President Joe Biden said the U.S. military would intervene to defend Taiwan in any attack from China, comments that appeared to break from the long-standing U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” before they were walked back by White House officials.

Asked during a press briefing on Monday in Tokyo whether the U.S. would be willing to get ...Read more

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said their COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective and prompted a strong immune response in children under age 5, based on early results from a trial that is likely to pave the way for infants and toddlers to finally get immunized.

A three-dose regimen was 80.3% effective in a preliminary finding based on 10 infections...Read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s economy should be shut off from the world and invited global investors to shift resources into Ukraine to help rebuild the country from the devastation wrought by Vladimir Putin’s war.

“This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world,” the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A brewing boycott over the invitation list to this year’s Summit of the Americas, a hemispheric gathering held every three to four years and planned for Los Angeles next month, has the Biden administration scrambling to avoid an embarrassment that could erode U.S. influence in the region.

The trouble began when the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The number of coronavirus cases in California has significantly worsened this past week, hitting a level not seen since the winter’s omicron surge and raising concerns about the possibility of a big jump in infections this summer.

Weekly coronavirus cases roughly doubled across wide swaths of California, including Riverside ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For years, a contentious dispute between Los Angeles County's health care leaders and the University of Southern California has seethed behind closed doors, injecting tension and acrimony in the operations at one of the nation's busiest public hospitals that climaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As early as 2019, officials at L...Read more

MEIGS COUNTY, Tenn. — At a glance, it seemed like a Southern pandemic success story in a most unlikely place.

A small county northeast of Chattanooga, along the twisting banks of Chickamauga Lake, for much of the past year has reported the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Tennessee and one of the highest in the South.

Meigs County, which...Read more

The number of Americans who identified as more than one race nearly doubled to 13.5 million people between 2010 and 2020, and did double or more in 34 states and the District of Columbia, a Stateline analysis of census figures shows.

To some observers, the increase in the number of Americans identifying as more than one race shows that barriers...Read more

BALTIMORE — You no longer need a medical card to legally get high on cannabis in Maryland.

The state spent years setting up a medical cannabis industry that is tightly regulated at every step from seed to sale. Dispensaries, processors and cultivators spent millions of dollars creating an entirely new industry under the impression that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Prolonged classroom shutdowns. Pandemic policies that at times frustrated parents and teachers alike. Allegations of a toxic workplace. Questionable hiring practices.

Despite it all, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond could end up coasting into reelection.

"People are still angry, and they need to be heard...Read more