At a recent dental appointment, I was unexpectedly seen by a new provider in my longtime dentist’s practice. Early in the visit, he realized we were both Iranian American. Like me, he had been born and raised in the United States. We were both fluent English speakers and fully accustomed to navigating American medical settings.

...Read more

President Donald Trump announced on May 1, 2026, that the United States will withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany – personnel who had been deployed there as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Germany-U.S. tensions started after the U.S. invasion of Iran. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz refused to support Trump’s war...Read more

Beginning in July 2026, Detroiters will be paying higher water and sewer bills.

That’s because The Great Lakes Water Authority, or GLWA, voted unanimously on Feb. 25, 2026, to increase water rates by 5.8% and sewer rates by 4.26% for its customers. GLWA raised rates by similar amounts in 2025.

Residents at GLWA’s last rate...Read more

President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for the first state visit to China by a U.S. leader in nine years, as the world’s two largest economies look to stabilize ties with a summit playing out against the backdrop of the Iran war.

Air Force One touched down at the Beijing Capital International Airport slightly before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his military threats against Iran ahead of a visit to China, the Islamic Republic’s largest oil customer and a key diplomatic partner.

Iran will either “make a good deal” with the U.S. or face devastation, Trump said on Tuesday. The war on Iran, which has sent energy prices soaring because of Tehran’...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The COVID-19 pandemic brought tough times for both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Crime briefly rose. Rising housing prices combined with the opportunity to work remotely led to declines in population. Concerns over blights and quality of life became political issues.

But now, there are early signs of a postcrisis divergence in...Read more

From the Rockies to the Cascades to the Sierra Nevada, mountainsides across the West are sparsely covered by the snow that usually blankets the high country well into the summer.

That snowpack is like a savings account that the West draws on when the hot, dry months arrive. It moistens the landscape as it melts, lessening the risk of severe ...Read more

SEATTLE — While Navneet Kaur was pregnant with her son, she hung up sonogram images on the walls of her and her husband’s Auburn, Washington, home, shopped for cute baby clothes and talked about how happy she was to soon welcome her first child.

She was also unknowingly in a phase of life when women are at higher risk of intimate partner ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s new congressional map looks like a pinwheel, with districts shaped like vanes that carve through Black neighborhoods in the urban cores and fan out into the rural, white and Republican counties beyond.

East Tampa, with its historically Black neighborhoods, will share a representative with the outer reaches of ...Read more

CHICAGO — The woman parked her car and thought about going to the front entrance of her luxury River North apartment building. But walking through the front door felt impossible.

So the woman instead hurried from the parking lot through the building’s back entrance, bypassing the front desk where she worried that the security guard who ...Read more

Donald Trump is expecting economic deals and a “wild” welcome this week in China. He’ll arrive facing an emboldened Xi Jinping, just as his own hand is constrained by the conflict in Iran.

When the U.S. president touches down in Beijing on Wednesday evening for a 36-hour summit, it’ll mark his first overseas trip since waging war in ...Read more

Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood association has asked supporters to stop leaving mementos and flowers outside her Tucson residence three months after her apparent dead-of-night abduction, citing warmer temperatures and encroaching wildlife.

“I write this message with a very heavy heart as our friend and neighbor, Nancy Guthrie, remains missing...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada woman who drowned her two children by holding their heads under water in separate bathtubs apologized in court Tuesday.

“On Monday July 19, 2021, my babies’ precious, innocent lives were taken at the hands of their mommy,” Jovan Trevino told District Judge Carli Kierny, her voice full of emotion. “I truly was not ...Read more

Passengers from the Hondius cruise ship are being repatriated under a patchwork of measures that reflect uncertainty over how this strain of hantavirus spreads, complicating efforts to contain the deadly outbreak.

Some passengers are being placed in biocontainment units, notably in France, for at least two weeks. Australia plans to quarantine ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The aging congressional campus urgently needs work, Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin said Tuesday, warning of “system degradation and failure.”

As the deferred maintenance piles up, so do the costs and the risk to lawmakers and staff, he said.

But Senate appropriators had a warning of their own: They need a better ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The South Carolina state Senate on Tuesday rejected a proposal to extend their legislative session, making it appear unlikely the state will redraw its House map ahead of the November elections.

Five Republican state senators joined all Democrats in voting against a sine die agreement that would have allowed the chamber to ...Read more

After a hantavirus outbreak killed three passengers aboard a cruise ship, Washington state residents are wondering if they’re at risk of the deadly rodent-spread disease.

At least three Washington state residents have been exposed to the Andes strain of hantavirus, according to public health officials.

Two King County residents were “...Read more

NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein’s attorney on Tuesday said the woman at the center of his rape trial was either delusional or a liar, pulling pages from the defense playbooks of many a high-profile rape suspect in the #MeToo era.

Arguing Weinstein, 73, should be acquitted of third-degree rape, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked the jury to ...Read more

In late February, animal rights activists flew a drone over a calf ranch in California's Central Valley and watched as workers kicked and punched the animals.

Footage reviewed by the Los Angeles Times shows a worker pulling a calf by the nose with pliers.

It shows two workers removing the budding horns of a calf with a hot iron. While one held...Read more