Let's put COVID-19 in perspective. Today we explore centuries of pandemics, how they all ended and what we've learned from them.

The struggle highlights the fragility of India's healthcare system as another wave of the coronavirus fueled by the Omicron variant gathers momentum.

Why would a British Muslim threaten four Texas Jews over the actions of a Pakistani in Afghanistan in 2008?

Our electoral system is still in peril. Congress should try a different approach — less ambitious, more bipartisan.

The court's majority opinion leaves open a surprisingly straightforward way for the administration to protect the health of American workers.

Hunter Ehmke, 21, was arrested last year at his family's home after an officer saw him smashing a window at the Capitol building.

U.S. officials say Russia aims to create a pretext to invade Ukraine and has placed operatives for a 'false flag' operation.

The White House plans to launch a website Wednesday where Americans can order a limited number of free, rapid coronavirus tests to be sent to their homes.

Sheriff's investigators want to search Baldwin's iPhone for evidence in the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins.

Ecuador will expand protection around the Galapagos Island, safeguarding a critical migration route for sharks, fish and other marine life.

Nationwide teachers, parents and students have had to deal with the Omicron surge.

Last year wasn't quite as hot as 2020, due in part to a cooling La Niña pattern that persisted through much of 2021.

The conviction in a German court of Anwar Raslan was seen as a watershed moment in the fight for accountability in Syria's war.

Allowing courts to strip away 1st Amendment protections based on judges' psychoanalyzing journalists' motives would erode society's right to know.

Stash food and cash, Facebook-unfriend Russia nationalists: yes. Learn that bomb shelter map: maybe. Ukraine hopes for best and readies for the worst.

After two years, hospitals thought they had a handle on treating COVID-19. But Omicron has hit them harder than ever.

The lawsuit alleges Seth Kenney and his PDQ Arm & Prop provided "Rust" crew members on the film with a box labeled "dummies" that contained live ammunition. Kenney has said he did not provide live ammo.

President Biden plans to speak about the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday as he faces rising criticism during the Omicron wave.

President Biden calls for changing filibuster rules to protect voting rights. But he still lacks the Senate votes to follow through.

The prized tropical hardwood used in building luxury yachts helps fund Myanmar's military dictatorship and has long ties to crime syndicates.

U.S. and Russian officials hold talks aimed at averting war in Ukraine but agree on little more than holding more discussions.

COVID case numbers are still going up. Kids under 5 won't be eligible for vaccination for months. How can parents make smart decisions in the meantime?

To fight climate change, cities are banning gas hookups in new buildings. (Adios, gas stoves. Hello, induction burners.) But the gas industry is fighting back.

The last time I visited Hong Kong, the pro-democracy movement was in full swing. Two years later, the battle seems to have been lost.

On upcoming Russia talks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says it's hard to make diplomatic progress when there's 'a gun pointed to Ukraine's head.'

The day turned into a festival of national division — not a single, unifying commemoration but three very different observances.

While tens of thousands risk everything to flee North Korea, a few, having failed to adjust to the capitalist South, make a desperate journey back.

New Mexico and New York investigators team up to retrieve Baldwin's phone in a search for evidence in "Rust" shooting investigation.

A judge sentenced three white men to life in prison for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in Georgia in 2020.

The apparently milder Omicron variant has some parents thinking it might be helpful to let their kids get infected. But experts say there's no upside.

Supreme Court conservatives express skepticism of President Biden's mandate that most workers be vaccinated for COVID-19.

From mandating COVID-19 shots for everyone over 50 to excluding the uninoculated from more venues, European countries get tougher on the unvaccinated.

Encrypted apps, domestic tourists and local residents are keeping a notorious trade alive in Indonesia's most famous tropical vacation destination.

President Biden's first year is dominated by tension between his vow to return the U.S. to normal and the reality that Trump changed it profoundly.

President Biden challenged the nation to reject political violence in a speech on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Chile's next president, Gabriel Boric, is a tattooed millennial who wants to fight inequality, protect the environment and reform the police. He's not alone.

What is required on the anniversary of Jan. 6 is nothing less than a national awakening.

One year later, the lies that fueled the Jan. 6 attack remain deeply embedded in American politics.

The Justice Department is working to hold accountable those responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland says.

The virus that will cause the next pandemic is probably already out there. Here's how humanity is raising — and working to lower — the risk of someone catching it.

How many people took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot? How many were arrested? How long did Trump speak before the insurrection? The answers readers need to know.

Their defiance of a vaccine mandate order in the military is a striking illustration of how politicized the pandemic has become.

A $2.7-billion settlement offer fails to garner enough support from thousands of men who said they were sexually abused in Scouting.

During the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, six Congress members from California hid, fled or watched as a pro-Trump mob attacked. They look back and discuss what's changed.

A look at the life of former Olympic swimmer Klete Keller and his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

Times reporter Sarah D. Wire sheltered with Congress members during the Jan. 6 insurrection. She gives a glimpse into the minds of our lawmakers while chaos invaded the seat of American democracy.

Never-before-seen footage of the chaos during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, from Los Angeles Times photographer Kent Nishimura's GoPro.

Close U.S. partners like Germany heaved a quiet sigh of relief over Trump's exit. But worries persist over the erosion of American democracy.

