Current News

/

ArcaMax

World’s largest insect faces extinction: how to save two species of Africa’s giant Goliath beetle

Current News / News & Features /

One of Africa’s giant beetles is just one step away from extinction. New research has found that one species of the enormous Goliath beetles has been almost wiped out by the west African cocoa industry and, to a lesser extent, by the international trade in dried insects. Luca Luiselli, a professor of biostatistics and ecology at the ...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Musk email prompts US agency to compile nonresponders list

Current News / News & Features /

Leaders at a key U.S. weather and science agency are compiling a list of employees who didn’t respond to an email asking them to explain what they did last week, an infraction that both President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said put the workers’ jobs at risk.

Managers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...Read more

Xavier Mascareñas/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sacramento County supervisors urged to suspend nearly $1 billion main jail annex. Did they?

Current News / News & Features /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Plans for a nearly $1 billion intake and health services facility annex at the Sacramento County Main Jail are suspended as the county considers how to address systemic issues laid out in an external review.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to pause the build and design of the project to address ...Read more

Trump administration answers invite of Caribbean Community leaders; visit being planned

Current News / News & Features /

Days after Caribbean leaders announced plans to invite President Donald Trump for a visit, his administration is taking them up on their offer — sort of.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose recent five-nation tour through the region included only one Caribbean country, the Dominican Republic, plans to visit the wider Caribbean region next ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

To balance Mayor Brandon Johnson's 2025 budget, Chicago installing 50 new speed cameras to ticket drivers

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — Chicago will add 50 speed cameras as part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to balance this year’s budget, increasing the stock of the devices used to ticket drivers by 30% citywide.

The city’s Department of Transportation confirmed this week that it is “actively working” to install the 50 cameras this year but declined to ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

A diabetes drug may cut the risk of certain skin cancers, study finds

Current News / News & Features /

Metformin is a medication prescribed to help manage type 2 diabetes. Recent research suggests, however, this medication may potentially decrease risk of certain types of skin cancer.

A retrospective case-control study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology explored whether metformin could reduce the risk of non-melanoma skin cancers, ...Read more

Gil Cohen-Magen/Getty Images North America/TNS

Hamas releases 4 dead Israelis as part of delayed exchange

Current News / News & Features /

Israel and Hamas exchanged dead Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a swap that was delayed with the sides accusing each other in recent days of breaking the terms of the Gaza ceasefire.

The Israeli military received the coffins of four hostages from the Red Cross after they were handed over by Hamas, Israel’s government ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

US Supreme Court Justice Alito blasts 9th Circuit in San Jose police shooting case

Current News / News & Features /

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. slammed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this week over its handling of a California police shooting case, calling lower courts' decision to award damages to the victim's widow and children "a flagrant error."

"The courts below badly fumbled this basic tenet of our qualified immunity doctrine," by ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Medicaid work rules have increased coverage loss, not employment

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are coalescing around work requirements in Medicaid as part of the massive budget blueprint the House adopted Tuesday.

But there’s one problem: They don’t increase employment, experts say. They do, however, result in people losing coverage.

The House budget resolution directs the Energy and Commerce ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Where can LA immigrants go for help under Trump? Try the public library

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Among the bookshelves at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, Ramón Hernández sits in a cubicle a few days a week, holding hour after hour of consultations with immigrants who have questions about their legal status.

Demand for the public library's free immigration services has shot up since the return of President ...Read more

Israel’s bombing of Gaza caused untold environmental damage − recovery will take effort and time

Current News / News & Features /

The war in Gaza has come with an awful cost. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, and thousands more are missing. And while a temporary ceasefire has allowed for increased aid delivery, easing the plight of those facing disease and hunger, experts predict malnutrition and health issues to persist for months or even ...Read more

Trump administration sets out to create an America its people have never experienced − one without a meaningful government

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. government is attempting to dismantle itself.

President Donald Trump has directed the executive branch to “significantly reduce the size of government.” That includes deep cuts in federal funding of scientific and medical research and freezing federal grants and loans for businesses. He has ordered the reversal or removal...Read more

Is a united European voice possible in the age of Trump, Putin and far-right politics? Germany’s new leader intends to find out

Current News / News & Features /

“Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”

The question was famously attributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and refers to the historical inability of the political entity of Europe to coordinate on a united front in the global arena.

And despite decades of integration under the European Union, who...Read more

Todd Maisel/New York Daily News/TNS

Editorial: Never forget the WTC sick -- Congress must finally fully fund their health care

Current News / News & Features /

We were relieved when House Republicans, led by Long Island’s Andrew Garbarino, successfully pushed President Donald Trump to reverse the Elon Musk-imposed 20% cut to the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment to 137,000 responders and survivors sickened from the toxic plume from 9/11.

Never forget,...Read more

Ethan Miller/Getty Images North America/TNS

Opioid cash grab: As federal funding dries up, states turn to settlement money

Current News / News & Features /

At a recent Nevada legislative committee hearing, lawmakers faced off with members of the governor’s administration over how to fill gaping holes in the state’s upcoming budget.

At issue: whether opioid settlement money — paid by health care companies that were sued for fueling the opioid crisis and meant to help states abate addiction �...Read more

(Jackie Fortiér/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

Health clinic workers brush up on constitutional protections as immigration raids loom

Current News / News & Features /

The lobby at this St. John’s Community Health clinic in South Los Angeles bustles with patients. But community health worker Ana Ruth Varela is worried that it’s about to get a lot quieter. Many patients, she said, are afraid to leave their homes.

“The other day I spoke with one of the patients. She said: ‘I don’t know. Should I go to...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Already-lagging broadband program faces more uncertainty under Trump

Current News / News & Features /

A massive federal program meant to expand broadband access to underserved areas across the country is falling behind schedule, state broadband officials and experts say, even as Trump administration actions create further uncertainty about its funding and rules.

Now in its third year, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, known ...Read more

Jill Toyoshiba/Kansas City Star/TNS

Johnson County loves early, mail-in voting. Will Kansas eliminate ballot grace period?

Current News / News & Features /

Elizabeth Hunter-Blank’s commitment to voting is such that ahead of Kansas’ abortion rights election in August 2022, the Mission Hills resident paid to have her ballot shipped overnight to a marina as she traveled by sailboat across Lake Michigan.

She readily acknowledges her circumstances that summer were unusual. What’s become less ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Noses can be made smaller, breasts bigger -- and legs longer. Here's the brutal procedure

Current News / News & Features /

LAS VEGAS — Late at night, on long drives around his Indiana hometown, Eli Mattern would ask God why he made the teenager the way he was.

The high schooler’s 5-foot-7 stature — 2 inches below the average man in America — consumed his thoughts. An ex-girlfriend told Mattern she was glad they were breaking up because he was short. He ...Read more

CHANAKARN LAOSARAKHAM/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Russians seek escape from sanctions, draft on Thailand's Phuket Island. Not everyone is happy

Current News / News & Features /

PHUKET, Thailand — For many years, Chinese tourism fueled the economy of this island paradise, known for its tropical weather, stunning sunsets and foreign-friendly accommodations.

But with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Thailand's Phuket Island is transforming into a different kind of getaway: a refuge for Russians...Read more