An individual’s “right to die” is becoming more accepted across the globe. Polls show that most Americans support allowing doctors to end a patient’s life upon their request. Assisted suicide is now permitted in 10 U.S. states and in Washington. In 2025,five more states are set to consider “right to die” legislation.

The �...Read more

The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, with about 7% of global trade passing through. It also relies heavily on rainfall. Without enough freshwater flowing in, the canal’s locks can’t raise and lower ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Droughts mean fewer ships per day, and that can ...Read more

The measles outbreak that began in west Texas in late January 2025 continues to grow, with 400 confirmed cases in Texas and more than 50 in New Mexico and Oklahoma as of March 28.

Public health experts believe the numbers are much higher, however, and some worry about a bigger resurgence of the disease in the U.S. In the past two ...Read more

On March 27, 2025, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced plans to dramatically transform the department. HHS is the umbrella agency responsible for pandemic preparedness, biomedical research, food safety and many other health-related activities.

In a video posted that afternoon, Kennedy ...Read more

A federal appeals court on March 26, 2025, upheld a temporary block on President Donald Trump’s deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants, including alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

The court was skeptical of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to defend ...Read more

Americans are increasingly waiting weeks or even months to get an appointment to see a health care specialist.

This delay comes at a time when the population of aging adults is rising dramatically. By 2050, the number of adults over 85 is expected to triple, which will intensify the strain on an already stretched health care system. ...Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday has killed more than 1,600 people and injured more than 3,400 and was felt as far as Thailand, Laos and southern China.

The earthquake originated near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city of about 1.5 million, from rubbing tectonic plates along the Sagaing fault,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The wildlife crossing designed to help mountain lions, deer, bobcats and other creatures safely travel over the 101 Freeway between the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains will reach a major milestone on Monday, as workers lay the first layers of soil on the overpass.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing spans the 10-...Read more

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s presidential ambitions were dealt a potential death blow after she was convicted of embezzlement by a French court and barred from running in the next election in 2027.

Judges at the Paris criminal court found Le Pen and her National Rally party guilty of diverting millions of euros in European Union funds to ...Read more

Israel named former naval commander Eliyahu Sharvit as the new head of the country’s domestic-intelligence agency after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed his predecessor over a series of disputes.

Sharvit is set to lead the Shin Bet after 36 years serving in the Israeli military, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said on Monday....Read more

In the wooded highlands of northern Arkansas, where small towns have few dentists, water officials who serve more than 20,000 people have for more than a decade openly defied state law by refusing to add fluoride to the drinking water.

For its refusal, the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority has received hundreds of state fines ...Read more

Karen Read will face a second trial beginning Tuesday after all her attempts to throw the charges out have failed.

Here’s what you need to know before it all begins. The Herald also has a guide to who’s who in the retrial.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston Police officer, with ...Read more

For a year and a half, the migrant shelter run by Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Logan Heights was regularly at capacity, a bridge for recently arrived asylum seekers looking to settle in San Diego.

But that number plummeted when President Donald Trump ended the CBP One appointment system, which had allowed undocumented immigrants to schedule ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Donald Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation’s leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as ...Read more

When Stephanie Russo Carroll, a citizen of the Native Village of Kluti-Kaah in Alaska, set out to earn her doctorate in tribal health 15 years ago, she focused her research on tribal cultural and health programs within six tribes.

She needed vital statistics data, such as birth and death rates, for each of them. But getting that data from the ...Read more

PUEBLO, Colorado — When paramedics showed up at Bernie Esquibel-Tennant’s door the day after Thanksgiving in 2020, it was the second time in roughly 12 hours that an ambulance had visited her stretch of the neighborhood.

The night before, Esquibel-Tennant had watched as paramedics came for Adolph Gallardo, a man her children called Grandpa ...Read more

President Donald Trump said he plans to start his reciprocal tariff push with “all countries,” tamping down speculation that he could limit the initial scope of tariffs set to be unveiled April 2.

“You’d start with all countries, so let’s see what happens,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I haven’t heard a rumor ...Read more

Christy Cox, 58, says she has been fighting for the rights of transgender people like herself for decades.

“I’m here to really show that queer elders do exist, so that 8-year-old kid over there can see that you can grow up and be a 58-year-old trans person,” Cox said.

The Naperville resident, who joined close to 1,000 people Sunday at a ...Read more

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer held “productive” discussions about “an economic prosperity deal” on a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday evening ahead of a crunch week in which the government hopes to carve out exemptions from looming U.S. tariffs.

A statement from Downing Street said the two leaders agreed that ...Read more

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should do the “honorable” thing and resign his position for the sake of the troops he’s tasked with leading, according to one Bay State congressman.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran representing Massachusetts’ Sixth Congressional District, has joined a growing chorus of voices calling out ...Read more