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Houthis open new front in Iran war by targeting ships in Red Sea

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The Iran-backed Houthis claimed their first attack on commercial ships in recent months, opening a new front in the U.S.-Iran war that has already disrupted global energy supplies and rattled bond markets.

The militant group, based in Yemen, said it targeted two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea with missiles and drones.

The Saudi ...Read more

Wildfires force France to evacuate tourists from campsites

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Wildfires forced French authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 residents and tourists from an area southwest of Bordeaux, after successive heat waves created tinderbox conditions.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have so far burned 2,400 hectares in the Bassin d’Arcachon in the Gironde department. Tanker aircraft are ...Read more

ICE detentions spiked in June, targeting immigrants with no criminal records, new data show

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LOS ANGELES — Immigrants without criminal records make up 74% of the average daily population in California detention centers and 79% nationwide, according to data released this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The data shed light on how immigration detention has ebbed and flowed so far in 2026.

More than 43,000 people were ...Read more

Tropical Storm Bertha hugs Louisiana coast, targets Texas, NHC says

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Tropical Storm Bertha continued to skirt Louisiana’s Gulf Coast on Thursday expected to keep its strength until moving into Texas later in the day, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The system made landfall Wednesday at 3 p.m. with 45 mph sustained winds in St. Bernard Parish near the Biloxi Wildlife Management ...Read more

Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today/TNS

Pregnant woman's roadside death triggers push to reopen Mississippi Delta hospital

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BELZONI, Miss. — Harmony Ball-Stribling’s path to pregnancy had been turbulent, from an endometriosis diagnosis to an arduous in vitro fertilization process and sky-high blood pressure. But as her due date approached in the summer of 2021, her health improved and those storm clouds seemed to scatter.

“It was just too perfect,” said her ...Read more

University of Miami Rosenstiel School PRESS RELEASE/TNS

These 'insta-reefs' could be the future of hurricane protection for Miami's coast

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MIAMI — When hurricanes come ashore in Miami, their waves take big bites out of the coastline, chewing up sand and waterfront properties alike. A chunk of concrete sunk offshore in Miami Beach could change that.

The University of Miami recently installed the second phase of its hybrid reef project — an engineered piece of concrete seeded ...Read more

Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

New Fort Lauderdale plant will turn yellow drinking water clear. But experts say old pipes may discolor it again

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Fort Lauderdale officials say all that yellow water flowing from the tap will disappear when the city’s pricey new water plant is fully operational later this year.

That claim is being met with deep-seated skepticism from experts who say the city’s network of old, unlined cast-iron pipes that snake underneath Fort ...Read more

KFF HEALTH/TNS

Violence repeatedly erupts at dementia care facilities despite warnings, inspections show

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Sam Ato Timaloa, a paroled sex offender who also served time for attempted murder, had dementia and an acute intolerance of noise — especially from roommates at Sunrise Post Acute, a nursing home in Banning, California. Over four months in 2025, a state investigative report found, Sunrise switched Timaloa's room eight times, the last into one ...Read more

Leigh Diprose/Dreamstime/TNS

Formerly endangered ospreys bounce back in record numbers in Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania may now have more ospreys than in pre-Colonial times, according to a biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Osprey nest reports have increased 37-fold since the 1980s, according to surveys for the third Pennsylvania Bird Atlas. Unlike bald eagles, which glide as they fish, ospreys hover over the water, then dive, punching...Read more

Ashley Mizuo/KFF Health News/KFF HEALTH/TNS

Severely ill prisoners granted early release are left stuck behind bars

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ʻAIEA, Hawai‘i — Christian Alameda used a cane to push himself up out of bed in his cell at the Halawa Correctional Facility in Honolulu. He has been recovering in the prison’s medical infirmary since a January stroke left the right side of his body mostly paralyzed.

In February, Hawai‘i’s parole board granted the now-52-year-old ...Read more

Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times/TNS

The dark side of making daylight saving time permanent in California: How late would our sunrises get?

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LOS ANGELES — The move by lawmakers to make daylight saving time permanent has a dark side — sunless winter mornings.

But just how late would the new legislation push sunrise in California?

Were Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time year-round, eliminating the need to change the clocks twice a year, Los Angeles would see its ...Read more

The spoon-billed sandpiper, a small wading bird, flies nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 km) on its annual migration. Tareq's Photography/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

More than half of Earth’s migratory bird species are declining – here’s how we can still save them

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Every year, billions of migratory birds connect the world’s continents, oceans and ecosystems as they undertake epic journeys between their foraging habitats and their breeding grounds.

A bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) leaves its breeding grasslands of North America for the Pampas of South America. A Newell’s shearwater (...Read more

Will Lester/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/TNS

Former California State University campus president accused of harassment to earn $343,920 in new university job

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LOS ANGELES — The California State University system will pay $343,920 in compensation to the outgoing president of Cal State San Bernardino — who was named in a discrimination and harassment civil suit that CSU settled for $12 million — as part of his one-year "transition" assignment, Chancellor Mildred Garcia announced Wednesday.

Garcia...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Gov. JB Pritzker urges Illinois House Speaker Welch to be transparent on Harry Benton harassment allegations

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Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday called on Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch to come clean to the public about his office’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made three years ago against now-former state Rep. Harry Benton, as the House Democratic Women’s Caucus criticized Welch’s handling of the case as “insufficient....Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Gov. Gavin Newsom appoints podcaster pal to UC Board of Regents

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Scott Galloway, a liberal media personality and New York University marketing professor who has appeared on the governor’s podcast, to the UC Board of Regents on Wednesday.

Newsom said Wednesday that Galloway, who lives in Gulf Stream, Florida, and London, would join the UC system’s 26-voting-member ...Read more

Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/TNS

Haitians get a brief reprieve on end of TPS: Friday is no longer the last day

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A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. gave Haitians a temporary reprieve Wednesday from losing their protection from deportation, which had been scheduled to end Friday.

In an order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a Trump administration request that would have ended Temporary Protected Status ...Read more

Hannah Walls/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

As AI backlash grows, Byron Donalds' support for data centers draws fire

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When former U.S. Rep. David Jolly last year launched his bid for the Democratic nomination for Florida governor, he bet that the race’s defining issue would be the rising costs of homeowners’ insurance.

But with less than a month to go before the Aug. 18 primary, Jolly said Tuesday he got it wrong. The statewide backlash against artificial ...Read more

Nick Wagner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Washington state lawsuit costs reach a record $614 million

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SEATTLE — Washington state's ballooning lawsuit payouts and legal costs have set another dubious record, reaching nearly $614 million in the past fiscal year.

The state forked over more than $537 million to settle lawsuits and tort claims alleging government misdeeds in the 2026 fiscal year, which ended June 30, according to new figures ...Read more

Missouri Governor's Office/Missouri Governor's Office/TNS

Missouri sues Kansas City, alleging discrimination against white people and men

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit against Kansas City, alleging programs that help businesses owned by women and racial minorities are discriminatory toward white people and men.

The federal lawsuit alleges that the city’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise program runs afoul of equal ...Read more

Emily Curiel/Kansas City Star/TNS

Federal agencies threaten to sue Kansas school district in 14 days over rules for trans students

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Two federal agencies are again threatening to sue Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools over its policies involving students’ gender identities.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday issued a joint statement calling on KCKPS to revoke any internal guidelines that allow staff or administrators to use ...Read more