PHILADELPHIA — Addressing a Philadelphia crowd live from the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV called for a “recommitment” to American ideals.

The first U.S.-born pope delivered remarks virtually at an interfaith ceremony inside Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center on the eve of the United States’ 250th birthday to accept the center’s ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore taxpayers will spend $7,482.17 to send Mayor Brandon Scott and three city employees to New Orleans this weekend after the Baltimore Board of Estimates approved the travel on Wednesday.

Scott is scheduled to travel July 3-5 to the Essence Festival of Culture, the largest Black culture and music event in the U.S. He is ...Read more

Kyiv marked a day of mourning on Friday for victims of a massive Russian missile and drone attack as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the death toll had risen to 30.

Zelenskyy said nearly 100 people were injured and 10 people were still missing as rescue teams continued to search buildings damaged in Thursday’s strike, the ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The sight of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket has flown for the last time in its most powerful configuration.

The rocket, sporting five boosters, launched at 12:30 a.m. Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on the Amazon Leo 8 mission.

All six remaining Atlas V rockets have been...Read more

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez is facing mounting political fallout from last week’s twin earthquakes, with nearly half of Venezuelans saying holding new elections is more urgent than rebuilding after the disaster.

Rodríguez’s disapproval rating climbed to 63.3% in June, up almost five percentage points from May, according to an ...Read more

Americans hit the peak of the summer driving season this July 4 holiday weekend wincing at the cost of gasoline, still running nearly a dollar a gallon higher than before the war with Iran despite falling sharply in recent weeks.

At a Shell station in Southern California with a giant U.S. flag flying overhead, Luis Velasquez added just a single...Read more

WASHINGTON — Small towns across America had big plans to celebrate the nation's semiquincentennial this weekend. Local historical societies scheduled town square readings of the Declaration of Independence, hired bands to play patriotic tunes, organized parades and set up themed baking contests.

But many of their most ambitious plans were ...Read more

When polar ice sheets melt, the effects ripple across the world. The melting ice raises average global sea level, alters ocean currents and affects temperatures in places far from the poles.

But melting ice sheets don’t affect sea level and temperatures in the same way everywhere.

In a November 2025 study, our team of ...Read more

When I started bird-watching as a teenager, a few years after the first Earth Day in 1970, several species that once thrived in my region were nowhere to be found.

Some, like the passenger pigeon, were extinct. Others had retreated to more remote, wild areas of North America. In many cases, humans had destroyed their habitat by ...Read more

Democrats are seizing the mantle of states’ rights to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, who has sought to reset Washington’s relationship with the states.

While the party out of federal power has always pushed its agenda in statehouses, Democrats across the country have recently demanded more autonomy for governors and state ...Read more

CHICAGO — For weeks, Chicago’s U.S. attorney’s office has tried to tamp down a scandal over alleged misconduct in grand jury sessions by focusing on a single prosecutor who handled the now-defunct “Broadview Six” case against Operation Midway Blitz protesters.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros has ordered a top-to-bottom review of some 100...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Standing outside of her casual Venezuelan restaurant in downtown L.A., Kelly Montana clutched print-out photos of her parents as she visibly held back tears.

This is the longest Montana has gone without contact with her parents — she speaks to them "all day, every day" even when they were thousands of miles away in La Guaira, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis wants the White House to stop making “unforced errors” that could affect the midterms.

And in a rare move, Tillis shifted his blame for the administration’s actions from President Donald Trump’s advisers to both the president and his advisers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune sent lawmakers home early ...Read more

Facing growing criticism over military restrictions in disaster zones, Venezuela’s interim government on Thursday defended its decision to militarize the state of La Guaira as the death toll from last week’s earthquakes climbed to 2,595.

The devastating twin earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24...Read more

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. commander for Europe and Africa stepped down on Thursday, following through on a plan that caught military leaders by surprise and sending another signal that the Trump administration wants to scale back its defense commitment to the continent.

Army Gen. Christopher Donahue, who had been seen as one of the US ...Read more