HOLIDAYS WEEKENDS

America is rejecting more legal immigrants than ever before. Refugee advocates warn that President Trump’s aim is to dismantle the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

The Avangard weapon system is built around a hypersonic glide vehicle that takes an elusive path toward its target — even as it reportedly travels at more than 20 times the speed of sound.

A Maine medical school and nearby hospice center are trying out a VR program aimed at fostering more empathy for dying patients among health workers-in-training. Not everyone is sold on the idea.

“Firearms-related fatalities were the leading cause of officer deaths, with 52 officers shot and killed in 2018,” the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund says.

“There’s some risk that people will look at 2018 and say, ‘Well, nothing happened; that means we’re OK,’ ” said one computer security expert. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

Anak Krakatau, whose partial collapse is blamed for triggering Saturday’s tsunami that killed at least 430 people, remains active — spewing ash over a large area around the Sunda Strait.

Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen promises new “extraordinary protective measures” in the wake of the death of a second migrant child this month. They will require assistance from multiple federal agencies.

The volcano erupted two days ago, triggering 1,000 mostly small tremors. At least 10 people were injured and a number of buildings were damaged in Wednesday’s quake.

In the 1940s, the U.S. government used census data to locate and wrongfully incarcerate Japanese-Americans. Some are now speaking out against plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The president visited U.S. forces who are part of the fight against ISIS, amid criticism of a sudden decision to pull troops from Syria. It’s his first such trip since taking office.

Ginsburg underwent surgery last Friday for early stage lung cancer. At 85, she is the oldest justice on the Supreme Court and a stalwart of the court’s liberal wing.

The president caused a stir when he asked a 7-year-old caller to the Santa tracker hotline whether she still believed in Saint Nick.

More than 14,000 donors were tricked into paying for a couple’s vacations and handbags by a heartwarming story featuring a homeless veteran. Now GoFundMe has returned their money.

Japanese prosecutors say three top TEPCO executives didn’t do enough to protect the nuclear plant, despite being told in 2002 that the Fukushima facility was vulnerable to a tsunami.

In 2018, the Trump administration made good on its promises to unwind long-standing U.S. commitments to guarantee global security and prosperity, writes Ted Piccone of the Brookings Institution.

As drought has deepened across the West, much attention is paid to a colorful map that shows the hardest-hit areas. The scientists who update the map each week face enormous pressure to get it right.

Japan is leaving the International Whaling Commission, which put a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s. The country will allow commercial hunts for the first time in 30 years next July.

Even after buying employer-provided health insurance, an Arizona couple incurred a mountain of medical debt since a new baby was born.

Teachers used social media this year to let the world into their classrooms. What did we see? A lot of crying, hugging and learning.

The Catholic Church has been roiled by revelations about clergy abuse in dioceses across the country in 2018. It began with a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August that detailed decades of abuse.

The tsunami that battered coastlines along the Sunda Strait over the weekend follows a similar wave that pounded the island of Sulawesi in September, killing an estimated 2,100.

President Trump, holed up in the White House, issued a series of angry tweets blaming Democrats for the impasse, which will affect some 800,000 federal employees.

On Monday, the Dow logged a nearly 3 percent loss — breaking a 100-year-old record for the worst Christmas Eve performance. After a day off for Christmas, trading resumes Wednesday.

Officials appear to have resumed coordinating with local shelters after days of dropping off hundreds of mostly Central American migrants without any plan.

Director Karyn Kusama has a history of films where women fight back. But Destroyer, despite its transformation of Nicole Kidman, fails to develop a compelling story to support that transformation.

What’s your preference: hagiography or demonization? A biopic about Ruth Bader Ginsburg is blandly positive, while another about Dick Cheney offers an extended, if entertaining, screed.

The president relishes speaking off the cuff but on Christmas Eve it may have led to a regretful blunder when he insinuated a girl was too old to believe Santa is real.

The Guatemalan child died after midnight on Tuesday in Alamogordo, N.M. He’s the second child to die in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody this month.

In the Holy Land, Santa doesn’t come down the chimney or wait till kids are asleep to deliver presents. “Baba Noel” or Father Christmas hops out of a red van and makes house calls while they’re awake.

The pope, an outspoken advocate for refugees and migrants, urged the international community to set aside its differences and turn its attention to crises around the world.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing and hours-long standoff with police in Kabul on Monday. Most of the people who died were government employees.

It can cost more to ship a pie than the price of the pie itself, and causes bakers a lot of headaches. So why does business boom over the holidays? Well, that’s personal.

Their former homeland was a U.S. testing site for nuclear bombs, but they can’t get Medicare or Medicaid in Oklahoma. A resident of Enid, Okla., who was born in the islands is trying to change that.

Rhode Island is among a growing number of states allowing children with autism to be treated with medical marijuana. The benefits are unproved and the full extent of the risks are unknown.