Americans have long felt the call to go west, but they’re also moving south. Between July 2017 and July 2018, more people relocated to counties in the West and South of the United States than moved out, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On May 30, 1971, NASA launches Mariner 9, an unmanned probe to gather information about Mars. The spacecraft did not land on Mars, but instead orbited the fourth planet for over a year, collecting a variety of data on the Martian atmosphere and surface. Mariner 9 was inserted into Martian orbit on November 13, 1971 and orbited the Red Planet twice a day. When the probe first arrived, much of Mars was obscured by massive dust storms, but when the dust cleared, Mariner 9 cameras were able to capture stunning images of massive canyons, volcanoes and what appeared to be dry riverbeds. The probe also captured images of Mars’ moon. Four years after the Mariner 9 mission, Viking 1 became the first probe to land on the Martian surface.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he still believes China “would love to make” a new trade deal with the United States and might now regret backtracking on some agreements negotiators for the two countries had reached.

The Iraqi Central Court of Investigation Wednesday handed over 188 Turkish children of the so-called Islamic State to Turkish authorities in a process to repatriate dozens of IS fighters, as well as their children and wives, held in Iraqi prisons.

The highly-anticipated showdown on Wednesday night between Trish Regan of Fox Business and Liu Xin of China Global Television Network — the overseas arm of state-controlled China Central Television — turned out to be a tame question-and-answer session with little exchange of barbs.

Afghan police say a suicide bomb blast near a military training academy in Kabul has killed at least six security personnel and i njured 16 other people.