SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that’s poised to reorder where the district’s students compete.High schools in California’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, se...

STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Federal investigators on Friday will begin sifting through the wreckage of a business jet that crashed in North Carolina and killed all seven people aboard, including retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family.The Cessna C550 erupted into a large fire when it h...

President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is order...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Information from a tipster who had a strange encounter with another man on a sidewalk outside Brown University was key to police identifying the suspect they believe killed two students at the school and then two days later gunned down a Massachusetts Institute of Tec...

A frantic search for the suspect in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University ended at a New Hampshire storage facility where authorities discovered the man dead inside and then revealed he also was suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.Claudio Neves V...

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Across India, battery recycling faces a mixture of challenges and opportunity as it plays an important role in the country’s shift to clean power.A fledgling system has taken off in the past decade for recovering materials from the batteries used in electric vehicles,...

(All times Central)Schedule subject to change and/or blackoutsSaturday, December 20COLLEGE BASKETBALL (MEN’S)12 p.m.Oakland at Michigan State — BTN, Fox Sports App, Fubo Sports1 p.m.Buffalo at Western Michigan — ESPN app, ESPN Select, Fubo Sports3 p.m.Central Michigan at Northern Illinois —...

U.S. inflation eased in November in what economists said likely reflected distortions caused by the government shutdown, creating an uncertain picture for the Federal Reserve as it simultaneously contends with rising unemployment.The latest Consumer Price Index, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, rose 2.7 perce...

Appropriately enough, Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes’s “David,” based on the well-known biblical story from the books of Samuel, is punching well above its weight. Animated Christian films, like the direct-to-video DreamWorks production from 2000, “Joseph: King of Dreams,” or the recent “King of Kings,” tend to look pretty cheap,...

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out about the one thing that’s different in a sketch that looks familiar. We’ll also get details on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to sign a right-to-die bill for terminally ill people.ImageCredit...Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA at Artists...

Rob Reiner directed many enduring American classics. “Stand by Me.” “This Is Spinal Tap.” “The Princess Bride.”He also directed “North.”“North” was not a hit. It was not critically acclaimed. Three decades after its 1994 release, it may be the only film remembered mostly for a review.“I hated this movie,” the critic Roger Ebert wro...

Sue Bender was juggling a hectic life in the 1980s as a family therapist, a ceramist and a wife and mother of two sons in Berkeley, Calif. She had graduate degrees from Harvard and the University of California.“I valued accomplishments,” she wrote. “I valued being special. I valued results.”Then, in an art gallery, she came across...

Jelly Roll, the rapper turned country music star, was pardoned by the governor of Tennessee on Thursday for his previous robbery and drug convictions, making it easier for the artist to perform concerts internationally.The Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously voted in April that Jelly Roll, born Jason DeFord, should be pardoned. H...

When “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” arrived in 2004, it represented both a kind of pinnacle and, in retrospect, the point of no return for the fervid yellow block. Its creator and showrunner, Stephen Hillenburg, had paused “SpongeBob SquarePants,” the television show, to focus on making that beloved and delightful film, then pro...

The tumult of spousal separation is barely felt in “Is This Thing On?,” an amiable splitting-up comedy that never cycles too close to the edge. Oiled by privilege and surrounded by support, Alex and Tess Novak (Will Arnett and Laura Dern), suburban New Yorkers, sunder their two-decade union with enviable ease. At times, the movie f...

It’s clear from the start of “The Housemaid” that all is not well in the home of Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), where Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is interviewing for a job. It’s one of those far-too-large homes in which no inhabitant could possibly be happy; what remains to be seen is the flavor of their unhappiness.Millie...

Halfway through the powerful documentary “Cover-Up,” the movie cuts to a gloomy image of the exterior of the White House. “Goddamn it, this story in The Times, the one by Hersh,” you hear President Richard M. Nixon say in voice-over. It’s 1973, the audio is from one of his secret White House recordings, and the thorn in his side is...

With “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” James Cameron has again returned to his far-out nirvana Pandora, a mystical, marvelous planet abounding with rainbows of flora and fauna, and inhabited by the Na’vi, blue, long-waisted humanoids with tails and mesmerizing cat eyes. Here, majestic whalelike creatures known as tulkun don’t simply sing, th...

Minnie Driver can imagine the alternatives. There’s a version of her life in which she went all-in on Hollywood, sustained the level of stardom she referred to as “that searing white-hot thing.” Another Minnie moved to the countryside, grew vegetables, birthed seven kids.“I have always been fascinated about the life that I didn’t l...

The television critics of The New York Times recently presented their lists of the best shows of 2025. Now they focus on the year’s best individual episodes, which remain the fundamental units of television even in our binge-obsessed era. (Listed alphabetically by series title.)‘Adolescence’Episode 3The single-take strategy of this...

