Nation
US school vaccination rates inch down yet again and exemptions reach record high
NEW YORK | U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Monday. The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That’s an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the […]
Supreme Court denies Trump plea to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
WASHINGTON | The Supreme Court on Monday again rebuffed President Donald Trump’s push to throw out a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their […]
Tropical Storm Lala rakes Hawaii with high winds and rain without making landfall
Hurricane Lala weakened Sunday to a tropical storm after raking Hawaii without making landfall, its heavy rains and winds strong enough to sweep around 100 homes off their foundations on the Big Island, officials said. Gov. Josh Green said no one is believed to have died when the homes washed away. Earlier, a search-and-rescue mission […]
States take Meta to trial in California in the biggest fight yet over social media harms to children
Of the thousands of lawsuits Meta faces over child safety on its platforms, none may be more consequential than one going to trial this week in California. States are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total as much as $1.4 trillion, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. The lawsuit […]
Colombia’s earthquake is déjà vu for Venezuelans. The government response is anything but
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina | For the second time in two months, the ground was shaking in South America. Once again, families flooded social media with pleas for help finding missing loved ones under flattened buildings. Once again, governments across political divides and continents pledged aid. But in many ways, the contrast between Colombia’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake […]
Nigel Farage faces off against Count Binface in special election that’s been denounced as a stunt
LONDON | Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration party Reform UK, had hoped a special election Thursday for his Parliament seat would help quell awkward questions about his finances. But with the major parties refusing to field candidates in the election, voters in a small seaside resort outside London are choosing between a man with […]
Ex-Southern Poverty Law Center official charged in broader criminal case against group, lawyer says
WASHINGTON | A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased. Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was […]
Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat
WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat that he insisted didn’t scare him. Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his […]
WEDNESDAY NEWS IN A RUSH: Top headlines in today’s NewsMinute video
Read more FACT FOCUS: Trump makes false claims as he signs order urging revisions around childhood vaccines Read more Trump’s vaccine order hands some MAHA voters a win. It also gives Democrats an attack line Read more Pakistan says 3 citizens killed in Houthi attack on ship, and other developments in the Mideast
Zuckerberg manifesto sketches out Meta’s ambitions for world-changing AI technology
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out a vision Monday of what he said artificial intelligence can do for the world, imagining a future where everyone has their own, all-knowing AI agent that strives to improve all aspects of their lives. Zuckerberg detailed his ambitions for the technology in a 6,500-word essay published online where […]