WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is not the first president to want more room at the White House for entertaining, says the longest-serving top aide in the executive residence, offering some backup for the reason Trump has cited for his ballroom construction project. Gary Walters spent more than two decades as White House chief […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks strike midnight in Auckland, […]
NEW YORK (AP) — By nearly any measure, 2025 has been a rough year for anyone concerned about freedom of the press. It’s likely to be the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers. The number of assaults on reporters in the U.S. nearly equals the last three years combined. The president of […]
Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York City as the clock ticks over into 2026 — but the celebrations are set to last through New Year’s Day. The Democrat’s team is planning two separate swearing-in ceremonies Thursday — a small, private one with his family in an old subway station around midnight, followed by […]
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Tuesday tossed racketeering charges against dozens of defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics call “Cop City.” Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said in the order that Republican Attorney General Chris Carr didn’t have the authority […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter. The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding steady at the beginning of the final day of trading for 2025, a banner year for markets that was driven by both optimism and uncertainty. The S&P 500 was flat early Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 47 points, or 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite was little […]
PHOENIX (AP) — Former Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona on Tuesday announced his withdrawal from public life following a dementia diagnosis. Kyl, 83, represented Arizona in both chambers of Congress for nearly three decades. Most of those years were in the Senate including a term as minority whip. “My family and I now […]
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali and Burkina Faso said late Tuesday they would ban U.S. citizens from entering their countries in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to ban Malian and Burkinabe citizens from entering the United States. The announcements, made in separate statements by the foreign ministers of the two West African countries, […]
DENVER (AP) — Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the former senator and U.S. representative of Colorado known for his passionate advocacy of American Indian issues, died Tuesday. He was 92. Campbell died of natural causes surrounded by his family, his daughter, Shanan Campbell, confirmed to The Associated Press. Campbell, a Democrat who stunned his party by joining […]
A week after immigrant groups filed a lawsuit, California said Tuesday it will delay the revocations of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses until March to allow more time to ensure that truckers and bus drivers who legally qualify for the licenses can keep them. California decided to revoke the licenses after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pressured […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota after a series of fraud schemes in recent years. Acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jim O’Neill announced on the social platform X that the step is in response to “blatant fraud that […]
Lee Enterprises announced a compromise Tuesday with billionaire investor David Hoffmann, who offered to take over the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain this year, to help stabilize the company’s finances with a $50 million investment and set Lee up for the future. Hoffmann, whose family investment firm already owns more than 40 other publications, will become […]
Hundreds of people from South Sudan may be able to live and work in the United States legally, while a federal judge on Tuesday weighs whether President Donald Trump’s move to revoke temporary protected status for immigrants from the East African country was illegal. The termination was set to take effect on January 6, 2026, […]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As National Guard members roll into New Orleans to help with safety measures ahead of New Year’s celebrations, city officials are still seeking permanent security solutions nearly a year after a truck attack on Bourbon Street left 14 dead. The rampage, in which a man drove around a police blockade in […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that nearly 25 operatives of the Islamic State group were killed or captured in Syria this month following an ambush that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement on X that 11 missions […]
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Fifty-two bears were killed during Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade, state wildlife officials said Tuesday. The bear hunt, which started Dec. 6 and ended on Sunday, had been restricted to 172 permit holders who had won their vouchers through a random lottery involving more than 160,000 applicants. At […]
PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. (AP) — California will begin 2026 with nearly a quarter of the snow needed to reach peak snowpack levels for the spring, a state official said Tuesday, adding it’s too soon to know how the state’s water supplies will fare in the coming year. Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, […]
Now comes even more frigid weather in the U.S. Midwest. Extreme cold with near-zero degree wind chills descended upon parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin, forecasters said Tuesday, even as utilities worked to restore power to thousands of customers after heavy snow and strong winds pummeled parts of the Midwest, Great Lakes and the […]
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — The United States and Ivory Coast signed a health deal Tuesday requiring the U.S. to commit $480 million to the West African nation’s health sector as part of “America First” global health funding pacts that mirror the Trump administration’s foreign policy. The signing in Ivory Coast’s capital of Abidjan covers […]
PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. (AP) — A swimmer who went missing after being attacked by a shark last week off the Northern California coast and whose body was found days later was identified as an open ocean swimmer from Pebble Beach. Authorities recovered Erica Fox’s body Saturday from the ocean south of Davenport Beach in Santa […]
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ Dec. 29 The Washington Post on Trump’s China policy, deal with Taiwan The Trump administration’s approval of an $11.1 billion arms sale will help Taiwan gear up for, and therefore deter, a potential Chinese attack. It’s an overdo correction after months of policy changes […]
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Rescue crews responding during high winds to a report of an injured hiker who fell down a slope near a Southern California mountain trail found the man and two of his companions dead, authorities said. The three bodies were discovered Monday evening along the Devil’s Backbone Trail at Mount Baldy, […]
BOSTON (AP) — Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 35. Schlossberg, the daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, revealed that she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. Her family issued a statement disclosing her death, […]
