There is a spider making a home in the U.S, that’s the size of your palm and soars through the air riding the wind.

Although the Joro spider, an invasive species that has been spotted across the United States, isn’t dangerous, its size and the web it creates can seem like props from a horror movie.

“They’re not medically significant,�...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Democrats began their messaging campaign to hold President Donald Trump accountable for threatening to eliminate the “whole” Iranian civilization with a 10-second floor showdown Thursday.

“The threats of total annihilation were beyond the pale. It’s time for Congress to step in and take control of the wheel,” Rep....Read more

CHICAGO — Wisconsin law enforcement officials are set to release new information about a Skokie, Illinois, woman’s claims last month that U.S. immigration officials detained her for nearly 48 hours and in multiple states, the Dodge County sheriff’s office announced Thursday.

Dodge County, Wisconsin, is one of three places where supporters...Read more

WASHINGTON — Morning broke in the Middle East on Wednesday with a wave of attacks by Iran. Air defenses in Kuwait were overwhelmed. Three dozen drones and 17 ballistic missiles were shot down over the United Arab Emirates. The most important oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia suffered a hit. Sirens flared in Tel Aviv, and a devastating drumbeat of ...Read more

CHICAGO — After four consecutive years of steep drops in gun violence, shootings in Chicago ticked up in the first quarter of 2026.

The city recorded 105 murders through the first week of April, up slightly from the 98 killings seen in the same time period in 2025, according to city violence data. Another 266 people have suffered nonfatal ...Read more

When the Orion spacecraft returned from its first lunar trip on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, it suffered major damage to the spacecraft’s heat shield coating. That raised the crew safety alarm for Artemis II and ultimately was among the reasons it was delayed until 2026.

Decisions about the heat shield made since then, though, will...Read more

First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied all ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a surprise White House speech and called for congressional hearings featuring the notorious pedophile’s victims.

Without explaining why she was speaking out now, Trump insisted she barely knew Epstein and his convicted lieutenant Ghislaine Maxwell and denied that he ...Read more

GAFFNEY, S.C. — Competing versions of podcaster Mandy Matney vied in a contentious hearing this week in a sleepy South Carolina courthouse as she took the witness stand and defended herself against allegations of reckless journalism under a withering hail of questions from a lawyer for wealthy businessman Greg Parker.

Is Matney a heedless ...Read more

Vice President JD Vance is under intense pressure to forge a durable Iran ceasefire deal when he leads high-stakes talks Saturday in Pakistan with top leaders of the Islamic regime.

The eyes of the world will be on Vance as he seeks to keep the guns quiet and get the oil flowing through the crucial Straits of Hormuz while squeezing enough ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV will begin his journey to four African countries – Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea – on April 13, 2026.

Africa represents the fastest-growing part of the Catholic Church worldwide, seeing an increase from 281 million members in 2023 to over 288 million in 2024.

The Vatican has announced a theme...Read more

Friends can help us with all kinds of things in life. How could I forget moving that piano for friends in Chicago? Fortunately, none of us ended up in the ER.

One of the most important things friends do, though, might seem surprising: They help us get to know ourselves.

Both in their 50s, Cindy and Ann had been friends since ...Read more

Amid a renaissance in the science of psychedelics, public interest in psilocybin – or magic mushrooms, as they’ve long been known – is surging.

One study found that rates of psilocybin use increased 44% among adults ages 18-29 from 2019 to 2023, and 188% among those over age 30. This amounts to more than 5 million adults using ...Read more

North America’s bee populations are in trouble, but don’t blame the honey bees. While some people argue that an overabundance of managed honey bees – those raised to help pollinate crops and produce honey – is causing native bees to disappear, the evidence doesn’t support the claim.

What is true is that populations of many ...Read more

NEW YORK —Sgt. Erik Duran, the “Cooler Cop” NYPD narcotics officer who killed a fleeing suspect by hurling a cooler at him following a Bronx buy-and-bust operation three years ago was sentenced to three to nine years in prison Thursday.

Duran, 38, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in February following a Bronx Criminal Court non...Read more

It’s as if no time has passed since Florida residents let out a collective sigh of relief after a quiet hurricane season came to a close in November.

But June 1, the start of hurricane season, approaches. And with it, comes new predictions.

The earliest of which was released Thursday by Colorado State University, a school renowned for its ...Read more

NEW YORK — Top City Hall and NYPD officials took a field trip to Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday to learn more about how the Midwestern city works to de-escalate protests with a special “Dialogue Unit.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has previously held up the city’s protest policing methods as a model for ensuring nonviolent responses, and the trip...Read more

The crescent Earth — our oasis holding everything we cherish, now just a speck in the infinite blackness — seemed to kiss the jagged lunar surface. The moon’s thousands of scars projected themselves across the Earth as it slowly slipped out of sight.

“I’m actually getting chills right now just thinking about it,” said Artemis II ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward lowering utility bills when he signed Maryland’s fiscal 2027 budget into law, drawing sharp criticism from Maryland Republicans and mixed reactions from environmental advocates.

“This budget puts $100 million back into people’s pockets through utility fee relief,...Read more

BOSTON — Karen Read’s lawyer David Yannetti will represent the Boston police officer accused of manslaughter in the on-duty shooting of carjacking suspect Stephenson King.

Yannetti wrote that he was honored to defend Officer Nicholas O’Malley, who he described as “a good man who finds himself falsely accused of manslaughter,” in a ...Read more