Israeli warplanes have struck multiple areas across southern and eastern Lebanon, targeting sites in al-Jabour, al-Qatrani and al-Rayhan in the south, as well as Buday and Hermel in the Bekaa Valley, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground.The raids, which also hit Wadi Al-Qusayr near the town of Deir Siryan, mark th...

Major cities across Sudan, including the capital, Khartoum, and coastal city Port Sudan, have been plunged into darkness after drone strikes hit a key power plant in the country’s east.Flames and smoke rose from the facility in Atbara, River Nile state on Thursday, which is controlled by the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces...

Doctors in Gaza battling the odds after the enclave’s medical infrastructure was obliterated by Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged enclave have found an ingenious way of saving Palestinians from losing fractured limbs.With hospitals struggling to function under frequent electricity blackouts, the territory’s resourceful medics...

Police in the United Kingdom have made their first arrests since announcing their intent to crack down on people making public calls to “globalise the Intifada” after Australia’s Bondi Beach attack, speciously linking largely peaceful protests against Israel’s genocidal war with a deadly targeting of a Jewish festival.London’s Metr...

Beirut, Lebanon – A crucial meeting bringing together Israeli and Lebanese representatives, among others, is scheduled to take place on Friday, with the potential relaunch of an expanded Israeli war on Lebanon hanging over the gathering.The meeting in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura is the second to include civilian represent...

State Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park, has been gathering plants like Solomon’s seal, fiddlehead fern and stinging nettle for years.It’s a tradition she learned from her parents and one she’s passed to her children. And like many in Minnesota, for a long time she didn’t realize gathering p...

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man was sentenced Thursday to death in a string of fatal shootings in metro Phoenix during a three-week span in 2017.Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, was found guilty in late September of murder in eight killings. Jurors agreed on the death penalty in six of the killings,...

In California, you can kill someone with your car and not even have a point on your license. That’s because of a criminal justice reform law passed in 2020, allowing judges to effectively erase a misdemeanor case from existence. It shields people accused of “low-level” crimes from the stigma...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — With the notable exception of Friday night’s Alabama-Oklahoma showdown, bettors aren’t exactly rushing to place wagers on the opening week of this season’s College Football Playoff.The presence of two Group of Five representatives — 11th-seeded Tulane and 12th-seed James Mad...

Hansel Aguilar, Berkeley’s director of police accountability, is suing the city’s police chief, Jen Louis, over her department’s refusal to release records from a June sweep of a longstanding homeless encampment.It is the latest escalation in an increasingly testy relationship between the Be...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Greg Biffle was picked by NASCAR as one of its top 75 drivers in history. He was a Hall of Fame nominee for the stock car series and he drove for 18 years at the top of the sport.Yet for all the races and the handful of memorable wins, he is perhaps best remembered for...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Supreme Court has upheld a state law allowing nonunanimous juries to sentence people to death, cementing the lowest bar in the country for death sentences at a time when the state is driving a national increase in executions.In a decision released Thursday,...

Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was believed to be on the plane that crashed outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, killing all seven people aboard. He joins a somber roll of athletes who died in plane or helicopter crashes, including fellow race car drivers Alan Kulwicki and D...

CHICAGO (AP) — A man accused of setting a woman on fire on a Chicago train last month has been indicted on an additional charge alleging he attempted to set City Hall on fire days before the train attack.Prosecutors say Lawrence Reed, 50, “maliciously damaged and attempted to damage and dest...

Regular inspections of hotels and other accommodations required by the state of Hawaii are being inconsistently carried out by most county fire departments. Three people died in two structure fires in Hilo on Hawaii island in October and November in a downtown hotel and in a factory illegall...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to reinstate a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.Even as prosecutors prepare to retry the accused man, Pedro Hernandez, they are hoping the Supreme Court will short-circuit that...

Ukrainian and Russian athletes are scheduled to start a World Cup men’s luge race in consecutive order on Saturday, meaning it is almost certain that athletes from those nations will cross paths at least near the start of the track.The start order for the race in Lake Placid, New York, was p...

ImageCredit...Kenny Holston/The New York TimesA changed GermanyWhenever I come back to Germany, I am struck by how much it has changed over the past decade. It has set aside its deep postwar aversion to military leadership and is investing many billions in rearmament. It has set aside its equally deep aversion to debt, recently aba...

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged the reputed leader of the Tren de Aragua gang in a racketeering indictment unsealed Thursday, accusing him of orchestrating the group’s transformation into a global criminal organization.The defendant, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, 42, remains at large, and the State Department has off...

In justifying his administration’s boat strikes and its mounting pressure campaign on Venezuela, President Trump has regularly relied on assertions that distort the circumstances, carry contradictions and twist language.Mr. Trump says an “armed conflict” makes the killings of people on the vessels lawful, but law-of-war experts say...

