In 2025, two scholars of religion decided to make a multiday pilgrimage along the Kumano Kodō trail – an ancient route in Japan connecting Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples – guided by an artificial intelligence assistant.

The two – Wayne E. Arnold and John A. Shultz – trained an AI companion on a smartphone to suit their ...Read more

As midterm elections near, Democrats enjoy advantages in national “generic ballot” polling, suggesting they may secure majorities in the House of Representative or Senate, if not both chambers.

But the reality is that partisan control on Capitol Hill will be determined by just a handful of competitive House and Senate contests. ...Read more

After high-level Trump administration officials said they might send armed officers to the polls during the upcoming midterm elections, and after months of administration efforts to wrest control of some aspects of voting from state officials and limit how people vote, there’s a lot of fear that armed federal officials will disrupt voting ...Read more

In June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals of two lower court rulings that challenged assault weapons restrictions. The high court will decide whether the Second and 14th amendments protect the right to possess semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15. This marks a reversal for the court, which for years has declined to consider ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hurricane Isaias intensified overnight Thursday with a forecast it will threaten Florida as it targets the Gulf Cosat. The storm just before midnight had become the first Atlantic system this year to reach hurricane strength, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of the NHC’s 8 a.m. advisory, Isaias was still a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Six years after he was released from a California immigrant detention facility, Wilfredo Gonzalez Mena has to sleep with his back propped up by pillows, nearly in a seated position, to avoid gasping for air.

He blames his lasting medical issues on the 10 months he spent in custody until September 2020 at the Adelanto ICE ...Read more

Federal wildlife managers euthanized 28,000 animals in California in 2025 and dispersed about 1 million more as part of a nationwide program meant to control invasive species and minimize danger to people, pets and livestock, new data shows.

The removals by a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which nationwide involved killing 2...Read more

The Trump administration is injecting more than $100 million into education programs for American researchers in STEM fields, as federal policies stanch the flow of foreign scientists to the U.S. and policymakers focus on an AI arms race with China.

The initiative, which President Donald Trump is set to announce at a White House summit on ...Read more

New York Attorney General Letitia James has added new allegations to a child safety lawsuit against TikTok Inc., accusing the platform of running secret experiments on teen users.

The new claims are attributed to a Bloomberg Businessweek report, based on a confidential TikTok document, about an algorithmic test the company began in 2021 that ...Read more

President Trump told a crowd in Texas on Wednesday night that he would not allow Iran to attack San Diego or Los Angeles, a comment that came two days after he made off-the-cuff remarks suggesting the West Coast cities could be struck.

"You want to see a horror show? You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles," ...Read more

Dolly Parton's estate is alleging that Bryan Seaver, the country icon's nephew and former head of security, used a "no trespassing" sign and barbed wire to avoid being served legal documents.

There is an active restraining order and lawsuit against Seaver by Parton's company, She's Alive LLC, which is run by Parton's former manager, Danny ...Read more

The Turks and Caicos says it has intercepted another overloaded boat from Haiti, this time carrying more than 100 Haitian migrants.

The group included 87 men and 23 women.

Shortly after the 110 migrants were interdicted at sea on Wednesday by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment and Border Force...Read more

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are not even remotely planning to apologize to Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, contrary to rumors that have swirled since the couple moved back to the U.K. last month, according to a new report.

A London tabloid’s assertion that a public apology from the Sussexes to the Prince and ...Read more

After Florida’s attorney general refused to accept millions from Meta in a multistate settlement he criticized as borderline “absurd,” he now is asking a state court to force the social media giant to make the same — and more — concessions to Florida that it did to the 52 other states and territories it settled with.

In an 85-page ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday it was expanding its antisemitism investigation of Swarthmore College after a student group allegedly shared a video of an effigy of an Israeli soldier being set on fire.

The group, Students for Justice in Palestine, already had its affiliation revoked by Swarthmore College in 2025 for past ...Read more

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed additional issues with the state’s voter registration system Wednesday, months after she announced the discovery of noncitizens on the voter rolls.

Sherrill said Wednesday that a review of the state’s voter registration processes revealed that the same system that allowed for those improper ...Read more

A vigil at Manhattan’s Union Square to remember the 1,200 Jews killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel three years ago was thrown into chaos Wednesday when more than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators swarmed the plaza, officials said.

Waving Palestinian flags and screaming “Normalize the intifada!” and “There is only one ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is disputing that federal immigration agents arrested a man on a California community college campus, contradicting college officials who maintain that the enforcement occurred on school property.

DHS’ denial came Wednesday, two days after Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria said U.S. Immigration and ...Read more

Patricia Krenwinkel, convicted of seven murders as one of the most notorious members of the Manson family, was granted parole this week and, barring a move by the full state parole board and governor, will see freedom some 56 years after imprisonment.

Krenwinkel was granted parole on a preliminary basis Tuesday at her 18th hearing to gauge her ...Read more