Authorities found Hong Kong’s deadly blaze was accelerated by workers using cheaper substandard netting and evading government testing, as police said the death toll has risen to 151.

Samples taken from hard-to-reach areas at Wang Fuk Court failed safety tests, while lower-floor samples met legal standards, officials said at a press briefing ...Read more

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators said they had productive discussions about a framework for a peace deal, but there was no final breakthrough as President Donald Trump continues to push for a truce with Russia.

“There’s more work to be done,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Florida after meeting for at least four hours ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County supervisors plan to vote soon on an ordinance that would prohibit law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, from wearing masks or disguising their identities while conducting operations in unincorporated L.A. County, probably setting up a legal battle with the Trump administration. ...Read more

For nearly three years, Eric Tennant endured chemotherapy infusions, rounds of radiation, biopsies, and hospitalizations that left him weak and depleted.

“It’s good to be home,” he said after one hospital stay in early June, “yet I’m tired and ready to get on with things.”

In 2023, Tennant, of Bridgeport, West Virginia, was ...Read more

In the four months since U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros was appointed to an open-ended term as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, his office has seen a large turnover in leadership, been buffeted by the government shutdown and thrown headlong into the controversial Operation Midway Blitz immigration enforcement mission.

Unusual times to be sure....Read more

When doctors told her they had to remove her tongue and voice box to save her life from the cancer that had invaded her mouth, Sonya Sotinsky sat down with a microphone to record herself saying the things she would never again be able to say.

“Happy birthday” and “I’m proud of you” topped the phrases she banked for her husband and two...Read more

Trina Turner asked people in attendance to look in each other’s eyes and get to know one another.

Turner, a pastor at Victory in Praise Church in Stockton, participated in a vigil on Sunday afternoon. It came less than 24 hours after 15 people were shot at a children’s party in an unincorporated part of San Joaquin County just north of ...Read more

Elaine Miles was walking to a bus stop in Redmond to go to Target, she said, when four men wearing masks and vests with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement label stepped out of two black SUVs with no front plates and pressed her for her ID.

Miles, an Indigenous actor best known for her roles in Northern Exposure," "Smoke Signals," "Wyvern"...Read more

Australia will soon ban its youth from popular services like TikTok and Instagram, becoming the world’s first democracy to carry out such a crackdown in response to growing concerns about social media’s harms. It’s likely to be the first of many.

The platforms will be required by law to block under-16s from holding accounts from Dec. 10, ...Read more

Vote counting has started in Honduras’ presidential election in which Donald Trump unexpectedly intervened at the last minute, and in which the two frontrunners pledged to end diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Former vice-president and sportscaster Salvador Nasralla, who Trump attacked as a “borderline communist,” led polls heading in to ...Read more

Taiwan plans to buy its first weapons for a major air-defense system announced less than two months ago, underscoring Taipei’s urgency to get the program online as China escalates its military intimidation.

The Defense Ministry is working with the de facto U.S. embassy to acquire Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Integrated Battle Command System so ...Read more

As travelers prepare to fly home on what is anticipated to be one of the busiest travel days in 15 years, a powerful winter storm in the Midwest and Great Lakes region has prompted the cancellation of hundreds of flights nationwide.

As of noon Sunday, 6,211 flights have been delayed into and out of the United States, and 1,006 flights have ...Read more

President Donald Trump said Sunday that people shouldn’t read much into a social media post where he said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed.

His post from Saturday morning, addressed to airlines and “Drug Dealers,” added to jitters in the region about possible U.S. strikes on Venezuelan territory.

“Don’t read anything ...Read more

President Donald Trump said Sunday he has decided on his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair after making clear he expects his nominee to deliver interest-rate cuts.

“I know who I am going to pick, yeah,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way back to Washington, without naming his choice. “We’ll be announcing it.”

...Read more

As Chicagoans woke up to “Winter Wonderland”-like conditions Sunday, snowfall recorded at Chicago O’Hare International Airport Saturday was confirmed as a record 8.4 inches, the highest snowfall on a single calendar day in November since 1951, according to the National Weather Service.

The snow tapered out by late morning Sunday, and the...Read more

After more than a dozen protesters were arrested for blocking a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in lower Manhattan, local politicians gathered Sunday to praise the dissenters and call for all charges against them to be dropped.

Politicians including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, city Comptroller Brad Lander and City ...Read more

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators said they had productive discussions about a framework for a peace deal, but there was no final breakthrough as President Donald Trump continues to push for a truce with Russia.

“There’s more work to be done,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Florida after meeting for at least four hours with...Read more

After a brief engagement, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and real estate executive Alexis Lewis celebrated their nuptials Saturday in Washington, after a courthouse wedding last Monday.

The couple, who have been relatively low-key about their relationship, posted the news to Instagram on Sunday, along with a carousel of photos highlighting the ...Read more