A new variant of COVID-19, dubbed cicada, is less susceptible to vaccination and appears to discriminate based on age, scientists say. The variant appears less threatening to older individuals, preferring young people instead.

Cicada, formally named BA.3.2, is a mutation of the omicron COVID-19 branch that first appeared in 2021. It has been ...Read more

BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is ordering the state to implement chip-enabled EBT cards in an effort to boost security in the Bay State’s SNAP program.

The move comes after a series SNAP fraud busts in the state and the Herald’s reporting on a DTA whistleblower’s claims of “rampant” SNAP fraud in the federally backed ...Read more

MIAMI — In the hours after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot to death inside the bedroom of his mountaintop home, an inner circle of people suspected of being involved in the assassination plot in South Florida and in Port-au-Prince were frantically trying to steer events in their favor.

One of them, Antonio “Tony” Intriago, who ...Read more

A California congressman has raised the diplomatic stakes for King Charles’ visit to the United States later this month by calling out the British monarch for refusing to meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking operation.

In an interview with the Times of London over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Children’s Minnesota hospital system resumed gender health care services it had suspended in late February in response to efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut off federal funding.

A favorable federal court ruling led to the reversal, Children’s said in a written statement on Monday, April 6. The health...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani inched further away from his campaign promise to ban the NYPD gang database on Monday, suggesting he could be open to reforming the database as opposed to abolishing it altogether.

The mayor on the campaign trail called the database a “vast dragnet” and said his administration wouldn’t use the database. ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu proposed a $4.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, saying that the 2% increase over last year’s spending represents the lowest growth in 17 years as the city continues to cut back amid a financial crunch.

Still, the budget is increasing by roughly $100 million, a spike that appears to be largely driven by...Read more

NEW YORK — A Queens man accused of fatally shooting Run-DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay came one step closer to freedom Monday, months after a federal judge overturned his murder conviction in a bombshell decision.

Karl Jordan Jr., 42, who has been locked up since his arrest in 2020, still faces several pending drug distribution and firearm ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, but the chances of reaching a deal by a Trump-imposed deadline on Tuesday evening appeared uncertain.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the president echoed an expletive-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — After a wave of resignations decimated the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office, the federal government has tried to offset the staffing crunch with a novel strategy: deploying military lawyers to temporarily serve as assistant prosecutors.

That method now faces a legal test over whether these lawyers can prosecute civilians in ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Following a speech that focused on Muslim groups and religious rules, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday a measure that gives the state the power to label certain groups as terrorist organizations and dissolve their nonprofit status.

It also prohibits public schools and universities from funding educational programs ...Read more

The credits roll, the lights dim, and on screen appears a name few in the audience would recognize — yet it’s one that once moved quietly through the highest levels of power in Venezuela.

Maximilien Sánchez Arveláiz, a former insider in Hugo Chávez’s government and a figure later touched by one of Latin America’s largest corruption ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky’s highest court ruled Monday that state lawmakers cannot proceed with upcoming impeachment proceedings against Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman.

The opinion and order, issued Monday by the Kentucky Supreme Court and written by Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, voided Goodman’s articles of impeachment,...Read more

President Donald Trump ramped up his threats ahead of a deadline he’s imposed for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face further attacks on civilian infrastructure, while Tehran rejected a ceasefire proposal.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said in a news conference ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, but the chances of reaching a deal by a Trump-imposed deadline on Tuesday evening appeared uncertain.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the president echoed an expletive-...Read more

How conspiracies spread has changed immensely over the history of the United States, as technology and media have evolved. But the nature of conspiracies has not.

I teach communications courses at Villanova University, 12 miles from Philadelphia, on how conspiracy theories are created and disseminated.

As the nation approaches...Read more

The global energy crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is only the beginning of the economic cost of the war with Iran.

I study how institutions affect businesses and supply chains, and I expect food prices to rise next, with high prices lasting even after whatever point hostilities end.

Along with about 20% of...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The lawsuit against the parent company of Spectrum News 13 for the 2023 killing of reporter Dylan Lyons was dismissed — this time, for good — after a federal judge ruled that it again failed to show the TV station was responsible for his death.

Lyons’ family sued Charter Communications — the parent company of Spectrum ...Read more

DENVER — Weeks from graduation, Colorado legislators are planning to cut a teacher recruitment program that promised to pay two years of a student’s college tuition on their journey toward becoming educators, leaving soon-to-be-graduating high school seniors in a lurch as they scramble to finance their higher education.

Last week, the state...Read more

NASA’s Artemis II crew members, farther from Earth than any humans before them, are preparing for their event-filled six-hour flyby of the moon after five days traveling through space.

At approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time, the crew reached another milestone: At more than 248,655 miles from our pale blue dot, no humans have ever traveled ...Read more