As a year of travel that was marked largely by overtourism protests in Barcelona, Oaxaca and Venice draws to a close, the appeal of offbeat vacations continues to grow.

To wit, consider these spots you’ve likely never heard of: secluded Graciosa Island on the Azores, the remote fishing village Roches Noires in northeastern Mauritius, or ...Read more

A nearly year-old U.S. Senate GOP inquiry into Chicago’s housing of migrants at O’Hare and Midway airports may become more than a political annoyance for Mayor Brandon Johnson next year as Republicans take control of the federal government with an eye on tightening rules about public spending for noncitizens.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, ...Read more

Donald Trump announced his intention to cut short the term of FBI Director Christopher Wray and select Kash Patel to lead an agency the president-elect often criticized on the campaign trail.

The pick would be another high-profile test for Senate Republicans, who would be tasked with deciding whether to confirm Patel, a former Trump ...Read more

The squawking usually begins just past 4:30 p.m. this time of year, when the sun begins to hang low in the sky.

Just a few at first, announcing themselves with loud calls from above. Another flock soon appears from the south, then a larger one from the east, and even more soon fly in from the north and west.

Like clockwork, hundreds of parrot ...Read more

With the dawn of a second Trump administration and a looming deadline for interstate negotiations, Las Vegas will turn its focus to the Colorado River this week.

Scientists, nonprofit advocates, tribal leaders and negotiators from all seven states that rely on the river will attend the Colorado River Water Users Association conference at Paris ...Read more

In a case that could affect thousands of property owners and beaches visited by millions of people along California’s 1,100-mile coastline, a state appeals court has indicated it will uphold rules limiting the construction of sea walls along the coast.

The case, centered on the California Coastal Commission’s decision to deny a sea wall for...Read more

Ireland is heading for a return of the coalition government led by Prime Minister Simon Harris’s Fine Gael party and Fianna Fail, as voters bucked a recent international trend of ousting incumbent parties.

With more than two thirds of the results announced, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael were together on track to get more than 80 seats. They need ...Read more

Migrants living in city-run shelters have made up a relatively small number of Illinois Department of Child and Family Services investigations in Chicago.

At the peak of migrant shelter operations, thousands of people were crammed into dozens of shelters across the city. Despite the large influx of new arrivals, the number of DCFS ...Read more

Romania’s ruling Social Democrats were on course to win a parliamentary election, with exit polls showing the party ahead of a nationalist group that had threatened to drive home a blow to the Black Sea nation’s political establishment.

The Social Democrats secured 26% of the vote on Sunday, with the far-right Alliance for the Unity of ...Read more

In the skies over Virginia it is common to see contrails, cloud-like strips of condensed water left behind by aircrafts at high altitude.

Some dissipate within minutes, but depending on the weather or time of day, some can remain for hours or develop into wispy cirrus clouds. Because of that, there is uncertainty about how exactly contrails ...Read more

A jury picked in federal court this week will decide the fate of Roger Golubski, a retired Kansas City, Kansas, homicide detective accused of raping women while lording his power as a policeman over them.

The criminal trial, set to begin Monday, stems from the first of two federal indictments brought against Golubski, 71, since 2022. ...Read more

While the future of federal DEI programs is uncertain, the Boston City Council is looking to establish protocols that ensure all ordinances and budgetary decisions “adhere to principles of racial and social equity.”

The council’s Committee on Government Operations is set to hold a hearing on Monday on an ordinance that would mandate ...Read more

Sarah Boone, the woman recently found guilty of murdering her boyfriend in 2020 by suffocating him in a suitcase, will be sentenced in an Orlando courtroom on Monday and faces up to life in prison.

The Orlando Sentinel spoke to two defense attorneys about how the sentencing hearing may play out and whether Boone will have grounds for an appeal....Read more

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has repeatedly been hearing the same question from transgender patients since Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Patients want to know how many refills they can get of hormone therapy medications, which they often need to maintain their health and certain physical characteristics.

“We’ve definitely ...Read more

Romania’s ruling Social Democrats were on course to win a parliamentary election, with exit polls showing the party ahead of a nationalist group that had threatened to drive home a blow to the Black Sea nation’s political establishment.

The Social Democrats secured 26% of the vote on Sunday, with the far-right Alliance for the Unity of ...Read more

Marine Le Pen’s ultimatum to French Prime Minister Michel Barnier, even after he caved on a key demand from her party, lays bare the unprecedented clout the far-right leader now wields in Paris’ halls of power.

Following weeks of hardening threats to bring down Barnier’s government in a no-confidence vote, the French premier on Thursday ...Read more

We know less about the bottom of the Great Lakes than we do about the surface of Mars, according to Jennifer Boehme.

The oceanographer is executive director of the Great Lakes Observing System, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based nonprofit leading a concerted effort to fully map the world’s largest freshwater body from coast to coast, surface to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Wolves are continuing to make a California comeback.

State wildlife officials have confirmed the presence of two new gray wolf packs in Northern California, and estimate there are now at least 70 of the endangered apex predators roaming the state — up from 44 documented last year.

The freshly minted Diamond pack is roaming ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — State Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina, suggested recently to a group of St. Paul high school students that limits on cellphones at school could ensure “you get the education you’re here to get.”

The kids weren’t buying it.

TikTok, one student said, has educational videos created by people her age. Social media, another ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s federal courts played a crucial role during Donald Trump’s first presidency, both in the administration’s attempts to implement its border and immigration policies and the legal efforts to block those hard-line practices.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego ramped up criminal prosecutions of illegal border ...Read more