It all might make more sense if he actually were drinking. By all accounts, President Trump doesn’t touch the stuff. So when his own chief of staff said that he has “an alcoholic’s personality,” she was talking about his larger-than-life nature rather than his consumption.Yet in some ways, it may be an apt description for a preside...

James B. Hunt Jr., who burnished North Carolina’s reputation as a beacon of moderation in the South over four terms as governor but lost the Senate race that could have vaulted him to the presidency, died on Thursday at his home in Lucama, N.C. He was 88.His daughter Rachel Hunt, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, announced the...

The case against the men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks briefly sputtered back to business this week, with three of the defendants declining to participate as they seek to reinstate a plea bargain to resolve the case with life sentences.It was the first time in nearly a year that hearings in the case had be...

An investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs has broadened significantly, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.The prosecutors told reporters that they were investigating suspicious billing practices in 14 Medicaid-funded programs. Until now, the investigation had focused on only three safety net programs run...

A lawyer for Hannah C. Dugan, a Milwaukee judge who is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest, made a final appeal to the jury on Thursday in her trial, arguing that she was the victim of an overzealous prosecution. “They’re trying to besmirch her reputation, her honest reputation, her hard work, and amount her t...

Life might soon become a little more difficult for billionaires in Palo Alto.Known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, the town used to house just your average well-to-do people. Doctors, lawyers, executives and Stanford University professors lived in comfortable bungalows on tree-lined streets, and one house per family was consid...

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday named an Illinois bishop to replace the powerful conservative Cardinal Timothy Dolan as leader of New York’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, a selection that signals his embrace of a more mild and unifying style after the political upheaval of Pope Francis’s papacy, while preserving the spirit of the late pope’...

Democratic lawmakers from more than half a dozen states vowed on Thursday to push back next year on President Trump’s mass deportations, using coordinated legislation to complement the litigation already being used by Democratic attorneys general to challenge immigration policies.The effort to protect immigrant gathering places, ba...

A video showing a top minister pulling down the hijab of a Muslim woman during a government event has caused widespread outrage and condemnation across India.Nitish Kumar, chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, was seen removing the veil of the woman when she was being handed an appointment letter as doctor of alternative me...

Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led uprising who was flown to Singapore for treatment after being wounded in an assassination attempt, has died, Singapore officials said.“Despite the best efforts of the doctors … Hadi succumbed to his injuries,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statemen...

On the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of President Vladimir V. Putin’s closest aides refused to follow his orders.Mr. Putin had told the aide, Dmitri N. Kozak, to demand Ukraine’s surrender, according to three people close to Mr. Kozak. Mr. Kozak declined, insisting that he did not know what the Russian leader was...

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with European leaders in Brussels on Thursday in a last-minute appeal for the European Union to tap frozen Russian assets for Kyiv to use to fight Russia and sustain the country through the war.“The decision is now on your table,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding that it was “one of the clearest...

A French anesthesiologist was sentenced to life in jail on Thursday for intentionally poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died.Frédéric Péchier, who worked as an anesthesiologist at two clinics in Besançon, a city in eastern France, committed the crimes between 2008 and 2017, the court said in a statement after a 15-week trial. Mr. P...

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is scheduled on Friday to hold his annual news conference, an event that is expected to highlight the Kremlin’s determination to continue the war in Ukraine until all of its conditions are met.The year-end hourslong marathon, where both journalists and other citizens pose their questions to the...

Britain on Thursday appointed Christian Turner, a career diplomat, as the ambassador to Washington after his predecessor, Peter Mandelson, was fired this year over his links to the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Unlike his predecessor, who had a long political career but never served as a diplomat in the Forei...

Egypt has said that Cairo’s natural gas deal with Israel is a “purely commercial” arrangement and that there are no “political dimensions” to the deal.On Thursday, Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said the agreement was struck by private energy companies under market rules and without government involvement.Recommended Stor...

At the start of the year, as President Donald Trump began the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement and started dismantling climate policies, the European Union president, Ursula von der Leyen, tacked in the opposite direction.“Climate change is still on top of the global agenda,” she said during a speec...

Traveling during the holidays can often be a bit of a gamble, and this year, a series of storm systems sweeping across the country are threatening to upend plans for many people.Here’s a look at the systems to watch, and when they’re expected to hit.The Immediate Hurdles: Avoid Friday TravelIf you have the flexibility to move your...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Albanian lawmakers scuffled with guards during a parliament session in Tirana on Thursday, shouting, tugging at one another and setting off flares in the rostrum.The altercation came during a session to vote for Albania’s next ombudsman, the country’s top human rights...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed sanctions on two more International Criminal Court judges over their role in investigating Israeli officials for possible war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday th...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV insisted Thursday that peace was not only possible but necessary, as he blasted the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and the weaponization of faith in modern political discourse.Leo made the comments in his first peace message, an annual exhortation that...

