The Brief

Chicago Police Department

Hate Charges in FB Live Attack

Officials in Chicago charged four people with a hate crime and battery after the group was allegedly caught on a Facebook Live video beating a tied-up mentally disabled teenager. The group shouted obscenities about Donald Trump during the video

Female and male sign on toilet door, close-up

Lawmakers in 6 States Are Pursuing ‘Bathroom Bills'

The battle of the bathrooms is about to resume. Lawmakers in at least six states have already filed bathroom-related bills—Texas, Alabama, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington—and more will likely follow, advocates say

Nigeria Boko Haram

Nigeria Finds Chibok Girl Kidnapped by Boko Haram

Nigeria's military says soldiers have found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly three years ago wandering in the bush near the Islamic extremist group's forest stronghold. Nearly 300 girls were kidnapped by the insurgents

coral reef bleaching event

Coral Reef Conditions About to Get Worse

A new study shows that coral bleaching—a process that sometimes precedes death where corals lose their color—will affect 99% of reefs each year by the end of the century if current climate change trends continue

Senate Armed Forces Committee Holds Holds Hearing On Foreign Cyber Threats To U.S.

McCain: Russia's Meddling Should 'Alarm' Americans

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said that "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and lawmakers pressed intelligence officials about foreign cyberthreats

Cars burn in the street at the site of an explosion in front of the courthouse in Izmir on Jan. 5, 2017. A car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir, wounding at least 10 people and sparking clashes in which at least two "terrorists" were killed, officials and reports said.

Car Bombing in Turkey Leaves 4 Dead, Including 2 Attackers

Suspected Kurdish militants opened fire at police who stopped them at a checkpoint in Izmir before detonating their explosives-laden vehicle and escaping. A policeman and a courthouse employee were killed in the attack while two assailants were shot dead

Barack Obama

Obama to Democrats: 'Look Out for the American People'

In a closed-door meeting with Democrats, President Obama instructed his colleagues not to let Republicans off the hook for their efforts to gut his health care law without a replacement, a plan that has already been set in motion by Republicans

Western Storms

Wet, Winter Storms Are Pummeling the Western U.S.

Much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada braced for potential flooding into the weekend as a winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow around Lake Tahoe made its way toward Utah and the Rockies

United Parcel Service Inc. Deliveries Ahead Of Earnings Figures

1 Million Christmas Gifts Will Be Returned Today

The amount of people who didn't like their Christmas gifts appears to have peaked. That's according to UPS. Thursday, Jan. 5 is known as National Returns Day, when UPS returns the most packages back to retailers

google logo renewable energy

Google’s CEO Thought Gmail Was a Joke

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, takes his job seriously. Well, except for that one time he thought Gmail was a hoax. When Pichai interviewed for his position on April Fools' Day in 2004, it was just after Google introduced the email service

ducks culled france bird flu

France Is Slaughtering Nearly 1 Million Ducks

France ordered a large-scale killing of ducks in three areas where a severe bird flu outbreak is currently underway. The country's agriculture ministry said the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus has spread quickly through poultry populations