WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris spent nearly four years working alongside a U.S. president for whom foreign policy is a passion bordering on political religion — one rooted in Cold War memories and a largely unchallenged U.S. global dominance.

Harris brings her own distinct worldview to the job of global leader — a next-...Read more

Israel said it is “highly likely” that its military shot dead an American-Turkish citizen last week by accident.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed during a protest in the West Bank town of Beita on Friday. Turkey blamed the Israel Defense Forces, which in a social media post at the time said its troops fired toward “a main instigator” of ...Read more

Russia said it downed 144 drones early Tuesday, including in the Moscow region, where the attack caused airports in the capital temporarily to halt flights.

Anti-missile systems downed 20 drones in the Moscow region alone, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

Moscow’s Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports temporarily suspended operations,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — UC Berkeley will launch a new endowed program and chair in Palestinian and Arab Studies, one of the few in the nation, as the Israel-Hamas war has fueled huge demand to better understand the history, culture and politics of the people of the region.

Ussama Makdisi, a UC Berkeley history professor and leading scholar of modern ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A California death row inmate who gained national attention after Oprah Winfrey selected his autobiography for her influential book club in 2022 has vowed to continue fighting for his freedom after his latest claims of innocence were rejected in federal court.

"I was hopeful, but I had also prepared myself emotionally for yet ...Read more

A Mexican opposition senator went dark on his colleagues Monday, igniting speculation that he had decided to provide the final vote President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador needs to usher through a judicial overhaul that has spooked global investors.

Senator Miguel Angel Yunes Marquez, of the PAN party, has been in the spotlight of local news ...Read more

A self-driving taxi has no passengers, so it parks itself in a lot to reduce congestion and air pollution. After being hailed, the taxi heads out to pick up its passenger – and tragically strikes a pedestrian in a crosswalk on its way.

Who or what deserves praise for the car’s actions to reduce congestion and air pollution? And ...Read more

The Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica is the world’s largest feeding ground for baleen whales – species like humpbacks that filter tiny organisms from seawater for food. In the 20th century, whalers killed roughly 2 million large whales in the Southern Ocean. Some populations, like the Antarctic blue whale, were reduced by more than 99...Read more

Imagine a bee crawling into a bright yellow flower.

This simple interaction is something you may have witnessed many times. It is also a crucial sign of the health of our environment – and one I’ve devoted hundreds of hours of field work observing.

Interactions between plants and pollinators help plants reproduce, support ...Read more

When the Indian Health Service can’t provide medical care to Native Americans, the federal agency can refer them elsewhere. But each year, it rejects tens of thousands of requests to fund those appointments, forcing patients to go without treatment or pay daunting medical bills out of their own pockets.

In theory, Native Americans are ...Read more

SEATTLE — A plan to boost homelessness funding while lowering public health care spending has fallen short of expectations.

In 2018, Washington became one of the first states to pay for homelessness services with Medicaid, a federal health care program for low-income people. It's part of a newer concept gaining momentum nationally that ...Read more

State and local legislators in Tennessee and Pennsylvania are cracking down on the use of “license plate flippers,” devices that allow drivers to obscure or conceal their license plates at the press of a button.

License plate flippers are commonly used for aesthetic purposes at auto shows, where they allow drivers to switch between custom ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During the heat dome that blanketed much of the Southeast in June, Stacey Freeman used window units to cool her poorly insulated mobile home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Over the winter, the 44-year-old mom relied on space heaters.

In both instances, her energy bills reached hundreds of dollars a month.

“Sometimes I ...Read more

Even as federal aid poured into state budgets in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health leaders warned of a boom-and-bust funding cycle on the horizon as the emergency ended and federal grants sunsetted. Now, that drought has become reality and state governments are slashing budgets that feed local health departments.

Congress ...Read more

SEATTLE — If you've noticed a little bit more greenery outside these last few weeks, your eyes haven't deceived you. Washington's drought conditions are improving ever so slightly.

And for what might seem like the first time yet this summer, the outlook for the months ahead seems to be improving.

Washington isn't out of the danger zone just ...Read more

A mysterious human case of the H5N1 bird flu was recently discovered in Missouri — and experts are still working to determine how the patient was infected.

The avian flu has been circulating among poultry and wild birds since 2022, but made the interspecies jump to dairy cows earlier in 2024. Just over a dozen humans have been infected in the...Read more

A California woman and an Idaho man accused of leading a terrorist group known as the "Terrorgram Collective" have been charged with soliciting their followers to assassinate government officials and commit hate crimes, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Utilizing the digital messaging app Telegram, Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, ...Read more

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged actor Gabriel Olds with five additional counts of sexual assault Monday, bringing the total number of charges against him to 12 after three more women came forward following media coverage of his initial arrest, officials said.

The new allegations against the 52-year-old actor, who has appeared in TV shows...Read more

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state must remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the presidential ballot, which will likely delay the mailing of absentee ballots by several weeks.

The court ruled 4-3 in favor of Kennedy, who sued to have his name removed after suspending his candidacy and endorsing former President Donald ...Read more