NEW YORK (AP) — An alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua gang labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization has been charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists among crimes that stretched more than a de...

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested the spokesman of the local Islamic State affiliate, a militant figure designated a terrorist by the United States in 2021, state-run media reported Thursday. Analysts say the move dealt a blow to the militant group, which has been...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has amassed an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off the coast of Venezuela since this summer, when the Trump administration first began to shift assets to the region as part of its anti-drug trafficking operations. In all, U.S. Sou...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved former Iraqi President Barham Salih as the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, its first from the Middle East since the late 1970s.The 193-member world body elected the 65-year-old Kurdish politician as the U.N....

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona jury on Thursday sentenced a man to death in a string of killings in metro Phoenix during a three-week span in 2017, marking the end of a seven-month trial over attacks that targeted random victims and the defendant’s own mother and stepfather.Cleophus Cooksey Jr.,...

A private jet crashed at a regional North Carolina airport and erupted into flames Thursday, killing seven people, including retired NASCAR star Greg Biffle and three members of his family, officials said.Here are some things to know about the crash.What happened?The plane took off Thursday...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said.Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday evening from a sel...

TEGUCIGALPA (AP) — Honduras electoral officials on Thursday launched a special count of the final set of votes in the country’s November presidential election, after three weeks of uncertainty, swirling accusations and pressure from the Trump administration to wrap up the results.The special...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s lower house speaker Hugo Motta decided on Thursday to remove two lawmakers close to former President Jair Bolsonaro from their seats in the latest blow to the far-right leader serving a 27-year jail sentence for leading a coup attempt.One of Bolsonaro’s sons, Eduard...

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — In a rare judgment, the European Union’s highest court sided with a Syrian refugee’s appeal in a landmark case that sought damages against the European border and coast guard agency, Frontex, opening the way for other victims to do the same.The Luxembourg-based Court...

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed a new U.K. ambassador to the United States on Thursday, replacing a diplomat who was fired over his over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Christian Turner, currently the U.K.’s permanent representative to the...

Belarus’ authoritarian president said Thursday that Russia had deployed its latest nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system to the country, a move that comes as talks to end the war in Ukraine have entered a crucial phase. President Alexander Lukashenko said the Oreshnik, an intermediate rang...

BRUSSELS (AP) — For decades, Belgium has been at the beating heart of the European Union. The headquarters of the 27-nation bloc’s main institutions and NATO are based there. EU leaders meet in the capital Brussels at least four times a year.But at Thursday’s EU summit of presidents and gove...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants’ Day.An agreement...

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, EU Council President Antonio Costa said.“We have a deal. Decision to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) of support t...

JERUSALEM (AP) — An attempt by Israeli authorities to write a routine parking ticket in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem turned violent on Thursday as members of the community quickly gathered to protest, attacking and injuring 13 police officers, authorities said. The violence re...

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy on Friday will host top officials from Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire, a State Department official said, in a bid to push the tenuous agreement into its next phase.The envoy, Steve Witkoff, is Trump’s key delegate...

European leaders gather in Brussels to decide on using frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine for the next two years.

European leaders gather in Brussels to decide on using frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine for the next two years.

European leaders gather in Brussels to decide on using frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine for the next two years.

European leaders gather in Brussels to decide on using frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine for the next two years.

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve its annual defence budget on Wednesday, authorising $901bn in military spending while also pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to hand over video footage of military strikes on suspected drug-running boats in international waters close to Venezuela.The fiscal 2026 National Defense A...

Hundreds of tractors have clogged the streets of Brussels as farmers converged on the Belgian capital to protest against the contentious trade agreement between the European Union and South American nations they say will destroy their livelihoods.The demonstrations erupted on Thursday as EU leaders gathered for a summit where the f...

European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels to decide on a contentious proposal to use nearly $250bn in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, amid deep divisions among member states.The vote centres on whether the EU can use about 210 billion euros ($246bn) in Russian central bank assets frozen wi...

A French anaesthetist has been sentenced to life in prison after a court found him guilty of poisoning 30 patients during operations, killing 12.The Doubs Assize Court delivered its verdict on Thursday, with prosecutors describing the doctor as “one of the greatest criminals in history”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of...

London, United Kingdom – Six remand prisoners affiliated with the proscribed protest group Palestine Action who are on hunger strike are not receiving adequate healthcare and face an immediate risk of death, hundreds of British healthcare professionals have warned.On Thursday, more than 800 doctors, nurses, therapists and carers wr...

Here is where things stand on Friday, December 19:Fighting Three people, including two crew members of a cargo vessel, were killed in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and the town of Bataysk in the country’s southern Rostov region, local governor Yury Slyusar said. Russian strikes near Ukraine’...

