The U.N. weather agency says 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, forest fires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future

A Christian graphic artist who the Supreme Court said can refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples pointed during her lawsuit to a request from a man named “Stewart” and his husband-to-be

The catastrophic blast, which occurred on August 12, demolished three structures and caused significant damage to numerous other

The federal indictment of former President Donald Trump and an associate, Walt Nauta, in the classified documents probe has been unsealed.

Whoopi Goldberg once said, 'It seemed to be that if I was married I’d have a much more normal life. Clearly, that’s not the case'

President Joe Biden had a tough sell Wednesday, trying to convince voters that the U.S. economy is flourishing

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Washington this week for high-level meetings, according to senior Biden administration

Typhoon Koinu is sweeping southern Taiwan, injuring 190 people but causing no deaths as it brings intense winds and rainstorms to the island, leading to school and office closures

A drone strike carried out by the US military this month in northwest Syria killed a 56-year-old father of ten out grazing his sheep, his relatives have told CNN, hours after US Central Command said a civilian may have been killed in the operation.

Australian Transport Minister Catherine King says invasive gynecological examinations conducted on passengers at Doha’s international airport in 2020 were part of the reason she refused to allow Qatar Airways to double its services to Australia

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus criticised Texas governor Greg Abbott for deploying “cruel and inhumane” tactics like razor-tipped buoys as part of his controversial effort to lock down the US-Mexico border. “Today was eye-opening,” Rep Sylvia Garcia of Texas wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, sharing a video of orange buoys used in the Rio Grande which are separated with blade saw-like barbed disks. “Seeing the barbaric, inhumane, and ungodly practices in my home state of Texas. This is beyond politics and crosses a line into human rights violations.” “Everyone needs to see what I saw in Eagle Pass today,” said Texas congressman Joaquin Castro in his own dispatch from the border. “Clothing stuck on razor wire where families got trapped. Chainsaw devices in the middle of buoys. Land seized from US citizens. Operation Lone Star is barbaric — and Governor Abbott is making border communities collateral damage.” The Texas governor has insisted that the buoys and razor wire he’s installed across the border between the state and Mexico will save lives by deterring migration. However, as The Independent has reported, advocates and Texas troopers are warning the tools are already putting people at risk. In July, a Texas state border medic named Nicholas Wingate went public with allegations that the border barriers were already causing severe injuries, and that he and his fellow troopers were ordered, as part of the governor’s Operation Lone Star, to push exhausted migrants back into the river and refuse to offer them water. (The state denies this order existed.) “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane,” he told his superiors, in messages shared with media outlets. Last week, Mexican officials informed the state of Texas that two bodies were found in the Rio Grande: one ensnared in Governor Greg Abbott’s controversial floating border wall, and another in a nearby area. Critics allege the border build-up cause these deaths, though the cause of death for the two people found hasn’t been determined yet. Despite years of border security installations and billions invested across multiple state and federal administrations, migration continues to increase, hitting a record in December. “It’s been proven time after time that these so-called prevention through deterrence strategies don’t work,” Fernando García of the Border Network for Human Rights told The Independent last month. “They have not stopped immigration flows, but what they have done is they have put immigrants at risk.” “It’s very likely that with [the floating buoy wall] they are looking for more remote and isolated places to come across so that whenever they are in danger by heat exhaustion, by drowning, they will not have anybody to help them,” he added, saying he worries it could be a record year for migrant deaths in the Rio Grande. Members of Congress and human rights activists aren’t the only ones taking issue with the border barriers. Last month, a local kayak guide in Eagle Pass named Jessie Fuentes sued the state, arguing it doesn’t have authority to erect a floating border barrier in the Rio Grande. “You’ve taken a beautiful waterway and you’ve converted it into a war zone,” he toldThe Independent. The Department of Justice has also sued the state, arguing it violated federal waterways laws. Texas has insisted it has legal authority to carry out such measures, some of which it argues are allowed under a controversial reading of the US Constitution granting states war powers when theyr’e under invasion. Legal experts told The Independent this is a mistaken reading of the clause, which was intended to cover invasion by military forces, not regular immigration by civilians. “The theory that Abbott is relying on here is that the influx of undocumented individuals is an actual invasion. That also doesn’t pass muster,” Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center’s Liberty & National Security Program, told The Independent. Read More How governor Greg Abbott is using an obscure ‘invasion’ legal theory for a border power grab in Texas Republicans and Democrats agree: They want to kill migrants at the US-Mexico border Buoys, razor wire, and a Trump-y wall: How Greg Abbott turned the Rio Grande into an immigration ‘war zone’ After a glacial dam outburst destroyed homes in Alaska, a look at the risks of melting ice masses District attorney threatens to charge officials in California's capital over homelessness response Judge is asked to block Florida law making it a crime to drive people who are in the US illegally

Former Texas congressman Will Hurd has suspended his Republican presidential bid, abandoning a brief campaign built on criticizing Donald Trump at a time when his party seems even more determined to embrace the former president