The Supreme Court should rule that Boston was right to ban a religious group from hanging a Christian flag on a city flagpole. But, as usual, there are nuances.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced that federal offices in the area would be closed on Monday due to the storm.

COVID-19 just broke its year-old record for new U.S. infections in a week. But this time, far fewer hospitalizations and deaths are likely to follow.

Federal law requires judges to step aside from deciding cases involving companies in which they own stock.

The LAPD shooting death of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta reverberated in diplomatic circles from Washington, D.C., to South America this week.

Republicans left the Nevada senator with little choice but to break the filibuster rule.

Biden and Putin hold their second direct conversation in the last three weeks, as roughly 100,000 Russian troops take position near the Ukraine border.

Scientists are worried that Mexico is unprepared for a post-holiday season wave in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads.

People don't usually land in jail for doing nothing. But President Trump's scandalous inaction while the Capitol was under attack could be cause for a criminal referral from Congress.

In the last years of his life, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged Democrats to build on his legacy of ending the filibuster.

U.S. and Western allies have watched the buildup of Russian troops near the border of Ukraine, fueling fears that Moscow is preparing to invade.

A court rules that the 1st Amendment does not protect a California man from being charged with threatening the U.S. Senate minority leader.

Inventors of a COVID-19 vaccine, top politicians and film stars are among the Germans with Turkish roots blazing new trails in societal acceptance.

In meeting with COVID response team and U.S. governors, Biden reiterates his plan to make 500 million rapid tests available to Americans next month.

Black activist Felicia Rangel-Samponaro has emerged as a vigorous defender of immigrants, reckoning with how race and ethnicity shape lives at the border.

With Ukraine and Taiwan and other hot spots at risk, the U.S. has been looking inward lately and shrugging off its leadership role.

As states agree to leave more water in the Colorado River reservoir, Native tribes get more involved after a history of being left on the water management sidelines.

Columnists make lots of predictions. Here's some of what I got wrong in 2021 — mostly, I succumbed to optimism. I still do.

The annual tribute to India's oppressed castes remains marred by the violence that broke out four years ago.

Desmond Tutu, the cleric who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his impassioned campaign against apartheid in South Africa, died at age 90.

The James Webb Space Telescope is on a high-stakes quest to detect light from the first stars and galaxies and scour the universe for hints of life.

Hundreds were killed and thousands left homeless when a powerful typhoon slammed into the Philippines this month. Here's how you can help the victims.

The impeachment of Park Geun-hye, after huge protests over corruption, marked the first time a South Korean president was legally removed from office.

Ancient humans are believed to have first begun land cultivation in Iraq. Their modern-day counterparts are giving it up.

The White House opened it doors to the public to view the 41 Christmas trees, 6,000 feet of ribbon and 300 candles used in this year's decorations.

The vice president, who tested negative twice Wednesday, will be tested again for the coronavirus on Friday and Monday.

A longtime campaign of military cyberattacks between Iran and its adversaries, including the U.S. and Israel, is shifting to include civilian targets.

Here's what scientists are watching for as they gauge what Omicron has in store for us this winter.

Early research points to mutations in the spike protein. But much remains unknown or unconfirmed.

Sports betting is on the rise in recent years. So are calls to gambling help hotlines. Then there's the pandemic: 'People are alone and struggling'

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has asked Live Nation for information regarding the crowd-crush disaster at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival.

The House panel wants information from GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio about the Jan. 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

After the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Texas "vigilante" antiabortion law, governors on the left and right call for similar schemes targeting firearms and school instruction.

Patriots for America asks for the blessing of a county commission to stop the flow of migrants on the Texas border.

President Biden warns that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will result in more breakthrough infections among vaccinated Americans.

Chile's millennial president-elect enjoys tattoos, socialist policies and Taylor's remake of her 'Red' album.

Advocates say the government belatedly set unnecessarily steep barriers that many Afghans can't surmount.

Ten months before the next presidential election, Brazil is more polarized than at any point in recent memory.

The city had more than 15,000 new positive COVID-19 tests Monday.

At first it seemed like crazy talk that an ex-president who wasn't a member of Congress could become speaker, but given U.S. politics, you never know.

Run-off vote settles most polarized election in South American nation since return to democracy more than three decades ago.

Slumping economies, conflict and lack of opportunity at home are pushing many young people across borders — even oceans.

To Americans, the end of the Soviet Union 30 years ago is a done deal. To Putin, it's a catastrophe he longs to reverse.

Chileans face a stark choice Sunday between presidential candidates representing the left and right who've both tried to appeal to moderate voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris said the administration did not anticipate the variants that have led to a fifth wave of COVID-19, and she underestimated the role misinformation would play in prolonging the pandemic.

The Biden administration has apparently halted for now the practice of holding migrant parents with their children at three ICE detention centers.

Biden says world leaders no wask him if America is going to be all right and where the country's democracy is headed.

Scientists are seeing changes off Alaska that have never been documented before, as warming upsets a vast ecosystem and one of the world's vital fisheries.

With the fast-spreading but less virulent Omicron variant, the coronavirus may finally be cutting humanity a little slack.

Exactly one year after the U.S. kicked off its vaccination campaign against COVID-19, cases are surging once again as the country cobbles together a response.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaches 10 years in power

President Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz and Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee.