WeightWatchers gets into prescription weight loss business
WeightWatchers’ stock soared Tuesday after the company said it is getting into the prescription drug weight loss business with the acquisition of Sequence. Sequence is a telehealth provider that offers users access to drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity under the brand names including Ozempic, Wegovy and Trulicity. The...
Biden to host April state visit for South Korean leader Yoon
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will crank up the pomp and pageantry for South Korea’s president. The White House on Tuesday announced its second state visit, an April 26 affair for President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee. The occasion, which will include a splashy black-tie dinner...
Court considers if parents of Michigan school shooter can be charged
DETROIT — Prosecutors on Tuesday defended charges against the parents of a teenager who killed four students at a Michigan school in 2021, telling an appeals court that extreme drawings and the boy’s fascination with guns should have been a wake-up call on the day of the shootings. A three-judge...
Starbucks’ Schultz agrees to testify before Senate committee
Howard Schultz has agreed to appear before a U.S. Senate committee that is examining Starbucks’ actions amid an ongoing unionization campaign. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Tuesday that Schultz has agreed to testify before the committee on...
Polish TV report: John Paul II knew of abuse as archbishop
WARSAW, Poland — St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, a television news report has alleged. In a story that aired late Monday, Polish channel TVN24 named three...
Shapiro’s $44.4B budget pitch keeps Pa. spending relatively flat, preserves some pandemic benefits
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — In his first budget proposal as Pennsylvania’s chief executive, Gov. Josh Shapiro is calling for $1 billion in new...
FDA: 2 more eyedrops brands recalled due to risks
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are alerting consumers about two more recalls of eyedrops due to contamination risks that could lead to vision problems and serious injury. The announcements follow a recall last month of eyedrops made in India that were linked to an outbreak of drug-resistant infections. One person...
Chinese minister warns China, U.S. on course for conflict
BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are headed for “conflict and confrontation” if the U.S. doesn’t change course, striking a combative tone at a moment when relations between the rivals are at a historic low. In his first news conference since taking office...
Tribes bury Southern California’s famed mountain lion, P-22
LOS ANGELES — Tribal leaders, scientists and conservation advocates buried Southern California’s most famous mountain lion Saturday in the mountains where the big cat once roamed. After making his home in the urban Griffith Park — home of the Hollywood Sign — for the past decade, P-22 became a symbol...
U.S. sues to block JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines
The Biden administration sued on Tuesday to block JetBlue Airways’ $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit Airlines, saying the deal would reduce competition and drive up air fares for consumers. The Justice Department said the tie-up would especially hurt cost-conscious travelers who depend on Spirit to find cheaper options than they...
DeSantis to argue U.S. should be like Florida ahead of 2024 bid
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to position himself on Tuesday as a champion of conservative causes during a State of the State address that will likely be as much about his national ambitions as it is an assessment of Florida’s response to the pandemic and a series...
Hope Hicks meets with NY prosecutors investigating Trump
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Hope Hicks met Monday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments made to women on the ex-president’s behalf — the latest member of the Republican’s inner circle to be questioned in the renewed probe. Hicks and her lawyer, Robert Trout, spent several...
Woman arrested in gruesome killing of Hong Kong model
HONG KONG — A woman accused of assisting a suspect in the gruesome killing and dismemberment of model Abby Choi in Hong Kong has been arrested in mainland China and charged, Hong Kong police said Tuesday. The arrest of the 29-year-old woman brought the total number of people allegedly involved...
Oklahomans head to polls for one issue: legal marijuana
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma voters will decide Tuesday whether to make the state one of the most conservative to green light cannabis use for adults. State Question 820, the result of a signature gathering drive last year, is the only item on the statewide ballot. Other conservative states have legalized...
Bangladesh building explosion kills at least 14; scores hurt
DHAKA, Bangladesh — An explosion in a seven-story commercial building in Bangladesh’s capital on Tuesday killed at least 14 people and injured dozens, officials said. The explosion occurred in Gulistan, a busy commercial area of Dhaka, fire department official Rashed bin Khaled said by phone. The building contained several stores...
Massachusetts man accused of trying to open jet’s door, attacking crew
BOSTON — A Massachusetts man tried to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight from Los Angeles to Boston and then tried to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon, federal prosecutors alleged Monday. Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, was tackled and...
Vatican, Greece ink deal for ‘donation’ of Parthenon marbles
ROME — The Vatican and Greece finalized a deal Tuesday for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution. The Vatican has termed the...
2 Americans dead, 2 rescued from violent Mexico kidnapping
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico —A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery ended with two Americans dead — and two others found alive in a rural area near the Gulf coast — after a violent shootout and abduction that was captured on video, officials said Tuesday. The surviving Americans were back...
Biden says new taxes on the rich can help save Medicare
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults. In his plan, Biden is overtly declaring...
Cyclone Freddy set to slam Mozambique in rare 2nd hit
MOMBASA, Kenya — Still recovering from the effects of the first battering, the southeastern African nation of Mozambique is bracing for a rare second hit by long-living Tropical Cyclone Freddy late on Friday night, a regional weather center said Tuesday. The United Nations’ monitoring station on the Indian Ocean island...
U.S. defense secretary makes unannounced visit to Baghdad
BAGHDAD — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the Iraqi capital where he vowed to continue the fight against the Islamic State group until the extremists are defeated. Austin, whose visit came just days before the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam...
Hope Hicks meets with New York prosecutors investigating TrumpVideo
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Hope Hicks met Monday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments made to women on the ex-president’s behalf — the latest member of the Republican’s inner circle to be questioned in the renewed probe. Hicks and her lawyer, Robert Trout, spent several...
16 Pa. GOP female lawmakers call on Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel accused of sexual harassment to resign
Pressure continues to mount on a Delaware County Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel to resign in the wake of the sexual harassment accusations leveled against him with the latest call for him to step down coming from a group of 16 House Republican lawmakers. In a letter sent on Monday to...
Paul Manafort, U.S. government settle civil case for $3.15 million
WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts. When the civil case was filed in April 2022, prosecutors alleged that Manafort had failed to...
Zelenskyy vows not to retreat from Ukrainian city of Bakhmut
CHASIV YAR, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed Monday not to retreat from Bakhmut as Russian forces encroached on the devastated eastern city they have sought to capture for six months at the cost of thousands of lives. Less than a week ago, an adviser to Zelenskyy said the...
