Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin advanced toward confirmation as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, clearing a procedural obstacle on Sunday that put his nomination on track for a final Senate vote early this week.

The 54-37 procedural vote signals the 48-year-old first-term Oklahoma senator and former mixed-martial-arts ...Read more

Nearly 9.5 million people across the U.S. Southwest face extreme high temperatures, as an ongoing heat wave continues to topple records and raise the risk of wildfires as far away as the Great Plains.

Las Vegas reached 96F Saturday, a record for the date, while the nearby local National Weather Service office hit 97F for the second day in a row...Read more

Blanca Alvarado is 94 and struggles to catch her breath. But she still remembers the early days alongside Cesar Chavez — when the soft-spoken activist met with her in her garage on Sunset Avenue and knocked on doors in East San Jose’s Mayfair neighborhood to register voters.

Her devotion to the legacy of the civil rights leader — she was ...Read more

A senior Cuban official said the country is preparing for a possible military assault as President Donald Trump increases economic pressure on the government in Havana and suggests it could be the next U.S. target after Venezuela and Iran.

“Our military is always prepared,” Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said in an ...Read more

ICE agents in Florida have made more immigration arrests so far this year than counterparts in any other part of the country, outpacing even places with announced “surges,” new data shows.

The Miami Field Office for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Office — which covers Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands — is credited with ...Read more

In a cozy room at New Directions Mental Health in O’Hara, Pennsylvania, patients show up with warm blankets or soft pillows they bring from home. They dim the lights or use a provided Northern Lights-like projector to set the mood as they settle in for ketamine therapy, a rapidly growing treatment for stubborn depression.

“We’ve seen it ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump gave Iran a two-day deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or have its power plants bombed, upping the ante in a war that’s showing no sign of de-escalation into its fourth week.

Trump, under pressure to bring down soaring oil prices, said Iran must “fully open, without threat,” the vital waterway for energy ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump gave Iran a two-day deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or have its power plants bombed, raising the stakes in a war that’s showing no sign of de-escalation into its fourth week.

Trump, in an indication of the pressure he’s under to bring down soaring oil prices, said Iran must “fully open, without threat,�...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider upending key election deadlines in as many as 29 states with a case that draws the justices into President Donald Trump’s campaign against mail-in ballots.

The justices hear arguments Monday in a Mississippi clash over laws that allow ballots to be counted even if they don’t arrive until shortly after ...Read more

Evolution has fostered many reproductive strategies across the spectrum of life. From dandelions to giraffes, nature finds a way.

One of those ways creates quite a bit of suffering for humans: pollen, the infamous male gametophyte of the plant kingdom.

In the Southeastern U.S., where I live, you know it’s spring when your ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why do I need to sleep for a long time at night? – Sly M., 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Just like eating, drinking or breathing, sleep is an essential part of life.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Meta, YouTube and Snapchat are already under scrutiny for risks they pose for young people. Now they are facing another hurdle in their home state.

California lawmakers are considering legislation to restrict social media use for teens and children under 16 years old. Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and others ...Read more

When Raven Kinser walked into a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles office two summers ago, she completed a driver’s license application that included the option to register as an organ donor. The form provides a checkbox to opt in, but not one to opt out. Kinser left the donor registration box unchecked, reflecting her decision to reverse ...Read more

ARVIN, Calif. — In the southern San Joaquin Valley, where roads cut through thousands of acres of orange groves, grapevines and carrot fields, a canal reaches a linchpin that keeps the farming economy going: dozens of oblong ponds filled with shimmering water.

While many parts of California’s Central Valley are struggling to counter ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Millions of people watched the viral video of federal agents shattering Aliya Rahman’s car window and pulling her into a Minneapolis street in January.

But she doesn’t have to rewatch the clips to churn up the painful memories from that day. The daily reminders are more than enough.

Small things, like a glass shattering in ...Read more

Western Massachusetts, a patchwork of rural communities and low-income cities, is a difficult place to find a primary care doctor if you don’t already have one. Frustrated patients often turn to online forums, asking for leads or advice on how to find a practice that is accepting new patients.

One name repeatedly crops up in these discussions...Read more

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has once again distanced himself from Donald Trump’s political base, while indicating he plans to continue engaging with the U.S. president.

“The MAGA movement is not our movement,” he said at an election event in Bad Dürkheim in Rhineland-Palatinate last night. “And the way they treat culture and the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon intends to accelerate AI-enabled decision-making and put it at the heart of its ambition to link up sensors and shooters for combat operations, according to a policy memo seen by Bloomberg.

Establishing Palantir Technologies Inc.’s Maven Smart System as a so-called program of record “will provide the stable ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A two-vehicle crash in southwestern Minnesota on Friday involving an SUV and a family’s party bus left five people dead and eight injured, according to the State Patrol.

The head-on collision occurred shortly after 4:40 p.m. Friday about 17 miles north of Windom on Hwy. 71 near 240th Street in Cottonwood County, said Minnesota...Read more

The U.S. military said it has been able to degrade Iran’s ability to target ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz as President Donald Trump floated the idea of “winding down” military efforts in the Persian Gulf.

More than 100 people were injured in Israel by multiple Iranian strikes in the country’s south, as Tehran sought to ...Read more