Cuba is hemorrhaging people as the economy falters. Now, the country is coming under fresh political pressure as one of the government’s archrivals is poised to start calling foreign-policy shots in Washington.

With Donald Trump headed back to the White House and hawkish Sen. Marco Rubio picked as his secretary of state, the island’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It’s a scene that’s become routine with big blazes in the West. A plane dips low over a smoldering ridgetop and unleashes a ribbon of fire retardant, coating the hillside a bright pink. Onlookers cheer the display of firefighting prowess.

The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies each year drop tens of millions of gallons ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The 2024 hurricane season has hurled one storm after another, with some of those storms turning deadly.

And the season, which ends Nov. 30, didn’t let up in recent days, with Tropical Storm Sara forming in the western Caribbean Sea.

Here’s a look at what the season — which forecasters earlier this year said ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho -- The state’s first — and the nation’s third — law-enforcement child care center is coming to the Ten Mile interchange area in Meridian.

The center would house up to 84 children of officers across the nine agencies in the Treasure Valley, would stay open on nights and weekends, and would charge below-market prices. Plans ...Read more

In the two counties around nurse practitioner Samantha Marsee’s clinic in rural northeastern Maryland, there’s not a single clinic that provides abortions. And until recently, Marsee herself wasn’t trained to treat patients who wanted to end a pregnancy.

“I didn’t really have a lot of knowledge about abortion care,” she said.

After...Read more

“F--- you, Elon Musk,” Brazil’s first lady said as her husband geared up to host a high-stakes summit of Group of 20 leaders.

Rosangela da Silva, the wife of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took aim at the billionaire owner of the X platform at a Saturday event in Rio de Janeiro while talking about the need to regulate social media ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Saturday that neither of their nations would turn over control of nuclear weapons to artificial intelligence programs, the White House said.

“It’s an important statement about the intersection of artificial intelligence and nuclear doctrine, and it is a ...Read more

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that he’s ready to work with Donald Trump to improve the relationship between the world’s biggest economies.

Speaking at the start of what’s expected to be their final meeting before Trump takes office, Xi told Biden that the U.S. and China should strive for peaceful coexistence ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Since Caltrain has switched to electric all-electric trains, their retired diesel fleet will be sent to Lima, Peru, to serve passenger rail service there, according to a Caltrain news release.

After seven years of electrification work, Caltrain switched to all-electric trains on their 51-mile corridor between San Jose, San ...Read more

NEW YORK — Three months ago, male model Dynus Saxon confidently strutted down the red carpet at the premiere of the superhero smash “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It was one of several red carpet rides the steely eyed, square-jawed stunner had made over the last few years as his modeling career blossomed.

He struck a far less assured pose late ...Read more

MIAMI — A somber crowd amassed on the sandy beaches of South Pointe in Miami Beach Saturday afternoon, carrying flowers and holding back tears as they mourned the loss of 19-year-old Victor Enrique Castaneda Jr.

Wearing shirts with his face adorned on them, “Forever 19” written in cursive above it, they held up a portrait and lowered ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — King tides will sweep across San Diego beaches this weekend and a few others over the next few months, sending powerful waves surging against seawalls and making for unusually low tides — prime opportunities to explore tide pools.

The California Coastal Commission is asking the public to photograph the rising tidal waters as ...Read more

NEW YORK — Meet the highest paid member of the NYPD — and it’s not the Police Commissioner.

Quathisha Epps, a lieutenant special assignment who works in Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey’s office, made $406,515 in fiscal 2024 which ended June 30, city payroll records show.

Former Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who quit in ...Read more

Billionaire Elon Musk voiced support for Howard Lutnick in the race to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next Treasury secretary as warring camps make final pushes for the coveted Cabinet post.

The infighting has delayed decisions on Trump’s economic picks even as he rushes to fill many other posts in his incoming administration.

Musk ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Since Caltrain has switched to electric all-electric trains, their retired diesel fleet will be sent to Lima, Peru, to serve passenger rail service there, according to a Caltrain news release.

After seven years of electrification work, Caltrain switched to all-electric trains on their 51-mile corridor between San Jose, San ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tropical Storm Sara is forecast to slog its way over Central America this weekend but lose organization before remnants make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and get sucked back to the east toward Florida next week.

As of the National Hurricane Center’s 7 p.m. advisory, Sara was located about 30 miles west-northwest of Isla...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The first case in the U.S. of a more severe mpox variant has been confirmed in a person who had recently traveled to East Africa and was treated in San Mateo County, the California Department of Public Health announced Saturday.

The person diagnosed with the Clade I variant is isolating at home and recovering, while people who ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Adam Iza grew up a world away from the Bel-Air mansion he inhabited before his arrest in September.

As his lawyer Josef Sadat tells it, Iza was poor during his childhood in Iraq, borrowing a computer from his uncle before coming to the U.S. as a teenager and building a lucrative cryptocurrency trading platform.

But as Iza grew ...Read more

Russia, ranked the most corrupt of the world’s biggest economies, is intensifying a crack down on graft among officials that has risked undermining the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and further straining state coffers.

Data from the courts and law enforcement agencies show a jump in the number of corruption-related criminal cases, sentences...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The California Public Utilities Commission this week unveiled a proposal that could potentially close the Aliso Canyon gas storage field in the coming years, but local activists and politicians say it doesn’t provide a fast or clear enough timeline to shut down the site of the largest natural gas leak in American history.

...Read more