By CHRIS CAMERON Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the federal government, said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that the pope should stay out of American affairs. Vance, a convert to Catholicism who is about to publish a book detailing his turn to the faith, brushed off a backlash among Christians across the political spectrum to President Donald Trump’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV. He said “that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) speaks during a hearing at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, Feb. 10, 2026. Gonzales, who is accused of a coercive sexual relationship with a staff member who later killed herself, announced that he would resign from Congress amid growing bipartisan outcry from House members. (Eric Lee/The New York Times) By J. DAVID GOODMAN Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican accused of having a coercive sexual relationship with a staff member wh

David Steiner, the postmaster general of the United States, who took over the independent agency at a time of serious financial challenges, in Washington on April 6, 2026. Without drastic measures, Steiner told Congress last month, the U.S. Postal Service could run out of cash in less than a year. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times) By ADAM SELLA In testimony to Congress last month, David Steiner, the postmaster general, delivered a dire warning. Without drastic measures, h

President Trump gestures while talking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.F.C. event in Miami on Saturday, April 11, 2026. By late Monday morning, the Trump-as-Jesus image was deleted from the president’s social-media account. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times) By ELIZABETH DIAS President Donald Trump faced a groundswell of criticism from Christians across the political spectrum Monday for his social-media posts attacking Pope Leo XIV and depicting himself as a J

A photo provided by NASA shows crew members are extracted from the Artemis II crew capsule after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon, on Friday, April 10, 2026. The NASA flight parachuted into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, bringing to an end a journey that sent humans into deep space for the first time since 1972. (NASA via The New York Times) By KENNETH CHANG Compared with going to the moon and back, the flight from San Die

Wind turbine blades stacked for transport at a pier in New London, Conn., Nov. 13, 2023. Many blue states are rethinking ambitious strategies to cut emissions as they struggle with rising electricity costs and new hurdles for renewable energy. (Joe Buglewicz/The New York Times) By BRAD PLUMER Several years ago, in a burst of climate optimism, Democratic-led states across the Northeast adopted some of the world’s most ambitious policies to shift away from fossil fuels and cut

Gilgo Beach in Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, where multiple victims’ bodies were found, July 15, 2023. Rex Heuermann, the architectural consultant accused in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, confessed on Wednesday to eight murders — the seven he had been charged with, plus one more. (Johnny Milano/The New York Times) By CLAIRE FAHY In a crowded courtroom on Long Island Wednesday morning, Rex Heuermann, a tall, heavyset man accused of seven grisly murders, put an end to the t

A photo provided by NASA shows the heat shield of the Orion spacecraft, which was removed after the conclusion of the Artemis I mission, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 3, 2023. The heat shield — the same design as the one on the Artemis II spacecraft — was unexpectedly pockmarked, with sizable chunks missing. (NASA via The New York Times) By KENNETH CHANG The Artemis II heat shield, NASA agrees, is flawed. The heat shield is the critical layer at the bottom of

By KENNETH CHANG A day after passing over the far side of the moon, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission is now on the return leg of its journey, and the pace of activity has slowed. The spacecraft carrying the astronauts, which they had named Integrity, left the sphere of lunar influence at 1:23 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. That meant that the attraction of Earth’s gravity was stronger than the moon’s, accelerating them toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday. A

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington, April 6, 2026. President Trump, in vowing to systematically destroy civilian infrastructure and annihilate Iran’s entire civilization, appears to be creating evidence about his intentions. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) By CHARLIE SAVAGE President Donald Trump’s threat earlier this week to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization escalated days of bellicose rhetoric in which he has made what