LOS ANGELES — Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and the American West, according to new research.

A team of UCLA and NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century were caused ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — The election of Donald Trump— whose campaign featured incendiary proposals on tariffs, immigration and combating drug trafficking — is sending shock waves through Mexico, a nation with close economic, social and cultural ties to its northern neighbor.

The president-elect’s vows to impose steep taxes on goods imported from...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, combined with the Republican takeover of the Senate, may extend conservative control of the Supreme Court for another two decades.

For much of the last four years, progressives focused their energies on proposals to expand the size of the court or impose term limits on the current ...Read more

Clouds form when water vapor – an invisible gas in the atmosphere – sticks to tiny floating particles, such as dust, and turns into liquid water droplets or ice crystals. In a newly published study, we show that microplastic particles can have the same effects, producing ice crystals at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius (9 to 18 ...Read more

America’s military veterans make up about 6% of the adult population but account for about 20% of all suicides. That means that each day, about 18 veterans will die by suicide.

In the U.S., the overall rate of suicide has largely increased since the start of the millennium, but veterans are disproportionately represented among this ...Read more

During cheerleading practice in April, Jana Duey’s sixth-grade daughter, Karter, sustained a concussion when she fell several feet headfirst onto a gym floor mat. Days after, Karter still had a headache, dizziness, and sensitivity to light and noise.

Karter rested for a week and a half at home in Centennial, Colorado, then returned to school ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Madie Moore went to prison in 1995, convicted of murdering her 8-year-old niece, LaToya. The little girl’s battered body was found stuffed in a trash can, encased in concrete, in a shed behind the family home.

Moore had gone in at 45. At 74, in a wheelchair and blind in one eye, she was trying to get out.

As she spoke to the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In downtown Los Angeles, parking lots are often placeholders, eventually giving rise to future development, but in the district known as South Park, one parking lot might just stay low.

Surrounded by residential towers, this ordinary patch of asphalt at 11th Street and South Grand Avenue, smaller than an ice-skating rink, may ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday heralds a potential sea change in court fights over a swath of Biden administration policies, including access to gender-affirming care, immigration, environmental rules and gun control.

The highest profile of those shifts may come at the Supreme Court, where the Biden administration is currently ...Read more

CHICAGO — Before they lost contact, Ellie Dyckman relied on her younger brother Joey. He helped her cope with her divorce, taught her two daughters how to swim and ride a bicycle and coached her daughters’ softball team in grade school.

He had a messy room, but his car was “always immaculate,” Dyckman said. He loved “The Three Stooges...Read more

For one reason or another, Americans occasionally find themselves asking what steps are needed to become a citizen of another country. According to the American Bar Association, immigration lawyers in the U.S. are fielding a larger than usual number of questions about getting a second passport or obtaining permanent residency abroad.

America ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — Inside the more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite, according to the Catholic Health Association.

Nuns founded and led those hospitals in a mission to treat sick and poor people, but some were also shrewd business leaders. Sister Irene Kraus, a former ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Strong winds helped push along a wildfire in Ventura County that quickly grew to 10,431 acres by Wednesday afternoon — causing injuries and prompting evacuations.

Multiple people have been injured in the Mountain fire and transported to hospitals, the Ventura County Fire Department said, with numerous structures threatened. ...Read more

If there is one thing Donald Trump is clear on, it’s winners and losers.

The transactional nature of his first presidency showed how he ranked leaders based on their perceived strengths and weaknesses — and his personal taste. That meant Germany was cut down to size but the likes of North Korea got an audience.

How everyone fits into his ...Read more