The European Union has delayed a massive free-trade deal with South American countries amid protests by EU farmers and as last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the agreement.European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho confirmed on Thursday that the signing of the trade pact between the EU and South...

AILSA CRAIG, Scotland (AP) — If you’re looking to strike gold — silver or bronze, too — look to Ailsa Craig.This uninhabited isle 10 miles (16 kilometers) off the coast of southwest Scotland is the source of the super-dense granite used to make curling stones for the Winter Olympics.Jim Engl...

To the Editor:Re “Not All Targeted Killings Are the Same. Hegseth’s Boat Strikes Are Illegal,” by Jeh C. Johnson (Opinion guest essay, Dec. 9):There is much to agree with in Mr. Johnson’s essay. The recent lethal American strikes on boats in the Caribbean, which are not part of an armed conflict, are illegal. They are murders. But...

“The Domino’s pizzas arrived at the homes of federal judges without explanation,” the Times editorial board wrote earlier this year. “The message was clear: We know where you live.” In the Opinion Video above, Esther Salas, a federal district judge in New Jersey, describes the stakes of increasingly frequent threats against members...

This is part of an Opinion series on The New York Times Communities Fund, which assists nonprofits that provide direct support to people and communities facing hardship. Donate to the fund here. Joyce Arthur was born in rural Ghana, the eldest daughter in a family of five children. Her family slept in a...

The participants discuss their experiences with taking GLP 1s for weight loss and diabetes.

On Sunday morning I learned about the horrific massacre targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah on a beach in Australia in a strange way, watching one of the most inspiring videos I’ve ever seen.I started my day by doing exactly what I’ve told myself not to do: look at Twitter. The first thing I saw was a video — perhaps you’ve seen it...

The former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and the pop star Katy Perry are now publicly a couple: They acknowledged it, naturally enough, by way of Instagram.Given that many Canadians, myself included, decided in 2025 that they were collectively tired of Mr. Trudeau, the prospect of the divorced world leader surfacing in suc...

To check President Trump’s growing grip on the judiciary in the midterms or to advance a legislative agenda in 2029, Democrats need to answer a very difficult question: How can the party keep winning in states like North Carolina, become competitive again in Ohio and expand the electoral map to include Texas or even Alaska and Kans...

Rome (AP) — High above the rooftops in the heart of Rome, restorers on Thursday used laser beams to clean a marble column in the piazza outside the prime minister’s office, removing layers of dust and grime that had covered the Roman monument for decades. The 47-meter (154-foot) tall column,...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Crews were mopping up Thursday but still bracing for more after hurricane-force wind downed power lines and fanned wildfires along the Colorado Front Range and onto the Great Plains.Wind that in places topped 100 mph (160 kph) late Wednesday arrived after Xcel Ener...

The Nigerian government has begun cataloging the health and environmental damage caused by factories that shipped recycled lead to the United States for use in car batteries.A team of scientists arrived Tuesday in the industrial town of Ogijo, Nigeria, outside Lagos, to test the soil and air for lead. Officials have shut down recyc...

Paramilitaries in Sudan killed over 1,000 people, one-third of them in summary executions, in an attack in April against a famine-stricken camp for displaced people, the United Nations human rights body said on Thursday.The revised toll was over three times as great as earlier estimates from one of the most notorious episodes of Su...

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran’s first year in office has been described as an annus horribilis. There were the assassinations of allies and top commanders, the airstrikes by Israel and the United States, and the destruction of nuclear facilities, not to mention the foundering economy that worsens by the day and the rolling en...

The United Nations General Assembly selected Barham Salih, a former president of Iraq and veteran Kurdish politician, as the leader of its refugee agency on Thursday.Mr. Salih, 65, will begin a five-year term as the chief of one of the major U.N. agencies, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, in January. The assembly broke into a...

A Kremlin envoy will travel to Florida to discuss a U.S.-proposed plan to end the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official said Thursday, part of the back-and-forth diplomacy as the Trump administration pushes for a potential deal.Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to m...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A core question for European Union leaders discussing whether to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine is whether the idea is legally sound. But even if they approve the plan, Russia has limited options for challenging it in court.The 27-nation bloc’s leader...

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged lower this week, staying relatively close to its low for the year.The decline brings the average long-term mortgage rate to 6.21% from 6.22% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.72%.Borrowing co...

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Tens of thousands of people on Thursday filled the streets of Bulgaria’s capital and other major cities in the country, calling for a fair election and an independent judiciary able to effectively fight widespread corruption.The demonstrations in Sofia and elsewhere ca...

Mary Rajasekhar had owned Olivet Book and Gift for 35 years when she decided last Christmas it was time to retire.But, with her children spread out across the country and into their own careers, she had no heir apparent for the store selling Bibles and Christian books and gifts in downtown A...

