Venezuelan security forces have tightly restricted access to parts of the country’s Caribbean coast following last week’s devastating earthquakes, amid allegations that authorities are protecting hidden caches of gold, weapons and cash, according to people familiar with the situation.

The claims come as multiple foreign rescue teams have ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida’s Venezuelan community is seeking help in the wake of last month’s rare twin earthquakes that devastated their homeland.

On June 24, 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes struck the South American country and have caused more than 2,200 deaths so far, officials said this week, with thousands more still missing ...Read more

BOSTON — Bay State teachers who have sex with 16- and 17-year-old students could face criminal charges after the Legislature closed the “age of consent loophole” in the state budget.

This child protection measure in the state budget comes as local school districts face lawsuits for educator sexual misconduct with students.

Across ...Read more

I stood there in shock, staring blankly at the letter. A lawyer was notifying me that my neighbors – as well as anyone they hired – would be on my property the next day to cut some branches from a tree near the property line. It ended with a stern command to lock up my “vicious” dog for the safety of the workers.

I read the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Republicans slammed Mayor Zohran Mamdani for calling on New Yorkers to save electricity and ease strain on the power grid by setting air conditioners no lower than 78 degrees.

Even though red states have made similar pleas, GOP officials derided Mamdani for the optional request as a brutal holiday weekend heat wave gripped NYC.

�...Read more

WASHINGTON — All aboard the Trump train.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday emerged from a rail coach painted specially for America’s 250th birthday bash, with both arms spread, as the awaiting crowd in Medora, N.D., cheered his arrival.

Moments later, as a pack of Theodore Roosevelt-era “Rough Rider” enactors on horseback escorted ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The newly disclosed scale of President Donald Trump’s personal cryptocurrency-related profits since taking office last year comes right at a sensitive moment for Senate negotiations on a major digital assets bill that GOP leaders want to bring to the floor this month.

Trump’s potential crypto conflicts have been a sticking ...Read more

BOSTON — Just in time for the Fourth of July.

Phones were lighting up across the region on Thursday with the first shark alert of the season, as vacationers flock to the beach.

A great white shark was spotted close to a beach in Chatham, where sharks throughout the summer and fall hunt for seals.

“!! SHARK ALERT !!” shark researcher ...Read more

NEW YORK — The daredevil couple who got global attention for climbing to the top of the Empire State Building’s spire during an elaborate marriage proposal managed to upload their engagement pictures — which were posted online as they sat in a holding cell Thursday morning.

“@angela_nikolau and @beerkus are currently unavailable, and we...Read more

The Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is suing Florida after the state designated the group as a terrorist organization.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that his administration was putting CAIR and several other organizations on the list.

He did so under the authority of a law his office...Read more

BOSTON — Stop overfishing for striped bass!

That’s the message from Massachusetts Environmental Police, who are cracking down on people illegally fishing for striped bass as officers make several arrests so far this season.

“With their population in a decline, enhanced management strategies have been put in place to aid in rebuilding the...Read more

CHICAGO — An extreme heat warning is in effect for the Chicagoland area until midnight Thursday, weather officials said.

National Weather Service included several cities and towns in Illinois saying the heat index was expected to reach at least 105 degrees Thursday in portions of central, central east, north central and northeast Illinois, as...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After six years of teleworking, California’s state employees have become fluent in software such as Google Docs and Microsoft Teams to work with their colleagues and get their jobs done.

But on Wednesday, the first day of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order, state workers were still working from their laptops �...Read more

The number of fatalities increased to 20 in Kyiv following overnight Russian missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital that were among the most intense of the year so far.

“As of now, 20 deaths are known,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Thursday in a post on Telegram.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A mother is suing a Kentucky detention center for negligence after she claims jail staff failed to do required medical checks on her son, resulting in him being left in a permanent vegetative state, according to the lawsuit.

Ethel Miller, the mother of Jonathan Conkright, filed a lawsuit in Rowan County Circuit Court against ...Read more

Five wildfires burning in Colorado together had scorched nearly 125,000 acres — 194 square miles — as of Thursday morning, nearly the size of Colorado Springs.

Colorado’s largest wildfire, the Aspen Acres fire, grew to 47,953 acres by Wednesday evening, up from 28,362 acres the night before. The wildfire’s burn area is roughly 75 square...Read more

As the 250th anniversary of American independence approaches, many people in the U.S. are deeply concerned about the country’s future.

A recent poll by Elon University found that 69% of respondents “believe the signers of the Declaration of Independence would feel more disappointment than pride about modern American democracy.” ...Read more

In Watson v. RNC, decided June 29, 2026, liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices joined a noteworthy cross-ideological majority to uphold state grace periods for mail-in ballots. The decision, which went against President Donald Trump’s policy preferences, preserved the status quo, allowing states to accept and count mail-in ballots...Read more

Chemical giant Monsanto has argued for years that if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves a pesticide label without requiring a cancer warning, states cannot hold its manufacturer liable in court for failing to warn consumers about cancer risks. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, in a ruling issued on June 25, 2026, though some ...Read more