Iran said it has closed the Strait of Hormuz for shipping transit due to what it called Israel’s violation of a ceasefire, even as Pakistan said U.S.-Iran talks were set to open in Switzerland on Sunday.

The Hormuz action casts a new cloud over the talks, which are aimed at permanently ending a conflict that’s thrown the Middle East into ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — L.A. city officials said Saturday they expected to declare a state of emergency as firefighters continue to battle a stubborn warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that has sent plumes of irritating smoke across the region.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jamie Moore described the blaze that broke out Wednesday as a “very unique ...Read more

President Donald Trump and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni traded barbs for a second day in an unprecedented blowout between the two countries’ leaders.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump continued to insist — as he did on Friday — that Meloni had repeatedly asked for a photo with him at this week’s G7 meeting but he refused ...Read more

President Donald Trump said the prospect of global economic collapse was a big reason he signed an interim peace deal with Iran. That admission exposes a key U.S. weakness heading into the next round of talks with Tehran.

The memorandum of understanding that Trump signed on Wednesday reopened the Strait of Hormuz and set in motion waivers for ...Read more

When NASA unveiled the four-person crew of its Artemis III mission last week, it didn’t take long for the general public to notice a common feature of the group: all four astronauts were men.

NASA said the selection was not political. But it triggered a wave of disappointment from former NASA officials, space industry insiders and enthusiasts...Read more

Vladimir Putin’s political hero Pyotr Stolypin — a reforming prime minister of the Russian empire — is buried in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. That wasn’t enough to protect one of Orthodox Christianity’s most sacred sites from a Russian drone attack.

For decades, Russia’s political and religious elite have viewed the monastery in central...Read more

CHICAGO — The sound of whistles warning of approaching unmarked vehicles driven by immigration agents has once again echoed through Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs in recent weeks. At the same time, videos circulating online showing ICE agents detaining people during traffic stops and outside courthouses have alarmed immigrant ...Read more

CHICAGO — A barrage of tornadoes has hit Illinois communities this year, bringing the tally to at least 140. Some have amounted to nothing more than a swirl of high winds and no reported damage. Many have collapsed homes, injured people and devastated crops in their wake.

Experts say this pace is not normal: Illinois experienced an average of...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The 78th Tarrant County Jail inmate since Sheriff Bill Waybourn was elected in 2017 died on Thursday. The death is the 79th if you count the baby who was born in a jail cell and died 10 days later.

Mack Greer’s death was the third this week.

Greer, 49, was pronounced dead Thursday at John Peter Smith Hospital, but his ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police Friday released body cam footage of an officer killing a woman’s pet dog in a case that has sparked outrage and questions.

Jameson, a 2-year-old Saint Bernard doodle, was fatally shot by police on Saturday after police responded to a report of a woman screaming in her apartment in the 7500 block of Jordan ...Read more

NEW YORK — A massive blaze engulfed a nearly 200-year-old church in Brooklyn on Friday, causing the steeple to collapse and injuring a firefighter, FDNY officials said.

The fire broke out around 1:20 p.m. at South Bushwick Reformed Church and quickly escalated to three alarms, a FDNY spokesperson said. Videos and photos on social media showed...Read more

Throughout the nearly four-month Iran war, few countries were more visibly at the center of the efforts to end it than Pakistan, an unlikely actor thrust into the spotlight by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was the first to announce in a social-media post this week that the U.S. and Iran had struck a truce now known ...Read more

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to offload its two warehouse properties in Pennsylvania and another in New Jersey — bought for a total of more than $336 million — that had been purchased to further support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

In total, ICE is planning to disown seven warehouses across the...Read more

A barrage of tornadoes has hit Illinois communities this year, bringing the tally to at least 140. Some have amounted to nothing more than a swirl of high winds and no reported damage. Many have collapsed homes, injured people and devastated crops in their wake.

Experts say this pace is not normal: Illinois experienced an average of 54 ...Read more

MIAMI — Sheriff's deputies have arrested a 19-year-old following an investigation into an alleged hate crime in northeast Miami-Dade County, officers say.

Amir Ayesh will be charged with two felonies, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office news release. The allegations follow a similar incident that resulted in the arrests of two men in...Read more