NEW YORK (AP) — Cannabis companies like Tilray Brands and Canopy Growth could soon face a more mellow path ahead following President Donald Trump’s move to help reclassify the drug’s status.The companies had a mostly muted reaction to Trump’s executive order, though the sector has been gaini...

Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission over alleged deceptive practices.The FTC said Thursday that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly d...

Nevada’s prison system has a “staffing crisis” that is leading to worsening conditions for incarcerated people, skyrocketing overtime costs and declining morale among employees, according to a third-party study conducted earlier this year.In a more than 230-page report completed in late June...

The head of the U.S. agency for enforcing workplace civil rights posted a social media call-out urging white men to come forward if they have experienced race or sex discrimination at work.“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may hav...

NAROK, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s environment court said Thursday it will consider a case challenging the operations of a luxury safari camp in the Maasai Mara reserve amid claims it was infringing on the annual wildebeest migration corridor. The decision came after a local conservationist, who ha...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Three governments that were central to South Sudan’s peace process urged leaders on Thursday to end renewed fighting and focus on implementing the peace agreement that ended a deadly conflict, warning against a return to violence.In a joint statement, the United States,...

CAIRO (AP) — More than 1,000 civilians were killed in a three-day attack by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group earlier this year on the largest displacement camp in western Sudan, the U.N. Human Rights Office said in a report released Thursday.RSF stormed Zamzam camp in April as par...

President Trump’s social media company, which recently expanded into streaming and cryptocurrency, is now entering its fourth act: fusion power, a promising but still unproven source of alternative energy.Trump Media & Technology Group and TAE Technologies, a fusion power company, said Thursday they had agreed to an all-stock merge...

Democratic lawmakers have asked the Commerce Department’s inspector general to review whether Secretary Howard Lutnick improperly promoted artificial intelligence data center projects that could enrich his family members.The 25 lawmakers in the Senate and the House asked the acting inspector general, Duane Townsend, to examine issu...

John E. Olson, a mild-mannered energy analyst who refused to recommend investing in Enron Corporation, a stand that got him fired by Merrill Lynch but that later won him widespread acclaim during one of the worst financial scandals in U.S. history, died on Dec. 9 in Houston. He was 83.His wife, Linwood Olson, said his death, at an...

Nike’s efforts to reinvigorate its business are showing some results despite continued challenges in China and with its ailing Converse brand.Sales rose 1 percent in Nike’s most recent quarter, which ended Nov. 30, propped up by strong performance in North America, the company said on Thursday. Still, income fell 32 percent, weighe...

TikTok’s chief executive told employees on Thursday that the company had signed agreements with three major new investors to help form an American version of TikTok, bringing it one step closer to completing a deal to keep the app operating in the United States, according to an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.The agree...

Factorial Energy, which is developing advanced batteries for Mercedes-Benz and other carmakers that can store more energy than devices in use now do, said Thursday that it planned to list shares on the stock exchange next year.The transaction would value Factorial at $1.1 billion and initially provide $100 million in capital the Bo...

The British economy ended the year with a moment of respite.Policymakers at the Bank of England cut interest rates on Thursday a quarter point, to 3.75 percent, after inflation had slowed more than economists expected.The central bank had held rates steady at its two previous meetings because of concerns about stubbornly high infla...

The Trump administration’s effort to reduce the number of accidents involving large trucks has taken aim at deficient truck driving schools and tightened a rule requiring that drivers are proficient in English.But a major part of its trucking crackdown — a new emergency rule that prohibits certain classes of immigrants from obtaini...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Elle Duncan has signed a multi-year deal with Netflix to host its sports and other cultural live events.The streamer made the announcement on Thursday.Duncan had been with ESPN since 2016, where she hosted the 6 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter” along with the women’s NCAA To...

JERUSALEM (AP) — In a video message recorded weeks before he was killed, Hollywood icon Rob Reiner urged Holocaust survivors participating in a Hanukkah ceremony on Thursday to “be resilient” during difficult times.Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found stabbed to death Sunday at their hom...

A special unit of Australia’s counterterrorism police detained seven men in Sydney on Thursday on suspicion of planning a “violent act,” saying that they may have been on their way to Bondi Beach, where a mass shooting left 15 people dead at a beachside Hanukkah celebration on Sunday. The authorities have made no connection between...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Thailand on Thursday carried out more airstrikes on Cambodia, claiming its jet fighters struck a warehouse where the Cambodian army had stored rockets that have been deployed to deadly effect in combat that began last week.The two nations have been fighting over p...

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Angry protesters stormed the offices of Bangladesh’s two leading newspapers late Thursday after news reached the country from Singapore of the death of a prominent activist in last year’s political uprising in Bangladesh. The crowds set fire to the building of one of...

