Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians a...
7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern Philippines and a tsunami warning is issued
MANILA, Philippines — A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the southern Philippine coast, prompting many villagers to flee their homes in panic around midnight after Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning. The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. at a depth of 20 miles, according...
U.S. targets oil and natural gas industry’s role in global warming with new rule on methane emissions
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy. The Environmental Protection Agency said the rule will sharply reduce...
Pentagon forges high-tech agreement with Australia, United Kingdom, aimed at countering China
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — From underwater drones to electronic warfare, the U.S. is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom as part of a broader effort to counter China’s rapidly growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with defense chiefs from Australia and...
Trump denied immunity against U.S. election subversion charges
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is not entitled to absolute presidential immunity against criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday rejected Trump’s early efforts to get the federal indictment in Washington tossed out, including his contention...
Egg suppliers ordered to pay $17.7 million for price gouging in 2000s
INDIANAPOLIS — A federal jury in Illinois ordered $17.7 million in damages — an amount tripled to more than $53 million under federal law — to several food manufacturing companies who had sued major egg producers over a conspiracy to limit the egg supply in the U.S. The jury ruled...
Protester critically injured after setting self on fire outside Israeli consulate in Atlanta
ATLANTA — A protester was in critical condition Friday after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, authorities said. A security guard who tried to intervene also was injured. A Palestinian flag found at the scene was part of the protest, Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said...
Court pauses federal policy allowing abortion clinic operators to get grants — but only in Ohio
A federal appeals court has paused enforcement of a federal government regulation that allows abortion providers to receive federal family planning money — but only in Ohio, where state health officials said the policy took money away from them. Since 1981, federal policy has changed several times regarding whether programs...
Flu on the rise, while RSV infections might be peaking
NEW YORK — Flu is picking up steam, while RSV lung infections that can hit kids and older people hard might be peaking, U.S. health officials said Friday. Covid-19, though, continues to cause the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses — about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every...
Billboards thanking John Fetterman for his support of Israel are circling Pennsylvania Society events in N.Y.
NEW YORK — LED trucks thanking Sen. John Fetterman for his support for Israel are driving around midtown Manhattan this weekend during Pennsylvania Society, the annual glitzy gatheringof the state’s political establishment. The digital billboards have a photo of Fetterman next to an Israeli flag and say, “Thank you Senator...
Inmate who stabbed Derek Chauvin 22 times is charged with attempted murder, prosecutors say
An incarcerated former gang member and one-time FBI informant was charged Friday with attempted murder in the stabbing of ex-Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at a federal prison in Arizona. John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson and said he would have killed Chauvin...
Leechburg contractor charged with home improvement fraud of Unity couple
A Leechburg contractor was charged with home improvement fraud this week following an investigation by Westmoreland County detectives. Dawayne W. Redmond, 42, was charged with failing to perform a service after receiving payment in advance, according to court documents. A Unity couple who hired Redmond to remodel the exterior of...
Excerpts of Supreme Court opinions by Sandra Day O’Connor
The following are excerpts from Supreme Court opinions by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who died Friday at age 93: From Florida v. Bostick in 1991, involving police searches on buses: “We have held that the Fourth Amendment permits police officers to approach individuals at random in airport lobbies and other...
Reschenthaler 1 of 2 Pa. lawmakers to vote against Santos expulsion
Western Pennsylvania lawmakers were split on the vote to expel George Santos from the U.S. House on Friday. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, was one of two from the Pennsylvania delegation to oppose expulsion. Santos, a New York Republican, had come under fire for a string of controversies, including lying about...
House expels New York Rep. George Santos; just the 6th such in history
WASHINGTON — The House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a critical ethics report on his conduct that accused him of converting campaign donations for his own use. He was just the sixth member in the chamber’s history to be ousted by colleagues....
Lawsuits against Trump over Jan. 6 riot can move forward, appeals court says
WASHINGTON — Lawsuits against Donald Trump brought by Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the U.S. Capitol riot, can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to dismiss the civil lawsuits that accuse him...
Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, has died at age 93Video
WASHINGTON — Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, an unwavering voice of moderate conservatism and the first woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, died Friday. She was 93. O’Connor died in Phoenix, of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness, the Supreme Court said in...
Prisoner escapes from Pa. correctional facility while on work detail: reports
Police are currently searching for a man who escaped from a Philadelphia correctional center on Thursday. Gino Hagenkotter, 34, was an inmate at the Riverside Correctional Facility, located in the Holmesburg section of the city. He was serving a sentence for drug and theft charges, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer....
70-year-old Ugandan woman gives birth to twins after fertility treatment
KAMPALA, Uganda — A 70-year-old woman in Uganda has given birth to twins after receiving fertility treatment, making her one of the world’s oldest new mothers. Safina Namukwaya gave birth to a boy and a girl on Wednesday via cesarean section at the hospital in the capital Kampala where she...
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resume after weeklong truce with Hamas ends
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s war with Hamas resumed in full force Friday, with airstrikes hitting targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired. Black smoke billowed from the besieged territory, and Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians...
Harris heads to Dubai to tackle delicate tasks of talking climate and Israel-Hamas war
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will tackle two delicate tasks this weekend in Dubai: She’ll try to demonstrate U.S. environmental leadership despite President Joe Biden ‘s notable absence from an annual summit on climate change and she’ll work to nudge forward fragile efforts to shape the next phase of...
Sen. Rand Paul performed Heimlich maneuver on choking Sen. Joni Ernst during GOP lunch
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, was choking on food during a luncheon Thursday when fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky performed the Heimlich maneuver on her. The incident occurred during a closed-door Republican lunch in the Capitol. Shortly after, Ernst posted on X, the platform...
Congressmen ask DOJ to investigate water utility hack, warning it could happen anywhere
HARRISBURG — Three members of Congress have asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate how foreign hackers breached a water authority near Pittsburgh, prompting the nation’s top cyberdefense agency to warn other water and sewage-treatment utilities that they may be vulnerable. In a letter released Thursday, U.S. Sens. John Fetterman...
Henry Kissinger’s visits to Pittsburgh pointed to sharply different opinions of the former U.S diplomat
Over the years, Henry Kissinger’s trips to Pittsburgh — like his visits elsewhere — reinforced his status as both a global celebrity and polarizing figure, seen by many as a brilliant diplomat and by others as a war criminal. Either way, he commanded attention. That was true in 1990 when...
GOP Rep. George Santos refuses to resign, warns his expulsion from Congress would set a precedent
WASHINGTON — In his closing arguments for remaining a member of the House, a defiant Rep. George Santos depicted himself as a victim of a smear campaign by some of his colleagues and made clear that he would not resign before a vote Friday on whether he should be expelled....
