COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots. The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor’s … Read more
NEW YORK — The scene: A crowded shopping center in the weeks before Christmas. Or a warehouse store. Or maybe a packed airport terminal or a commuter train station or another place where large groups gather. There are people — lots of people. But look around, and it’s clear one thing is largely absent these … Read more
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — Cambodia has welcomed the announcement that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will return more than a dozen pieces of ancient artwork to Cambodia and Thailand that were tied to an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquity trafficking network out of Southeast Asia. This most recent repatriation … Read more
WEST END, N.C. — Jesse Wimberley burns the woods with neighbors. Using new tools to revive an old communal tradition, they set fire to wiregrasses and forest debris with a drip torch, corralling embers with leaf blowers. Wimberley, 65, gathers groups across eight North Carolina counties to starve future wildfires by lighting leaf litter ablaze. … Read more
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New oil and natural gas leasing will be prohibited on state land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, an area sacred to Native Americans, for the next 20 years under an executive order by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard. Wednesday’s order extends a temporary moratorium that she put in place … Read more
Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, a celebrated winemaker who helped establish Napa Valley as one of the world’s premier wine-making regions, has died. He was 100. Grgich died in his sleep Wednesday morning at his home in Calistoga, California, according to his winery, Grgich Hills Estate. Grgich was born on April 1, 1923, in Desne, Croatia. His … Read more
seattle — The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to offset the hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four controversial dams on the Snake River, … Read more
washington — The maiden liftoff of a new American rocket called Vulcan Centaur has been delayed from December 24 to January 8, the company that developed it said Thursday. The postponement stems from last-minute technical snags, but United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said on X, formerly Twitter, that a recent dress rehearsal on the … Read more
U.S. pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck say a clinical trial for an experimental Moderna mRNA vaccine used in combination with the Merck cancer therapy drug Keytruda reduced the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma by nearly 50%. In a release from Moderna on Thursday, the company said the trial included 157 patients with high-risk … Read more
For the first time in Hayao Miyazaki’s decades-spanning career, the 82-year-old Japanese anime master is No. 1 at the North American box office. Miyazaki’s latest enchantment, “The Boy and the Heron,” debuted with $12.8 million, according to studio estimates. “The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited animated fantasy from the director of “Spirited Away,” “My … Read more