United States Homeland Security Advisor and close Trump aide Stephen Miller suggested on Wednesday that Venezuela’s oil “belongs to Washington”.Miller’s comments came a day after US President Donald Trump posted on social media that he is imposing a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezu...

Washington, DC – The United States has issued a new round of sanctions against staff members at the International Criminal Court, citing a recent ruling blocking Israel’s effort to halt a Gaza war crimes investigation.Thursday’s sanctions target two judges: Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia.Recomm...

The administration of President Donald Trump has proposed a suite of new rules that seek to bar hospitals across the United States from performing gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth below 18 years of age.On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that one of the proposed rules would b...

Democrats in the United States House of Representatives have released dozens more photos from the estate of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The release on Thursday comes a day before the Department of Justice faces a deadline to release a more comprehensive set of files related to Epstein, who died in a New Yor...

The administration of Republican Donald Trump has announced that the board for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has moved to rename the institution after the sitting president.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed the change on social media on Thursday, saying the Trump-appointed board had made the...

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to federally reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.The move on Thursday requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to expedite the process under the Drug Enforcement Administration for reclassifying marijuana.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump proposes ne...

Instacart has agreed to pay $60m in refunds to settle allegations brought by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the online grocery delivery platform deceived consumers about its membership programme and free delivery offers.According to court documents filed in San Francisco on Thursday, Instacart’s offer of “fre...

A former NASCAR driver has been identified as one of seven people who died in a plane crash in the southern United States.Authorities said Greg Biffle and members of his family died when a private jet crashed on Thursday while trying to land at Statesville Regional Airport, north of Charlotte, North Carolina.Recommended Stories lis...

(RNS) — In November, three of America’s largest kosher certifying organizations came together to release new guidance regarding the status of beer, which has long been considered kosher by default. Due to the proliferation of flavorings brought on by craft brewing and other industry changes,...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A blunt critique of Mexican bread by a British baker sparked a cascade of social media outrage, ultimately leading to a public apology.In an interview for a food-themed podcast that resurfaced online, Richard Hart, the co-founder of Green Rhino bakery in Mexico City and a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to block access to gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions targeting transgender Americans.The sweeping proposals —...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Mexican drug cartel member accused of faking his death to avoid capture was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years in U.S. prison for his money laundering role in one of his home country’s largest and most violent narcotics trafficking organizations.Cristian Fernando Gu...

NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani can claim multiple firsts when he becomes New York’s mayor Jan. 1.Besides being the first Muslim and first person of South Asian heritage elected to the office, the Democrat also is poised to shape city history by being the 112th mayor — rather than 111th, as h...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats released several dozen more photos Thursday from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, showing his associations with the rich and famous, as the Department of Justice faces a deadline to release many of its case files on the late financie...

ATLANTA (AP) — Democrats will not issue a postelection report on their 2024 shellacking after all.The Democratic National Committee head has decided not to publish a formal assessment of the party’s defeat that returned Donald Trump to power and gave Republicans complete control in Washingto...

Gov. Ned Lamont announced more than $41 million Thursday to aid residents losing nutrition assistance and offset vanishing federal funding for reproductive health services.The governor also expanded his own recent commitments to fight homelessness and provide relief for thousands losing fede...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Federal regulators will allow tech companies to effectively plug massive data centers directly into power plants, issuing a long-awaited order Thursday, as the Trump administration urges it to help the U.S. lead the world in artificial intelligence and revive domestic...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved legislation Thursday aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects that now take five or more years to complete, as lawmakers seek to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy. The bill, dubbed the...

CHICAGO (AP) — A commission formed to document alleged harassment and abuse by federal agents during an immigration crackdown in the Chicago area reviewed the wide use of chemical agents in its first public hearing Thursday.The immigration operation, which started in September, has been mark...

The Chippewa Cree Tribe has a better shot at electing a county commissioner “who understands Native issues,” a tribal member said in a Tuesday statement following a settlement in a lawsuit that will create a Native-majority commission district in northcentral Montana’s Chouteau County.Plaint...

Putting an end to more than a decade of inaction and indecision, Nevada lawmakers on Wednesday finalized a state regulation for controversial coyote killing competitions on an 7-5 vote.The Legislative Commission, a panel of state lawmakers that approves regulations when the full Legislature...

A judge in Miami has dismissed a complaint challenging a college’s decision to gift prime downtown real estate for President Donald Trump’s future presidential library, clearing the way for the real estate developer-turned-president to build a towering monument to his political rise in an ic...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to close an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying a detainee who asked for the order hadn’t shown he was suffering irreparable harm at the facil...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department sued three states and the District of Columbia on Thursday for not turning over requested voter information to the Trump administration.The latest lawsuits were filed against Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia and the District of Columbia. The Justi...

