JACKSON, Miss. — Storm clouds hung low above a community center in Jackson, where pastor Andre Devine invited people inside for lunch. Hoagies with smoked turkey and ham drew the crowd, but several people lingered for free preventive health care: tests for HIV and other diseases, flu shots, and blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

Between ...Read more

CHICAGO — Above the door of the church in the last blocks of Chicago, the Virgin Mary still stands with her arms wide open.

The double doors beneath the statue’s feet are shut, but a disintegrating wooden side door swings freely, leading to a set of stairs with chipped paint scattered on them. Above, a pool of blue light from a stained-...Read more

CHICAGO — Melanie Snow and her husband talk about the weather like it’s gossip.

Every day, they read National Weather Service discussions — technical documents from the agency where meteorologists explain the reasoning and rationale behind forecasts — from weather events in Chicago and across the country.

“We avidly consume those,”...Read more

In December, astronomers identified that the asteroid YR4 had a small but not insignificant chance of striking Earth in 2032, a scenario that experts postulated could have more explosive potential than 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

Researchers reclassified YR4 as a non-threat in February, but the interim period when the asteroid was considered a...Read more

For help, call 1-888-373-7888 or text *233733 for the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline, a national, toll-free hotline.

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States are moving to strengthen protections against human trafficking, but some advocates warn that federal funding cuts could undermine efforts to support survivors.

This year, lawmakers in several states have ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In the summer of 1973, the war was still raging in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal was unfolding in Washington, and protests roiled college campuses nationwide. But at leafy Villanova University just outside Philadelphia, trouble was on the home front.

The staid Catholic institution on the Main Line stood at a cultural ...Read more

Keir Starmer’s double victory in securing trade deals with India and the U.S. this week still isn’t enough to pacify restive lawmakers in the U.K.’s governing Labour Party.

Last week, the British premier faced a breakdown in party discipline after hemorrhaging seats in local elections dominated by the insurgent populist Nigel Farage’s ...Read more

Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators spent hours behind closed doors in Switzerland on Saturday as they held high-stakes talks that offer the clearest opportunity yet for the two countries to de-escalate their trade war, with President Donald Trump calling it a “very good” meeting.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice ...Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to hold direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, saying he didn’t rule out reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in the war.

“We’re in the mood for serious talks with Ukraine,” Putin said in late-night comments to reporters at the Kremlin. Russia was ready to “resume direct negotiations ...Read more

BOSTON — The governor is being called out for the “appalling” case of an illegal immigrant child rapist found at a Cape Cod home day care.

It’s a startling arrest, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration argued Friday night, that dates back to the waning months of the Biden presidency that’s now being highlighted as Massachusetts, Boston...Read more

SAN DIEGO — On the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving in 2022, a panga piloted by two cousins from Baja California capsized as it approached the shoreline off Imperial Beach. The cousins and five of the undocumented immigrants they were transporting made it safely onto the beach, but three others drowned.

The cousins were eventually ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A man was walking along a rocky, picturesque shoreline of Trinidad Head, located about 25 miles north of Eureka, when he spotted something unusual and unnerving.

The unidentified man's discovery in February 1993 turned out to be a partial human skull that he handed over to the nearby Fortuna Police Department.

To help identify ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a center for homeless veterans on its West Los Angeles campus.

The order set a goal of housing up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center, which Trump named the National Warrior Independence Center, and ordered federal...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — New legislation meant to protect elected officials and their families from harassment worries government watchdogs who say it would also prevent voters from knowing if their lawmakers live in their districts as required.

The Florida Legislature in April overwhelmingly approved the bill (SB 268), which would exempt disclosure ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — As Philadelphians and Catholics rejoiced at the announcement of the new pope, with his ties to Villanova University, among local Filipinos, there was some disappointment.

The election of Pope Leo XIV meant Filipino cardinals who had been front-runners in the papal process would not ascend to the Catholic Church’s highest post...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For more than two years, a big wooden sign in west Marin County has displayed a set of hand-painted numbers, dutifully changed each morning.

"Days Without a Bolinas Post Office," the sign reads. The number Friday: 806.

The sign has been a charming, if sad, reminder to the 1,200 or so residents of Bolinas of the loss of their ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has paused a pilot program that allowed for the collection and lethal gassing of nuisance Canada geese, according to a Friday letter from M. Scott Bowen, the state agency's director.

Bowen announced the decision in a message to a group of Democratic lawmakers who had expressed ...Read more

The U.S. embassy in China said it received reports that American citizens are being subjected to “invasive medical testing” upon arrival in the country.

“We are looking into these reports,” the embassy in Beijing said in a response to a query by Bloomberg. “The U.S. Mission to China has no greater priority than the safety and security...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 4.1 magnitude earthquake near the Tennessee-North Carolina border on Saturday was felt as far east as Charlotte, government seismologists confirmed.

The quake struck at 9:04 a.m. and was centered about 12 miles southeast of Greenback, Tennessee, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s near North Carolina’s ...Read more