Holiday travel is mostly nice, but with some naughty disruptions again on Southwest Airlines
Conditions were mostly nice this year for travelers flying ahead of and on Christmas, but some naughty disruptions again plagued those flying with Southwest Airlines. For millions of people traveling over the holiday, this year was much better than last. Christmas morning put a bow on a relatively smooth weekend....
Kicking Trump off the ballot won’t be easy — here’s why
WASHINGTON — The argument that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution bars Donald Trump from the ballot has rapidly gone from obscurity to the top of the political agenda. In August, when I wrote about why the 14th Amendment needed to be taken seriously and how it had the potential...
Ukraine says it shot down Russian fighter jets and drones as the country officially marks Christmas
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday hailed the shooting down of two Russian fighter jets on Christmas Eve and said “this Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead.” In a Christmas message marking the first time the country has officially observed the holiday on...
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Navalny located in penal colony 3 weeks after contact lost
MOSCOW — Associates of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle nearly three weeks after contact with him was lost. Navalny, the most prominent foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on...
Pope Francis denounces the weapons industry as he makes a Christmas appeal for peace in the world
ROME — Pope Francis on Monday blasted the weapons industry and its “instruments of death” that fuel wars as he made a Christmas Day appeal for peace in the world and in particular between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to the throngs of...
Netanyahu vows to expand the Gaza operation, says war ‘isn’t close to finished’
CAIRO — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will expand its Gaza ground offensive in the coming days despite international efforts to halt the fighting. Speaking to members of his Likud Party on Monday, Netanyahu said the war “isn’t close to finished.” Netanyahu spoke after returning from a visit to...
1 dead, 3 injured after gunfire erupts at a Colorado mall on Christmas Eve
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A man was fatally shot and three people were hurt as gunfire rang out at a shopping center in Colorado on Christmas Eve, police said Sunday. A fight broke out between two groups of people in the afternoon at the Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs and...
Police in Serbia fire tear gas at election protesters threatening to storm capital’s city hallVideo
BELGRADE, Serbia — Riot police in Serbia fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of opposition supporters from entering the capital’s city council building on Sunday in protest of what election observers said were widespread vote irregularities during a general election last weekend. Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic said it was...
At least 68 killed in central Gaza in airstrike, adding to weekend’s bloodshedVideo
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15. Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including...
With the Supreme Court on sideline for now, Trump’s lawyers press immunity claims before lower court
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was acting within his role as president when he pressed claims about “alleged fraud and irregularity” in the 2020 election, his lawyers told a federal appeals court in arguing that he is immune from prosecution. The attorneys also asserted in a filing late Saturday night that...
A man is killed and a woman injured in a ‘targeted’ afternoon shooting at Florida shopping mallVideo
OCALA, Fla. — Authorities in central Florida issued an arrest warrant Sunday for a 39-year-old man accused of fatally shooting another man at a shopping mall two days before Christmas in which police say the victim was “targeted.” As of Sunday afternoon, the suspect hadn’t been located, and the Ocala...
Students with hearing loss, visual impairment tour Westmoreland Advanced Technology Center
Nearly 30 middle and high school students with hearing loss and visual impairments toured the Westmoreland County Community College’s Advanced Technology Center in East Huntingdon recently to experience the classrooms and labs. Burrell, Derry Area, Greater Latrobe, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield Area, Kiski Area, Ligonier Valley, New Kensington-Arnold, Norwin, Southmoreland and...
Inmate dies after he was found unresponsive at highly scrutinized West Virginia jail
BEAVER, W.Va. — An inmate at a West Virginia jail scrutinized in lawsuits citing inmate deaths and alleging poor living conditions was pronounced dead Friday morning, officials said. Correctional officers at Southern Regional Jail found the 24-year-old man unresponsive in his cell and attempted life-saving measures, according to a Division...
Dixie Chicks co-founder Laura Lynch dead at 65 after head-on collision
Laura Lynch, a founding member of the Chicks — formerly the Dixie Chicks — has died in a car accident in Texas. She was 65. The musician died following a highway collision outside of El Paso on Friday, her cousin, Mike Lynch, told TMZ. The Texas Department of Public Safety...
Biden says presidents can be subject to criminal prosecution
President Joe Biden said he “can’t think of one” reason presidents should receive absolute immunity from prosecution, as Republican front-runner Donald Trump has claimed. Biden made the comment in response to a reporter’s question Saturday before departing the White House for Camp David, where he will spend Christmas. The Supreme...
Alabama woman with rare double uterus gives birth to two children
DORA, Ala. — An Alabama woman with two uteri and two cervixes has given birth to two babies after carrying one of them in each uterus. Kelsey Hatcher of Dora, about 28 miles northwest of Birmingham, gave birth to two girls Wednesday and Thursday after a combined 20 hours of...
1 killed in shooting at Florida shopping mall
OCALA, Fla. — A man died in a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida two days before Christmas in which the victim was apparently “targeted” for the attack, police said. Ocala police Chief Mike Balken told reporters Saturday evening the man was killed after he was shot multiple...
SpaceX launch sends up booster flying for record 19th time
ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX sent up another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral early Saturday with a first-stage booster flying for a record 19th time. The Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-32 mission with 23 Starlink satellites launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:33 a.m. This marked a record...
Israel and Hamas measures get a look as most U.S. state legislatures meet for first time since Oct. 7
Most U.S. state legislatures will reconvene in January for the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked a war in Gaza and protests worldwide — and they’re preparing to take action in response, symbolic and concrete. Legislatures in at least eight states that were in session late...
North Dakota lawmaker made homophobic remarks to officer during DUI stop, bodycam footage shows
BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota lawmaker who serves on a panel that handles law enforcement legislation made homophobic and anti-migrant remarks to a police officer who arrested him on a charge of driving drunk, body camera footage shows. Republican state Rep. Nico Rios of Williston also was charged with...
Trump says he’s eager to debate Biden in 2024, even if controversial commission plans events
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump says he is eager to debate President Joe Biden, even if the debates are sponsored by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. And he says he is open to debating a single Republican rival if a serious challenger emerges after the New Hampshire...
Bidens make traditional pre-Christmas visit to children’s hospital
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden joined his wife, first lady Jill Biden, on Friday for a Christmas season visit to Children’s National Hospital to meet young patients and their families. The first lady read the children “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” as the president waved and flashed smiles at the...
Vatican to publish never-before-seen homilies by Pope Benedict XVI during his 10-year retirement
ROME — The Vatican next year will publish a collection of never-before-seen homilies delivered by the late Pope Benedict XVI during his private Sunday Masses, most of them penned during his 10-year retirement, officials said Saturday. The consecrated women who tended to Benedict during his pontificate and retirement recorded the...
Czech Republic marks a day of mourning for the victims of its worst mass killing
PRAGUE — The Czech Republic came to a standstill at noon Saturday as people across the country observed a minute of silence for the victims of its worst mass killing that left 14 dead and questions about the shooter’s motive. National flags on public buildings flew at half-staff and bells...
Paramedics were convicted in Elijah McClain’s death. That could make other first responders pause
BRIGHTON, Colo. — Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday for giving a fatal overdose of the sedative ketamine to Elijah McClain in 2019 — a jury verdict that experts said could have a chilling effect on first responders around the country. The case involving the 23-year-old Black man’s death was...
