More than 29.5 million Americans ages 12 and up had alcohol use disorder – the medical term for the disease commonly known as alcoholism – in 2022, when the most recent national data was published.

The condition is characterized by a pattern of heavy alcohol consumption with loss of control over drinking despite negative social, ...Read more

Why are so many young Hondurans heading north?

Research by me and two colleagues, published in the peer-reviewed journal International Migration, delved into the factors that motivate young people – those ages 16 to 29 – to leave the central American country and migrate to the U.S.

We found that resilience, which we define...Read more

Each spring, some Catholics plant flowers around a statue of the Virgin Mary, reviving a tradition that goes back to medieval England when holy figures were remembered and shared through plant and flower names.

In Mary gardens, plants and flowers have specific Marian names or religious names in addition to their botanical and common ...Read more

Following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests led by students at universities across the country, a few schools, like Brown University, say they are considering divesting from companies that support or work in Israel.

In most circumstances, with summer on the horizon, the friction between protesting students and university ...Read more

Palestinians in Gaza have begun receiving humanitarian aid delivered through a newly completed floating pier off the coast of the besieged territory. Built by the U.S. military and operated in coordination with the United Nations, aid groups and other nations’ militaries, the pier can trace its origins back to a mid-20th century U.S. Navy ...Read more

Jacqueline Saa has a genetic condition that leaves her unable to stand and walk on her own or hold a job. Every weekday for four years, Saa, 43, has relied on a home health aide to help her cook, bathe and dress, go to the doctor, pick up medications, and accomplish other daily tasks.

She received coverage through Florida’s Medicaid program ...Read more

From the driver's seat of his parked truck, Lewis recalled what it felt like to take opioids.

He was prescribed Vicodin after getting his wisdom teeth removed at age 15, he says, which jumpstarted an addiction he's battled for nearly two decades. (Lewis' last name has been omitted for concerns regarding his medical privacy.)

"I just remember ...Read more

ACTON, Calif. -- On five acres in Acton, Christina Weyer and her husband care for rescued senior and special-needs equines. At the moment, six horses and 13 donkeys, along with a dog and a clutter of feral cats, share the property.

In this dry, windswept rural landscape dotted with homes and ranches about 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles, ...Read more

CHICAGO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s method of detecting methane leaks at landfills is flawed, and emissions of this powerful heat-trapping gas are likely much higher than what is being reported, according to a new study analyzing landfills in Illinois and seven other states.

Released Thursday by the environmental nonprofit ...Read more

The way Jeffery Kytle tells it, he came to Colorado for vacation and left on probation.

Twenty-one years ago, the Iowa resident bolted out the back of a Keystone condo when police busted in the front.

He was in town for a ski vacation, to blow his buddy’s recent $20,000 casino jackpot, the now-66-year-old said this month. But there were ...Read more

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jolynn Mungenast spends her days looking for ways to help people pay their hospital bills.

Working out of a warehouse-like building in a scruffy corner of this former industrial town, Mungenast gently walks patients through health insurance options, financial aid, and payment plans. Most want to pay, said Mungenast, a ...Read more

SEOUL, South Korea — Faced with other more pressing developments in Ukraine and Gaza, the Biden administration has largely kept the threat of North Korea's nuclear program on the back burner.

But tensions around the Korean peninsula have been ratcheting up for years, opening a new and uncertain chapter in a pitched standoff that, just six ...Read more

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area of the country.

Rescuers on Monday found the helicopter that had been carrying the president and other officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who also died, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It crashed on Sunday near ...Read more

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who remains missing after the helicopter he was in crashed on May 19, 2024, is a consummate loyalist whose death would be a blow to the country’s conservative leadership.

While search and rescue teams – hampered by rain, fog, forests and mountains – searched for wreckage, Iran’s Supreme Leader ...Read more

China sanctioned three U.S. defense contractors in a mostly symbolic move that signals its unhappiness with U.S. arms sales to Taiwan the same day the island installs a new leader.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. and General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. were added to an “unreliable entity” list for ...Read more

India’s financial capital Mumbai — home to billionaires, film stars and millions of slum dwellers — goes to the polls on Monday, with the opposition alliance making a renewed push to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hold on power.

Voting will take place in six constituencies in Mumbai as well as 43 others across the country in ...Read more

Outside the 18th District Chicago police station, a group gathered Sunday afternoon waving Palestinian flags and wearing kaffiyehs in the first of many actions ahead of the Democratic National Convention being held in the city in August. In a contentious election year, the rally encapsulated a growing feeling of discontent with the political ...Read more

Harvard handed out notice of academic sanctions to 35 pro-Palestine student protesters over the weekend, students said — a move that galvanized renewed pushback from groups Sunday and that some organizers say breaks the agreement between the university and students to end their encampment.

“Harvard has violated its agreement with student ...Read more

Ahead of his address to and endorsement by the National Rifle Association over the weekend, former President Donald Trump’s campaign announced they would join with the Republican National Committee in forming a new coalition called “Gun Owners for Trump,”

According to the 45th President’s Make America Great Again campaign, the group ...Read more

College campuses are awash in antisemitism and need to do more to address it, according to one Massachusetts lawmaker.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss said Sunday that his visits to some Bay State’s college campuses, including his alma mater, Harvard University, have left him with concerns for the Jewish students studying at those schools in the ...Read more