CNN – National

By Faith Karimi, CNN After taking a few days off to celebrate the holidays, 5 Things is back! And speaking of the holidays, inflation forced Americans to shell out more money for retail goods and dining experiences this season. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your

By Rosa Flores, CNN Nearly 1.6 million asylum applications are pending in US immigration courts and at US Citizenship and Immigration Services — the largest number of pending asylum cases on record, according to analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. US immigration courts have seen an over seven-fold

By Joshua Berlinger, CNN Photographs by Julian Rigg, CNN Armed with an iPhone, a microphone and a lifetime’s worth of connections with former cops and criminals, Michael Moy is racing to capture a piece of New York City’s forgotten history. Moy operates a YouTube Channel called Chinatown Gang Stories, which he launched six months ago.

By Sharif Paget, CNN After thousands of customers in Pierce County, Washington, were affected Sunday when burglars vandalized three energy substations, power was then knocked out for even more homes after a suspect or suspects gained access to a fourth substation, vandalizing the equipment and causing a fire, according to an update from the Pierce

By Michelle Krupa, Artemis Moshtaghian and Nicole Grether, CNN It was days before Christmas when the blizzard slammed Buffalo, New York, with the fierce winds, heavy snow and dangerous cold it already had inflicted across much of the United States. That’s when the power blinked out in nearby Williamsville, leaving Demetrice and Danielle and their

By Camila Bernal and Sarah Moon, CNN When Santa Claus arrived at a migrant shelter in El Paso, Texas, to bring presents for the children, one migrant asked for just a photo with him. The photo Geovanny Caripaz, 39, took was quickly sent through WhatsApp to his 7-year-old son in Venezuela. “I told him Santa

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Fifties’ child star Gayla Peevy’s plea for a “hippopotamus for Christmas” came true for one Virginia zoo. The Metro Richmond Zoo welcomed the birth of a pygmy hippopotamus in time for Christmas, according to a December 22 news release from the zoo. The adorable newborn was born on December 6, says

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A Kentucky woman brought home the best present at her office gift exchange. Lori Janes, from Louisville, won $175,000 after receiving a lottery ticket at her office holiday party, according to a news release from the Kentucky Lottery. Janes, an officer manager and treatment coordinator at Harmon Dental Center, participated in

By Zenebou Sylla, CNN A fire on board a JetBlue Airways plane forced more than 160 passengers to evacuate using emergency slides at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, fire department officials said. The incident — which happened shortly after the flight from Barbados landed at the airport — may have started

By Camila Bernal, Sarah Moon, and Paradise Afshar, CNN More than 300 people stayed overnight at the El Paso Convention Center in Texas, as the community works to accommodate a growing number of migrants, El Paso’s Strategic Communications Director Laura Cruz-Acosta told CNN via email Saturday. The city recently declared a state of emergency as

By Zoe Sottile, CNN An “unhappy” 16-foot albino reticulated python was rescued by an animal shelter in Austin, Texas on Monday — after being missing for months. The Austin Animal Center wrote on its verified Facebook page that they received a call about the huge reptile on Monday. “Due to the temperatures the snake was

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN There’s still time to win big at the lottery before the year is up. The Mega Millions jackpot has grown to an estimated $565 million after no one took home the top prize in Friday’s drawing. The next drawing is set for December 27, and if someone wins the jackpot, it

By Amanda Musa and Harmeet Kaur, CNN Two Indianapolis police officers had spent the day searching in vain for a missing baby in a stolen vehicle when they stopped to eat and gather their wits. A woman suspected of stealing the 2010 black Honda Accord had been taken into custody earlier that day, on December

By Amanda Jackson, CNN Santa Claus has packed his sleigh with toys for all the good kids and he has made sure the reindeer are secured for takeoff. Now, they are traveling around the world to visit millions of households. While you are waiting to hear the jingle of bells in the air that means

By Adrienne Broaddus, CNN Marzena Stasieluk needed a new kidney. She’d been diagnosed with kidney disease in 2015, and ultimately needed dialysis, a grueling process where a machine did the work her kidneys could no longer do. But in order for a kidney transplant to succeed, she needed a liver first. Stasieluk’s liver disease had