Federal employees in diversity, equity and inclusion roles will be placed on paid leave Wednesday as their offices related to those programs are being ordered to shut down after President Donald Trump’s executive orders, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a post on X.

Under a memorandum from the Office of Personnel ...Read more

In California, where more than 147,000 federal civilian employees worked last year, President Donald Trump’s hiring pause will likely have a big impact on the federal government’s ability to provide services, labor groups said.

One area of concern is how the hiring freeze could impact the federal government’s ability to hire and support ...Read more

PJM Interconnection, which operates the largest U.S. grid from Washington, D.C., to Illinois, issued a Level 1 emergency alert for Wednesday as cold weather boosts electricity demand.

The network operator expects energy use to near a record set almost a decade ago as dangerously low temperatures spread across the Eastern U.S., it said. PJM ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that could designate drug cartels in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that has some bipartisan support, while experts have expressed caution about that approach and suggested that Congress pass legislation to deal with the issue.

The order directs officials ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A judge on Tuesday ordered Southern California Edison to preserve data, equipment and evidence related to the deadly Eaton fire, a decision praised by attorneys who sued the giant utility company and suspect the fire was started at the base of an electrical tower.

Issued by L.A. Superior Court Judge Ashfaq G. Chowdhury Tuesday ...Read more

MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday night that it will be surging ships, boats and aircraft to South Florida and other areas of the country to bolster anti-maritime migration efforts to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to use the nation’s military to defend the border.

The announcement comes the same day the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Over the past two years, the Biden administration struck a careful balance on artificial intelligence. The White House took steps to ensure the U.S. stayed ahead of China in developing the technology while also trying to address some of AI’s many potential risks.

In his first 24 hours back in Washington, Donald Trump sent a ...Read more

The World Health Organization called on the U.S. to reconsider President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the agency, suggesting the move could undermine global health security.

The planned departure would leave the WHO scrambling to replace its top donor, which contributed $1.3 billion to the organization between 2022 and 2023. Without U.S. ...Read more

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed his country’s ties with Russia during a video call with Vladimir Putin a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president, signaling a resolve to deepen their alliance.

Xi said he’s willing to work with his Russian counterpart to take bilateral relations to new heights, vowing to leverage the ...Read more

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that could designate drug cartels in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that has some bipartisan support, while experts have expressed caution about that approach and suggested that Congress pass legislation to deal with the issue.

The order directs officials to examine ...Read more

President Donald Trump pardoned the founder of darknet marketplace Silk Road, he said in a post to Truth Social on Tuesday night.

Ross William Ulbricht, known online as Dread Pirate Roberts, was indicted in the U.S. District Court in Maryland on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, attempted witness murder and using ...Read more

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a top aide to President Trump, drew and quickly dismissed a raft of condemnation from Democratic lawmakers, left-wing politicians abroad and others across the internet after twice making what to some looked like a Nazi salute from an inauguration stage.

Musk — who has endorsed antisemitic remarks and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — After a day of strong winds that helped fuel small scattered fires across Southern California, hope to cut back on wildfire risks may finally be on the horizon.

A small amount of rain is in the forecast for the region beginning late Friday through early Saturday, a much anticipated change of weather for the region, which has ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has promised to increase patrols in Altadena to combat looting as residents begin to head back to their homes nearly two weeks after the Eaton fire swept through the region.

The newly formed Looter Suppression Team will provide more surveillance and a quicker response time to ...Read more

President Donald Trump said he would be open to billionaire supporter Elon Musk or Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison purchasing social video app TikTok as part of a joint venture with the U.S. government.

“I have the right to make a deal,” Trump said at an event alongside Ellison at the White House on Tuesday. “So what I’m thinking ...Read more

California Democratic state lawmakers and advocates are vowing to “fight back” against President Donald Trump’s opening salvo of executive orders on his first day in office, which target immigration, transgender rights and several California environmental policies.

“We’re in for a rough four years,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, ...Read more

India’s government is prepared to work with Donald Trump’s administration to identify and take back all its citizens residing illegally in the U.S., an early signal from New Delhi that it’s willing to comply with the incoming American president and avoid a trade war.

The U.S. has identified some 18,000 illegal Indian migrants to be sent ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The city on Wednesday will officially launch what it is calling a “neighborhood wellness court” in Kensington, an initiative in which police will arrest people who are openly using drugs, issue them summary citations, and then offer addiction treatment and diversionary services before a judge the same day.

Mayor Cherelle L....Read more

Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan was fired on the second day of the Trump administration, an action Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen called “politically motivated.”

A Department of Homeland Security memo said Tuesday that the agency had “relieved Admiral Linda L. Fagan of her duties as Commandant of the United States Coast Guard” and ...Read more