President Joe Biden awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis, a personal marker of his Roman Catholic faith after devastating fires in California prompted the president to cancel a Vatican visit during his final days in office.

The White House said Biden spoke with the pontiff on Saturday and named him a medal recipient with ...Read more

Los Angeles County’s top emergency manager said Saturday the county’s overhaul of its emergency notification system is nearly complete after it sent out a succession of faulty emergency alerts urging millions of residents across Los Angeles to prepare to evacuate amid the ongoing firestorm.

Kevin McGowan, director of L.A. County’s Office ...Read more

Choppy seas in the Atlantic could still cause a delay, but Blue Origin remains on the clock for an overnight launch of its New Glenn rocket on the Space Coast.

The 321-foot-tall rocket making its debut on the NG-1 mission is targeting a three-hour window from 1-4 a.m. Sunday for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex...Read more

The devastating Palisades Fire pushed to the northeast in the Hollywood Hills, prompting new evacuations in the ultra-affluent Southern California neighborhoods of Brentwood and Bel-Air as the threat of more dry winds raised risks after a brief respite.

The spreading flames brought “another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los ...Read more

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz amped up on criticism of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over the integrity of borders during an animated speech meant to motivate Social Democrats ahead of a federal election next month.

Scholz’s main competitors to lead Germany, Friedrich Merz and Alice Weidel, also spoke on Saturday at meetings of their ...Read more

Santa Ana gusts aren’t going anywhere, as meteorologists expect north-to-northeast winds to pick up Saturday night and continue into Sunday. The turbulent conditions will bring an official fire watch from around 6 p.m. Saturday into Sunday afternoon.

L.A. County will get a short break from the winds Sunday night before they pick up again ...Read more

The devastating Palisades Fire pushed to the northeast in the Hollywood Hills, prompting new evacuations in the ultra-affluent Southern California neighborhoods of Brentwood and Bel-Air as the threat of more dry winds raised risks after a brief respite.

The spreading flames brought “another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los ...Read more

When devastating wildfires erupted across Los Angeles County this week, David Torgerson's team of firefighters went to work.

The thousands of city, county and state firefighters dispatched to battle the blazes went wherever they were needed. The crews from Torgerson's Wildfire Defense Systems, however, set out for particular addresses. Armed ...Read more

Thousands of families were displaced on Tuesday when fires torched homes throughout Pacific Palisades and Altadena, kicking off a regionwide house hunt as victims scoured a tight market looking for homes to rent — or even buy.

People are desperate, local agents said. Their homes are in ashes, and they’re looking for stability — somewhere ...Read more

The devastating Palisades Fire pushed to the northeast, prompting new evacuations in the Southern California neighborhoods of Brentwood and Encino as the threat of more dry winds raises risks after a brief respite.

The spreading flames brought “another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los Angeles Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said...Read more

Two of seven U.S. intelligence agencies broke with previous assessments that foreign adversaries were not to blame for so-far unexplained health incidents among government employees overseas that came to be known as “Havana Syndrome.”

The latest conclusions highlight the confusion that continues to surround the incidents, which were first ...Read more

Canada is drawing up plans for extensive tariffs against U.S. products if Donald Trump follows through on his threat to put 25% levies on Canadian goods, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian government’s draft plans for trade retaliation go well beyond the narrow list of U.S.-made items on which it placed counter-...Read more

Los Angeles has experienced some of the world’s worst air quality this week as smoke from massive wildfires blankets the region and threatens the health of far more people than the fires themselves. And that will end up adding to the economic toll.

Almost 180,000 have been forced to flee their homes and at least 10,000 structures have been ...Read more

DENVER — Investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice will be in Colorado next week to conduct interviews as they probe the Douglas County School District’s response to racial discrimination, harassment and bullying of students — as well as the district’s use of seclusion and restraint against children with disabilities.

The ...Read more

When Haiti’s government announced the reopening of the country’s main international airport and domestic terminal in Port-au-Prince last month, many passengers had hoped to see a return of flights to the country.

But in a notice to customers, the main domestic airline — the country’s only direct commercial air link to the U.S. amid an ...Read more

Donald Trump’s obsession with Greenland has put the world’s largest island in an unexpected position of power.

While Trump’s 2019 bid for the Arctic territory was dismissed as little more than a joke, the president-elect’s timing is better this time around — Greenlanders are intensifying their push for independence from Denmark. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles faces another tense night as the Palisades fire moved northeast, prompting new mandatory evacuations.

The latest order is in effect from Sunset Boulevard north to Encino Reservoir, from the 405 Freeway west to Mandeville Canyon — an area that includes the Getty Center museum as well as Brentwood and the foothills ...Read more