Scenes from the Houston area looked like the aftermath of a hurricane in early May after a series of powerful storms flooded highways and neighborhoods and sent rivers over their banks north of the city.

More than 400 people had to be rescued from homes, rooftops and cars, according to The Associated Press. Huntsville registered ...Read more

A coordinated, multiagency effort is essential to save Southern California's coastal rail corridor from sea-level rise and erosion, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear warned last week.

"The data is clear and the message more urgent than ever that our coastline near the rail line is at critical risk of failure," said Blakespear, D-Encinitas, at a ...Read more

In Connecticut and across the country, university campuses have been disrupted by student protests supporting Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza war, just ahead of graduations this month.

Universities across Connecticut, however, have plans in place to prevent trouble although they do not expect disturbances at those graduation ceremonies.

The ...Read more

In a swift-moving, predawn operation three days before graduation ceremonies begin, USC campus police and LAPD officers in riot gear cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment from the center of campus Sunday as protesters beat drums and chanted.

No arrests were reported and no violence erupted during the police sweep, a university spokesperson said....Read more

New York Mayor Eric Adams pledged to ensure that this year’s graduation ceremonies in the city won’t be disrupted by violent protests over the war in Gaza, saying no one should be allowed to threaten commencements.

“We will make sure it’s done in a peaceful manner,” Adams said Sunday on ABC’s "This Week." Graduations are “a ...Read more

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and key cabinet members arrived Sunday in the country’s south where record-breaking floods have shut down a main airport and submerged neighborhoods, leaving dozens dead and many others missing.

Heavy rains over the state of Rio Grande do Sul caused main rivers to overflow, straining damps and ...Read more

Israel is prepared to temporarily halt the war in Gaza to gain the release of the hostages held there, but won’t agree to the Hamas demand to end the war completely, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

It’s unclear where the comments — and an exchange of barbs with the Hamas political leader — will leave the potential for a halt in...Read more

Russia marked Orthodox Easter with a drone attack across much of Ukraine, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s forces had shot down a Russian fighter jet and as Kremlin troops pressed in Ukraine’s east.

Kremlin troops launched 24 Shahed-type UAVs over the southern region of Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine, and ...Read more

Former Marine Lee Stutts of Lake Norman, N.C., on Saturday defended himself against new federal charges against him related to the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I didn’t do what they say I did,” the 46-year-old Terrell resident told The Charlotte Observer, days after a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted him ...Read more

Israel closed the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing into Gaza on Sunday after a rocket barrage was fired by Hamas from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in an incident that could imperil delicate hostage and cease-fire negotiations.

Israel and Hamas have been negotiating for weeks through mediators toward a potential truce that would include ...Read more

Israel’s cabinet approved a decision to shut down Al Jazeera’s broadcasts out of the Jewish state in an unprecedented step to terminate the local operation of an international media outlet.

Several ministers from Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party abstained from the vote and criticized its timing, underlining escalating tensions between ...Read more

A well-worn joke in American Jewish culture goes like this. A Jewish immigrant landed at Ellis Island in New York. The procedures were confusing, and he was overwhelmed by the commotion. When one of the officials asked him “What is your name?” he replied, “Shayn fergessen,” which in Yiddish means “I’ve already forgotten.” The ...Read more

Sergey Petrov could do nothing from his home in the outskirts of Vienna as Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to take over the car dealership he had founded and built.

Putin signed the decree in December transferring ownership of Rolf, Russia’s largest car dealership, from a Cyprus-registered entity controlled by Petrov’s family to the ...Read more

ATLANTA — Walking the halls of South Gwinnett High School, Principal Rodney Jordan ran into an alum he had never met.

Administrators, teachers and other staff were also in the hallways, including near student bathrooms. The halls were calm. There were no signs of unruliness. Jayqunn Billingsley, a 2023 graduate, let Jordan know he liked what ...Read more

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Huntington Beach radiates California cool. The best surfers in the world descend here each summer to compete on waves rolling in under its public pier. Convertibles zoom past towering palms along Pacific Coast Highway. Beachfront homeowners enjoy breathtaking views, and everybody seems to sport a hang-loose attitude. ...Read more

When you use Facebook Messenger these days, a new prompt greets you with this come-on: "Ask Meta AI anything."

You may have opened the app to send a text to a pal, but Meta's new artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot is tempting you with encyclopedic knowledge that's just a few keystrokes away.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has ...Read more

Protest movements can look very different depending on where you stand, both literally and figuratively.

For protesters, demonstrations are usually the result of meticulous planning by advocacy groups and leaders aimed at getting a message out to a wider world or to specific institutional targets. To outside onlookers, however, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA police chief is facing growing scrutiny for what three sources told the Los Angeles Times was a string of serious security lapses before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment this week.

But the chief, John Thomas, late Friday rejected those allegations and said he did “everything I could” to provide ...Read more

NEW YORK — The city Department of Correction temporarily pulled almost 3,500 body-worn cameras after one caught fire and injured a correction captain, the department said Saturday.

The captain was on duty in the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island Friday when her Reveal Media D5 body-worn camera spontaneously ignited, said department ...Read more

In the decade after they went up, the 25,000 LED lights illuminating the western side of the Bay Bridge endured a brutal pounding.

“It’s the salty air, the wind, the fog, the rain, the 24-7 vibrations on the bridge, lightning strikes, car grit and grime — and more,” said Ben Davis, founder of the San Francisco nonprofit behind the light...Read more