The final round of United Nations-brokered talks aimed at tackling plastic pollution are opening in South Korea with deep divisions over the need to stem the rising flood of the material, a rift that threatens to scupper a two-year long quest for a deal.

Plastic production will jump about 60% to 736 million tons a year by 2040, according to the...Read more

Romania’s presidential election was upended by a nationalist who has voiced admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, setting up a likely runoff with an establishment candidate in one of the country’s biggest upsets since the end of communism.

Calin Georgescu took 22% of the vote with more than 80% of ballots counted, putting him ahead late...Read more

When University of Pennsylvania researcher Christina Roberto set out to study Philadelphia’s soda tax, she wasn’t convinced she would find much health impact.

“We know that it is really hard to shift a person’s weight and keep that weight off, and it’s a really tall order to ask a policy like this to produce a health effect,” she ...Read more

Gas prices continue to fall in Minnesota with stations selling a gallon of gas for less than $3 on average ahead of peak Thanksgiving travel.

On Sunday, the average price for a gallon of gas in Minnesota was about $2.86, according to GasBuddy.com and AAA, which both track daily gas prices. Gas prices have fallen for the past six weeks in ...Read more

This is the season for California lawmakers to travel across the globe, some to lush beachside resorts with schmoozing lobbyists, at no cost of their own.

A hand-selected group of elected officials spent the last few weeks traveling — gratis — to Hawaii, Vietnam and Taiwan to discuss big-picture policy ideas.

But these trips continue to be...Read more

TALLAHASSEE — Matt Gaetz’ knack for courting controversy has finally caught up with him.

The right-wing firebrand, political prankster, steadfast Trump defender and party animal stepped down as the president-elect’s choice for Attorney General once it was made clear to him he didn’t have the needed support in the U.S. Senate.

Senators ...Read more

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump pitched an idea to quickly reduce the number of tents on the nation’s streets: Offer up other places for people to camp.

He’d start with a big plot of land. Then his team would hire social workers, psychiatrists and other medical staff which together could “create tent cities where the ...Read more

Amid a national educator shortage, the number of Philadelphia School District teachers hired who lack full certification has surged.

Nine years ago, 9.2% of Philadelphia teachers held emergency certification.

In the 2022-23 school year, the last year for which state data are available, that percentage more than doubled, to 22.4%. That means ...Read more

The dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay, where there’s low oxygen for underwater life, was near its average size in 2024, according to new data from the Chesapeake Bay Program.

The dead zone is the area in which there is a relatively low amount of oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia. Typically, this means that polluted runoff has brought in ...Read more

He got out on good behavior.

Then Ramon Rivera, a troubled, homeless man with a history of arrests and mental problems, went on a vicious daytime stabbing spree across Manhattan on Monday, killing three people at random using a pair of large kitchen knives, authorities said.

Almost immediately, Rivera became every New Yorker’s nightmare ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. intelligence community is likely to face tough questions during confirmation hearings, including over her meeting with Syria’s leader, Republican Senator James Lankford said.

Tulsi Gabbard, the nominee for director of national intelligence, is a Trump loyalist and former Democratic ...Read more

For a two-year period, an extreme drought across Colorado and much of the West dried farmers’ fields, lowered water levels in reservoirs, fueled extreme wildfires and left streams dangerously low.

Historically, an exceptional drought like the one that plagued the Western U.S. from 2020 to 2022 happened less than once every 1,000 years.

But ...Read more

Jeremy Barousse is trying to keep everyone calm.

The head of an East San Jose immigrant rights nonprofit remembers the last time Donald Trump threatened mass deportations: distraught parents choosing relatives or friends to care for their children if they were swept up in ICE raids; school principals reporting classrooms half empty as terrified...Read more