WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump hosted a potentially term-changing meeting Friday at the White House. No, it wasn’t about ending the longest government shutdown in American history.

Trump did not extend invitations to Republican and Democratic lawmakers to try using the power of his office to reopen the government — even as some ...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s reelection this week followed a first term that rarely saw him step out of the national spotlight, securing Donald Trump’s hush money conviction on 34 felonies and those of the president’s namesake real estate company and its top finance executive, indicting Mayor Eric Adams’ right-...Read more

MIAMI — Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States will lose temporary protected status at the end of the day Friday, leaving many of them vulnerable to deportation to a homeland in extreme turmoil.

Losing the protection: a group of about 268,000 Venezuelans who became eligible for TPS in March 2021 under the Biden ...Read more

Sean “Diddy” Combs found himself in hot water this week for allegedly drinking booze behind bars in federal prison.

The 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder, who last month started serving four years for two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, was caught with homemade alcohol — consisting of fermented Fanta, sugar and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County officials are set to pull kratom and its synthetic extract, sometimes called 7-OH, from shelves immediately.

Inspectors will be sent to retailers next week to begin red-tagging illegal products containing the compounds, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a release Friday morning. Shops that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A fire that burned nearly 250 homes in Ventura County was a rekindling of an earlier fire that officials failed to fully extinguish, according to an investigation by Ventura County fire officials and prosecutors released Friday.

The findings put more focus on the tactics firefighters use in declaring blazes out, especially after...Read more

Foreigners seeking visas to live in the U.S. might be rejected if they have certain medical conditions, including diabetes or obesity, under a Thursday directive from the Trump administration.

The guidance, issued in a cable the State Department sent to embassy and consular officials and examined by KFF Health News, directs visa officers to ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A group seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system says it has gathered enough signatures to put the repeal question on the 2026 ballot.

The group formed after the 2024 election, when a similar effort narrowly failed to pass.

It began gathering signatures in February, looking to collect more...Read more

Seven lawsuits filed this week in California state courts accuse ChatGPT’s creator, OpenAI, of emotionally manipulating users, fueling AI-induced delusions, and, in some cases, acting as a “suicide coach.”

The complaints allege that ChatGPT contributed to suicides and mental health crises — even among users with no prior mental health ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The young men from MS-13 lived mostly in the cramped urban districts of Van Nuys, Panorama City and North Hollywood.

But it was in the mountains north and west of Los Angeles, where, as one alleged gang member put it in a recorded jailhouse sting, they went “to play.”

At a remote helipad and scenic overlooks, many miles ...Read more

CHICAGO — Moody Bible Institute is suing the Chicago Board of Education for alleged religious discrimination after the college was barred from the district’s student teaching program.

The Christian college alleges Chicago Public Schools will not allow it to participate in the program unless it signs the district’s non-discrimination ...Read more

BROADVIEW, Ill. — Police arrested 14 women outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview on Friday morning in the latest act of civil disobedience outside the west suburban facility that’s become a major flash point of opposition to the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Just after 9...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Facing budget shortfalls due to state cuts, uncertainty over federal support and increasingly acute student needs, the University of California said Friday that it would seek a nearly $130 million zero-interest loan from the state.

UC's top finance manager made the emergency request in a letter to the state Department of Finance...Read more

Patients who followed an AI coach from an app on their phone cut their risk of developing diabetes as much as those visiting a human coach, a Johns Hopkins study showed.

“We were really surprised at how almost identical both of the groups were in all of the measures,” said lead researcher Dr. Nestoras Mathioudakis, an associate professor of...Read more

PORT ROYAL, S.C. — A Marine recruit was shot Wednesday during marksmanship training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, officials said.

It was the second shooting mishap during rifle training in less than three months at the Port Royal base, where recruits undergo 13 weeks of training to become Marines.

The recruit sustained a ...Read more

DENVER — Another of the wolves released in Colorado earlier this year as part of the state’s reintroduction effort has died, wildlife officials said Friday.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife learned of the death of the female wolf — given the identification number 2506 — when its collar gave a mortality notice on Oct. 30. The wolf died in ...Read more

Ukraine Ambassador Olha Stefanishyna said her country is engaged in “positive” talks about buying Tomahawk missiles and other long-range weaponry, even after President Donald Trump signaled he didn’t want to send them to the country.

“The discussion is still ongoing but we have a lot of delegations working to scale up the available ...Read more

Israel launched some of its heaviest airstrikes on Lebanon since it agreed to a ceasefire with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah around a year ago.

The attacks late on Thursday, which Israel said were aimed at Hezbollah weapons sites and other infrastructure in southern Lebanon, have further stoked fears among Lebanese that the two sides...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nearly 200 nations are gathering this week in Belém, Brazil, to kick off the annual United Nations climate policy summit, but there is one glaring exception: The Trump administration is not sending any high-ranking officials.

California hopes it can fill in the gap. The state, as it usually does, is sending a large delegation ...Read more

Multiple people have fallen ill after a “suspicious package” containing white powder and political propaganda was delivered to a US military base in Maryland, according to a report.

“As a precaution, the building and connecting building were evacuated, and a cordon was established around the area,” CNN reported, citing a statement from ...Read more