President Donald Trump and members of his administration have long used allegations of anti-Christian discrimination as a rallying cry for supporters, arguing that policies and laws on issues like school prayer and LGBTQ+ rights threaten Christians’ right to express their beliefs.

Weeks into his second term, Trump took action, ...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2025 ended a decade-old lawsuit filed by a group of children who sought to hold the federal government responsible for some of the consequences of climate change. But just two months earlier, the justices allowed a similar suit from the city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii, to continue against oil and gas ...Read more

_Nearly a half-century after the Supreme Court ruled that school spankings are permissible and not “cruel and unusual punishment”, many U.S. states allow physical punishment for students who have misbehaved.

_Today, over a third of the states allow teachers to paddle or spank students. More than 100,000 students are paddled in U.S...Read more

Following George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis in 2020, the U.S. has undergone a national reckoning over crime prevention and police reform.

Across the country, calls went out from activists to rethink the scope and role of the police. Some on the left vowed to “defund” the police. Others on the right ...Read more

Giancarlo Zorrilla attended a campaign rally for the first time in his life in March. It was a rainy night near Vancouver — typical weather for Canada’s west coast — but that wasn’t stopping the 29-year-old Canadian from seeing Pierre Poilievre speak.

“It’s time for a change,” Zorrilla said on his way in to see the Conservative ...Read more

In an age where the data of an entire life can be held in the palm of your hand, a fundamental question has emerged about rights to digital privacy when crossing international borders: Can U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers demand access to your phone or laptop at airports and seaports?

The short answer is yes, and this applies to ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — When the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announced the end of its college degrees, it promised the return of the rigorous certificate program that had turned out some of the nation’s most renowned artists.

Now, more than a year later, PAFA has fleshed out the details of its revived certificate, and the program is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A University of California, Los Angeles international graduate student has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and is being held by Customs and Border Protection, the school confirmed late Thursday.

The student, whose name was not released, was taken into custody Wednesday night, according to faculty members and students who...Read more

Jabaar Edmond has long advocated for better air quality in his Childs Park neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For decades, residents of the predominantly Black neighborhood complained of a persistent gasolinelike odor.

“We had an initiative called ‘Smell something, say something,’” said Edmond, former president of the ...Read more

America has your back. That has been the message of U.S. foreign policy to the world’s vulnerable since the end of World War II.

That sense that America is behind you was a message for Europe against the threat of the Soviet Union and has been the implicit message for all threatened by authoritarian expansionism.

From the sophisticated in ...Read more

Two centuries ago this month, France pulled off one of history’s greatest armed extortions: After the first three leaders of a newly freed Haiti refused to cave in to hefty French demands to compensate its former slave-holders in exchange for recognition of its freedom, the European power finally succeeded in getting its demands met.

With a ...Read more

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen has met with a Maryland man in El Salvador who had been deported in an “administrative error” to the Central American country by the Trump administration and detained in a mega prison.

Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, on Thursday posted a photo of him with the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, on the X social media ...Read more

California will sue the Trump administration for dismantling AmeriCorps while ramping up its efforts to recruit people for its own state equivalent, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The federal government laid off thousands of AmeriCorps members this week as part of an ongoing effort to downsize federal agencies. AmeriCorps members respond to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Survivors of the Eaton fire gathered Thursday morning in Pasadena to condemn State Farm's alleged mishandling of a slew of claims by policyholders who suffered losses in the blaze.

Speaking in front of State Farm's catastrophe claim tent on Colorado Boulevard,, the group urged California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to ...Read more

The Department of Justice on Thursday asked the courts to go hard on disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos when he’s sentenced next week, citing his remorseless behavior on social media.

“The government respectfully submits this letter to advise the Court that Santos’s recent behavior continues to demonstrate that he remains ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The lawyer for the Hope Florida Foundation said Thursday that he couldn’t answer questions about what to do with a $10 million donation until it hired another attorney.

During the charity’s first public board meeting, attorney Jeff Aaron said he didn’t want to answer questions about whether the donation was legal ...Read more

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office is reeling after learning that the 20-year old suspect in a mass shooting on Florida State University’s campus is the son of one of their own — raised by a sheriff’s deputy and trained by sheriff’s deputies.

Phoenix Ikner was shot by police after opening fire on FSU’s campus around 11:50 a.m. on ...Read more

Students and faculty across California and the nation staged coordinated protests Thursday to collectively push back against what they view as the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education.

In the greater Bay Area, rallies protesting federal funding cuts and more took place at Stanford University, California State University — East...Read more

Students and professors at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Chicago held events Thursday as part of the National Day of Action for Higher Ed, a nationwide effort to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to education funding and changes to policy.

President Donald Trump promised to pursue federal cuts to education and ...Read more