WASHINGTON — The White House announced the U.S. would hold direct talks with Iran even as continued fighting in the Middle East, punctuated by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire in the six-week conflict.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Vice President JD Vance would lead a U.S. delegation to Islamabad,...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sen. Mitch McConnell offered his support of the war in Iran while appearing at the University of Kentucky on Wednesday.

A two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is now in effect after weeks of fighting, and earlier this week President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization.” The U.S. and ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may have backed down on his Tuesday threat to eliminate the “whole” Iranian civilization, but Democrats hope his social media posts triggered enough outcry to buoy them to a congressional majority and, possibly, lead to a push to impeach Trump for the first time this term and the third time since he was ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House struggled Wednesday to explain and defend President Donald Trump’s threat to end Iranian civilization, with his top spokesperson crediting his tough talk with fostering a fragile two-week ceasefire deal already being tested in the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon.

Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, was ...Read more

AMMAN, Jordan — Even as a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared to hold on Wednesday, Israel insisted it would continue operations against Hezbollah, while its warplanes carried out the largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the current round of hostilities began with the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

In response to the...Read more

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday mocked President Donald Trump’s plan to share Strait of Hormuz shipping tolls with Iran, comparing the proposal to another transit pricing scheme the president has vehemently opposed.

“So let’s get this straight. Trump’s plan is… congestion pricing?” Hochul’s press office tweeted.

The ...Read more

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman on Wednesday announced he filed a brief in support of upholding a state law that bans the possession of child sex dolls and child porn generated by artificial intelligence.

Kenneth Moore, 50, of Sturgis, filed a motion to dismiss his charges in February after he was arrested in July 2025 and charged ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A woman known as the "Ketamine queen" who provided the drugs that killed actor Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison.

Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors said operated a high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood home, pleaded guilty in September to one count of maintaining a drug-...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani has an approval rating of 48%, with a majority of New Yorkers thinking the city is headed in right direction under his leadership, a poll by Marist University found Wednesday.

The poll comes as Mamdani is rounding out his first 100 days in office. Conducted over the last week in March, the Marist survey is the ...Read more

Republican hawks and supporters of Israel Wednesday expressed uneasiness over President Donald Trump’s shaky ceasefire deal with Iran, suggesting it was negotiated without Israel’s input and could allow Tehran to rebuild its military threat.

As new rounds of attacks threatened to derail the agreed two-week truce, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key ...Read more

SEATTLE — Jim Whittaker, a Seattle-born and -raised mountaineer who achieved legendary status when he became the first American to summit the world’s tallest peak in 1963, died Tuesday in Port Townsend at the age of 97.

Cascadia Daily News reported Whittaker’s death in an obituary published Wednesday morning.

Whittaker reached the top of...Read more

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz was a central pillar of the delicate ceasefire deal between Iran and the United States, but questions arose Wednesday about when commerce will begin to flow unimpeded through the vital waterway.

Fars News, an Iranian media agency closely associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported Wednesday ...Read more

Two Pennsylvania teenagers accused of instigating an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot outside New York’s Gracie Mansion last month watched “radical content” online and hoped to kill up to 60 people in the attack, according to new court documents.

Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown, were charged in federal court ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Pam Bondi will not appear for her scheduled deposition next week as part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a panel spokesperson said Wednesday.

The panel stipulated the April 14 deposition date in a letter to the then-attorney general last month, ...Read more

Once upon a time, Donald Trump apparently was not so crazy about his son-in-law Jared Kushner and went so far as to enlist a former friend and ally, Chris Christie, to supply him with damaging information about Kushner’s family.

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the leader of Trump’s 2016 transition team, revealed Trump’s ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that were deployed to Philadelphia International Airport last month amid the Department of Homeland Security shutdown are set to leave as soon as Thursday.

Tracy Borda, the airport’s chief financial officer and interim CEO, discussed the ICE agents’ expected departure during a...Read more

BALTIMORE — As the United States’ and Israel’s 40-day war on Iran entered its first ceasefire Tuesday, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori condemned the antagonism that propelled it and urged prayers for peace.

“At a time when the threat of expanded conflict and the suffering of innocent lives weigh heavily upon the conscience of the ...Read more

Among the most disorienting things about President Donald Trump’s public language is how easily it can feel numbing and shocking in the same moment. He says something outrageous, the country recoils, and then the recoil itself begins to feel familiar.

As a scholar who studies presidential rhetoric, I know that over time that rhythm ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A woman known as the “Ketamine queen” who provided the drugs that killed actor Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison.

Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors said operated a high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood home, pleaded guilty in September to one count of maintaining a ...Read more