60 minutes ago Powerful thunderstorms threaten Texas and Louisiana, delaying holiday travel

Parts of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are under severe weather watches as the National Weather Service predicts a storm system in the Gulf of Mexico could bring high winds, hail and possible tornadoes to the region

Events

69 minutes ago As a student in London I yearned for home, until I found paradise: a vast old villa with perfect housemates | Andrew Martin

We cooked ragu and listened to records while lying on chaises longues. Then the M11 link road was built – and everything changedIn our end of year series, writers and public figures remember the place or time when they felt most at homeIn the mid-1980s, I was in my early 20s and was reading for the Bar in London. I was living in a mouldy Balham bedsit and returning regularly to the comfort zone of my native York, when a friend told me a room was going in a shared house in Leytonstone.I wasn’t expecting much of E11. I wasn’t expecting trees, for example, but my walk from the attractive art deco tube station took me along roads better described as avenues. The house itself seemed almost the last one in London, an illusion created by the proximity of Wanstead Flats. It was a rangy, detached 1920s house, white with a red roof, and it had a name, but I’ll just call it the villa.Andrew Martin is an English novelist; his latest book is The Night in Venice Continue reading...

Society

2 hours ago AP PHOTOS: A river route for food and crime: The dual nature of a major South American waterway

From its headwaters in Brazil, the Paraguay River flows hundreds of miles south to where it joins the Parana River to form a single 2,100-mile waterway that carries much of the agricultural and mineral wealth of South America to the Atlantic

Events

5 hours ago MAGA civil war as Elon Musk and Vivek clash with hard right on key immigration issue

The MAGA movement is embroiled in a fierce debate over the H-1B visa program after Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump appointee, defended hiring skilled foreign workers and criticized American culture.

Events

5 hours ago Haley reignites Ramaswamy feud after he bashes American work culture: ‘There’s nothing wrong with US workers’

Back-and-forth comes after Elon Musk and Ramaswamy weighed in on state of U.S. workforce and culture

Politics

7 hours ago Michael Owen feels sorry for Man Utd star in 'hardest position in Premier League'

Manchester United were beaten by relegation-threatened Wolves in the Premier League on Boxing Day, with their lone striker Rasmus Hojlund left isolated up front

Politics

7 hours ago Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces fresh lawsuit from woman who says he ‘lured’ her through radio contest before abusing her

After the alleged incident, an unnamed woman is said to have called the then-23-year-old ‘threatening’ her not to pursue allegations against the rapper because he was a celebrity

Events

7 hours ago Friday's Mega Millions drawing is worth an estimated $1.15 billion, one of the game's top jackpots

Americans still dreaming of a really big Christmas present can keep that dream alive during Friday’s Mega Millions drawing for a jackpot worth an estimated $1.15 billion

Economics

8 hours ago Are we set for a royal engagement in the new year? King Charles permits member of the family to take girlfriend to Sandringham over Christmas after rules were changed for Meghan and Harry

The Duchess of Sussex was missing from Sandringham, but there was one member of the Royal Family who benefited from a tradition that was broken for the American former actress.

Politics

9 hours ago Destructive hurricanes, sweltering heat waves: Extreme weather events cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars this year

Climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe with expensive and deadly consequences

Society

11 hours ago New York to charge fossil fuel companies for damage from climate change

Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul

Events

13 hours ago ‘Exhausted’ Americans are tuning out politics, according to cable news ratings and recent poll

According to a new AP poll, about two-thirds of Americans have grown exhausted following Donald Trump’s election and are now limiting their consumption of political media.

Politics

13 hours ago Liverpool issue urgent statement as fog threatens to call off Leicester City clash

Liverpool are hopeful of avoiding a pitch inspection ahead of their Premier League match against Leicester City this evening despite heavy fog engulfing Merseyside on Boxing Day

Events

15 hours ago Family detentions to return in migration crackdown, says Trump ‘border czar’

Tom Homan also said that undocumented parents of US-born children will be deported, with or without their kidsUS immigration authorities will resume the controversial policy of putting families with children in detention centres as part of a drive to deport undocumented immigrants, the incoming Trump administration’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, has said.Homan, regarded as the “architect” of the widely vilified family separation policy applied to undocumented immigrants in the first Trump administration, also said officials would not hesitate to deport parents whose children were American citizens because they had been born in the US. Continue reading...

Politics

15 hours ago Elon Musk reveals he’s taking drug for weight loss in bizarre ‘Ozempic Santa’ post

The world’s richest man has clashed with incoming Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the role weight-loss medications should play in making Americans healthier and thinner.

Events

17 hours ago ‘A place to heal’: Native tribes urge Biden to protect sacred lands before leaving White House

Environmental groups are also petitioning Biden to protect Sáttítla, Kw’tsán and Chuckwalla in CaliforniaHidden amid a vast expanse of snow-brushed pines in northern California is a rare, half-million-year-old volcano called Sáttítla. Thousands of years ago, its flows created crystalline mountains of obsidian and dim grey bands of pumice rock, which from a bird’s-eye view look like ripples of taffy.“When you’re there, you really do feel like you’re in another world, or on the moon or even another planet,” said Brandi McDaniels, a member of the Pit River Tribe in northern California, whose ancestral homelands encompass the area. “The way it glistens and twinkles – deep black, but shiny like diamonds.” Continue reading...

Politics

17 hours ago Gavin & Stacey character is left out of Christmas Day finale because there was 'no room' in the script

Actor Gwynfor Roberts endeared himself to fans after playing the popular black market trader - the show's only native Welsh speaker - for a handful of episodes.

Politics

17 hours ago US applications for unemployment benefits hold steady, but continuing claims rise to 3

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits held steady last week, though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years

Politics

17 hours ago Why this Mexican American woman played a vital role in the US sacramental peyote trade

Amada Cardenas, a Mexican American woman who lived in the tiny border town of Mirando City in South Texas, played an important role in the history of the peyote trade

Politics

17 hours ago What is the Native American Church and why is peyote sacred to members?

The Native American Church is the most widespread religious movement among the Indigenous people of North America

Politics