WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s defense minister said the United States and Iran are “close to some sort of arrangement” over the Strait of Hormuz, even after both sides appeared to harden their positions in the long-deadlocked negotiations.

“Things are shaping up in favor of peace,” Khawaja Asif told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday, ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s two-day special session on congressional redistricting last week could cost taxpayers as much as $50,680 in meal and hotel reimbursements alone, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis.

The final bill for the Aug. 3-4 session is still being tallied as lawmakers submit expense reports, according to the Department of ...Read more

A second day of search and rescue efforts is underway after a massive earthquake struck western Colombia as the country’s new president faces a tough and early test of his abilities to handle a crisis.

President Abelardo de la Espriella is traveling within the areas struck by the 7.4-magnitude quake, but has yet to deliver on his promise of ...Read more

CHICAGO – It’s the most common 911 call in Chicago. Across the city every day, more than 50 calls are placed to report a domestic battery.

The frequency has largely held steady since the abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic — roughly 21,000 domestic battery reports every year, records show — though Chicago police officers have in recent ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday kept the odds high that an Atlantic system could develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm this week.

If it were to spin up into a named system, it could become Tropical Storm Cristobal.

As of the NHC’s 8 a.m. tropical outlook, the area of low pressure has limited...Read more

MIAMI – When the head of Argentina’s national soccer federation, Claudio Tapia, announced plans in 2022 to build a sports complex in North Bay Village, he described it as a global example of a partnership between a local government and a sporting entity.

But now, with the FBI investgating whether Tapia personally benefited from potentially ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump hardened his stance toward Iran as negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz continue, pronouncing that the Islamic Republic must pay reparations for past attacks.

Trump made his sweeping new demands on Monday after accusing Tehran of itself seeking compensation for war damages through public ...Read more

A second day of search and rescue efforts is underway after a massive earthquake struck western Colombia, burying people in rubble and causing untold damage in its Pacific region and the central Andes.

The death toll from the 7.4-magnitude earthquake rose to at least 169 people Tuesday morning, according to Asocapitales, an association of ...Read more

Ukraine has stopped reporting how many missiles Russia fired during attacks, as it continues to appeal to allies to help strengthen its air defenses.

While the Air Defense Forces said 98 of 120 Russian drones were downed overnight, it omitted data on the number of missiles fired. That came days after it ceased reporting interceptions of ...Read more

Hailey Allred and Jessica Perigo don’t know each other, but last year they were both financially insecure and living in abortion-ban states, where reproductive health clinics and maternity wards have closed in recent years, when they unexpectedly became pregnant.

Both found a local crisis pregnancy center offering free ultrasounds to confirm ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police are rolling out a new siren, and you don't just hear it. It rattles your bones.

When the New York Police Department started using the Rumbler in 2009, one opponent called it an "acoustic assault" on citizens. But L.A. Police Cmdr. Blake Chow says the new low-frequency siren is the solution to a dangerous ...Read more

BALTIMORE — In March in a McDonald’s parking lot off a busy street, mental health clinician Michala Williams met a 38-year-old woman in a car.

“So, you called the police for help?” Williams asked the woman, who was sobbing uncontrollably and said she sometimes thinks about harming herself.

She told Williams she has children ranging ...Read more

AMHERST, Mass. — For the last 30 years, whenever pediatrician John Snyder wanted to find the most up-to-date research on treating young patients, he would turn to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If he wanted to learn more about an outbreak of measles or hantavirus, he would pore over the weekly CDC report that came by email. ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — An eclectic group of people gathered at the Regional Justice Center on Monday as the murder trial of a man accused of orchestrating the slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur began with jury selection.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is now on trial in connection with the death of Shakur, who was 25 when he was shot near the Strip in ...Read more

A fast-growing wildfire ignited in Big Sur, California, burning more than 1,700 acres and spurring evacuation orders that encompass some of the area’s iconic destinations such as Nepenthe restaurant, the Henry Miller Memorial Library and the Alila Ventana resort.

The fire began Sunday morning in the Los Padres National Forest southeast of the...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s social media company posted steeper losses as it careened from a big cryptocurrency bet into a controversial new line of business selling faster access to market-moving posts from the U.S. president.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. reported a second-quarter loss of $238 million, driven by plummeting prices of...Read more