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A glacier front meets the sea in Antarctica. The ice sheet holds enough water to raise global sea level by about 190 feet (58 meters). Qiyue Sun

Antarctica’s ice loss is locked in, and extra snowfall won’t save it – that’s bad news for low-lying coastal areas elsewhere

Current News / News & Features /

Sea-level rise is one of the most visible signs of climate change, one that is threatening low-lying coastal communities around the world. Today, about 1 billion people live in coastal areas; about 100 million live within 1 meter (3.3 feet) of sea level, highly exposed to coastal flooding.

Over the long term, when it comes to future ...Read more

Burnham says Britain could rejoin the EU after next election

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Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he could campaign to take Britain back into the European Union at the next general election, reopening the country’s debate on its relationship with the continent a decade on from the Brexit vote.

Burnham outlined three options he would discuss at a U.K.-E.U. summit slated for later this year. One is rejoining...Read more

Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/TNS

UCLA vice chancellor sues to block release of probe into allegations of bullying and misspending

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More than a year of tensions inside the office that shapes UCLA's public image spilled into a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday, as lawyers for a campus vice chancellor asked a judge to block the public release of an investigation into allegations from six employees that she bullied them or misused university funds.

Vice Chancellor Mary Osako ...Read more

Monks from Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu group, take part in a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower  in Paris on Sept. 3, 2026. Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images

What the Eiffel Tower controversy reveals about a Hindu monastic practice – known as ‘brahmacharya’

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A visit to the Eiffel Tower by a delegation of monks representing a global Hindu religious denomination on Sept. 5, 2026, has raised broader questions about accommodating religious observances in public spaces.

Eiffel Tower workers protested with a one-day strike after tower management allegedly replaced some women employees for the ...Read more

Students studying Jewish history in the South visit Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, a synagogue in Charleston, S.C., that was founded in the 18th century. Ashley Walters

As Jewish college students look South, some discover a long but overlooked history

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For nearly a decade now, news outlets ranging from The Atlantic to the Forward and The Free Press have reported on the increasing number of Jewish students attending college in the South.

This shift is not unique to American Jews. The five states with the fastest-growing number of applicants are all in the South or Southwest. Most ...Read more

This summer, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court recognized skill games as gambling devices. MediaNews Group/The Citizens' Voice via Getty Images

Pennsylvania’s skill games are officially gambling – so should they be at every gas station?

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Pennsylvania lawmakers returned to Harrisburg on Sept. 28, 2026, after a 10-week recess with little time to determine the future of the state’s skill games. On June 15, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the devices are slot machines governed by the state’s gambling and criminal laws. The court stayed its order for 120 days to give...Read more

A restaurant owner looks at a tank for collecting used cooking oil. Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images

Criminal conspiracy to steal used cooking oil shows how trash can become treasure

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Federal prosecutors recently described an interstate criminal enterprise with all the trappings of organized crime: clandestine warehouses, money laundering and stolen goods transported across state lines. The mid-September 2026 announcement stated that 19 defendants faced charges; two had just pleaded guilty, while the remainder are slated ...Read more

A nor'easter's storm surge swept into restaurants and homes in Sea Bright, N.J., in late September 2026.  AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

Why the nor'easter’s storm surge was so high, and what it says about the El Niño winter ahead

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As a powerful nor’easter hit the U.S. Atlantic Coast in late September 2026, the ocean poured into coastal neighborhoods from North Carolina to New York. Water from the storm surge and heavy rain filled streets and surrounded homes as near-hurricane-force winds knocked out power. It may have even uncovered a shipwreck more than a century ...Read more

A woman views a manipulated video in January 2019 that changes what is said by President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama, illustrating how deepfake technology can deceive viewers. Robe LeverAFP via Getty Images

As AI political deepfakes go viral, lawmakers struggle to keep up – 2 states’ laws show limits of what they can do

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Imagine watching a political campaign video in which a candidate admits to taking a bribe. You recognize the face and voice. But the confession is entirely fabricated, thanks to artificial intelligence.

Now imagine that your state has passed a law against these AI-generated election deepfakes. Would that mean the video has to be ...Read more

Israeli settlement boycotts risk triggering economic isolation

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They seem like minor and isolated events: Western nations withholding components for an Israeli submarine; Dutch customs agents searching passengers landing from Tel Aviv; a shipment for Israeli defense company Elbit Systems Ltd. held at a Malaysian port.

But as a dozen major countries, led by the U.K., pledge a ban on goods from Israeli West ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Background checks should be mandatory for Hill staff, Cammack says

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WASHINGTON — When you land a job in most parts of the federal government or the private sector, you can expect a fairly standard step — a criminal background check.

Want to work for your member of Congress? No background check necessary. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., hopes to change that.

A resolution introduced by Cammack would amend House ...Read more

Bram Sable-Smith/KFF Health News/TNS

Abortion is on the ballot again as post-Roe policies continue to evolve

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MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home.

Abortion access is important to McCoomb. She wants her daughter to grow up in a state where the option is available if needed, ...Read more

Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla./Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Where Florida governor candidates Donalds, Jolly stand on gun laws and Parkland

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nearly nine years since a gunman opened fire in a Parkland high school, killing 17, the mass shooting’s shadow still hangs over Florida politics.

A law that state legislators passed in the aftermath of the shooting, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, stands today. But it is facing mounting ...Read more

Jerome Cid/Dreamstime.com/TNS

CDC's latest youth behavior report offers a narrower look at teen health

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For more than 35 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has surveyed American high school students every two years about their health and behavior.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, established in 1991, draws a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9 through 12 at public and private schools. Over the years, it...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Can California stop Trump from drilling off its coast? A new law tries

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LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed legislation to strengthen California’s protections against offshore drilling amid escalating efforts by the Trump administration to open up the coast to new oil and gas operations.

The new state law, Assembly Bill 1448 from Assembly member Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), will make it illegal ...Read more

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune/TNS

Minneapolis educator alleges ICE agents assaulted, wrongfully arrested him outside school during surge

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A Minneapolis educator filed a complaint against the federal government on Tuesday, alleging that then-Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino and other agents assaulted and wrongfully arrested him outside the school he works at during this winter’s ICE surge.

Quentin Williams, whose students call him “Mr. Q,” was one of the people arrested ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Supreme Court lets Trump's third-country deportations resume

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court for now let the Trump administration resume deporting undocumented people to countries other than their own with little if any notice. The court will hear arguments on the issue in December.

Granting an administration request Tuesday over the dissents of the three liberal justices, the high court put on ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Legal fight over Newsom's withholding of California education funding intensifies

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The California Federation of Teachers, a statewide labor union representing over 120,000 educational employees, announced Tuesday it had joined a lawsuit filed by the California Teacher’s Association earlier this month to recover the $1.9 billion in education funds withheld by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2024-25 school year, as well as $3.9 ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

4.2 magnitude quake jolts Seattle

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SEATTLE — A 4.2 magnitude earthquake near the Kitsap-Pierce County line shook the Puget Sound region Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake struck a few miles northwest of Gig Harbor around 2:05 p.m.

Residents in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett reported feeling light shaking. Pacific Northwest Seismic Network ...Read more

Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

650,000-plus ballots seized by Riverside County sheriff returned to registrar

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. — More than 650,000 ballots, seized as part of a criminal probe that made national headlines, are back into the custody of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

The ballots and related materials, held by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department pending the outcome of a legal ...Read more