U.S./World category, Page 147
Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...
Top Russian official visits North Korea to meet Kim
SEOUL, South Korea — A top Russian security official traveled to North Korea on Friday to meet leader Kim Jong Un, after North Korea recently reportedly sent additional troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. A brief dispatch by Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported that Sergey Shoigu,...
Sudan’s military says it has retaken Khartoum’s Republican Palace, seat of country’s government
CAIRO — Sudan’s military said Friday it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting. The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against...
Russian drones strike Ukrainian city of Odesa, underlining challenges for even limited truce
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow’s intention to pursue aerial attacks even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities. The strike came shortly before...
London’s Heathrow Airport closed for the day after a substation fire, disrupting travel
LONDON — Britain’s Heathrow Airport was closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at Europe’s busiest travel hub. At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24...
Here’s how some human rights and LGBTQ+ groups prepared for major foreign aid cuts under Trump
In early 2024, Matthew Hart took a hard look at the upcoming elections around the world and worried that the outcomes did not look promising. “What we knew was that the winds were not in our favor. The winds were not in our sail, and we saw all around the...
The release of a 1961 plan to break up the CIA revives an old conspiracy theory about who killed JFK
A key adviser warned President John F. Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the agency behind it, the CIA, had grown too powerful. He proposed giving the State Department control of “all clandestine activities” and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special...
Government cannot deport Georgetown scholar until court rules, judge orders
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar that the government detained until the court has had a chance to rule. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Badar Khan Suri “shall not be removed from the...
A 1-month-old girl is pulled from the rubble in Gaza after an airstrike killed her parents
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — As rescuers dug through the remains of a collapsed apartment building in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Thursday, they could hear the cries of a baby from underneath the rubble. Suddenly, calls of “God is great” rang out. A man sprinted away from the wreckage carrying...
American man held by the Taliban for over 2 years has been released, the State Department says
WASHINGTON — An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist has been released by the Taliban in a deal with the Trump administration that Qatari negotiators helped broker, the State Department said Thursday. George Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta,...
67,000 white South Africans have expressed interest in Trump’s plan to give them refugee status
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The United States Embassy in South Africa said Thursday it received a list of nearly 70,000 people interested in refugee status in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate members of a white minority group he claims are victims of racial discrimination by...
Trump’s 200% tariff threat would be ‘a real disaster’ for Europe’s wine industry
CHAMPAGNE, France — Across wine country in France, Italy and Spain one number is top of mind: 200%. That’s because last week U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a tariff of that amount on European wine, Champagne and other spirits if the European Union went ahead with retaliatory tariffs on some...
Military leaders to discuss Ukraine peacekeeping force as partial ceasefire plans are worked out
KYIV, Ukraine — Senior officers from countries across Europe and beyond will meet Thursday at a military headquarters on the outskirts of London to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the...
Israeli strikes across Gaza hit multiple homes, killing at least 85 Palestinians
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to local health officials. The strikes hit multiple homes in the middle of the night, killing men, women and children as they slept. The Israeli military said it struck militant...
Finland is again ranked the happiest country in the world. The U.S. falls to its lowest-ever position
Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 published Thursday. Other Nordic countries are also once again at the top of the happiness rankings in the annual report published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at...
Encrypted messaging apps promise privacy. Government transparency is often the price
As a devastating wildfire burned through a Maui town, killing more than 100 people, emergency management employees traded dozens of text messages, creating a record that would later help investigators piece together the government’s response to the 2023 tragedy. One text exchange hinted officials might also be using a second,...
Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...
Newly released JFK assassination files reveal more about CIA but don’t yet point to conspiracies
DALLAS — Newly released documents related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 gave curious readers more details Wednesday into Cold War-era covert U.S. operations in other nations but didn’t initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK. Assessments of the roughly 2,200 files posted by...
How will the universe end? A changing understanding of dark energy may provide a new answer
NEW YORK — Scientists are homing in on the nature of a mysterious force called dark energy, and nothing short of the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. The force is enormous — it makes up nearly 70% of the universe. And it is powerful — it is...
Israeli troops advance in Gaza to retake part of corridor dividing north from south
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel said Wednesday its troops retook part of a corridor that bisects Gaza, and its defense minister warned that attacks would intensify until Hamas frees dozens of hostages and gives up control of the territory. The military said it had retaken part of the Netzarim...
Canada in talks with EU to reduce U.S. defense reliance
TORONTO — Canada is in discussions with the European Union to join an EU drive to break its security dependency on the United States, with a focus on buying more defense equipment, including fighter jets, in Europe, a senior Canadian government official confirmed Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition...
What you need to know about Social Security policy changes
Several significant policy changes affecting Social Security recipients and applicants get underway this month. One of the changes is designed to help the Social Security Administration more quickly recover money from people it overpaid. Another aims to limit fraudulent claims. A third could speed up the time it takes to...
Zelenskyy agrees to limited ceasefire as Trump floats U.S. ownership of Ukraine’s power plants
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed Wednesday to a limited ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, as U.S. President Donald Trump suggested during a call with the embattled country’s leader that he consider American ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to ensure their long-term security. Trump told Zelenskyy that the...
Miami Beach mayor withdraws call to end lease of theater that screened Israeli-Palestinian documentary
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, is backing off a proposal to terminate an independent theater’s lease and financial support after it screened an Oscar-winning documentary about the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Mayor Steven Meiner introduced a resolution last week describing the film “No Other...
Appeals court blocks Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors is unconstitutional and must be permanently blocked from being enforced, a three-judge panel of appellate judges ruled Tuesday. The law also banned trans women and girls from participating in female sports. The state attorney general vowed an immediate appeal. On...
