CNN – National

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Photographs by Bryan Anselm/Redux for CNN Mario Gamiño was startled awake by the panicked-sounding bark of his pet cockapoo. When he got up, he realized water was rising quickly in his basement apartment in Flushing, Queens, so he immediately shook his wife awake. Within minutes, Ida’s floodwaters took nearly everything away.

By Faith Karimi, CNN Ben Affleck stirred controversy with comments about his marriage and addiction to alcohol. But he also shined a light on important conversations for addicts and their loved ones, an expert said. Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. The weekend that was It’s unclear whether Omicron

By Eric Bradner, CNN As Johnny Stutzman surveyed the wreckage of what had been his house, all he could do was muster a laugh. “My front porch is laying over there on the other side of the road,” he said, pointing to a splintered pile of rubble that had landed amid trees across a Kentucky

By Alaa Elassar, CNN Turquoise LeJeune Parker ends every class by telling each of her students she loves them. The 34-year-old library teacher at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina, does everything she can to prove it, and her recent fundraiser, which collected $106,000 to feed her students in need, is her most recent

By Laura Studley, CNN The creator of the human-like robot toys Transformers, Henry Orenstein, died Tuesday at the age of 98 due to complications from Covid-19, his wife Susie Orenstein told CNN Saturday. Orenstein died at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, his wife confirmed. A Holocaust survivor who lived through five concentration

By Kay Jones and Claudia Dominguez, CNN Singer Sir Rod Stewart and his son, Sean, each pleaded guilty Friday to one count of simple battery in relation to a 2019 incident outside a south Florida hotel. Police at the time said Stewart punched a security guard at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach on New

By Jill Martin and Emma Tucker, CNN The Brooklyn Nets will bring back star guard Kyrie Irving to play in road games after he was prohibited from playing this season due to his refusal to comply with a New York City vaccination mandate, Nets General Manager Sean Marks said on Friday. The decision is a

By Fernando Alfonso III, CNN One holiday tradition an untold number of people engage in each year around Christmas involves tattered cardboard boxes. The homes to artificial Christmas trees are reappearing as holiday preparations continue. Photos of these boxes proliferate on Reddit each holiday season, garnering support from people impressed by the dedication to preserving

By Dakin Andone, CNN The Covid-19 surge has prompted yet another cancellation, this time for the Radio City Music Hall’s Rockettes, who won’t be high-kicking in their holiday show for the rest of year. “We regret that we are unable to continue the ‘Christmas Spectacular’ this season due to increasing challenges from the pandemic,” a

By Amir Vera, CNN When football season kicked off back in September, it felt like normalcy was returning to a world upended by Covid-19. Fans packed stadiums at both college and professional games, eager to watch their favorite teams play, despite the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus. Basketball and hockey’s respective seasons soon began,

By Nick Valencia, Jade Gordon and Christina Maxouris, CNN When Leyda Becker heard a weather alert on her phone in the early morning hours of December 11, she wasn’t surprised. Tornado alerts in Bowling Green are not uncommon and often don’t amount to much. But along with her husband and two children, she took shelter

By Faith Karimi, CNN In their letters to Santa Claus, most kids ask for toys, dolls or maybe a new Xbox. All Jonah Simons said he wanted was a coronavirus cure to save the world. That was last year. Jonah’s letter was collected through the US Postal Service’s Operation Santa program and published on CNN.

By Sara Smart, CNN With every new college semester, students are faced with multiple syllabuses outlining the subjects in their classes. But do students read them thoroughly? One Tennessee professor put it to the test. Kenyon Wilson is the associate head of performing arts at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and decided to put

By Emma Tucker Authorities in the DC metro area said Friday a 35-year-old man who was charged last month in the killing of two women may be a serial killer and the prime suspect in the deaths of two more women, as a wide-ranging investigation is underway to determine if there are more victims. Investigators