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Crowds at a Moscow stadium during the 2018 World Cup show that this massive sporting event is a weeks-long experiment in global mixing that creates a perfect environment for infectious diseases to spread.
              Claudio Villa - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

World Cup creates perfect conditions for infectious diseases to spread – here are the biggest threats health experts are watching for

Current News / News & Features /

When the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on June 11, 2026, matches will be played across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Millions of fans will arrive through multiple airports and will pack into stadiums, airports, hotels, bars and public transit systems over five weeks.

That makes the World Cup not just a sporting event...Read more

Grisly affair: SoCal man survives grizzly bear attack in Glacier National Park

Current News / News & Features /

A San Diego man said he feels lucky to be alive and recovering at home this week after surviving a grizzly bear attack at Glacier National Park on May 28.

“I’m honestly grateful I still have an arm,” said Daniel Crago, 32, in an interview Sunday with The Times. “It’s pretty painful, but I’m making progress day by day.”

The attack...Read more

3rd inmate in less than a month dies at Michigan women's prison

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A third inmate in less than a month has died at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Washtenaw County, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Ashley Hoath, 36, died Saturday morning at Trinity Health Hospital several hours after being transferred out of the prison's medical unit, said MDOC spokesperson Jenni Riehle.

A ...Read more

Stephane de Sakutin/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Mélenchon seeks to rally support to avoid far-right presidency

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France’s veteran leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon pitched himself on Sunday as the most viable candidate in next year’s presidential election to prevent a win by the far-right National Rally party.

Speaking at a campaign event in Saint-Denis, near Paris, Mélenchon said candidates who don’t stand a chance of making it to the runoff in the ...Read more

JACK GUEZ/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Iran targets Israel in missile volley with ceasefire at risk

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Iran fired several missile barrages toward Israel, threatening to disrupt a fitful ceasefire in the U.S.’s 100-day conflict with Tehran.

“At this time, the Israeli Air Force is operating to intercept and strike threats where necessary,” the Israel Defense Forces said, before warning of an additional volley of missiles. The military said ...Read more

Peru's economic miracle is at stake as voters head to polls

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Peruvians are heading to the polls on Sunday in what is expected to be a tight presidential runoff, with the model behind one of Latin America’s most stable economies at stake.

Voters will decide whether they finally give a shot to three-time runner-up Keiko Fujimori, a conservative seen as the guarantor of a successful economic model ...Read more

Pair of new wildfires crop up in Boundary Waters

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MINNEAPOLIS -- Fire crews are working to extinguish two new wildfires in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which the U.S. Forest Service discovered Saturday afternoon, threatening the safety of visitors in the immediate area, who are being asked to stay away.

The Forest Service believes the fires, both east of Crane Lake, started on ...Read more

President Trump storms off NBC interview after claiming California election was 'rigged'

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President Donald Trump shut down an interview with NBC News after host Kristen Welker pushed back on his claims that the election in California on Tuesday was rigged.

During a lengthy interview in Wisconsin that aired on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Trump echoed claims he made in recent days that officials in California were “cheating,” ...Read more

Armenians vote for parliament with Russian ties in focus

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Armenians voted in a parliamentary election that will determine whether Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan can secure a mandate to reorient the country toward Europe even as tensions with Russia are on the rise.

Turnout reached almost 59%, the Central Election Commission announced after polls closed Sunday. Preliminary results expected later ...Read more

US, Iran appear far from peace deal 100 days since war began

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The U.S. and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war Washington and Israel began 100 days ago, as fresh attacks pile pressure on a fragile ceasefire.

The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the ...Read more

Xi visits North Korea to reassert influence over emboldened Kim

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Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to North Korea in a likely bid to reassert Beijing’s influence over an emboldened Kim Jong Un, a neighbor with a rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal and deepening alliance with Russia.

The two-day visit that begins Monday marks Xi’s first to Pyongyang in seven years, and comes just weeks after he hosted...Read more

Illinois' new cellphone ban receives praise, criticism from Chicago-area school communities

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CHICAGO — Many students reached for their backpacks as they spilled out of Bernhard Moos Elementary School last week, pulling out smartphones and tablets as they walked away. Come fall 2027, that scene will be the norm, as the end of the school day will be the first chance most students will have to check their devices under the new Illinois ...Read more

Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS

Iguanas bounce back in South Florida after February freeze wiped out thousands

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Michele Holtfreter planted fresh pentas in her yard this spring — only to find an iguana was tearing into her blossoms.

“After they started flowering, there was a big green iguana hanging around my palm tree,” recalled Holtfreter, of Deerfield Beach. “Next thing I know, the tops of the pentas are being chewed ...Read more

Drew Askeland/Redding Record Searchlight/KFF Health News/TNS

In a vaccine-skeptical California county, a potential playbook to contain measles

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James Mu had braced for the call that came in late January.

A patient from his rural Northern California county had measles, a disease so rare there that many physicians have never treated a case.

While California has some of the strictest vaccine laws in the country, conservative Shasta County's approach during the COVID pandemic stood in ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

State urges social media guardrails, but many Maryland school boards opt out

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BALTIMORE — In 2024, Alison Rudolph found herself in the middle of a social media spat with Carroll County school board member Steve Whisler, who accused the bookstore owner and former teacher of “sexualizing kids” because she promoted an annual Banned Books Week on her store’s Facebook page.

Rudolph said Whisler’s comments triggered ...Read more

Christiana Botic/KFF Health News/TNS

Louisiana's reporting law chills immigrant Medicaid applications

Current News / News & Features /

Yolibeth’s 4-year-old daughter scrambled headfirst onto a cushy leather love seat at their home near New Orleans and pushed a hairbrush into the hands of Miriam Romero, a health coordinator who works with the family. Romero placed the girl in her lap and started brushing her dark hair.

Yolibeth, a 38-year-old single mother who moved to South ...Read more

Barge hit Susquehanna Bridge on Saturday near Havre de Grace, causing Amtrak delays

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Thousands of rail passengers traveling between Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York faced delays Saturday after a barge struck Amtrak’s Susquehanna River Bridge, forcing officials to temporarily halt train traffic along one of the nation’s busiest passenger rail corridors.

Amtrak suspended service across the bridge Saturday afternoon while ...Read more

Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS

Thunderstorms delay more than 350 flights at Denver International Airport

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DENVER — Thunderstorms have delayed more than 350 flights in and out of Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon.

The storms were not severe enough as of 4:45 p.m. to warrant official warnings from the National Weather Service, but posed enough risk to delay 143 departing flights and 107 arrivals, according to tracking service ...Read more

Samuel Corum/Getty Images North America/TNS

US intercepts fresh Iranian attacks as peace talks stall

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U.S. and Iranian forces continued to trade fresh attacks, after a week that saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the shaky ceasefire started and little progress toward an interim peace deal.

U.S. Central Command shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, it said a ...Read more

Louis Krauss/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

As anti-ICE protest cases falter, prosecutors notch first conviction on lesser charge

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MINNEAPOLIS — Twin Cities activist Isabel Lopez faced the possibility of decades in prison after being accused of assaulting federal agents during an anti-immigration enforcement protest in south Minneapolis last summer. Yet with just weeks to go before trial, prosecutors downgraded her four felony charges to a single misdemeanor in return...Read more