Ten years after California approved a plastic bag ban that’s been blamed for making its plastic bag problem worse, the state is banning single-use plastic grocery bags entirely. In 2014, California became the first state to pass a plastic bag ban. It’s one of at least 12 states that now have some form of ban…

JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank — Mansour Arara, 24, sits in the shade of a tree with a group of friends next to the Al-Auja freshwater spring. His young nephew and a friend jump and splash in the cool water. It’s a hot July day, nearly 100 degrees, and the sun beats off the dusty landscape…

Melissa Farmer often walks her dog through Gompers Park on Chicago’s northwest side. “This park is gorgeous. People don’t know about it,” she said, walking along a lagoon on a recent morning. “I want to keep my fingers crossed that people continue not to.” In the last year, though, a homeless encampment moved in. In…

A federal facility in Pennsylvania has failed to take steps to reduce suicide risks among inmates — contrary to policies from the federal Bureau of Prisons and repeated reports from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, according to the latest federal review on the facility. Lewisburg federal prison is a medium-security men’s institution…

Helene is threatening the Carolinas 66 years to the day after a storm with that same name brought heavy winds and rain to the same areas. Hurricane Helene raked the coast of the Carolinas on September 27, 1958, but did not actually make landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center. As it approached Charleston, S.C….

In the two days before it hit Florida, Hurricane Helene grew from a relatively weak tropical storm into a major Category 4 hurricane. When a storm gets powerful very quickly like that, scientists call it rapid intensification. Such rapid intensification is relatively normal for major hurricanes that form in the Atlantic, according to federal hurricane…

When people think of Bangladesh, they often think of poverty. It was one of the world’s poorest nations when it was created in 1971. And they probably think of political upheaval — this year massive protests led to the resignation of the prime minister. An interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is…

Some 25,000 dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, from Boston to Houston, could strike as early as October 1. Their union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, has been in contract talks with the United States Maritime Alliance, representing ocean carriers and port operators, for months. But the two sides have not met face-to-face since…

Before Helene even made landfall in Florida, authorities conducted a dramatic rescue operation: The U.S. Coast Guard saved a man whose sailboat started taking on water off the coast of Sanibel Island. His dog, wearing a fluorescent life vest, was with him too. Both were brought to safety and reported to be in good medical…