WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday continued projecting confidence in the U.S. war effort in Iran, suggesting online and during a high-level Cabinet meeting that Iran has been “obliterated,” that its leaders were “begging” for a deal, and that the U.S. is “roaming free” over Iran and “NEEDS NOTHING” from its ...Read more

There is a pall over the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement. Donald Trump overpromised. His public support has fallen. Some “America First” die-hards now openly criticize him.

Amid war, economic challenges, democratic backsliding, the Epstein files and Americans shot dead in the street by government agents, Trump’s ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Negotiations on the final cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge are expected to begin within weeks as Maryland officials continue advancing design and early construction work, state transportation leaders said.

Bruce Gartner, executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority, said the talks with contractors ...Read more

The Minneapolis City Council devolved into chaos Thursday during a debate over whether it should spent time weighing in on global politics, like the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

The meeting went off the rails as the council considered two resolutions that would urge normalization of relations with Cuba and ask European financial institutions to stop ...Read more

The Trump administration is investigating whether two prominent California medical schools — at UC San Diego and Stanford — engaged in racial discrimination in admissions and has demanded they submit personal and academic data about their students in less than a month or potentially face damaging federal funding cuts.

In letters sent ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has launched an investigation into two California women’s prisons to determine if they unconstitutionally provided housing and preferential treatment to “biological male prisoners.”

In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon — who heads the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Black Hawk helicopter passed directly in front of a United Airlines passenger jet Tuesday as the plane was landing at John Wayne Airport, federal officials said.

The close call occurred around 8:40 p.m. as United Airlines Boeing 737, flying out of San Francisco, was approaching the Orange County airport and a Sikorsky ...Read more

NEW YORK — The New York City Council on Thursday passed a bill aimed at limiting the scope of disruptive protests outside of synagogues and other houses of worship that has sparked concern over free speech issues that critics say is aimed at pro-Palestinian protesters.

The bill, a scaled-back version of an original version proposing the New ...Read more

The Trump administration has deported as many as 6,000 Cubans to Mexico over the past year through an unwritten agreement with its southern neighbor, according to a federal judge pressing the government to explain how the opaque arrangement between the neighboring countries works.

In a nine-page order filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge ...Read more

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder are unconstitutional — a significant decision that is likely to reshape a portion of state law that many criminal justice advocates and some public officials have long targeted for reform.

In an opinion released Thursday morning, Chief ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump again pushed back his deadline for Iran to strike a deal with the U.S. or face more attacks, saying talks with the country were going “very well.”

Trump said he would extend, by 10 days, his pledge to refrain from attacks on Iranian energy sites, offering a brief calm to global energy markets jolted by ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s signature will appear on future U.S. paper currency to mark the 250th anniversary of the country, a first for a sitting president, according to the Treasury Department.

“There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky., — One of Kentucky’s top state legislators is proposing to place a statue of Sen. Mitch McConnell in the rotunda of the State Capitol when it reopens after renovations.

A resolution from Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, filed Thursday would officially recommend placement of a statue of the longtime Kentucky U.S....Read more

WASHINGTON — When President Trump ordered immigration raids in Los Angeles last June, only a handful of those arrested were violent criminals. The sweeps split families, cost businesses millions of dollars and drove many undocumented residents into hiding.

Activists protested the Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, prompting the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s effort to recover economic damages tied to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and closure of the Port of Baltimore is moving toward a federal trial, with proceedings focused first on whether the shipowner and manager can limit their financial liability under a centuries-old maritime law.

The state is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A longtime El Segundo resident was arrested earlier this month after installing unauthorized stop signs at a neighborhood intersection he says has become increasingly dangerous for children.

Joseph Brandlin, 44, who has lived in El Segundo more than four decades, said he took matters into his own hands after months of ...Read more

NEW YORK — The city’s Rent Guidelines Board kicked off the process of deciding whether to enact Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise of freezing rents on stabilized units in its first meeting of the year Thursday, as it considered data that could support a rent freeze.

The new data, released Thursday in the board’s annual report, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday laid bare concerns in both parties about alarming advances in Russian and Chinese missiles, nuclear weapons and antisatellite capabilities.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the committee’s chairman, said at the hearing that these dangers are advancing by “leaps and bounds.”

Sen...Read more

The fight against infectious disease is a race against evolution. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Viruses adapt to spread more quickly. Diseases transmitted by insects present another evolutionary front: Insects themselves can evolve resistance to the poisons that people use to kill them.

In particular, the mosquito-borne ...Read more