The number of U.S. districts and individual schools offering free breakfast and lunch for all students increased significantly in the 2023-24 school year, a new report found.

When comparing the 2022-23 school year to 2023-24, 7,500 more schools and 1,300 more school districts adopted the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which ...Read more

The Bay Area’s homeless population grew 6% to an estimated 38,891 people in 2024, according to new federal data, extending a decade-long surge fueled by the housing affordability crisis, and drug and mental health challenges among those living on the region’s streets.

In California, homelessness rose 3% to more than 187,000, while the U.S. ...Read more

Austria’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party crept closer to appointing its first chancellor after receiving an invitation by the nation’s president to discuss forming a government.

Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl will meet Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen late Monday morning in Vienna after efforts to form a centrist coalition ...Read more

Speaker Mike Johnson vowed that an ambitious bill addressing a range of President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities will be voted out of the U.S. House in April, a tight schedule for his narrowly divided chamber.

In an interview on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures," Johnson said Republicans would use what is known as the reconciliation ...Read more

Elon Musk appears to have turned on Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist and friend of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump he previously supported.

“Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk posted on his social media platform X on Sunday, saying the party “needs a new leader.”

It’s an abrupt about-turn by the...Read more

Ukraine appeared to launch a fresh offensive Sunday in Russia’s border region of Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces have held territory for several months.

Military bloggers and local media posted images of armored vehicles they said were moving near Sudzha toward Bolshoye Soldatskoye in the Kursk region.

Some bloggers, including the Rybar ...Read more

Austria’s nationalist Freedom Party crept closer to power on Sunday after receiving an invitation by the nation’s president to discuss leading a government.

Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl will meet Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday in Vienna after efforts to form a centrist coalition collapsed, prompting ...Read more

Millions of Americans enjoy feeding and watching backyard birds. Many people make a point of putting food out in winter, when birds needs extra energy, and spring, when many species build nests and raise young.

As a wildlife ecologist and a birder, I know it’s important to understand how humans influence bird populations, whether ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Space Coast is set for another busy year in 2025 with new moon missions, new spacecraft and the debut of a new rocket.

Meanwhile, NASA could see billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as its new administrator while prep continues for the Artemis II human spaceflight to orbit the moon in 2026.

Coming off a record 93 launches...Read more

DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic leaders promised Friday to keep plugging away at the state’s affordability crisis when they gavel the legislature back into session next week — but the cost of living is just one of a slew of issues they’ll contend with in the coming months.

The majority Democrats are also bracing for challenges during a...Read more

DENVER — A new law decades in the making could finally lead to the cleanup of some of the thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado that leak toxic metals and acid into the headwaters of the rivers that sustain life across the West.

The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Dec. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A few days before winter break, Lynda McGee, a college counselor at Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles Unified, got an unexpected visit from a student's father.

The man, a warehouse worker who emigrated from Guatemala 28 years ago, wanted to make sure that McGee knew his wishes firsthand.

"My daughter going to college ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Fluorescent-colored sand sprinkled on San Diego County beaches could help reveal the complicated patterns of erosion that plague the region’s coastline.

A so-called “tracer study” would use environmentally benign grains of bright material to show the movement of sand carried by ocean currents. The technique is recommended in ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Shortly after George Floyd was murdered blocks from her home in Minneapolis, Mihesha Gibbs-Lumpkins decided to return to Pembroke Township with her husband and two children.

Her 13-year-old son was the one who voiced a need to escape the chaos. Walking to school, past the corner store where Floyd was suffocated by a police officer, ...Read more

SEATTLE -- When he came to the United States a few years ago from South Africa, Galiyano felt he was struggling to achieve the American dream he’d heard so much about.

Adjusting to a new climate and culture were difficult for Galiyano, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but life got even worse when he found himself ...Read more

Aubrey Plaza’s husband, screenwriter and director Jeff Baena, was found dead Friday of suicide at the age of 47.

An assistant made the grisly discovery at a Los Angeles-area home, to which emergency services responded around 10:30 a.m. local time, law enforcement sources told TMZ.

Authorities pronounced Baena dead at the scene. A medical ...Read more

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni flew Saturday to Florida and met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Meloni’s visit comes days before she is scheduled to receive President Joe Biden, who begins a trip to Rome and the Vatican on Jan. 9, in what will likely be his final presidential mission overseas.

Trump walked in to a ...Read more

A baby spider monkey discovered by the California Highway Patrol this week is in critical condition — suffering from malnourishment, skin and coat issues and an upper respiratory infection. But the Oakland Zoo is hopeful that the plucky young primate will make a full recovery.

The baby monkey is being housed in a humid environment to help ...Read more

ATLANTA — Jimmy Carter’s casket departed from the community hospital that he helped build.

National and global health leaders overflowed with praise this week for the public health accomplishments of the former president, whose programs have saved and restored tens of millions of lives worldwide, and broadened the public understanding of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rescue crews searched Mount Whitney on Saturday for a Texas man who went missing this week while attempting to summit the notoriously challenging peak in frigid and snowy conditions.

Taylor Rodriguez, a 29-year-old from San Antonio, set out alone Monday, according to the Inyo County Sheriff's Office, despite trails slick with ...Read more