One of my patients – who had been struggling with obesity, uncontrolled diabetes and the cost of her medications – agreed in June 2019 to adopt a more whole-food plant-based diet.

Excited by the challenge, she did a remarkable job. She increased her fresh fruit and vegetable intake, stopped eating candy, cookies and cakes and cut ...Read more

Do names on a map matter? When they are in border territories, the answer is probably “yes.”

In 2023, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources ordered that new maps must use the former Chinese names of its lost territories in what is now Russia’s Far East. Vladivostok, home to Russia’s Pacific fleet headquarters, became ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Can rainbows form in a circle? – Henry D., age 7, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The legend goes that there is a pot of gold hidden at the end of every rainbow. But is there ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Now that a proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in Florida’s constitution has been defeated, hundreds of volunteers and organizers across the state face the difficult question: What’s next?

Will Floridians of childbearing age continue to live under a six-week abortion ban indefinitely? Could restrictions ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — What should you do if you see a lizard the size of a dog running around your yard or in the woods?

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says call them. Argentine Black and White Tegus are not native to the state, and in fact, were outlawed in 2021.

Will Dillman, assistant chief of wildlife at DNR, said call or ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City public schools are fearful that anti-immigrant rhetoric will reverberate in classrooms in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election as president amid political tensions running high and an increasing focus on the possibility of mass deportations.

Teachers and students on the East Coast woke up to the news on ...Read more

Evelin Weber and her neighbors fled their Malibu homes as the deadly Woolsey Fire tore across the California coast in 2018. Ever since, haunted by fears of another blaze, she’s spent $300,000 on fireproofing her house.

Weber installed a fire hydrant outside her $4 million home, built a new turnaround for firetrucks in her driveway, planted ...Read more

A series of wildfires ravaging parts of rain-starved New Jersey were sending plumes of smoke across the Hudson River and into New York, leaving much of the city blanketed in an eerie haze.

At least six fires, all of them fueled by bone-dry conditions and windy weather, were actively burning across the Garden State on Saturday, from the ...Read more

Russia and the U.S. have had contact on the subject of the war in Ukraine via “closed channels” at the military and political levels, according to a top Russian foreign relations official.

“As for the situation in Ukraine, the exchange of signals via closed channels is periodically carried out,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump said he won’t invite his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join his new administration.

“I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country,” he said in a Saturday post ...Read more

NEW YORK — Firefighters extinguished a second brush fire in Prospect Park on Saturday, roughly a mile away from the site of Friday night’s larger blaze, New York City Fire Department officials said.

Forty smoke eaters responded to a fire near the LeFrak Center at Lakeside ice skating rink at about 2:40 p.m. and quickly put out the flames by...Read more

WASHINGTON — A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee who ordered workers to bypass homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump has been fired, the agency’s head said Saturday.

“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” FEMA ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For the first time in its 237-year existence, Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, a National Historic Landmark known as a hub of activism and the first African Methodist Episcopal church, will be led by a woman.

The Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, a fourth-generation preacher who has been the pastor at Bethel A.M.E. Church of ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hurricane Rafael was downgraded to a tropical storm as it continued westward in the Gulf of Mexico posing no threat to land for now while the National Hurricane Center kept track of another system with low odds to develop into the next tropical depression or storm.

As of the NHC 7 p.m. tropical outlook, a trough of low ...Read more

NEW YORK — State Attorney General Letitia James will not pursue charges against a city police officer who struck and killed a 20-year-old Bronx woman in a caught-on-camera collision while trying to nab a speeding suspect, officials said.

Given the results of a thorough review, “a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable ...Read more

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will run for a second term unopposed, the organization said, raising questions about whether she’ll receive support from a new U.S. administration under President-elect Donald Trump.

The month-long period for nominations closed on Friday with the incumbent, a former Nigerian ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The day after the election, it all came rushing back to the Rev. Renee McKenzie — the fear she felt for immigrants, the potentially life-and-death choices they faced, and the way they turned to her for help during the first presidency of Donald Trump.

Less than a year into his first term, she made the decision to let a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Favorable weather conditions helped thousands of firefighters get the upper hand Saturday on the devastating Mountain fire that has scorched roughly 20,000 acres, destroyed more than 130 homes and damaged nearly 90 others — while upending the lives of Ventura County residents.

The blaze was 17% contained by Saturday morning as...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A sightseeing tour company in San Diego is having to hit the brakes on rentals after about 30 of its vehicles, including several powered by lithium-ion batteries, went up in flames Thursday night, authorities said.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at GoCar Tours at 9:22 p.m., according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department ...Read more