Democrats launch 1st paid ad campaign for Harris-Walz ticket in battleground states
With a solidified presidential ticket stumping across the country and a massive amount of money to spend, the Democratic Party is targeting seven critical battleground states with paid advertising for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The Democratic National Committee announced the Harris-Walz advertising push on Monday,...
Top Ukrainian commander says his forces now control almost 390 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 386 square miles of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a...
Americans’ refusal to keep paying higher prices may be dealing a final blow to U.S. inflation spike
WASHINGTON — The great inflation spike of the past three years is nearly spent — and economists credit American consumers for helping slay it. Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains...
U.S. beefs up security and orders a missile submarine to the Middle East
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area, the Defense Department said Sunday. The moves come as the U.S. and other allies push...
Fatal weekend shootings jolt growing Denver-area suburb
DENVER — Four men were fatally shot and a woman was hospitalized with gunshot wounds during a spate of weekend violence in the Denver suburb of Commerce City. A person of interest in one of the cases was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot, police said Sunday. Also in...
Mars and Jupiter get chummy in the night sky. The planets won’t get this close again until 2033
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mars and Jupiter are cozying up in the night sky for their closest rendezvous this decade. They’ll be so close Wednesday, at least from our perspective, that just a sliver of moon could fit between them. In reality, our solar system’s biggest planet and its dimmer,...
Donald Trump’s campaign says its emails were hacked
Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said that it has been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents. The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to...
Biden says he dropped out because of risk he would be ‘distraction’Video
President Joe Biden said he ended his reelection bid after hearing from congressional Democrats that he’d hurt their down-ballot chances in November, providing his fullest explanation yet of his decision to drop out. Biden name-checked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a CBS News interview that hinted at the intra-party...
Debby’s aftermath leaves thousands in the dark; threatens more flooding in the CarolinasVideo
PHILADELPHIA — The weather system previously known as Hurricane Debby was not quite done with parts of the U.S. Sunday as flood warnings remained in effect in North Carolina and thousands were without power in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. After hitting Florida as a hurricane Aug. 5, the storm...
Israel widens evacuation orders in southern Gaza after a deadly strike on a school-turned-shelter
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza early Sunday, a day after a deadly airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the north killed at least 80 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. The airstrike was one of the deadliest attacks in the 10-month war....
House explosion in Maryland kills 2, damages nearby homes
BEL AIR, Md. — Two people were killed and 12 families displaced after a Maryland house exploded Sunday amid reports of a possible gas leak, fire officials said. Neighbors described feeling and hearing the early morning blast that damaged a number of surrounding houses in Bel Air, a town about...
Early Harris-Walz rallies feature big crowds, talk of ‘joy’ and unsolicited GOP counterprogramming
LAS VEGAS — Big crowds, go-to applause lines, talk of joy — and some unsolicited Republican counterprogramming. These were common themes during the first big campaign swing for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the new Democratic ticket barnstormed through five battleground states...
Trump reportedly used a slur against Harris in private conversations
Former President Donald Trump reportedly has used a slur often targeted at women to describe Vice President Kamala Harris during at least two private conversations. His campaign denies it. The New York Times cited two people who, on different occasions, heard Trump call Harris a “b—.” The people were granted...
Vance hails Trump’s Fed idea and pushes back against criticism over past words on American families
ATLANTA — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance used a round of Sunday news show appearances to disparage the Democratic ticket and promote Donald Trump’s record and second-term plans and defend himself from criticism over past remarks that have become a campaign issue. The Ohio senator, in a series of...
‘I don’t want to die,’ Uvalde student told 911 dispatcher during mass shooting
DALLAS — As law enforcement officers hung back outside Khloie Torres’ fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde, Texas, she begged for help in a series of 911 calls, whispering into the phone that there were “a lot” of bodies and telling the operator: “Please, I don’t want to die. My teacher is...
Will Israeli-Palestinian conflict protests, encampments resurface when college resumes?
Alon Leshem, a rising senior at the University of Pittsburgh, is energized to finish his computer science degree and to take secondary field of study courses involving Israel and Palestine. But, like other Jewish students at Pitt and elsewhere, his enthusiasm is tempered by knowing fall could bring renewed pro-Palestinian...
Ferguson officer critically injured at protest on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death
FERGUSON, Mo. — A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer was critically injured outside the city’s police station during protests on the 10th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a pivotal moment in the national Black Lives Matter movement, police said Saturday. Ferguson police chief Troy Doyle said Officer Travis...
Police say prisoner killed cellmate for not saying ‘excuse me’ after bumping him
Why did Shaquille Gibson say he beat, and later stomp, his cellmate’s face so severely it caved his nose inward and he died? It was because “Mister Beattie,” his 57-year-old cellmate who used a wheelchair, bumped into him and didn’t say “excuse me,” a state trooper testified. That’s what Gibson...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3rd-party candidates face ballot challenges in Pennsylvania
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his running mate, and at least nine third-party candidates are facing challenges that could see them kicked off of...
Travis Scott is released from police custody after arrest over a Paris hotel altercation
PARIS — Travis Scott was released from French police custody without a charge after his arrest at a Paris hotel following an altercation with a security guard, French prosecutors said Saturday. In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, “the police custody order for Travis Scott has been lifted and...
Debby finally moves out of the U.S., though risk from flooded rivers remains
Debby finally moved out of the U.S. on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane. Debby’s last day over the U.S. before blowing...
Torture of 9/11 suspects means even without plea deal, they may never face a verdict
WASHINGTON — A Defense Department disagreement over how to bring to justice the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and two others has thrown the cases into disarray and surfaced tension between the desire of some victims’ families to see a final legal reckoning and the significant obstacles that...
Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school kills at least 80 people, Palestinian health officials say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza early Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding nearly 50 others, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas. A witness said it struck during prayers...
Kamala Harris makes an immigration pitch in Arizona as she fights to gain ground in the Sun Belt
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Vice President Kamala Harris drew on her prosecutorial background to make her first expansive pitch on immigration to border-state voters as she and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attracted thousands to a campaign rally during their tour of battleground states. Harris, the former attorney...
Trump campaign projects confidence and looks to young male voters for an edge on Harris
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As Donald Trump adjusts to the reality of his new race against Kamala Harris, his campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him the edge in November in a presidential contest they insist is his to lose. Trump and his Republican campaign now...
