JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa’s government is engaging U.S. authorities about the Trump administration’s plan to resettle white Afrikaners to ensure the program doesn’t provide an opportunity for fugitives to flee.

A group of about 100 Afrikaners, an ethnic group descended mainly from Dutch and French settlers, are scheduled...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Tap water is now safe to drink in areas served by all nine water systems where damage from the firestorms in Altadena and Pacific Palisades had prompted “do not drink” notices, state regulators said Friday.

The last water utility with such a notice, the Las Flores Water Co. in Altadena, was cleared to resume delivering ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Jonathan McKernan has become a White House favorite for financial regulatory positions.

The Senate has yet to act on McKernan’s nomination to become director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but the Treasury Department said Friday that President Donald Trump intends to tap him to serve as undersecretary for domestic...Read more

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has reignited an effort in Congress to wrest back power from the executive branch and assert more control over legislative branch agency heads.

Democratic lawmakers blasted Trump’s decision, and some are vowing to change the way positions like the librarian of...Read more

WASHINGTON — As he prepares to jet off Monday on his first working foreign trip of a breakneck second term, President Donald Trump will be met head-on with the uncertain future of war-torn Gaza and its beleaguered residents — as congressional Democrats remain flummoxed by his emerging foreign policy approach.

Trump chose Saudi Arabia and ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons on Friday voted to recommend commuting the life sentence of Marie Scott, a 71-year-old woman with cancer who has spent more than a half-century incarcerated for murder and who a community of advocates in Philadelphia have said should be released.

The board voted unanimously to recommend that ...Read more

SEATTLE — Washington is leading 14 other states in a new lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to shortcut environmental reviews for oil drilling, pipelines and other fossil fuel projects.

The lawsuit, announced by Attorney General Nick Brown at a news conference...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Friday directing his administration to "achieve maximum speed and efficiency" in moving to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes, while also taking a jab at Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat.

In a fact sheet provided first to The Detroit News, a White House ...Read more

President Donald Trump said New York City Mayor Eric Adams came to the White House on Friday so the mayor could “thank” him in the wake of the dismissal of Adams’ federal corruption indictment.

“Almost nothing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what he and Adams discussed during their brief sit-down earlier in the ...Read more

Senior European officials are in talks with the Trump administration to finalize an agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine that would impose new sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t budge, said people familiar with the matter.

The plans aren’t yet final, and moving forward still hinges on the U.S., which has called ...Read more

CHICAGO — Almost immediately after the Chicago Tribune published an article Thursday mentioning that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV had dined with old friends at Aurelio’s Pizza in Homewood months prior, Joe Aurelio said his friends, family — and what eventually felt like the whole country — started chiming in.

“The world’s calling...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Starting this week, residents in need of a COVID-19 self-test kit, fentanyl test strips or other health supplies can get them for free at any of 51 Community Health Station kiosks across Los Angeles County.

The Community Health Station program was initially established to continue the distribution of COVID-19 antigen tests, also...Read more

DEDHAM, Mass. — Karen Read maintained a lengthy flirtatious text message relationship with a friend of the boyfriend she is accused of murdering in the weeks before his death.

“You’re hot,” Read texted Brian Higgins just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2022.

“Are you serious or messing with me?” Higgins responded, but Read confirmed she ...Read more

Radar and telecommunications systems for Newark Airport’s air traffic controllers failed Friday morning — the second time the two critical systems went down at the same time in less than two weeks — as delays at the critical hub continue to vex travelers.

According to a statement issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, both the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Dozens of Columbia University students were temporarily suspended as of Friday for their alleged involvement with a brief takeover of the main campus library in a pro-Palestinian protest, The New York Daily News has learned.

At least 65 Columbia students were placed on interim suspension pending further investigation, according to ...Read more

Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday outside an immigration detention center he’s been protesting this week.

“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” ...Read more

NEW YORK — Dozens of Columbia University students were temporarily suspended as of Friday for their alleged involvement with a brief takeover of the main campus library in a pro-Palestinian protest, the Daily News has learned.

At least 65 Columbia students were placed on interim suspension pending further investigation, according to a ...Read more

BOSTON — Seventeen years after the Brood XIV cicadas last emerged as adults and annoyed people with their loud buzzing calls, they’re coming back.

Residents along inner Cape Cod and over the bridge into southeastern Plymouth County should expect the 17-year periodical red-eyed cicadas to surface by late June.

While the noisy cicadas are ...Read more