Wa Chi Minh Vang spent nine years in jail in Vietnam, where he ran afoul of government operatives for preaching Christianity within the country’s tight-knit Hmong community. His father, he said, died in jail, but Wa Chi Minh Vang never stopped advocating for greater religious freedom through his “Hmong United for Justice” YouTube channel, ...Read more

Russia’s Black Sea coastal region came under heavy drone attack overnight, with damage reported to infrastructure at the Taman seaport and fuel tanks.

Air defenses battled to repel Ukrainian UAVs throughout the night in the assault on the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said in a Telegram post early Sunday.

...Read more

Even after Gov. Wes Moore signs a bill banning official agreements between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across Maryland, as he’s expected to do, many local sheriffs say they will continue to work with ICE in whatever informal, legal capacity they can.

“No politician or legislative body is going to tell ...Read more

Two hundred and fifty years ago in Pennsylvania, the Declaration of Independence was written and signed in cursive.

Now, schools across the commonwealth are mandated to teach that style of handwriting.

Gov. Josh Shapiro signed into law this week a bipartisan measure that requires schools to teach K-12 students to write in cursive. While many ...Read more

A man from the Philippines awaiting the result of a deportation order has been released from Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Center following a federal court order that called the man’s detention unconstitutionally “punitive.”

U.S. District Judge Tana Lin granted the release requested in Greggy Sorio’s habeas corpus petition Friday,...Read more

Minneapolis Public Schools faces a budget deficit in 2026-27 that is significantly deeper than initially forecast — and is relying on new and familiar faces to help it dig out of the hole.

Ryan Strack, the district’s senior executive officer, took the lead in presenting its latest budget update last week, and the school system has hired an ...Read more

Jennifer Jones was sitting in Montrose Municipal Court in early January when she noticed something that didn’t seem right.

She witnessed a man in his 60s with multiple trespassing and camping charges receive a 10-day jail sentence. This individual, though, did not have an attorney — a right afforded under the Constitution to anyone facing ...Read more

President Donald Trump said founding member countries of his Board of Peace have pledged more than $5 billion toward humanitarian efforts and reconstruction in Gaza.

Board members are due to meet Feb. 19 in Washington to confirm pledges and commit “thousands of personnel” to a stabilization force to help maintain security in Gaza, Trump ...Read more

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is better known for her strong progressive stances than her foreign policy views over the course of her seven years in Congress. An appearance at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference suggested a shift in approach and fueled more speculation of a presidential run in 2028.

Ocasio-Cortez, who was ...Read more

Claudia Sheinbaum’s decision to halt oil shipments to Cuba is testing her standing within Mexico’s ruling party just over a year into her presidency, even as it staves off confrontation with Donald Trump.

Mexico’s political left has seen Cuba as a source of inspiration ever since Fidel Castro and Che Guevara hatched the 1959 revolution in...Read more

As scores of federal immigration agents leave the state and Operation Metro Surge winds down, Minnesotans are taking stock of what has happened and what comes next.

On Sunday morning’s “Face the Nation” on CBS, White House border czar Tom Homan said more than 1,000 federal officers have already left the state. And hundreds more are ...Read more

Russia’s Black Sea coastal region came under heavy drone attack overnight, with damage reported to infrastructure at the Taman seaport and fuel tanks.

Air defenses battled to repel Ukrainian UAVs throughout the night in the assault on the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said in a Telegram post early Sunday.

...Read more

With Gaza stuck in postwar limbo, Israel is pursuing West Bank administrative measures meant to assert ownership over land and further sideline Palestinian authorities.

The Israeli edicts are cast by their far-right sponsors in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the most sweeping since the West Bank was captured in the 1967 Six...Read more

DENVER — Dave Petrocco Sr. sees the writing on the wall.

His business, Petrocco Farms in Brighton, has been growing vegetables on the Front Range since 1916 — but Petrocco said he wonders how long that will continue.

Over the past few years, profits have decreased. Labor costs have accelerated.

Now, five years after establishing overtime ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- At Roxborough Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, surgeon Piotr Krecioch has his hands full launching a program offering surgical interventions to treat obesity.

One in three Philadelphians are living with obesity, putting them at higher risk of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, but these days fewer are seeking ...Read more

Jeff Vaughn says it was a 2022 billboard that convinced him being white and male was becoming a liability.

The then-evening anchor at CBS’s flagship Los Angeles television station remembers seeing an ad for his news program — and realizing it didn’t feature him. It did include all of his co-anchors, none of whom, he says, was a straight ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Legislature returns to St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 17, after a break marked by violent tragedies and the monthslong surge of immigration agents that threatens to further tensions between Democrats and Republicans.

It’s the first session Minnesota lawmakers will hold without House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman, who was...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — ICE’s new “processing centers,” like the one it is eyeing in a massive warehouse in east Orlando, would each hold up to 1,500 immigrant detainees for as long as a week before they are transferred to other facilities or deported, according to an outline of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s plan released by New ...Read more

The millions of immigrants who have crossed the border with Mexico since 2020 could change the balance of political power in Congress — but in a way likely to boost Republican states that emphasize border security, at the expense of more welcoming Democratic states.

That’s because many of the new immigrants joined state-to-state movers ...Read more

Southern Californians out on Saturday night for Valentine's Day took a break from staring longingly into each other's eyes to gaze at something else: a SpaceX rocket blazing across the early evening Southern California sky.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket carried 24 ...Read more