World
War, runaway AI and climate shocks to take center stage as world leaders meet at UN
UNITED NATIONS | Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people. The annual high-level gathering at […]
Polo, a tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean, is expected to become a major hurricane this week
MIAMI | Tropical Storm Polo will rapidly intensify in the Pacific Ocean and become a major hurricane later this week, forecasters said Monday. Polo could bring heavy rain, rough surf and tropical-storm-force wind to parts of Mexico late Tuesday into early Wednesday, according to an advisory from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. Meteorologists predicted Monday […]
German leader faces tough time ahead after election defeats, but no sign of leadership challenge
BERLIN | German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stood by his vow to stay in office Monday after his party suffered two more regional election defeats and was voted out of a state legislature in a humiliating first. But he faces a struggle to keep his reform agenda intact. Minutes after polls closed on Sunday, the unpopular […]
Ukraine fires over 1,000 drones at Russia, including hundreds launched at Moscow
Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections. Moscow’s mayor described the wave of drones as the “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital and said there […]
The main Kremlin party keeps control of Russian parliament after a carefully orchestrated vote
The main Kremlin party retained its majority in Russia’s parliament, election officials said Monday, after three days of carefully orchestrated balloting that excluded most opposition candidates and helped President Vladimir Putin maintain his tight grip on power. Preliminary results indicated that United Russia would get 355 out of 450 seats in the State Duma, the […]
Trump used to slam China. Here’s why he’s now rolling out the red carpet for Xi
WASHINGTON | When President Donald Trump first ran for office, he called out China as a menace to the U.S. economy, saying it had gutted America’s factories and eroded the middle class. That tough talk helped Trump get to the White House a decade ago, but since then, he increasingly speaks in glowing terms about […]
One thing that hasn’t changed in 250 years: Americans’ willingness to get suckered
NEW YORK | America: land of possibility. And also: land of suckers. Our enduring belief that anything is possible — whether based in reality or not — has helped the nation become the world’s largest economy. It has also led us to fall head over heels for hucksters and charlatans, again and again. If so […]
A judge rejects Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in 1990 accomplice to murder case
CONCORD, N.H. | A New Hampshire judge on Thursday dismissed the latest petition for a new trial from Pamela Smart, who is serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student more than three decades ago. Smart, 59, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an […]
Kennedy tells anti-vaccine activists they have a friend in Trump’s White House
WASHINGTON | Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote address Thursday at a conference of an anti-vaccine activist group he once chaired, telling the hundreds in attendance that they had a friend in President Donald Trump’s White House. It was Kennedy’s first time appearing at the Children’s Health Defense conference […]
Postal Service chief says work stopped on computer system key to Trump effort to limit mail voting
WASHINGTON | The top official at the U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that the agency has stopped work on developing a controversial computer system that was central to President Donald Trump’s effort to limit mail voting after the Supreme Court rejected his executive order this week. “There’s an injunction so we’re not doing anything,” postmaster […]