Israeli soldiers fire on family car in occupied West Bank, killing 4
TAMMUN, West Bank — Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said that Ali and Waed Odeh, and two of their four children, were shot...
Snow, wind batter parts of U.S., with threat of thunderstorms and tornadoes starting later SundayVideo
CHICAGO — A broad and erratic patchwork of severe weather rumbled across much of the U.S. on Sunday, dumping heavy snow and making roads impassable in the Upper Midwest while damaging wind swept across the Plains. Hawaii also continues to be affected by severe flooding. And portions of the mid-South...
Josh Shapiro doesn’t take Bill Maher’s ‘bait’ about presidential bidVideo
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was cagey Friday night about his presidential aspirations in an appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher, ” but he spoke like someone who has his eyes set on 2028. “What is the story with always writing a book when you’re running for president?” Maher asked...
Iceland’s chief ‘Lava Cooler’ is bracing for the next eruption
GRINDAVIK, Iceland — As a swarm of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions began to rip through southwestern Iceland in late 2023, a firefighter named Helgi Hjorleifsson jumped into action. Lava was heading toward the evacuated town of Grindavik, a power plant and the Blue Lagoon — one of Iceland’s most popular...
Kazakhstanis vote in referendum on new constitution that would cement president’s grip on power
Voters in Kazakhstan headed to the polls Sunday for a referendum on a new constitution that would strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power in Central Asia’s largest country. The proposal merges the Kazakhstani parliament’s two chambers into one and gives the president the right to appoint key government officials,...
Analysis: 2 weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump increasingly has been knocked on his political heels. He’s grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war...
From slavery to the White House, the Ficklin family served presidents for nearly 8 decades
WASHINGTON — John Wrory Ficklin was 7 when he learned that his father, the son of a slave, was important. It was 1963, and the nation was mourning President John F. Kennedy. Wrory Ficklin was sitting with his mother and brother, watching funeral coverage on TV in the family’s Washington...
Trump demands that ‘about 7’ countries join coalition to police Iran’s Strait of Hormuz
CAIRO — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments as oil prices soar during the Iran war. The president declined to name the countries heavily reliant on Middle East...
AP finds an Israeli group discreetly organized the mystery flights evacuating Palestinians from Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel — The plane carrying about 150 Palestinians from Gaza came as a surprise to everyone on the ground when it landed in South Africa in November. It wasn’t the only one. Since May, at least three flights filled with Gaza residents who’d signed up to leave the...
Hospital officials say Israeli strikes killed 12 in Gaza, including 2 children and a pregnant woman
CAIRO — At least 12 Palestinians, including two boys, a pregnant woman and eight police officers, were killed Sunday by Israeli airstrikes in the war-torn Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said. A strike Sunday morning hit a house in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza and killed four...
The shifting guidelines for blood pressure control
The patient initially came to see Dr. Mark Supiano in 2017 because her family was concerned about her short-term memory loss. While taking her history and vital signs, Supiano, a geriatrician at the University of Utah, saw one disturbing signal: Her blood pressure was 148/86, above normal despite her taking...
The biggest change to voting in Republican election bill could become a burden for many U.S. voters
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Joshua Bogdan was born and raised in the United States. The only time the New Hampshire resident has left the country was for a day and a half in seventh grade, when he went to Canada to see Niagara Falls. Even so, that did not mean proving...
Tehran claims the U.S. attacked it from the UAE as Iran war enters its third week
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran urged people Saturday to evacuate the Middle East’s busiest port and two others in the United Arab Emirates, openly threatening a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets for the first time as its war with the U.S. and Israel entered a third week. Tehran said the...
Trump seeks to close $1.6 trillion revenue gap with raft of new tariffs
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration this week stepped up its ambitious effort to replace about $1.6 trillion in lost tariff revenue that was eliminated by the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a range of the president’s import taxes. Recovering that lost revenue, which the White House was counting on...
What to know about attacks at Old Dominion University and a Michigan synagogue
Communities were left reeling from attacks that unfolded less than two hours apart at a Michigan synagogue and at Old Dominion University in Virginia, violence that officials said would have been bloodier without intervention from residents. In Virginia, a former Army National Guard member who served years in prison for...
Construction finishes on a major offshore wind farm, the first during Trump’s tenure
Construction is finished on a major Massachusetts offshore wind farm, the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trump’s time in office. Offshore construction was completed Friday night on Vineyard Wind with the installation of the final blades, Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for the project, said Saturday. Trump,...
From rockets to cancer research, here’s how the number pi is embedded in our lives
LOS ANGELES — Math nerds and dessert enthusiasts unite to celebrate Pi Day every March 14, the date that represents the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi. Representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, pi is approximately equal to 3.14159 — but its digits go...
Western Pa. lawmakers secure $406M in federal earmarks for local projects
Congressional earmarks have returned in a big way this fiscal year, with $15.7 billion tucked into non-defense appropriations bills to support more than 8,000 projects nationwide. Western Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation has secured more than $406 million for nearly 200 government and nonprofit projects, records show. Those lawmakers have requested another...
U.S. orders 2,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship to Mideast after almost 2 weeks of war
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The American military has ordered 2,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Friday, in a major addition of forces in the region after nearly two weeks of war with Iran. Hours later, President Donald Trump said U.S....
The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors
WASHINGTON — The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors, the latest step in the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul the grounds. Plans, including renderings of the 33,000-square-foot center, were included in the preliminary agenda released on Friday for the April meeting of...
A strong chemical smell forces a 1-hour flight halt at 4 major DC-area airports
WASHINGTON — Four airports serving Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia, halted all flights on Friday evening for over an hour because of a strong chemical smell that was impeding air traffic controllers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The ground stop affected Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles...
U.S. forecasts blizzard, polar vortex, heat dome and atmospheric river all at once
Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be. Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes...
High winds knock out power for more than 260,000 in Pittsburgh region; a slew of roads closed
About 260,000 West Penn Power and Duquesne Light customers in the Pittsburgh region were without power Friday night after high winds blew through the area Friday afternoon. As of 9 p.m., Duquesne Light reported about 151,000 outages in Allegheny County and 16,000 in Beaver County. West Penn Power reported roughly...
Analysis: Hegseth’s boasts of ‘maximum’ engagement authorities face scrutiny after school is hit
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made contempt for what he calls “stupid rules of engagement” — limits meant to reduce risks to civilians — central to his political identity, and has boasted that he unleashed the military to use “maximum authorities on the battlefield” in the Iran war....
Judge quashes subpoenas in Justice Department’s investigation of Fed chair Jerome Powell
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday quashed Justice Department subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve in January, a severe blow to an investigation that has already attracted strong criticism on Capitol Hill. The investigation into testimony last June by Chair Jerome Powell about a $2.5 billion building renovation has...
