What name the new pope chooses can signal what’s ahead
ROME — The first clue of the next pope’s direction will be the name the winner chooses. The announcement “Habemus Papam” — “We have a pope” — from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica is followed first by the revelation of the new pontiff’s baptismal name, in Latin, followed by...
What’s in Trump’s big bill? Money for migrant clampdown but tax breaks and program cuts hit ‘bumps’
WASHINGTON — Congress is deep into drafting President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up funding to halt migrants, but it’s “bumpy,” one Republican chairman says, with much work ahead to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson’s goal of passing the package out of his chamber by...
The federal Bureau of Prisons has lots of problems. Reopening Alcatraz is now one of them
Eleven inmate deaths in less than two months. More than 4,000 staff vacancies. A $3 billion repair backlog. And now, a stunning directive from President Donald Trump for the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons to “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” — the notorious penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay...
Trump administration asks judge to toss lawsuit restricting access to abortion medication
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three GOP-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone. Justice Department attorneys stayed the legal course charted by Biden administration, though they didn’t directly weigh in on the underlying issue...
Trump administration says Harvard will receive no new grants until it meets White House demands
WASHINGTON — Harvard University will receive no new federal grants until it meets a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration, the Education Department announced Monday. The action was laid out in a letter to Harvard’s president and amounts to a major escalation of Trump’s battle with the Ivy...
Federal authorities cleaning up oil spill in southeast Louisiana
NEW ORLEANS — Federal authorities are seeking to contain and clean up the damage from a decades-old oil well in southeast Louisiana that spewed crude and natural gas for more than a week. Upwards of 79,000 gallons of “oily water mixture” have been recovered near Garden Island Bay in Plaquemines...
Badly needed updates to Pa.’s election law unlikely despite new consensus on voter ID
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. HARRISBURG — For two decades, disputes over voter identification have sunk attempts to rewrite Pennsylvania’s badly outdated election law. But in recent years, prominent Democrats have offered tentative support...
Pete Hegseth directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration keeps pushing the services to streamline their top leadership positions. Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions. In a...
Boat believed to be carrying migrants capsizes off California coast, leaving 3 dead, 9 missing
SAN DIEGO — A small boat believed to be carrying migrants capsized early Monday off San Diego’s coast and left three people dead and four injured, while U.S. Coast Guard crews were searching for nine others, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey said it was unclear where the...
Luigi Mangione musical set to debut in San Francisco
Most are familiar with the name Luigi Mangione by now — the 26-year-old charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York in December. Well, his case is now being made into a musical. Titled “Luigi: The Musical,” the show will debut June 13 in San Francisco at the...
Trump administration says it will pay immigrants in the U.S. illegally $1,000 to leave the country
WASHINGTON — Pushing forward with its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who are in the United States illegally and return to their home country voluntarily. The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it would also...
20 attorneys general ask federal judge to reverse deep cuts to Health and Human Services
Attorneys general in 19 states and Washington, D.C., are challenging cuts to the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, saying the Trump administration’s massive restructuring has destroyed life-saving programs and left states to pick up the bill for mounting health crises. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Rhode...
Trump’s meme coin business racks up fees as buyers jump at the chance for access to the president
In the crypto world, meme coins are mostly just jokes with no intrinsic value. But the Trump family is parlaying the president’s meme coin into two valuable commodities: serious cash and access to the president. Since the coin was launched earlier this year, it has generated more than $320 million...
Newark airport radar loss left controllers blind for 90 secondsVideo
WASHINGTON — Air traffic controllers guiding planes bound for Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and radio communication for more than a minute early last week before flights at the key hub were snarled for days, according to people familiar with the matter. The outage of those key systems occurred...
America’s long history of ‘checks and balances’ is being tested by Trump like rarely before
ATLANTA — It’s what one historian calls an “elaborate, clunky machine,” one that’s been fundamental to American democracy for more than two centuries. The principle of “checks and balances” is rooted in the Constitution’s design of a national government with three distinct, coequal branches. President Donald Trump in his first...
Derry native donates to IUP’s proposed osteopathic medicine college
A Derry native and veteran has made a $50,000 donation to the proposed osteopathic medicine college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Lt. Col. Barry Gasdek, a 1964 IUP graduate, offered the donation, which is part of $32 million the university has collected in private and government funding to develop the...
If Harvard loses its tax-exempt status, Western Pa. universities, nonprofits could be in trouble
Harvard University could lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually if the federal government is able to revoke its tax-exempt status. But University of Pittsburgh law professor Philip Hackney suspects the move, vocalized by President Donald Trump for a second time Friday, could mean big trouble for higher education institutions...
At Mass in housing projects and tourist hotspots, Romans pray next pope focuses on poverty and peace
ROME — At Masses in Rome’s housing projects and in the heart of its tourist district, the faithful prayed Sunday for the upcoming conclave that will elect Pope Francis ’ successor. Whether in the squat 1980s concrete church of San Paolo della Croce, next to a notorious public housing project,...
Anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany sues after spy agency labels it an extremist party
BERLIN — The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party on Monday sued the domestic intelligence service for classifying it as a right-wing extremist organization, a decision that subjects it to greater surveillance from authorities. The party known as AfD, which placed second in national elections in February, took action at an...
Israel plans to capture all of Gaza under new plan, officials say
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel approved plans Monday to seize the Gaza Strip and to stay in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time, two Israeli officials said, a move that, if implemented, would vastly expand Israel’s operations there and likely draw fierce international opposition. The new plan,...
Japan’s retired former emperor is to be hospitalized for heart tests, Japanese media say
TOKYO — Japan’s Emperor Emeritus Akihito will undergo heart tests at a hospital after an unspecified problem was detected during a routine checkup, Japanese media reports said Monday. The Imperial Household Agency did not answer calls to its office on Monday, a national holiday, to confirm reports by the Kyodo...
Trump threatens a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, saying the movie industry in the U.S. is dying
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S. In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap...
Trump blasts Mexico’s Sheinbaum for rejecting offer to send U.S. troops into Mexico to fight cartels
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Sunday said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected his proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help thwart the illegal drug trade because she is fearful of the country’s powerful cartels. The comments by Trump came a day after Sheinbaum confirmed...
Experts start complex recovery of a superyacht that sank off Sicily, killing 7
ROME — Marine salvage experts on Sunday began operations to recover from the seabed off Italy’s Sicilian coast the British-flagged superyacht “Bayesian,” which sank last summer, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others. Operations will be conducted by two floating cranes: “Hebo Lift 2,” which has...
Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island that has been closed for more than 60 years. In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too...
