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TOP STORY
TOP STORY
Tornadoes and wildfires kill at least 39
Tornadoes, dust storms and wildfires killed at least 39 people and destroyed homes and businesses across multiple states.
The weakening but still volatile weather system was moving Monday into the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, bringing thunderstorms, hail, damaging winds and the potential for more tornadoes.
Forecasters warned of dangerous winds from Florida all the way north to New Jersey, while heavy rain was likely across New York and New England.
A tornado watch was in effect until early Monday for a large swath of North Carolina and Virginia, with gusts potentially reaching 70 mph and possible hail the size of ping pong balls, said the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The massive storm that began Friday earned an unusual “high risk” designation from meteorologists. Still, experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
In Tylertown, Mississippi, tornadoes ripped tall trees in half and wiped out entire neighborhoods. Six people were killed and more than 200 were displaced, Gov. Tate Reeves said.
Running Stories
Russia-Ukraine war
Trump says he will talk to Putin on Tuesday as he pushes for end to Ukraine war.Canada’s new prime minister
Mark Carney heads to France, UK to bolster ties outside US.Hamas hostages
After deadlock in Doha hostage talks, Israeli team heads to Cairo in search of results.WORLD
WORLD
15 detained after nightclub fire killed 59
Police have detained 15 people after a fire at a nightclub in North Macedonia killed at least 59 and injured 155 people, officials said.
About 500 mainly young adults had gathered for a concert by DNK, a popular hip-hop duo. Only one member of the band survived and was treated in hospital, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office said.
Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said the venue did not have a legal license to operate. He added that there are “grounds for suspicion of bribery and corruption.”
The venue, in Kocani, a town around 60 miles east of the capital, Skopje, has been described as an “improvised nightclub” in the local press, having previously been a carpet warehouse. Sources say there was only "one efficient exit" in the building, as the venue's back door was locked and could not be used.
The first on-site inspections on Sunday showed several “abnormalities” in the venue — deficiencies in the systems for fire-extinguishing and lighting. Sources said the fire had been started by sparks from pyrotechnic devices that had hit the ceiling, made of highly flammable material.
Reports suggest a single entry and exit point to the improvised nightclub caused panic. The government declared seven days of national mourning and is holding an emergency session as part of ongoing investigations.
Bubbling Under
Climate warming
Peruvian farmer takes German energy giant RWE to court for emissions that increase the flood risk to his home.Ship crash
Russian captain in North Sea ship crash appears in court on gross negligence manslaughter charges.Fisherman alive
Peruvian fisherman lost for 95 days in Pacific Ocean is found alive.Subscribe to our newsletter
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LAW
LAW
Trump deports hundreds of migrants
Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants were deported to El Salvador from the US despite a court order preventing their expulsion.
The Trump administration said the migrants are members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and, rather than deporting them to their home country, arranged a deal with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.
To deport them, Trump issued an executive order to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which allows for deporting people from countries at war with the US. But a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the government from using the act, last used to deport Japanese Americans in World War II.
However, the plane reportedly had already left US soil before the White House received the verdict. “Oopsie … too late,” Bukele said with a laughing emoji Sunday morning on social media in response to a news article reporting that the judge's court order had stopped the deportation of the men.
Later, Bukele confirmed 238 people had arrived in El Salvador. He said the alleged gang members were immediately transferred to the country's Terrorism Confinement Center, where they will be held for a "renewable" period of one year.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government condemned Trump for his use of the act to deport the prisoners. Trump's EO alleged the "Maduro regime" is complicit in the criminal actions of the gang members. Maduro's government shot back that Trump's actions constitute "a crime against humanity."
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
More marriages end when wives ill
The vow to stand by marriage in times of sickness is not so ironclad when the wife of a heterosexual couple becomes ill.
An 18-year study tracked over 25,000 heterosexual couples aged 50+ from 27 European nations. Participants were surveyed repeatedly and asked each time about their health, mental state, whether they had limitations on what they could do in everyday life without help, and whether they were still together.
The study’s authors looked at couples aged 50–64 and those in which at least one partner was 65 and older. For the 50–64-year-olds, when the wife was in poor health but the husband wasn’t, their marriage was more likely to end than when both were in good health.
When the husband was in poor health but the wife wasn’t, they were no more likely to split than when both were in good health. The same pattern emerged for everyday limitations.
When a wife was depressed but her husband wasn’t, the marriage was more likely to end than if neither partner was depressed. But a marriage was at least as likely to end when the husband was depressed and the wife wasn’t.
For older couples, depression mattered more than physical health or activity limitations. If the wife was depressed but the husband wasn’t, the marriage was more likely to end than if neither was depressed. But if the husband was depressed and the wife wasn’t, the couple was no more likely to divorce.
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
National parks break attendance records
A record 331.8 million visited US national parks last year, bringing billions of tourism dollars to the park gateway communities.
National Park Service (NPS) data recorded nearly a million more than the high of 330.9 million visitors in 2016 and 2% more than the nearly 325.5 million visits recorded in 2023. The numbers encompass the entire National Park System, which includes everything from national rivers to national monuments.
Of the 433 parks in the National Park System, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most popular, with 12.1 million visitors. Two other NPS sites saw more visitors: Golden Gate National Recreation Area had nearly 17.2 million visits, and Blue Ridge Parkway had 16.7 million visits.
After the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, the most popular national parks are Zion National Park in Utah, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, Yellowstone National Park in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
OTHER NEWS
OTHER NEWS
Airstrikes on Houthis doing world ‘a favor’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US airstrikes in Yemen on Houthi rebels are “doing the world a favor.”
“Getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That's the mission here, and it will continue until that's carried out,” Rubio said on a television program.
President Donald Trump said the US would use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease shipping attacks. US Central Command said it is prepared to extend the campaign from the air and the sea for potentially weeks, depending on the reaction from the Houthis and Iran, an official said.
US fighter aircraft shot down about 11 drones the Houthis launched over several hours Sunday morning local time, a US official said. The Houthis launched a ballistic missile that crashed into the water well short of the USS Harry S. Truman, the official said.
Saturday's strikes came as the Houthis out of Yemen have been disrupting transit in an important Red Sea transit point for global shipping for months, and the group said earlier this week that it would resume attacks on Israeli ships in response to Israel's blockage of aid to Gaza.
Rubio said that, over the last 18 months, the Houthis have struck or attacked 174 US naval vessels, along with 145 attacks on commercial shipping. “We're not going to have people sitting around with the missiles attacking the US Navy,” Rubio said. “It's not going to happen. Not under President Trump.”
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
An 8-year-old’s paintings sell at first show
An eight-year-old artist’s watercolors are hanging on the walls at an exhibition, where some of his paintings have been sold.
Kevin Kovacs is self-taught and started drawing when he was a toddler. He was invited to put together a solo art exhibit at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton, England after his mother started sharing his creations on social media. He even set the prices for his art.
“I am happy that people can see my art on the walls — and I hope for another exhibition in London,” Kevin said.
Kevin took inspiration from trips with his family to coastal towns around South West England, his mother Natalia said. “We bought him all kinds of mediums — paints, watercolors, and all kinds of art supplies — and I could see he was enjoying it when he was around two.”
He loved sketching buildings. Kevin used his mother’s phone to take photos of his surroundings to draw the images he captured. He began using color when Natalia showed him winning artwork from competitions. He noticed a colorful winner from India — and that was the point he started adding color.
Natalia decided to create an Instagram page for her son so she could post all of his art in one place: “People were asking me all the time about his art.” An art gallery reached out, showing an interest in hosting an exhibition of Kevin’s work, and he ‘happily’ agreed.”
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