President Donald Trump will headline U.S. Independence Day celebrations on Saturday with a speech and a show that seek to place him at the center of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Trump has made no secret of his joy at presiding over the July 4 festivities, portraying the timing as a side benefit of winning a second term starting in 2025 —...Read more

Illinois’ tick season may be starting earlier, lasting longer and creeping into new corners of the state, scientists and researchers say.

Milder winters and earlier springs are helping ticks survive in greater numbers, while doctors report earlier cases of tick-borne illnesses this year than in previous seasons. And ticks aren’t only in ...Read more

A new national poll shows how Americans feel about our country as we celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday.

Elon University Poll results show an optimism among younger Americans and pride in being American across generations, even though those polled think the nation’s founders would be disappointed.

Elon Poll developed the survey, ...Read more

There’s Taylor’s version, and then there’s President Trump’s version.

Around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, a series of billboards wrapping around Madison Square Garden lit up pink, revealing to the world that, after months of speculation, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce traded their “I dos” at the storied New York City venue.

“JUST&T ...Read more

Since moving to Minneapolis from Louisiana in 2023, Jamal Green has graduated from a GED program and rented his own apartment for the first time.

Life’s better up north: an escape from the poverty and low wages Green experienced in Louisiana, he said. But he’s still dealing with less federal food assistance as food is quickly becoming more ...Read more

President Donald Trump will headline U.S. Independence Day celebrations on Saturday with a speech and a show that seek to place him at the center of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Trump has made no secret of his joy at presiding over the July 4 festivities, portraying the timing as a side benefit of winning a second term starting in 2025 —...Read more

Gov. Wes Moore celebrated the nation’s semiquincentennial in a brief address on patriotism from the Maryland State House, addressing veterans and their families on Saturday morning.

Independence Day is necessarily a day of “reverence” and “reflection,” Moore said, as the founders’ ideal remain “unfinished,” he said.

“...Read more

It was a traumatic moment for much of Southern California, as federal immigration agents snatched undocumented workers from car washes, garment factories and Home Depot parking lots.

Angelica Salas, who heads one of Los Angeles’ most influential immigrant rights groups, met regularly last summer with City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez —...Read more

Iran began a mass funeral for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, in a weeklong ceremony that’s expected to draw millions of mourners and serve as a show of strength for the Islamic Republic.

The body of Khamenei — who was killed in a U.S. and Israeli attack on the first day of the war in late February — will lie in ...Read more

Iran’s ambassador to Beijing said China and other friendly nations will be granted “special considerations” when Tehran determines the level and nature of service fees charged to ships using the Strait of Hormuz.

Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said the critical waterway for energy supplies is now a matter of “national security” in the ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Swimming is one of the best ways to cool off during a Texas summer.

But before you head to the pool, health officials are warning about a stomach illness that spreads in recreational water this time of year.

The illness is caused by a parasite called Cryptosporidium and can leave people sick for days or even weeks.

...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — This month marked a big shift for electric motorcycle or “e-moto” riders in the Treasure Valley.

Boise City Council members unanimously passed an ordinance allowing the vehicles only on public roads and requiring them to be street legal, and Meridian Police announced they will “focus enforcement efforts” on people ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — With July Fourth weekend, California and other Western states are heading into the beginning of peak fire season — when rain is scarce and temperatures are high.

But an ominous new trend is reshaping forest fire behavior. Not only have the number and size of fires grown in recent decades, but fires are burning hotter and ...Read more

Artificial intelligence is barging into the workplace and transforming the battlefield. Now, it’s coming to the ballot box, promising to rewrite the DNA of politics.

Driven by a flood of Silicon Valley money, AI has emerged as one of the biggest financial forces in this year’s U.S. elections, fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars from ...Read more

President Donald Trump basked in a celebration of the country’s 250th birthday at Mount Rushmore on Friday, standing before a memorial to some of the most beloved presidents as he looks to boost his own political standing ahead of midterm elections.

The optics at the event in South Dakota, part of the anniversary celebrations leading up to ...Read more

MIAMI — With the one-time immigration detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz” closed down, environmental groups say the time has come to turn the remote airport into an environmental preserve. That could include ripping up the jumbo runway that was the subject of a huge environmental fight decades ago.

Miami-Dade County owns the 17,...Read more

Turkey arrested a stand-up comedian on charges that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and incited the public to hatred by joking about religion.

Deniz Goktas, 32, was detained by security forces at Istanbul Airport on Thursday and formally arrested after the prosecutor charged him on Friday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Cleanup efforts at a fire-ravaged cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights just got messier.

In a letter sent Friday, Greg Lehmkuhl — chief executive of Lineage, which manages the facility — accused Altus Power, the solar panel subcontractor whose rooftop equipment is suspected of potentially sparking the June 17 blaze, of ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The eve of the United States’ 250th birthday in Philadelphia was less celebration and more chagrin, as oppressive heat left swaths of tourists and revelers in an aimless search of pomp and circumstance.

On Friday, Wawa’s Salute to Independence Semiquincentennial Parade was canceled because of 100-plus-degree temperatures ...Read more

Venezuela’s official earthquake death toll climbed to 2,645 on Friday as a new United Nations-backed assessment estimated the twin earthquakes caused at least $37 billion in direct physical damage, underscoring the enormous reconstruction challenge facing a country already weakened by years of economic decline and deteriorating infrastructure....Read more