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When migrant children cross the border without their parents, they're sent to federal shelters until caseworkers can find them a good home. But everything changes when they turn 18. That's when, in many cases, they're handcuffed and locked up in an adult detention facility. The practice is sparking lawsuits and outrage from immigrant advocates.

The Russia investigation could be on the verge of a spectacular finale — or it could be about to puff out like a damp firecracker.

Or, as has been the case so often before, Washington could be gearing itself up for a fireworks display that doesn't even happen. Despite some indications that special counsel Robert Mueller could be wrapping up, there has been no official word from the Justice Department confirming that's so.

Last fall, as Hurricane Michael was swirling toward the Florida panhandle, NOAA officials say it was carrying something in addition to rain and wind — the ashes of long-time hurricane researcher, Michael Black. Black was a research meteorologist who worked at the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory on Virginia Key, just across the bridge from downtown Miami.

He was a pioneer in the use of dropwindsondes — small measuring devices dropped from airplanes that record wind speed, air pressure, temperature and humidity.

The U.S. is not completely pulling out of Syria just yet.

Some American troops will remain for the time being, the White House announced Thursday. In a one-sentence statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: "A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time."

It's unclear how long the troops will remain there.

It is not easy to be married to a person in the military. Their spouses in 2017 experienced high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and unemployment, according to a survey sponsored by the Department of Defense and released Thursday.

Two sons of the infamous cartel kinpgin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán have been indicted on a drug conspiracy charge, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, 34, and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, 28, who officials say are both living as fugitives in Mexico, have been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to import and distribute a variety of narcotics across the border into the United States for about a decade.

Thursday at the Vatican, Pope Francis stood before some 200 participants in an unprecedented summit on preventing clergy sex abuse and said Catholics are seeking not simply "condemnations" but "concrete, effective measures."

But a crisis that has crossed borders and generations, lacerating the church and shaking the pope's credibility, is standing in the way as he seeks to forge a path ahead.

This week, the governor of Connecticut proposed a statewide tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. Several cities have already enacted such soda taxes to raise money and fight obesity. And there's new evidence suggesting that these taxes do work — although sometimes not as well as hoped.

Two new accusers have come forward against R. Kelly, claiming that the embattled singer sought to have sex with them when they were minors, more than two decades ago. At a news conference Thursday in New York City, Rochelle Washington and Latresa Scaff related the story of a traumatic encounter that allegedly occurred after one of Kelly's performances in the mid-1990s.

Updated at 11 p.m. ET

An Israeli spacecraft blasted off this evening, aiming to land on the moon. And if the mission is successful, it would make Israel the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface – after the U.S., the former Soviet Union and China.

Last fall, voters in Washington state approved a package of firearms restrictions, generally called I-1639. It raises the minimum age for buying semi-automatic rifles, tightens background checks and makes it a crime to fail to store a gun safely, if the gun ends up in the wrong hands.

The restrictions have raised the ire of some county sheriffs.

Human rights violations and abuses that have grown routine against civilians and children in the world's youngest country, may constitute war crimes, according to a new report by the U.N.'s Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan outlining acts of brutality committed in 2018.

After the deadliest wildfire in California's history last year, one family that fled has received a little joy. The family was reunited with its dog, Kingston, who disappeared shortly after the Camp Fire started.

The Ballejos family told Sacramento's KXTV that Kingston, an Akita, jumped out of the truck as they were evacuating the wildfire area in Paradise, Calif.

"When I found out, [it] just about brought me to tears," Gabriel Ballejos, Kingston's owner, told the station. "I'm so proud of him. I can't believe it. He's a true survivor."

Updated at 6:34 p.m. ET

A federal judge on Thursday barred Roger Stone from talking publicly about his case after an inflammatory photo was posted on his Instagram account of the judge that included what appeared to be a crosshairs.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected apologies offered by Stone, both in writing and in person at a hearing in Washington, D.C. If Stone violates the order, Jackson warned him, she would be "compelled to adjust your environment."

Apple will reportedly have a different kind of product launch later this year: a credit card, jointly operated by Goldman Sachs.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the card will be integrated with the iPhone and offer features to track spending and points. The card would represent a move into new, highly competitive terrain for both companies.

Scouring ingredient lists. Carrying an EpiPen. Sitting at the special lunch table at school. These anxiety-ridden measures have become routine for families with severe food allergies, who know it takes only one wrong bite to end up in the emergency room.

Nearly 6 million U.S. children and teens — about 8 percent, or two per classroom — have food allergies. In children, allergy to peanuts, which can be life-threatening, has gone up more than 21 percent since 2010.

A makeup ad campaign featuring a freckled Chinese model has sparked a debate about beauty standards in China.

In a lipstick advertisement from the Spanish fashion brand Zara, launched on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on Feb. 15, a 25-year-old Chinese model named Li Jingwen shows her unretouched face with minimal makeup and red lips. But it's not the striking shades of her lipstick that caught people's attention.

It was her freckles.

You might think the world's biggest bee would be easy to find. But that's not the case: Until recently, the last time anyone had reported seeing a Wallace's giant bee living in the wild was in 1981. That changed in January, when the rare bee was spotted on an island of Indonesia.

The Wallace's giant bee — Megachile pluto — towers over European honeybees. The female's size has been recorded as at least an inch and a half long, with a tongue that's nearly an inch long. Add to that a pair of gigantic mandibles, and it's a bee like no other.

A German court says gunmaker Heckler & Koch skirted the law when it exported thousands of military-grade assault rifles to Mexican states struggling to cope with violent drug cartels, hitting the large company with a fine of 3.7 million euros ($4.2 million).

As part of the ruling, two former H&K employees were given suspended prison sentences of 17 and 22 months. Prosecutors had initially put five former employees on trial and sought prison sentences for three of them.

Elizabeth Rowe, the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), has settled the lawsuit she filed against the orchestra last July, in which she claimed that she was being paid substantially less than her closest, male peer. Rowe sought more than $200,000 in unpaid wages.

It was the most highly anticipated college basketball game of the season: Duke was facing archrival North Carolina, with the spectacular talents of Duke's freshman sensation Zion Williamson on display.

Former President Barack Obama was there. Tickets for the game were reselling for more than $3,000 — Super Bowl prices. Duke's exuberant student section, known as the Cameron Crazies, was extra hyped.

When it comes to making changes in health care, CVS Health isn't settling for tinkering around the edges. The company is looking to strike at the heart of how health care is delivered in the U.S.

In November, the drugstore chain completed a $70 billion acquisition of health insurance giant Aetna that CVS has said will change the company and in the process alter the way consumers experience health care.

In September, public health officials in South Africa finally declared victory over the world's

In 1982, Igor Yerin was working in a Moscow car plant when he was drafted into the Soviet army at age 20 and sent to Afghanistan to fight U.S.-backed guerrillas known as the mujahedeen. He ended up serving as a platoon sergeant with the 149th Motorized Rifle Regiment based in the northern city of Kunduz.

Updated at 6:50 a.m. ET Friday

Weeks after Jussie Smollett reported being assaulted in a potential hate crime, the Empire actor has been released on bail after police questioned him for allegedly orchestrating the attack. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett faked the incident, paying two brothers about $3,500 to join a "publicity stunt" staged by Smollett because he "was dissatisfied with his salary."

An Alabama woman who traveled to Syria and became the bride of an Islamic State fighter wants to be allowed back into the United States, but President Trump won't allow it.

"I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!" Trump wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

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