CNN – National

By Rebekah Riess and Alaa Elassar, CNN The US Coast Guard, with an assist from good Samaritans, rescued 13 people from a sinking fishing boat after it collided with a container ship about 60 miles off the coast of Virginia on Friday. The Coast Guard received a mayday call around 2 a.m. from crew members

By Scottie Andrew, CNN When Maven Lore was being fitted for his first set of fangs, a switch within him flipped on. “Something just came to the surface and everything felt right for once in my life,” he said. “I had this notion that there was more to it than just pointy teeth.” He didn’t

By Zoe Sottile, CNN One North Carolina man’s longtime support of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt paid off big-time when he won over $200,000 in the lottery. Luther Dowdy, a 63-year-old grave digger, bought three “Quick Pick” tickets in honor of the No. 3 on Earnhardt’s race car, according to a news release from the North

By Andy Rose and Aya Elamroussi, CNN An 8-year-old boy became the youngest person to finish climbing El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park on Friday, according to his father, who has been by his side and cheering him on since the pair began their journey earlier this week. Sam Adventure Baker achieved the feat

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A Colorado train passenger helped lead to the rescue of a missing, injured hiker after she spotted her through a train window. The passenger was riding Colorado’s Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad on October 10 when she spotted the hiker through the window and alerted the train conductor, according to

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN For nearly 60 years, institutions of higher education have been able to give limited preference to people of color and women with admissions. The practice, advocates say, has afforded marginalized people a fair chance to attend colleges and universities that may have otherwise overlooked them. It has also been a

By Jalen Brown and Justin Gamble, CNN The Kankakee School Board voted Monday unanimously to terminate first-year math teacher John Donovan after several students recorded him calling a Black student the n-word, sparking outrage from students and families in the Illinois school district. Videos of the incident, secretly recorded October 20 by multiple students in

By Raja Razek, CNN Winning numbers were drawn Saturday night for the second largest jackpot in Powerball history. The winning numbers are: 19, 31, 40, 46, 57 with a Powerball of 23. Powerball game leaders increased the jackpot estimate to $825 million for Saturday night’s drawing after “strong” ticket sales across the country, according to

By Kristina Sgueglia, CNN A now-former Philadelphia sheriff’s deputy is charged with selling guns illegally to an FBI informant while he was a deputy, including two that were traced back to the deadly Roxborough shooting, two weeks earlier, that left a 14-year-old dead and four juveniles wounded, according to court documents. Samir Ahmad is charged

By Laura Ly, CNN The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, a prominent faith leader who led Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, died on Friday, the church said. He was 73. “The Butts Family and entire Abyssinian Baptist Church membership solicit your prayers for us in our bereavement,” the church said in a statement about the

By Ella Nilsen, CNN The US Department of Interior announced Friday it is launching an “expedited” process to potentially change water-flow operations on the drought-stricken Colorado River, as Lake Mead and Lake Powell have fallen to alarming new lows. In the possible actions it laid out, Interior said it will consider using its federal authority

By Theresa Waldrop, CNN An 8-year-old Colorado boy is on track to become the youngest person to climb El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park and he hopes to reach the top of the summit on Friday evening, his father said. On their last leg of the four-day adventure, Sam Adventure Baker — his real

By Kristina Sgueglia, Zenebou Sylla, Justin Lear and Laura Ly, CNN At least six people were injured after a shooting erupted Friday outside a church in Pittsburgh where a funeral was taking place, police said. One victim originally reported in critical condition is now in stable condition, among five other people also being treated for

By Liam Reilly and Richard Roth, CNN A former United Nations communications specialist in Iraq, whom authorities say drugged 20 victims and sexually assaulted at least 13 of those victims over a nearly two-decade period, was sentenced Thursday in a Manhattan federal court to 15 years in prison. Karim Elkorany, 39, pleaded guilty on May

By Ray Sanchez, Samantha Beech and Nicki Brown, CNN A pair of experts at a pretrial hearing for the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley should be allowed to testify before a jury to dispel the myth mass shootings can’t be prevented, a prosecutor said Friday. Jennifer and James Crumbley have each been charged

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Gaps in fencing along the US-Mexico border can be a dramatic — and sometimes puzzling — sight. Miles of tall steel bollards end abruptly, giving way to open space or much smaller barriers that are designed to block vehicles from crossing, but not people. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says he

By Claudia Dominguez, CNN A Miami Beach, Florida, condominium building was evacuated Thursday, with residents given just hours to leave following a structural inspection of the property, which sits less than two miles from site of last year’s deadly Surfside condo collapse. The evacuation order this week for the Port Royale building came during its