched. The gold vault lays ransacked, the storage rooms firebombed.

Walk through the grounds of the Sudan National Museum and the reminders ...Read more

Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Bezos, Judge Judy, Rihanna: LA County tax collector goes after celebrities' jets

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LOS ANGELES — Jeff Bezos got hit with a notice for about $244,000 in overdue L.A. County taxes and fees on his luxury jet.

A private aircraft that, according to flight tracking database JetSpy, is linked to Rihanna racked up a roughly $104,000 bill for unpaid taxes.

Stan Kroenke, the billionaire owner of the Rams, got dinged about $290,000 ...Read more

Amanda Watford/Stateline/TNS

Women on parole face higher rates of mental health, housing challenges

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Women on parole report higher rates of housing instability, poor health and serious mental health and substance use disorders than men on parole and women who weren’t on parole, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice.

For people leaving prison, parole is a period of transition that can involve ...Read more

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'It's triage': California's next governor will face destabilizing surge in uninsured

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By the time Democrat Xavier Becerra left Washington, D.C., more Americans than ever had health insurance, owing partly to his work over the years to pass, defend, and expand the Affordable Care Act.

It’s an achievement the former congressman and former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services often touts as he campaigns for California ...Read more

Will Americans be able to vote by mail in the 2026 midterm elections? Liliboas iStock/Getty Images Plus

Supreme Court to decide on whether Trump’s voting-by-mail rules can go into effect – but might not rule yet on whether they’re constitutional

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The Trump administration’s proposal to crack down on voting by mail in federal elections – articulated in a March 2026 executive order – faces its toughest legal test so far, as the Supreme Court decides whether to allow the measure to go ahead, or maintains a lower court’s block on its implementation.

Despite offering no ...Read more

Ryan Murphy/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

ICE arrested nearly 50 immigrant workers in two central Pennsylvania operations, advocates say

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ICE agents arrested at least 49 immigrant construction workers in two separate operations carried out in the last week in the central Pennsylvania community of Danville, according to immigration advocates.

All remain in detention, they said.

The arrests targeted workers who were leaving the EwingCole construction site at the Geisinger Medical ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Advocates, community push for Newsom signature on pair of detention center bills

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Over boxes of donuts and steaming coffee cups, faith leaders, immigrant rights advocates and community members gathered at the Capitol Tuesday morning to rally behind legislation that would impose financial penalties on private detention centers.

Greeting each other with hugs as they arrived, the group of several dozen individuals sported ...Read more

Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

Mass. Gov. Maura Healey signs executive order requiring local approval for data center development

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Data center developers eyeing Massachusetts as a potential base of operations may be advised to cozy up to local municipal officials after Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order requiring local approval before state permitting can begin.

Healey signed the order, which prohibits the state from advancing a project that does not gain local ...Read more

Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register/TNS

Coastal erosion once again suspends trains between San Diego and rest of the nation

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SAN DIEGO — All railroad traffic connecting San Diego County with the rest of the nation was suspended again Tuesday as high tides and coastal erosion continued to chew away at the tracks in San Clemente in southern Orange County.

“Waves overtopped the tracks in the affected area and caused further deterioration (Monday night) along the ...Read more

Tim Dunn/Boston Herald/TNS

Right-wing streamer Nick Shirley to speak at Harvard amid barrage of online threats

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BOSTON — Famed independent journalist Nick Shirley will be attending a “fireside chat” at Harvard University Wednesday night amid a barrage of online threats, and as the anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus approaches.

The discussion with Shirley, hosted by the Harvard Republican Club, will be focused on �...Read more