October has long been associated with ghosts – from ancient Celtic festivals to ward off restless spirits after harvest time to the modern standby of using an old sheet to make a last-minute Halloween costume. In the middle of the 19th century, however, popular portrayals of ghosts became a year-round staple, in part because photographers ...Read more

In September 2024, authorities in Benin detained the country’s former sports minister and a prominent businessman for allegedly plotting a coup against the West African nation’s president, Patrice Talon. Had a putsch materialized, Benin would have joined a growing list of African countries to have experienced a military coup over the past...Read more

The U.S. presidential election isn’t drawing eyes only at home – Moscow and Kyiv are watching closely, too.

Regardless of who wins in November, there will be significant implications for Ukraine as it continues to resist Russia in a war heading toward a fourth year.

Washington’s continued support is seen by some as no ...Read more

You’ve probably seen them: alarming columns or stories with alarming headlines about how somebody is going to exploit an obscure provision in election law to undo the 2024 presidential election and toss it to the House of Representatives. Your vote won’t count, and democracy will go to hell.

Election law scholar Justin Levitt ...Read more

White signs emblazoned with a big blue dot are going up in yards across Omaha, Nebraska, in an unusual political statement of support for Democratic candidates.

Nebraska splits its electoral votes, giving Omaha’s congressional district a single electoral vote out of the state’s total of five. If enough of Omaha’s metropolitan ...Read more

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, news reports and social media feeds are increasingly filled with data from public opinion polls. How do pollsters know which candidate is ahead in what swing state or with which key demographic group? Or what issues are most important to as many as 264 million eligible voters across a vast country...Read more

Polls opened in North Carolina on Oct. 17, 2024, as about 14,000 people in Asheville and surrounding areas remain without power in their homes following Hurricane Helene. In Florida, which started early voting in some counties on Oct. 21, about 400,000 residents are still without power after Hurricane Milton.

Some experts have said ...Read more

Long before colonialism brought slavery to the Caribbean, the native islanders saw hurricanes and storms as part of the normal cycle of life.

The Taino of the Greater Antilles and the Kalinago, or Caribs, of the Lesser Antilles developed systems that enabled them to live with storms and limit their exposure to damage.

On the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Republican control of the Senate would likely tilt tech policy, ranging from regulation of artificial intelligence to expansion of high-speed internet, toward industry-friendly terms, according to analysts polled by CQ Roll Call.

The focus during the Biden administration, which has enjoyed a Democratic majority in the chamber, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The parents of a fifth-grader are suing an elite private Mulholland Drive elementary school after their son was expelled over emails he exchanged with a classmate containing rap lyrics and the squirt gun emoji.

The parents allege that the disciplinary action was "arbitrary and capricious" and that the school provided no evidence...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A man suspected of strangling three women to death in Ventura County in 1977 is headed to court after new DNA technology shed light on the serial slayings that had stumped detectives for decades.

Warren Luther Alexander, 73, of Diamondhead, Miss., will stand trial in the killings of Kimberly Carol Fritz, Velvet Ann Sanchez and ...Read more

President Vladimir Putin is playing host to Russia’s biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and using the BRICS summit to show the U.S. and its allies that he’s no pariah.

With Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine and evidence of growing war fatigue among some of Kyiv’s allies, the Kremlin is seizing its ...Read more

The U.S.’s top diplomat landed in Israel on Tuesday, with Joe Biden trying to bring cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza closer before American elections in a fortnight.

Antony Blinken’s trip comes as Israel and Hezbollah continued to trade heavy fire. An Israeli overnight attack near Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital killed four ...Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Wang Bo-whei was 50 years old when he started working at Taiwan’s fourth nuclear plant, rising through the ranks to oversee its construction and — he thought — its eventual operation.

But 15 years into the job, following delays that frequently plague nuclear power projects, Wang was tasked with sealing off the facility...Read more

Despite an encouraging national dip in the past year, overdose deaths are still on the rise in many Western states as the epicenter of the nation’s continuing crisis shifts toward the Pacific Coast, where deadly fentanyl and also methamphetamine are finding more victims.

Overdose deaths remain sharply higher since 2019. Many states are ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Twenty-four minutes before the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade in February left one person dead and at least 24 people injured, Jenipher Cabrera felt a bullet pierce the back of her right thigh.

The 20-year-old and her family were just four blocks from Union Station, in a river of red-...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Riley Rackliffe follows the stinky green blobs as they travel across Lake Mohave.

The aquatic biologist leads a two-man team for the National Park Service, dipping a long stick into the reservoir’s problem areas and sending off samples to the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s water testing plant in Henderson.

Algae can be ...Read more

Mosquito-borne illnesses are a growing concern in Northeastern states, with health officials monitoring cases and advising residents to avoid outdoor activities near standing water and other environments prone to mosquito spread.

Of particular concern is eastern equine encephalitis, a rare disease that can lead to serious and fatal illness, ...Read more

U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, an ally-turned-adversary of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has died, Turkey’s government said. He was 83.

“The death has been confirmed by our intelligence sources,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Ankara on Monday.

Gulen was accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt against...Read more