Parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil-shipping lanes, will be closed for “several hours” on Tuesday as part of Iran’s military drills, state TV in the Islamic Republic reported.

The drills, announced previously, come as Iran and the U.S. start a second round of negotiations in Geneva. Oil reversed losses ...Read more

Nearly four years after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war’s toll is measured not only in the shattered cities across the border but increasingly in Russia’s own frontier regions.

Millions of Ukrainians are enduring one of the coldest winters in recent memory without reliable electricity and heating as waves of ...Read more

The U.S. will deploy more missile systems to the Philippines, a move that will potentially anger China, as the two allies boost their defense ties.

Both Washington and Manila have committed to “continue and work to increase deployments of U.S. cutting-edge missile and unmanned systems to the Philippines,” according to a joint statement on ...Read more

One of Latin America’s oldest democracies is under siege from powerful criminal gangs, and a manhunt for three warlords wanted by Donald Trump threatens to unleash even more chaos before Colombians vote this year.

Already, candidates are largely staying off the campaign trail amid a wave of attacks that saw a senator’s bodyguards ...Read more

Leonard Bighorn said his mother tried for two years to get help for severe stomach pain through the limited health services available near her home on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana.

After his mom finally saw a specialist in Glasgow, about an hour away, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Bighorn said.

Now, 16 years...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When it snows in Parkville, Missouri, Harrison Long often stops in his tracks.

“Avalanche,” he shouts, even if only a few flakes are falling. It’s a line he memorized from a cartoon, one of the many TV show and movie quotes that have become commonplace in the Long household.

Harrison has also started singing again, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It was a little after 8 a.m. when the owner of Sun Packing and his employee rolled up the metal door of their narrow storefront on Pico Boulevard in L.A.’s Fashion District.

The neighborhood is home to hundreds of merchants selling everything from neckties to quinceañera dresses to bright swaths of fabric. Neighboring vendors...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Look at the armpits — or, technically, the “wingpits.”

That’s what Scott Mehus, education director at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn., told a group of bird watchers recently as they prepared to scan the winter skies for a majestic raptor that’s especially tricky to identify: the golden eagle.

It’s easy ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — U.S. Rep. Summer Lee sent a congressional inquiry last week to Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding the agency provide justification for the arrest of a man in Brentwood.

Lee, D-Swissvale, said the man, Maklim Gomez Escalante, 35, had a valid work permit and no criminal record when he was arrested in mid-January. He is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump and his allies are questioning ballot security. Democrats are warning of unconstitutional federal intervention. Experts and others are raising concerns about partisan redistricting and federal immigration agents intimidating people at the polls.

Voter trust in the upcoming midterm elections, meanwhile, has...Read more

President Donald Trump said that U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are in discussions with Cuba’s Communist regime as the island nation faces worsening economic conditions.

“We’re talking to Cuba right now, and Marco Rubio is talking to Cuba right now,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

Cuba should “...Read more

The CEO of the embattled California High-Speed Rail Authority was arrested this month at his Folsom home on suspicion of domestic battery, hours after appearing beside Gov. Gavin Newsom at a rail event in Kern County.

According to Folsom police logs, Ian Choudri, 57, was arrested just after midnight Feb. 4 following a domestic disturbance call ...Read more

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks with the head of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog in Geneva on Monday, ahead of a second round of nuclear negotiations with the U.S.

During his meeting with Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Araghchi discussed “proposals” he’ll present at ...Read more

President Donald Trump said that he’s discussing future weapons sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping and teased that he would soon make a decision about future defense support for the self-governing island.

“I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump told ...Read more

DETROIT — Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said he plans to fire two officers who in recent months called Customs and Border Patrol at traffic stops, leading to detentions.

At a Board of Police Commissioners' meeting on Thursday, Bettison said he had suspended with pay an officer and a sergeant who called CBP at the two traffic stops. He ...Read more

Frederick Wiseman, a preeminent documentary filmmaker, has died. He was 96.

The filmmaker's death was announced by his family Monday in a statement released by Zipporah Films, Wiseman's distribution company.

In a career that lasted nearly 60 years, Wiseman produced and directed 45 films beginning in 1967 with "Titicut Follies," a documentary ...Read more