What happens after the pope dies? Here’s how the next pope is elected
VATICAN CITY — The death of a pope starts a centuries-old ritual involving sacred oaths by the cardinals electing a successor, the piercing of ballots with a needle and thread after they’re counted, and then burning them to produce either the white or black smoke to signal if there’s a...
Pope Francis, 1st Latin American pontiff who ministered with a charming, humble style, dies at 88
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, died Monday. He was 88. The Vatican said Francis died of a stroke that put him into...
Salvadoran President Bukele proposes prisoner swap with Maduro for Venezuelan deportees
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on the social media platform...
Hegseth had 2nd Signal chat where he shared details of Yemen strike, New York Times reports
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, The New York Times reported. A person familiar...
Police investigate shooting on subway platform that led to Harvard students sheltering in place
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Transit police in Boston were investigating a shooting on a subway platform at Harvard University on Sunday that prompted the school to issue a shelter-in-place order for students and staff. Authorities temporarily rerouted passengers on part of the city’s subway system to shuttle buses as officers from...
Trump draft proposes radical reshaping of State Department
A draft Trump administration executive order circulating among U.S. diplomats proposes a radical reduction to and restructuring of the State Department, according to a copy of the document seen by Bloomberg. The changes, if implemented, would be one of the biggest reorganizations of the Department since its founding in 1789....
Man who fatally shot 23 at El Paso Walmart set to plead guilty to murder nearly 6 years on
DALLAS — The long-running criminal case against a Texas gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019 is on the verge of coming to a close. Patrick Crusius, 26, is expected to plead guilty Monday to capital murder...
5 takeaways after Abrego Garcia, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen meet in El SalvadorVideo
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s diplomatic mission to El Salvador culminated in a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported man whose case has inflamed national immigration debates in recent weeks. Van Hollen, a Democrat, framed the trip as a success, telling the world he did what he...
Tornado-producing storm deals deadly flooding and large hail to Oklahoma and TexasVideo
A slow-moving, active storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left two people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continue to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest U.S. On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess...
Florida State classes resume Monday after fatal shooting, but in-person attendance isn’t mandatory
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Classes will resume at Florida State University on Monday, four days after a deadly shooting on campus left two people dead and six others injured, school officials said. Students and instructors will have the option of holding classes remotely or in person, depending on the class. The...
15 years after Deepwater Horizon oil spill, lawsuits stall and restoration is incomplete
NEW ORLEANS — Fifteen years after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the Gulf Coast, killing 11 and sending 134 million gallons (507.2 million liters) of crude gushing into the ocean, the effects of the nation’s worst offshore oil spill are still being felt. Oil company BP paid billions...
Toll on Manhattan drivers remains in effect, despite Trump’s Easter Sunday deadline
NEW YORK — New York’s $9 congestion toll on most drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan remained in effect Sunday, despite an Easter deadline from the Trump administration to halt the first-in-the-nation fee. Both Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency overseeing the tolls,...
Alito’s dissent in deportation case says court rushed to block Trump with middle-of-the night order
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court acted “literally in the middle of the night” and without sufficient explanation in blocking the Trump administration from deporting any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a sharp dissent that castigated the seven-member majority. Joined by...
An Asian elephant calf was born at Zurich Zoo and its name will start with the letter Z
ZURICH — A 19-year-old Asian elephant at the Zurich Zoo gave birth this weekend to a male calf whose name, starting with the letter Z, will be announced this week. A light-sensitive monitoring camera picked up the birth before dawn Saturday and the baby’s earliest, wobbly steps inside the zoo’s...
250 years after America went to war for independence, a divided nation battles over its legacy
LEXINGTON, Mass. — Tens of thousands of people came to Lexington, Massachusetts, just before dawn on Saturday to witness a reenactment of how the American Revolution began 250 years ago, with the blast of gunshot and a trail of colonial flair. Starting with Saturday’s anniversary of the Battles of Lexington...
Marijuana holiday 4/20 coincides with Easter and Passover this year. Here’s what to know
Marijuana culture’s high holiday, known as 4/20, falls this year on Easter Sunday, as well as the last day of Passover, meaning cannabis fans can celebrate in some unusual ways, including an “Easter nug hunt” in Los Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a “blaze and praise” drag...
Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite dogs race for glory in Britain’s Corgi Derby
LONDON — Some of the fastest canines on four very short legs have raced for glory in Scotland’s annual Corgi Derby. The Musselburgh Racecourse Corgi Derby was first held in 2022 to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. The late monarch was a devoted corgi fan who...
A Pentecostal church in South Africa holds mass Easter weddings for 3,000 people, some polygamous
JOHANNESBURG — A Pentecostal church in South Africa celebrated Easter Sunday with mass wedding ceremonies for around 3,000 people, with many of them entering into polygamous marriages. The International Pentecost Holiness Church said mass weddings are part of its Easter festivities and the tradition of polygamy, which is observed in...
Zelenskyy says Russia is trying to create an ‘impression of a ceasefire’ as attacks continue
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday of creating a false appearance of honoring an Easter ceasefire, saying Moscow continued to launch attacks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral temporary truce. “As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying...
Pope Francis emerges from convalescence on Easter, delights crowd with popemobile tour
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis emerged from his convalescence on Easter Sunday to bless thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the piazza, drawing wild cheers and applause as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal bout of double pneumonia. “Viva...
Lebanese authorities detain people they say were planning rocket attacks on Israel
BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities have detained several people who were allegedly planning to launch rockets into Israel and seized the weapons, the military said Sunday. The army said that the arrests were linked to other detentions announced earlier this week. It added that as military intelligence was investigating that case...
Israeli probe into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza finds ‘professional failures’
JERUSALEM — An Israeli investigation into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Israeli forces said Sunday it found a chain of “professional failures” and a deputy commander has been fired. The shootings outraged many in the international community, with some calling the killings a war...
Power tools: Robotics research at Carnegie Mellon aims to revolutionize everyday tasksVideo
At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s foremost tech conference, farming machinery giant Kubota introduced Flash, a vehicle-mounted camera that creates ultra-detailed images to help farmers care for their crops. It was an idea born in a Carnegie Mellon University robotics lab and another example of the revolutionary technology...
Anti-Trump protesters turn out to rallies in New York, Washington and other cities across country
NEW YORK — Opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration took to the streets of communities large and small across the U.S. on Saturday, decrying what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals. The disparate events ranged from a march through midtown Manhattan and a rally in front of...
Former President Bill Clinton returns to Oklahoma City 30 years after the bombing
OKLAHOMA CITY — Thirty years after the deadliest homegrown attack in U.S. history, former President Bill Clinton returned to Oklahoma City on Saturday to remember the people who were killed and comfort those affected by the bombing. Clinton was president on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb exploded, destroying...
