UNITED STATES

A 26-year-old rafter who vanished during a trip on Oregon’s Illinois River was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter after surviving alone in rugged wilderness for five days.Gabriel Vaughn was last seen around 4:15 p.m. Monday near Greenwall Rapids while rafting with a group, according to the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office.Vaughn was wearing a blue dry suit, helmet and life jacket when he left the group to hike into the woods, telling others he planned to hike out toward the Chetco drainage, the sheriff’s office said.When Vaughn failed to return, a multi-day search operation was launched involving the Josephine County

Many have commented favorably on the speech that Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave recently at a security conference in Munich.  What they seemed to admire most was his willingness to look beyond some of the particular political and economic matters that preoccupy policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic — the Ukraine War, climate change, immigration, etc. — and to consider the cultural convictions that both Europe and America share. Secretary Rubio lyrically invoked Dante, the Cologne Cathedral, Shakespeare, the democratic form of government, the university system — even the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — as representations of that

For those who speak of the global perils to democracy, a grim milestone deserves their rapt attention and full-throated condemnation: The Feb. 9 sentencing in a Chinese court of Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai.In the imagination of the Chinese Communist Party, Lai’s sentencing closes the book on a troublesome man: a Catholic, a publisher, a democrat. Lai, 78 and in failing health, was condemned under the elastic logic of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, and is meant to disappear quietly into history.We must hope that Lai’s story instead endures as an indictment of China’s regime.Not for violence, espionage or corruption.

President Donald Trump will deliver his first official State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, as viewers watch for viral moments and headline-grabbing exchanges like those that have defined past speeches.Here are the top five moments from past State of the Union addresses.It's become commonplace in recent years for presidents to acknowledge guests in the audience during SotU addresses, but President Ronald Reagan’s 1982 address was the first time the practice was rolled out. Reagan’s speech came just weeks after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into Washington’s 14th Street Bridge

Surveillance video and images of a suspect accused of vandalizing the Trump-Kennedy Center’s outdoor ice rink were released Saturday as federal authorities investigate what officials described as a "targeted attack."Trump-Kennedy Center President and Ambassador Richard Grenell shared the footage on social media and urged the public to help identify the suspect."Help us find this terrorist suspect who attacked the Trump Kennedy Center," he wrote.He added: "Notice his shoes and his umbrella."TRUMP–KENNEDY CENTER DETAILS MASSIVE REPAIRS, WARNS VENUE WON’T SURVIVE WITHOUT FIXESU.S. Park Police have obtained video footage, recovered what officials described as a toxic chemical container for DNA processing, and

A Los Angeles-based sports reporter had a scary morning earlier this month, when her portable charger suddenly exploded while she was sleeping, leaving her with chemical burns on her arm and hair and a hole in her bed."PSA to anybody that uses a portable charger: don’t," Ashley Nevel said in a video she posted to her social media on Feb. 15. "Mine literally just exploded in my bed. Everything caught on fire. My mattress — burned a hole through it. I literally have nowhere to sleep."She explained that she has an emergency fire blanket that was a housewarming gift from

I regret to inform you that Bono, the aging Irish pop star and front man for the band U2, is at it again, lecturing us poors as he always does. This time, it's about supposedly fascist efforts by the Trump administration to arrest and deport illegal immigrant criminals.This week, the band, which hasn’t produced a relevant song since the invention of the iPod, released the single "American Obituary," meant to be a searing protest anthem against President Donald Trump, but actually a ditty just as flaccid as all of Bono’s mailed-in outrage-of-the-day efforts.Take this profound line:"Renee Good born to die

NASA will likely delay the launch of the Artemis II mission around the moon again after the discovery of a helium flow problem overnight Friday.The space agency said Saturday that the rocket and Orion spacecraft may be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after crews witnessed an interruption in the flow of helium during the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage. NASA explained that helium is used to "maintain the proper environmental conditions for the stage’s engine and to pressurize liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks."And while the helium worked properly during the agency’s