MIAMI — Mike Hammer, a career U.S. ambassador and currently the highest diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, said he believes a change in government in Cuba will happen this year, adding to the string of voices predicting regime change on the island.

“We believe change is coming. It is coming in 2026,” Hammer said in remarks in English...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has pumped the breaks on a plan to close an Upper West Side middle school after a Black student fighting to save her school was interrupted by racist remarks in a controversial comment caught on a hot mic during an online meeting.

The proposal, if approved, would have phased out the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Four siblings who were part of Michael Jackson's secret "second family" have filed a lawsuit revealing the depths of the alleged sexual abuse they suffered as children, including claims that the singer molested one of the boys at the homes of Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor.

The lawsuit, filed against Jackson's estate in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered a much different explanation for how the United States and Israel opted to launch a surprise war with Iran, contending he pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the conflict.

The U.S. commander in chief offered a brief update on the war’s status, telling reporters in the Oval ...Read more

NEW YORK — Wannabe Trump assassin Asif Merchant admitted to the FBI that he has an Iranian intelligence handler and a relative who works for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, testimony at his Brooklyn trial revealed Tuesday, as the war in Iran rages halfway around the world.

Merchant, 47, is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for murder-for-...Read more

NEW YORK — The first cohort of New York City’s free child care programs for 2-year-olds will open this fall in five local school districts, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul were set to announce Tuesday in Upper Manhattan.

The priority areas are Manhattan’s School District 6 in Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, and Inwood; ...Read more

Alaska lawmakers are raising alarm over a decision last year by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom to release confidential information about the state’s voters to the federal Department of Justice.

Dahlstrom, who oversees Alaska’s elections, joined officials from a handful of states in acquiescing to demands from the administration of President ...Read more

MIAMI — A Coral Gables man who obtained a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Miami has pleaded guilty to sharing sadistic internet videos of monkeys being tortured to satisfy viewers’ sexual fetishes.

Francisco Javier Ravelo, 36, a former contractor for the U.S. Air Force in Florida, admitted in Miami federal court Monday ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied that Israel forced the U.S. to join the war against Iran by planning to launch its own assault on Tehran.

Distancing himself from remarks made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump insisted that he alone was the driving force to launch the war against the Islamic Republic.

“It was my opinion that ...Read more

A gunman behind the Sunday mass shooting in Texas suspected of being an act of terror outside a crowded bar had ties to the Bronx and a prior arrest in Manhattan, according to officials and records.

Authorities said Ndiaga Diagne, 53, was killed in a shootout with members of the Austin Police Department following the carnage in the heart of the...Read more

The Oregon Supreme Court on Feb. 5, 2026, issued a ruling that will have a wide impact. More than 1,400 criminal cases had to be dismissed, the justices ruled, due to lack of adequate counsel available for defendants.

Like other states, Oregon must provide defendants with legal representation if they cannot afford attorneys on their ...Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker never flew with former President Bill Clinton on a plane belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, spokespeople for the two Democrats said late Monday hours after video of Clinton’s testimony before a House committee was released, in which the former president suggested the pair had traveled with the financier before ...Read more

BALTIMORE — As the war in the Middle East intensifies, Iranian Americans in the United States are expressing a wide range of emotions, reflecting deep divisions over Iran’s next leadership and the conflict abroad.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has “the capability to go far longer” than its projected four-to-five-week ...Read more

BOSTON — Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the Boston Police Department ignored 167 federal immigration detainer requests last year, not 57 as reported by the city’s police commissioner, and that the requests included serious criminal charges.

Lyons’ disclosure on Monday comes after last week’s 9-4 vote from the Boston City Council to...Read more

NEW YORK — A homeless man sleeping inside Penn Station in Midtown was set on fire by three young men, police said Tuesday.

The 37-year-old victim suffered second-degree burns to his arm and back that are not considered life threatening, cops said.

He was asleep near an entrance to Penn Station’s Amtrak rotunda on West 33rd Street near ...Read more

When Big Bear’s celebrity bald eagle couple’s eggs were eaten by ravens in late January, they didn’t grieve alone.

Thousands had watched Jackie and Shadow on livestream, as they meticulously arranged sticks in their nest high in a Jeffrey pine and nibbled each other’s feathers in preparation for laying. All seemed just dandy until both...Read more

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missourians would have to prove they are United States citizens when registering to vote under a proposal heard in a Senate elections committee on Monday, though details of how the state would accomplish that remained unclear.

Current state law requires applicants registering to vote to present valid identification and ...Read more