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Iran's space program is growing stronger despite US sanctions

Current News / News & Features /

Iran’s southeastern seaport of Chabahar is a popular tourist destination renowned for its cliff-lined beaches and rugged, treeless peaks known locally as “Martian mountains.” Soon the region will have more than just a poetic connection to outer space.

For years, construction has been underway to transform the sun-drenched coastal town ...Read more

Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pennsylvania arson suspect's family said they tried to get him help before and after he allegedly tried to kill the governor. They received little response

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PHILADELPHIA — Cody Balmer was begging to go to jail.

Less than an hour after police say he set fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion in the early morning of April 13, he called 911 to say he was ready to “confess to everything” he had done.

“He needs to leave my family alone, he needs to get his eyes off of my daughters, and he needs ...Read more

LAPD video shows shooting of author Jillian Lauren in Eagle Rock backyard

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LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police on Friday released video from the shooting of Jillian Lauren, an author and the wife of Weezer bass player Scott Shriner. The LAPD said Lauren pointed a gun and fired at officers this month after apparently mistaking them for armed suspects.

The police video, spliced together from officers’ body-worn cameras...Read more

Dario Lopez-Mills/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump administration toughens restrictions on families trying to reunite with migrant children

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Parents and families are finding it harder to reunite with migrant children in federal custody after the Trump administration tightened security restrictions on sponsorships, according to lawyers and other advocates who work with them.

The rules have put some undocumented families in a desperate situation, leaving children who crossed the ...Read more

Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

'The United States is the villain of our story': Nationalism surges in Mexico amid Trump threats

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MEXICO CITY — At the entrance to Mexico City’s largest park lies a towering marble monument to six young military cadets killed in battle.

The Niños Héroes — “boy heroes” — died while defending Mexico’s capital during the Mexican-American War, which broke out 179 years ago this week.

That conflict may not loom large in the ...Read more

Renee Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Who is behind the resistance to Trump in Minnesota?

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dallas Reding was never one to protest. But after hearing about the Trump administration’s deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and others to notorious prisons abroad, he scrawled “No Foreign Gulags” on some cardboard and then taped the sign to a mop handle.

And there he was last Saturday, hoisting his makeshift placard...Read more

More logging in Georgia's national forests? It's possible under a new directive

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ATLANTA — Few states in the eastern U.S. are home to more national forestry lands than Georgia.

North Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest district spans 750,000 acres in portions of 18 counties. It is home to old growth trees, wild and scenic rivers, and the southern terminus of the famed Appalachian Trail.

Farther south, the Oconee ...Read more

Ben Gabbe/Women's Media Award/Getty Images North America/TNS

Giuffre, accuser of Epstein and Prince Andrew, dies by suicide

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse as a teenager, has died by suicide, her family said. She was 41.

Giuffre died at her farm in Western Australia on Friday night, her family said in a statement.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Colorado's gray wolves roamed closer to metro Denver, farther south in mountains

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DENVER — Colorado’s collared gray wolves continued to travel widely last month — even roaming in watersheds that reach into the western portions of metro Denver, according to a new map released this week by state wildlife officials.

Reintroduced wolves were tracked in watersheds from the Utah border in Mesa County, in the west, to the ...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump says he would veto cuts to Medicaid, Social Security

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would not sign legislation that calls for cuts to Social Security or federal health coverage for older and low-income Americans.

“If it cuts it, I would not approve,” the president said in an interview with TIME magazine published Friday, where he was repeatedly asked about cuts to Medicare, ...Read more

Ben Gabbe/Women's Media Award/Getty Images North America/TNS

Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide, family says

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein and Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse as a teenager, has died by suicide, her family said. She was 41.

Giuffre died at her farm in Western Australia on Friday night, her family said in a statement.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and ...Read more

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America/TNS

Rubio prods Congo, Rwanda to make peace as duo agree to deadline

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Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo committed to drafting a peace agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict between the two countries in a ceremony at the U.S State Department Friday.

Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart, Olivier Nduhungirehe, signed the “declaration of principles” with U....Read more

Kristina Kormilitsyna/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US eyes post-war business with Russia in energy, metals

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The Trump administration is looking at cooperation in the Russian energy sector as a key element of economic enticements to win over the Kremlin as it pushes for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the planning.

Joint projects in the Arctic, as well as oil and gas and rare-earth minerals, are among the options ...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump orders 'ideology' removed from Smithsonian. What about North Carolina's sit-ins exhibit?

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month putting Vice President JD Vance and an attorney in charge of finding and “removing improper ideology” from monuments, museums and the National Zoo overseen by the Department of Interior.

This week, the news outlet BlackPressUSA published a report that an exhibit from...Read more

Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Oakland police to cut off public from live radio feeds, hiding communications from airwaves

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OAKLAND, Calif. — For decades, the public has had the ability to tune into radio channels where Oakland police and other Bay Area law enforcement agencies discuss emergency calls and coordinate responses.

The police scanner feeds are a prime source of transparency around cop activity, but in the coming months the Oakland Police Department ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US agents cleared for warrantless arrest of alleged gang members

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Federal law enforcement agents can arrest Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. suspected of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang without a judicial or administrative warrants, according to a directive from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The memo, dated March 14 and obtained through a public records request by the transparency group Property of the ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

First Harvard, now UC Berkeley: Trump administration to probe foreign funds

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The Trump administration accused the University of California, Berkeley of failing to disclose millions of dollars in foreign funding on Friday, touting muscular new enforcement of an obscure federal rule amid ongoing efforts to bridle America’s top research institutions.

The University of California flagship is the second top school to come ...Read more

Anthony Souffle/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Audit finds 55-year lapse in DNR's reporting of land inventory

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The Department of Natural Resources does a good job selecting land to acquire, but the process takes too long and the agency has gone 55 years without the legislatively required reporting of an inventory of DNR-managed land, according to the Office of the Legislative Auditor.

The agency’s failure to publicly report its land holdings, as ...Read more

Kaitlin McKeown/Daily Press/TNS

Langley air show to proceed as investigation into famed pilot's death begins

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NORFOLK, Va. — The Joint Base Langley-Eustis “Air Power Over Hampton Roads” air show will continue this weekend in Virginia despite a plane crash on Thursday that killed well-known aerobatic pilot Rob Holland.

“We’ve decided to proceed with the Air Power Over Hampton Roads air show this weekend as scheduled,” said Col. Matthew ...Read more

Kristina Kormilitsyna/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump says Russia and Ukraine are 'very close to a deal'

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President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close” to an accord after his special envoy met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow and he called for high-level talks between the two countries to help bring an end to the war.

“A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to a deal, and the two sides ...Read more