Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange prisoners as the warring parties pressed ahead with “detailed and productive” negotiations to end the four-year conflict, according to President Donald Trump’s special envoy.

The two sides agreed to swap 314 prisoners in the first such exchange in five months, Steve Witkoff said in a post on platform...Read more

When Noah Hulsman, who owns a skate shop in Louisville, Kentucky, learned he no longer qualified for federal subsidies to help him pay for his “gold” Affordable Care Act health plan, the 37-year-old opted for skimpier coverage. But the deductible is about a quarter of his yearly income.

Loretta Forbes realized she would have to drop her ...Read more

Inside a cancer research laboratory on the campus of Harvard Medical School, two dozen small jars with pink plastic lids sat on a metal counter. Inside these humble-looking jars is the core of Joan Brugge’s current multiyear research project.

Brugge lifted up one of the jars and gazed at it with reverence. Each jar holds samples of breast ...Read more

Health policy changes in Washington will ripple through the country, resulting in millions of Americans losing their Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage. But there are still ways to find care.

Over the next decade, the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to slash nearly $1 trillion in spending from Medicaid, the state-federal ...Read more

When she noticed an unusual craving for hot dogs, Matte’a Brooks suspected her body was telling her something, so she decided to take a pregnancy test. She took two just to be sure. Both were positive.

“I was definitely scared,” said Brooks, 23, who was uninsured. “I was like, OK … I’m pregnant, so where do I go from here?”

Until...Read more

WASHINGTON — California’s high-speed rail project will officially lose $928 million in federal funding under the transportation spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law this week, a cut the Trump administration and Republicans hailed as an important cost-cutting move.

But state rail officials say the cut was applied months ago, ...Read more

CHICAGO — As sweeping changes to the federal Clean Water Act in recent years have weakened protections for wetlands, Illinois has become the first state in the nation to officially recognize a conservation tactic known as rewilding.

The Illinois Rewilding Law, which took effect last month, empowers the Illinois Department of Natural Resources...Read more

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to back the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, in her re-election bid, according to people with knowledge of the matter, a key endorsement from one of the most influential progressive voices in the nation.

Mamdani will make the announcement this week, said one of the people, who asked not to be named as ...Read more

National union leaders, including the head of one of California's largest labor organizations, on Wednesday urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to protect workers as artificial intelligence threatens to replace or surveil employees — and warned that a failure to do so could hurt his presidential ambitions.

"This is a priority for the entire nation," ...Read more

Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings posted a tearful video Wednesday in which they pleaded for the return of their mother, Nancy Guthrie, and asked her possible kidnapper to communicate with them.

“We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her. We...Read more

Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings posted a tearful video Wednesday in which they pleaded for the return of their mother, Nancy Guthrie, and asked her possible kidnapper to communicate with them.

“We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her. We...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In a visit to Pacific Palisades on Wednesday, top White House officials vowed to take over and speed up building permitting, a core state and local function, for rebuilding after the Los Angeles wildfires.

Administrators for the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin and Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler also held...Read more

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla rolled out two new water bills aimed at easing the state’s growing climate-driven water shortages and making water supplies more dependable across the state.

The Making Our Communities Resilient through Enhancing Water for Agriculture, Technology, the Environment, and Residences Act — the MORE WATER Act — and the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would have passed on Kevin Warsh as his nominee to lead the Federal Reserve if Warsh had expressed a desire to hike interest rates.

“If he came in and said, ‘I want to raise it,’ he would not have gotten the job, no,” Trump said Wednesday in an NBC News interview.

The president said there ...Read more

San Joaquin County sheriff’s investigators identified and confiscated two cars believed to have been used in a November mass shooting in Stockton that killed four people and wounded more than a dozen others at a child’s birthday party.

The Sheriff’s Office announced the breakthrough in the investigation on Wednesday in social media posts,...Read more

In a bit of winter irony, two barges carrying 21,000 tons of salt reinforcements for Philadelphia couldn't get through the frozen Delaware River, according to city officials.

At the Pelbano Recreation Center in Bustleton on Wednesday, Director of Clean and Green Initiatives Carlton Williams said the city had used more than 30,000 tons in ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday, Feb. 4, that after getting unprecedented cooperation from Minnesota political and law enforcement leaders, the Trump administration is withdrawing 700 federal law enforcement personnel from the state “effective today.”

Homan then said that if Minnesotans want to end Operation...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The sheriffs overseeing some of Minnesota’s largest county jails aren’t saying whether they will go along with a plan to give immigration agents better access to the facilities.

Border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that the Trump administration was immediately withdrawing 700 federal agents who have been part of the ...Read more