WASHINGTON — China rebuffed a U.S. effort to arrange a phone call between the two countries’ top defense officials after the United States shot down an alleged spy balloon, a Pentagon spokesman said, in a stark new sign of how the uproar over the balloon has sent ties between the adversaries to a new low.

The department asked for a call ...Read more

MIAMI — Florida lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a measure that would not only expand Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ability to relocate migrants anywhere in the country but would allow his administration to hand out millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to companies to carry out the secretive program without disclosing details to the public.

...Read more

An alleged cult leader accused of sexually abusing women and girls in North Las Vegas is also facing a sexual assault charge in Canada, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, was arrested Jan. 31 after police raided his North Las Vegas home, where he has lived with up to six women he viewed as wives, according...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had choice words Tuesday about a new book written by the former prosecutor who once led his office’s investigation into Donald Trump.

Bragg said he has not read Mark Pomerantz’s new tome, “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” but is sickened by what he’s heard.

“It is ...Read more

NEW YORK — “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account” hit bookshelves Tuesday with a slew of never-before-revealed details about the battle to hold the former president accountable for a string of alleged crimes.

Mark Pomerantz, the former federal prosecutor who led the Manhattan district attorney office’s investigation into Trump, ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disneyland riders literally had to walk the plank to escape a sinking Pirates of the Caribbean boat that left them stranded for an hour before the Disneyland Fire Department came to the rescue.

A Pirates of the Caribbean boat took on enough water near the entrance to the attraction that riders needed to be evacuated with the...Read more

OKEMOS, Michigan — Local, state and federal law enforcement teams were deployed Tuesday to at least seven high schools across Michigan after false threats known as "swatting" were made in what some officials called a "coordinated campaign," causing students to be evacuated or sent into lockdown mode.

High schools in Detroit, Jackson, Ann ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on a House oversight panel traded barbs Tuesday at a hearing over the Biden administration’s policies at the U.S.-Mexico border, as Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of fueling inflammatory rhetoric against migrants.

Rep. James R. Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — The trial of the first of about 20 people to be arrested in Florida on charges that they committed voter fraud by casting a ballot in the 2020 presidential election ended with a split verdict in a Tampa courtroom Tuesday night.

Nathan Hart, 49, was arrested in August as part of a sweep announced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It ...Read more

Alec Baldwin is seeking to have a New Mexico lawmaker overseeing “Rust” criminal prosecutions disqualified from the case.

One week after Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the actor’s legal team filed a motion demanding that special prosecutor Andrea Reeb ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Prosecutors on Tuesday outlined the case against three of the four men accused of killing rising rap star XXXTentacion in an ambush outside a Deerfield Beach motorcycle dealership in 2018.

Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams and Trayvon Newsome each face a sentence of life in prison if found guilty of murdering the ...Read more

ISTANBUL — As temperatures dipped below freezing, rescue crews raced Tuesday to free those trapped under the thousands of buildings that collapsed in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria, even as the death toll rose past 7,200.

Rescue workers scrabbled frantically at mounds of rubble, alert for the cries...Read more

Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled Tuesday, delivering a long-awaited ruling in a landmark lawsuit brought in 2014 by school districts, parents, and advocacy groups against the state.

In a 786-page decision, Judge Renee Cohn Jubilerer said that over the course of the more than three-...Read more

The Florida High School Athletic Association will reconsider a controversial proposal that could have required female students to reveal their menstruation history.

Its board of directors will hold an emergency meeting Thursday morning to discuss participation paperwork that recently drew widespread attention. The association’s executive ...Read more

In front of a packed Missouri Senate hearing room on Tuesday, Michael Lundgren told Missouri lawmakers that when he came out as gay, he turned to his teachers.

They supported and encouraged him to speak with his mother, who was struggling to accept him.

“My teachers are the reason my relationship with my mom is stronger than ever,” ...Read more

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a series of gun control measures Tuesday on the heels of last month's mass shooting in Monterey Park, just 8 miles away from the boardroom.

The package included roughly half a dozen measures aimed at curbing fatal shootings within the county. Most will need to go through additional ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Using their new supermajority in the state Senate for the first time Tuesday, North Carolina Republicans pushed along party lines to restrict what schools teach and how they can treat LGBTQ students.

Senate Bill 49, called the ""Parents’ Bill of Rights" but criticized as targeting LGBTQ youth, bans curriculum on gender ...Read more

The U.S. plans to sell Poland about $10 billion in weapons including 18 HIMARS launchers and ammunition for the highly accurate mobile platform, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, shoring up a crucial NATO ally as Russia presses its war in neighboring Ukraine.

The package will also include the ATACMS long-range missile system and the Guided ...Read more