Hungary is the last holdout for Sweden’s NATO membership. So when will Orbán follow Turkey’s lead?
BUDAPEST, Hungary — With Turkey completing its ratification of Sweden’s bid to join NATO, Hungary is the last member of the military alliance not to have given its approval. After more than a year of delays, and consistent urging from its Western partners to move forward with Sweden’s application, the...
Russia accuses Kyiv of downing a military transport plane, killing all 74 aboard, including POWs
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday accused Ukrainian forces of shooting down a military transport plane, killing all 74 people aboard, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war being swapped. Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm or deny Russia’s claims about the crash in Russia’s Belgorod border region, although they said they...
New report sees a boost in undergraduate enrollment on college campuses
Research released Wednesday suggests fall undergraduate enrollment on college campuses across most of the nation rose for the first time since before the covid-19 pandemic, ending a slump that has strained many institutions. But while more than two-thirds of states saw overall gains, others — including Pennsylvania — continued as...
A blast of cold lets gators show off a special skill to survive icy weather
The recent blast of cold weather has given alligators a chance to show off their way of coping with freezing temperatures. The Swamp Park Outdoor Adventure Center in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, posted eerie videos on social media on Sunday showing alligators suspended in frozen ponds with just the...
Heavy fighting in Gaza’s 2nd-largest city leaves hundreds of patients stranded in main hospital
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants on Wednesday near the main hospital in Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, where medics said hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people were unable to leave because of the fighting. Israel has ordered residents to leave a swath of...
Americans’ economic outlook brightens as inflation slows and wages outpace prices
WASHINGTON — After an extended period of gloom, Americans are starting to feel better about inflation and the economy — a trend that could sustain consumer spending, fuel economic growth and potentially affect President Joe Biden’s political fortunes. A measure of consumer sentiment by the University of Michigan has jumped...
As Hempfield pushes to unite fire department, stations grapple with future
Capt. Steve Kohl won’t miss worrying about keeping the lights on at the Midway-St. Clair Volunteer Fire Department. After putting the question to a vote, the majority of his station’s 20 members made up their minds — Midway-St. Clair would “go all in” and become a nonchartered fire station in...
Bill to have Floridians pay Trump legal fees draws veto threat from Ron DeSantis
MIAMI — A Miami Republican says she’ll drop a push to have Florida taxpayers help foot former President Donald Trump’s legal fees after Gov. Ron DeSantis came out in opposition to her bill. State Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, authored a proposal that would grant up to $5 million to the...
Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to reconsider gag order in the election interference case
WASHINGTON — Washington’s federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to reconsider a gag order restricting the former president’s speech in the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Lawyers for the Republican presidential front-runner had asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the...
Pennsylvania state police, pension agency lost some online records, officials say
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania State Police is working to recover access to online records of how it handled evidence, state officials said, blaming the loss of the records on a mistake during routine server maintenance The same mistake also affected the State Employees Retirement System, which said online users temporarily...
‘Doomsday Clock’ signals existential threats of nuclear war, climate disasters and AIVideo
WASHINGTON — Earth, for the second year running, is nearing apocalypse, a science-oriented advocacy group said, pointing to its famous “Doomsday Clock” that shows 90 seconds till midnight. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists made the annual announcement Tuesday rating how close humanity is from ending. It cited nuclear threat in...
New York man convicted of murdering woman who wound up in his backcountry driveway after wrong turn
FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — A man was convicted of second-degree murder Tuesday for fatally shooting a young woman when the SUV she was riding in mistakenly drove up his rural driveway in upstate New York. A jury found Kevin Monahan, 66, guilty of second-degree murder for shooting 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis...
Martin Luther King’s daughter recalls late brother as strong guardian of their father’s legacy
ATLANTA — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter remembered her late brother on Tuesday as a fierce and visionary steward of their father’s legacy. The Rev. Bernice King choked back tears at times as she shared memories of her childhood and recent visits with Dexter Scott King, who died...
Charles Osgood, CBS host on TV and radio and network’s poet-in-residence, dies at age 91Video
NEW YORK — Charles Osgood, a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, hosted the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91. CBS reported that Osgood died Tuesday at his home...
Los Angeles Times to lay off one-fourth of newsroom staff starting this week, union head says
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 94 newsroom employees — one-fourth of its newsroom staff — starting Tuesday, a number that is substantial but less than feared, the head of the journalists union said. The announcement comes after the LA Times Guild walked off the...
PennWest plans to transfer Clarion’s Venango campus to economic growth nonprofit
For decades, the modest hillside campus embodied the State System of Higher Education’s promise to deliver a public university education wherever needed — in this case, a small satellite location in the heart of Pennsylvania’s oil region. Students attending what was then the Venango branch of Clarion University in Oil...
George Santos says he doesn’t plan to vote in the special election to fill his former seat
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he doesn’t plan to vote in next month’s special election to fill his now vacant seat in Congress. The disgraced New York Republican, who became only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives...
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration blames ‘human error’ for deletion of state police records
HARRISBURG — Thousands of records, including evidence logs from the Pennsylvania State Police’s crime labs, were accidentally deleted from state servers at the start of the year — the result of “human error,” Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration said. Though the majority of records have been restored, according to administration officials,...
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration blames ‘human error’ for deletion of state police records
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 — Thousands of records, including evidence logs from the Pennsylvania State Police’s crime labs, were accidentally deleted from state servers at the start of...
Intimate partner violence is a precursor to homelessness, study finds
One in five women who become homeless in California flee their homes to escape violence and escalating abuse by an intimate partner, a new analysis of a statewide survey has reported. The study by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that a dearth of domestic...
France fines Amazon $35M for ‘excessively intrusive’ monitoring of warehouse staff
PARIS — France’s privacy watchdog said Tuesday that it slapped Amazon ‘s French warehouse business with a $35 million for using an “excessively intrusive sytem” to monitor worker performance and activity. The French Data Protection Authority, also known by its acronym CNIL, said the system allowed managers at Amazon France...
Alabama calls nitrogen execution method painless and humane, but critics are raising doubts
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney Thursday and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen, in the nation’s first execution attempt with the method. The Alabama attorney general’s office told federal...
A pastor and a small Ohio city tussle over the legality of his 24/7 homeless ministry
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Christian church in Ohio filed a federal lawsuit this week after its pastor was charged with violating city ordinances when he opened up the sanctuary around the clock for homeless people and others to find shelter. Police this month filed 18 criminal charges against Dad’s Place...
21 Israeli troops are killed in the deadliest attack on the military since the Gaza offensive began
JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants carried out the deadliest single attack on Israel’s forces since the Hamas raid that triggered the war, killing 21 soldiers, the military said Tuesday, a significant setback that could add to mounting calls for a cease-fire. Hours later, the military announced that ground forces had encircled...
Almost 80 years after the Holocaust, 245,000 Jewish survivors are still alive
BERLIN — Almost 80 years after the Holocaust, about 245,000 Jewish survivors are still living across more than 90 countries, a new report revealed Tuesday. Nearly half of them, or 49%, are living in Israel; 18% are in Western Europe, 16% in the United States, and 12% in countries of...
