The number of people reported killed in Iran’s protest crackdown has surged as rights groups continue to verify suspected fatalities, with the United Nations warning the total could be more than 20,000.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said it’s verified 4,902 deaths during the unrest that erupted in late December, according...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — An unprecedented number of immigrants in federal detention are going to court in Minnesota to challenge their arrests — and many of them are winning.

Since Operation Metro Surge started on Dec. 1, a total of 344 immigrants filed cases challenging their detentions, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune review of federal ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — St. Paul resident Skot Rieffer patrols a day care every morning and afternoon in St. Paul, keeping a lookout for ICE. Like many who have joined in community efforts, he’s sad and exhausted.

“I wanted a reason to smile right now,” said Rieffer, 38, who co-owns the northeast Minneapolis bar Bumbling Fools Mead.

On Jan. 17, ...Read more

When a “Make America Healthy Again” summit was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the line of attendees stretched down the block.

The daylong, invitation-only event in November featured a who’s who of MAHA luminaries. Vice President JD Vance attended, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the ...Read more

CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ill. — Bill Rosborough and his son Jon stopped their pickup truck near a 40-acre cornfield and pointed to a white PVC pipe that rose 5 feet from the snow-covered ground on a windy December afternoon.

The Rosboroughs farm this land and placed the pipe to mark the spot where an oil well once stood.

“I don’t even know that ...Read more

In a win for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, a recent court ruling has cleared the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to resume using states’ Medicaid data to find people who are in the country illegally.

The case is ongoing. But for now, immigrants — including those who are in the country legally — will ...Read more

Following the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in an operation in which several Cuban security officers died protecting him, Donald Trump joined a long line of U.S. presidents who over the decades anticipated the collapse of Cuba’s communist government.

“Cuba gives protection to Venezuela, and Venezuela gives Cuba money ...Read more

On a March 2023 afternoon in Caracas, the corridors of power in Venezuela’s government were shifting beneath the surface. Tareck El Aissami, once the regime’s top power broker and a man long accused by Washington of narcotics trafficking, had vanished from public view. His fall—swift and opaque—created a dangerous void in the structure ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — A high school designed for teenagers who are recovering from drug or alcohol abuse has the green light to open in the St. Louis area this fall.

The Missouri Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to approve three “recovery high schools,” a decision set in motion by legislation signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe in July. The other...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump administration and other Republicans argue the surge of federal immigration agents to Minnesota is necessary in part because of “sanctuary” laws protecting unauthorized immigrants.

And with tensions high over the federal immigration crackdown, many in the national and local GOP are pushing Gov. Tim Walz and ...Read more

DETROIT — Sterling Heights Mayor Michael C. Taylor blasted President Donald Trump's national deportation efforts Tuesday, saying, during a city council meeting, that federal authorities had been "terrorizing" peaceful communities and Trump's political opponents.

Taylor, a former Republican who is now a political independent, gave a fiery, 22-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A U.S.-born Somali American woman said she was forcibly arrested and detained by immigration officials for two days amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota.

With bandages still covering scrapes on her forehead, Nasra Ahmed, 23, spoke about her arrest at a news conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Wednesday. ...Read more

A 5-year-old preschool student was taken with his father by federal immigration agents shortly after arriving home from school, Columbia Heights school leaders said Jan. 21 — the first time a Twin Cities school district has publicly confirmed a student being detained by ICE since Operation Metro Surge began.

His detention, school leaders say,...Read more

A sweeping U.S. crypto market bill is likely to be delayed by at least several weeks as key lawmakers shift their focus to potential housing legislation in support of President Donald Trump’s affordability push, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move by the Senate Banking Committee follows Trump administration calls to tackle...Read more

Facing a potential $12 billion budget gap and a need to make good on promises of an ambitious, but pricey, affordability agenda, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani indicated Wednesday he may push Governor Kathy Hochul in budget negotiations to include tax hikes on millionaires and corporations.

That effort could set up a conflict between the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security after whistleblowers disclosed a new policy that would let immigration agents forcibly enter homes without a judge’s warrant to carry out arrests.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Blumenthal said an “...Read more

As Haiti approaches the end of another political transition without elections or a clear governing framework, the United Nations and other international partners are warning that political self-interest and infighting could further unravel an already fragile country,

The warning comes as the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council appears...Read more

OLYMPIA, Wash. — As lawmakers pursue bills to zero in on affordability issues gripping households across the state, a Democratic measure in the Legislature seeks to curb the financial strain of medical expenses by proposing to eliminate interest charges on new and unpaid medical debt incurred in Washington.

Senate Bill 5993, sponsored by ...Read more