Current News

/

ArcaMax

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

No passport. No flights. No easy way home for Venezuelans who want to leave Chicago

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — Drawn by the promise of a free flight back to her native Venezuela, Yessica Torres downloaded the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Home app, believing it would cover the plane tickets for Torres and her family.

But after almost a year of waiting for CBP to arrange their travel, Torres now feels stuck in a country that denied her ...Read more

Tim Henderson/Stateline/TNS

Immigrants who sought asylum during border surge under increasing pressure

Current News / News & Features /

The millions of migrants who were released into the country during the immigration surge that began in 2021 and peaked in 2023 caused a political firestorm when Republican states transported them to Democratic cities. Now, according to a new analysis, many of them are back working in the states that expelled them.

Many of the migrants turned ...Read more

Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS

More than 16,000 immigrants in Illinois may lose food assistance in the coming months

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — Roughly 16,000 immigrants, including victims of domestic violence, may lose access to crucial food assistance in Illinois as a result of federal eligibility changes that took effect April 1.

Immigrants — including refugees, asylum-seekers and survivors of human trafficking — are no longer eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition ...Read more

Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Lead still haunts yards in Exide battery recycler cleanup zone

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Homes near a former battery recycler in Southeast Los Angeles County still have excessive lead in their soil, even after the state spent hundreds of millions of dollars over a decade to remove it, according to a new study.

The former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon melted down pallets of lead-acid car batteries in blast ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

He was willing to testify against the cartel -- but ICE got to him first

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — For Javier Hernandez, cooperating with federal prosecutors felt like the only option.

Hernandez, 48, faced up to life in prison after U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Fontana police arrested him and seized nearly 22 pounds of meth during a 2015 operation targeting cross-border drug smuggling. Recovering from drug ...Read more

China and Russia view the U.S. grand strategy as increasingly out of focus. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

4 ways the war in Iran has weakened the United States in the great power game

Current News / News & Features /

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Napoleon Bonaparte’s maxim may well have been in the minds of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing these past weeks, as the U.S. war in Iran dragged on. And now that a 14-day ceasefire between Tehran and Washington is in effect – with both sides claiming “victory” –...Read more

Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US, Iran fail to reach deal after marathon talks, Vance says

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement after marathon talks in Pakistan, raising doubts about whether they can find a lasting resolution to a six-week war that has killed thousands and disrupted energy supplies across the globe.

Vice President JD Vance said negotiators will return to the U.S. without a deal after Iran failed to give a ...Read more

Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US, Iran fail to reach deal after marathon talks, Vance says

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement after marathon talks in Pakistan on the weekend, a major setback to finding a lasting resolution to the six-week war in the Middle East.

Vice President JD Vance said negotiators will return to the U.S. without a deal after Iran failed to give a commitment it would not seek a nuclear weapon. Iranian...Read more

Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US, Iran fail to reach deal after marathon talks, Vance says

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement to end the war in the Middle East after 21 hours of talks in Pakistan on the weekend, Vice President JD Vance said.

“We go back to the United States having not come to an agreement,” Vance told reporters in Islamabad early Sunday. “We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Sex toys thrown at detention facility in LA anti-ICE protest; police declare unlawful assembly

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — A protest in downtown Los Angeles against the ongoing actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement grew heated Saturday afternoon, with police declaring an unlawful assembly.

A few dozen anti-ICE protesters had gathered around noon and began adorning the fence surrounding the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A....Read more

Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

Who was Mohamed Jalloh? Here's what radicalized the Old Dominion University shooter.

Current News / News & Features /

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was in the Virginia National Guard when he became hooked on speeches by Anwar al-Aulaqi in about 2014.

The U.S.-born cleric was already dead by the time his words moved Jalloh: He had been killed in Yemen in a drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama in September 2011.

The American news media referred to Aulaqi as a...Read more

Carl Court/Getty Images North America/TNS

UK government shelves Chagos Islands plan opposed by Trump

Current News / News & Features /

The U.K. government put its plan to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands on hold after failing to win U.S. backing for the deal.

President Donald Trump in February said a plan to hand over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of the joint U.S.-U.K. military base of Diego Garcia through a lease, was a “big ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Manhattan DA Bragg investigating Rep. Eric Swalwell for sexual assault

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has opened an investigation into a sexual assault allegation against California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, the Daily News has learned.

The alleged assault occurred in a Manhattan hotel in 2024, as first reported by CNN. A former staffer of Swalwell said, after a night of drinking with him...Read more

Johannes Simon/Getty Images North America/TNS

LA family linked to Iranian Revolutionary 'propagandist' arrested by feds

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. Department of State on Saturday announced it canceled the green cards of three more Iranian nationals and placed them in custody of federal immigration agents, noting their ties to a former Iranian politician.

The three Iranians arrested, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi and their son, were based in the Los Angeles area, and are ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sheriff's lieutenant with million-pound fireworks stash led to deadly blast, prosecutors say

Current News / News & Features /

A former Yolo County Sheriff's Office lieutenant is one of five people charged with murder following a fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers in the rural Northern California community of Esparto last summer, authorities said.

Samuel Machado is accused of illegally having 1 million pounds of fireworks on his property at the ...Read more

Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Manhattan DA investigating Rep. Eric Swalwell after sex assault accusations

Current News / News & Features /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is launching an investigation into accusations Rep. Eric Swalwell, a candidate for California governor, sexually assaulted a woman in 2019 and 2024, the office confirmed Saturday.

The investigation, which was first reported by CNN, follows accusations published by that outlet and...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Manhattan DA Bragg investigating Rep. Eric Swalwell for sexual assault

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has opened an investigation into a sexual assault allegation against California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, the Daily News has learned.

The alleged assault occurred in a Manhattan hotel in 2024. A former staffer of Swalwell said, after a night of drinking with him, she woke up to the ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Man speaking against data center arrested at Imperial County board meeting as tensions flare nationwide

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — The nationwide controversy surrounding high-tech data centers, and environmental impact and energy and water supplies, turned into a police matter not far from the U.S.-Mexico border.

A man speaking out against a proposed data center said he was removed and arrested at an Imperial County Board of Supervisors meeting this week ...Read more

Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

DHS advised immigrant children to self-deport until a California judge stepped in

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Last September, the Department of Homeland Security started advising unaccompanied immigrant children that they could either self-deport or expect to face long-term detention.

But a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday ordered the government to stop using such "blatantly coercive" language, ruling that the new advisals, as ...Read more

Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Microsoft staff tell carbon removal projects that deals paused

Current News / News & Features /

Staff at Microsoft Corp. have told some developers of carbon removal credits that the company is pausing what is currently the world’s biggest program for financing the extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Employees at the software giant have called a number of carbon project developers in recent days to say Microsoft is putting purchases ...Read more