The world is looking for more clean water. Intense storms and warmer weather have worsened droughts and reduced the amount of clean water underground and in rivers and lakes on the surface.

Under pressure to provide water for drinking and irrigation, people around the globe are trying to figure out how to save, conserve and reuse ...Read more

At the outset of the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, a singer bemoans his separation from a beloved friend who grew up beside him. Today, the friends rarely meet “näillä raukoilla rajoilla, poloisilla Pohjan mailla” – lines which translator Keith Bosley renders “on these poor borders, the luckless lands of the North.”

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Medicare has launched a six-year pilot program that could eventually transform access to health care for some of the millions of people across the U.S. who rely on it for their health insurance coverage.

Traditional Medicare is a government-administered insurance plan for people over 65 or with disabilities. About half of the 67 ...Read more

Informing people about political deepfakes through text-based information and interactive games both improve people’s ability to spot AI-generated video and audio that falsely depict politicians, according to a study my colleagues and I conducted.

Although researchers have focused primarily on advancing technologies for detecting ...Read more

Recently, the German term “lüften” has been circulating on social media and trending on Google. The term refers to the practice of opening windows and doors to replace stale indoor air with outdoor air, a longtime practice in many European homes. Americans have dubbed it “house burping” in many videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube...Read more

President Donald Trump and Congress agreed to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a larger spending bill that enables the federal government to continue operations. They now face a self-imposed deadline of Feb. 13, 2026, to negotiate potential changes to immigration enforcement.

The fact that funding for the ...Read more

Forcibly entering homes without a judicial warrant. Arresting journalists who reported on protests. Defying dozens of federal orders. Killing U.S. citizens for noncompliance. Asking constitutionally protected observers this chilling question: “Have you not learned?”

This is daily life in Minnesota. Operation Metro Surge, ...Read more

Iran has asked the U.S. to move diplomatic talks originally planned for Turkey to Oman and to limit the agenda to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tehran is resisting U.S. pressure to include its ballistic-missile program and support for allied militias in the Middle East in the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Kaegan Recher’s phone lit up with notifications of federal agent sightings Tuesday morning, Feb. 3, as he drove through south Minneapolis, much like it has for weeks now.

When White House border czar Tom Homan came to Minneapolis to take over the lead of Operation Metro Surge last week, he said there was a plan in the works to...Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping praised ties between their countries as “exemplary” in their first direct talks of the year.

“The foreign policy link between Moscow and Beijing remains an important stabilizing factor,” Putin said Wednesday in televised remarks from the two leaders’ video call. �...Read more

States that were leaders in childhood vaccination before the pandemic are among those losing ground as exemptions and unfounded skepticism take hold, encouraged by the Trump administration’s stance under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Expanded exemptions for parents are likely to drop both Mississippi and West ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Jazmine Locke has filled out the paperwork and checked all the boxes. As a middle-income worker, she qualifies for California-subsidized day care for her 7-month-old daughter. Yet she holds little hope she will ever make it off the waitlist. Her older son, now 12, never did.

"In my mind, I plan to pay for child care until she ...Read more

The momentum behind cellphone bans in schools has reached more than half the states, as teachers, superintendents and education experts praise these policies as a way to boost student achievement and mental health, and to rebuild a sense of community that many believe has been diminished by students’ addiction to screens.

Now, the question ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Less than three weeks before a deadly explosion in Esparto, the company that operated the fireworks compound in the small town about 40 minutes from Sacramento tried to claw back tons of fireworks seized by law enforcement in Southern California, citing its close relationship with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, ...Read more

The head of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association and border czar Tom Homan are negotiating a deal for county jails to cooperate with federal immigration officials, a move that could lead to the drawdown of federal agents in the state, the Minnesota Star Tribune has learned.

The Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, the Minnesota County Attorneys ...Read more

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved sweeping cuts to an array of homeless services, a move some advocates said will push more people onto the streets.

Though county voters in 2024 approved a sales tax increase to combat the homelessness crisis, county officials said they faced a more than $270 million ...Read more

A federal judge has ordered the release of two Venezuelan men accused of assaulting a federal immigration officer last month outside a north Minneapolis duplex, concluding that they do not present a heightened flight risk.

The federal court hearing Tuesday, Feb. 3, also offered the first outside glimpse of photographs that raise questions about...Read more

Police said employees of a man arrested in connection with what authorities say was an illegal biological laboratory became “deathly ill” after entering a garage containing beakers with “reddish liquid” at a property linked to the investigation.

Ori Solomon, 55, appeared in federal court in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

He has been charged ...Read more

New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration late Tuesday, demanding the full restoration of billions of dollars in federal funding for construction of the Gateway Project’s Hudson River Tunnel.

The $16 billion tunnel project, which would double the number of rail lines between New Jersey and New York Penn Station and generate an ...Read more

A Minneapolis City Council committee delayed action Tuesday on renewing liquor licenses for two Minneapolis hotels that have housed federal immigration officers.

The committee, made up of all the council members, voted 8-5 to delay a decision on the licenses for Canopy by Hilton in the Mill District and Depot Renaissance Hotel until the next ...Read more