A Kansas tribe said it has walked away from a nearly $30 million federal contract to come up with preliminary designs for immigrant detention centers after facing a wave of online criticism.The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation ‘s announcement Wednesday night came just over a week after the eco...

NEW YORK (AP) — One of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ’s appointees has resigned over social media posts she made more than a decade ago that featured antisemitic tropes, Mamdani’s office said Thursday.In a statement, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who was tapped this week to join the...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The seven states that rely on the Colorado River to supply farms and cities across the U.S. West appear no closer to reaching a consensus on a long-term plan for sharing the dwindling resource.The river’s future was the center of discussions this week at the annual Colorado...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Four-term North Carolina Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, a towering figure in North Carolina politics in the late 20th century who helped leaders from both major parties strive for public education reform, died Thursday at the age of 88, his daughter Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt annou...

MIAMI (AP) — Democrat Eileen Higgins was sworn in Thursday as Miami’s first female mayor, two weeks after defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump.Higgins also becomes the first Democrat in almost 30 years to lead the city of 487,000 people. She replaces Republican Francis S...

References in U.S. Coast Guard policy calling hate symbols “potentially divisive” were removed Thursday, and a U.S. senator said she was lifting a hold she had placed on a nomination for the service’s top job.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, sai...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast is raising new questions about the legality of his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. could be edging closer to war. The Trump administration says its b...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Warrior Dividend” that President Donald Trump announced during his televised address to the nation Wednesday is not a Christmas bonus made possible by tariff revenues, as the president suggested.Instead, the $1,776 payments to troops are coming from a congressionally-a...

President Donald Trump has directed his administration to work as quickly as possible to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.Trump’s executive order on Thursday does not legalize marijuana under federal law. And it’s not the final word. The proposed change still requires federal re...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that could reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug and open new avenues for medical research, a major shift in federal drug policy that inches closer to what many states have done.The switch would move marijuan...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that could reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug and open new avenues for medical research, a major change in federal drug policy that comes closer to what many states have done.The change would remove mar...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — TikTok has signed agreements with three major investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States.The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to...

NEW YORK (AP) — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope got a rare look at the aftermath of two cosmic collisions — and helped scientists solve a decades-old mystery.Many years ago, scientists saw a dense, bright spot near a young star called Fomalhaut. They thought it could be a planet and continued...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harrison Ford will receive a lifetime achievement award in March from the actors union SAG-AFTRA.“Harrison Ford is a singular presence in American life; an actor whose iconic characters have shaped world culture,” the union’s president, Sean Astin, said in a statement Thur...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s governor pardoned country star Jelly Roll on Thursday for his criminal past in the state, acknowledging the Nashville native’s long road back from drugs and prison through soul-searching, songwriting and advocacy for second chances.The rapper-turned-singer...

MIAMI (AP) — Jake Paul proudly boasts he has become the face of boxing during the past decade. Now the YouTuber-turned-fighter is ready to embark on his riskiest ring venture yet after 13 professional fights featuring a cross section of opponents that lack the active status and talent of his...

Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua has apologized for performing a gesture that plays upon antisemitic tropes on an internet livestream.“I had no idea this act was antisemitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people,” Nacua said Thursday in an Instagram post. “I...

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride heard about what happened to Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt — and McBride plans to continue his weekly dry-needling sessions.“It’s something I do frequently. I’ve never had an issue like that,” he said. “But with every tre...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson had a ready-made refrain when asked why Republicans weren’t moving to extend federal health care subsidies: their party wanted to help 100% of Americans with their costs, not just the 7% of Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans.But not 100% of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump Kennedy Center, the White House said, in a move that made Democrats fume, saying the board had overstepped its legal authority.Congress named the cent...

STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A business jet crashed Thursday while trying to return to a North Carolina airport shortly after takeoff, killing all seven people aboard, including retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family, authorities said.The Cessna C550 erupted into a larg...

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — American rapper Wiz Khalifa was sentenced by a court in Romania on Thursday to nine months in jail for drug possession, more than a year after he took part in a music festival in the Eastern European country.Khalifa was stopped by Romanian police in July 2024 after...

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — Finland’s government is facing heavy pressure and accusations of racism from several Asian countries after its representative to the 2025 Miss Universe pageant was seen pulling the corners of her eyes in a photo -- and some Finnish politicians posted their own photos...

Somalia’s new electronic visa website lacks proper security protocols, which could be exploited by nefarious actors wanting to download thousands of e-visas containing sensitive information, including individuals’ passport details, full names, and dates of birth.Al Jazeera confirmed the system vulnerability this week, following a t...

The administration of US President Donald Trump has lobbed its latest salvo against the government in South Africa, accusing officials of harassing and doxxing staff working with white Afrikaners.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the charge on Thursday, a day after South Africa expelled seven Kenyan nationals brought into the...