Russia hits civilian targets anew, EU officials visit Kyiv
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles hit residential areas in an eastern Ukrainian city Thursday for the second time in 24 hours, while top European Union officials held talks with the government in Kyiv as the war with Russia approaches its one-year milestone. The latest strikes in Kramatorsk came as rescue...
Winter storm lingers in southern U.S., but relief is forecast
AUSTIN, Texas — A mess of ice, sleet and snow lingered across much of the southern U.S. as thousands in Texas endured freezing temperatures with no power, including many in the state capital of Austin, but a warming trend was forecast to bring relief from the deadly storm Thursday. However,...
Hawaii whale dies with fishing nets, plastic bags in stomach
HONOLULU — A whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up...
Biden urges unity at prayer breakfast under new management
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered a message of unity at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, the first time the annual event has been held since its leadership and structure were overhauled to distance it from a controversial private religious group. “In our politics and in our lives, we...
N.Y. man pleads guilty to threatening Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A New York man has pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, federal prosecutors announced. Joseph Morelli, 51, admitted to threatening to harm Greene in several March 2022 calls to her Washington, D.C., office, the U.S. attorney’s office in...
Israeli police: American arrested for vandalizing church
JERUSALEM — Israeli police on Thursday arrested an American tourist after he allegedly knocked down and broke a statue of Jesus in a church in Jerusalem’s Old City. Images on social media showed the statue laying horizontally on the floor after apparently being pulled down from a stand at the...
African countries lack ‘immediate access’ to cholera vaccine
NAIROBI, Kenya — Africa’s public health agency says countries with deadly cholera outbreaks on the continent have no “immediate access” to vaccines amid a global supply shortage. The acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, told journalists on Thursday that the agency is working...
Westmoreland schools take top spots in Westinghouse Chain Reaction Contraption contest
From marbles to movie tributes, Westmoreland County students made all the right moves when it came to creating a Rube Goldberg-style machine for the annual Westinghouse Chain Reaction Contraption contest. Teams from Hempfield Area and Franklin Regional high schools took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, in the...
U.S. to widen military presence in Philippines amid China fear
MANILA, Philippines — The United States and the Philippines announced an expansion of America’s military presence in the Southeast Asian country on Thursday, with U.S. forces granted access to four more military camps, effectively giving Washington new ground to ramp up deterrence against China. The agreement between the longtime allies...
Austria expels 4 Russian diplomats based in Vienna
VIENNA — Austria’s government said Thursday that it has ordered four Russian diplomats based in Vienna, including two at Moscow’s mission to U.N. agencies in the city, to leave the country. The Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement that two diplomats at the Russian Embassy had “engaged in acts...
GOP declares victory in conservative state Senate district
HARRISBURG — Republicans are declaring victory in a special election for a vacant state Senate seat in a heavily Republican district in northern Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate, state Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver, led Democrat Patricia Lawton by a more than two-to-one margin in preliminary returns from Tuesday’s special election. Once...
Radioactive capsule that fell off truck found in AustraliaVideo
PERTH, Australia — Authorities in Western Australia on Wednesday recovered a tiny but dangerous radioactive capsule that fell off a truck while being transported along an 870-mile Outback highway last month in what an official said was like finding the needle in the haystack. Officials said the capsule the size...
Hunter Biden seeks federal probe of Trump allies over laptop
WASHINGTON — A lawyer for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, has asked the Justice Department to investigate close allies of former President Donald Trump and others who he says accessed and disseminated personal data from a laptop that was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. In...
Judges temporarily block probe of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s cell phone data
A federal appeals court panel has put a secret hold, for now, on the U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to access U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s cell phone as part of a broader probe of efforts by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election. The...
Biden, Kevin McCarthy meet at White House on debt crisis worriesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met face-to-face Wednesday for more than an hour of highly anticipated spending talks — “a good first meeting,” the new Republican leader said — but expectations were low for significant progress as GOP lawmakers push for steep budget cuts in...
Why a Pa. school district decided to arm its officers with semiautomatic rifles
This story first appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA’s State College regional bureau featuring the most important news and happenings in north-central Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here. ALTOONA — At least two school districts in Pennsylvania now allow their police officers to store...
Republicans set to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs panelVideo
WASHINGTON — Newly empowered House Republicans are preparing to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born Muslim lawmaker, from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her past comments critical of Israel — and as payback after Democrats booted far-right GOP lawmakers from committees for their incendiary, violent remarks. A procedural...
Nichols’ funeral: Harris urges Congress to pass policing act
MEMPHIS, Tenn. —Tyre Nichols ’ family and friends gathered Wednesday for a funeral intended to celebrate his life three weeks after he died following a brutal beating by Memphis police that has sparked a new round of calls for police reform. As the service began, a group of singers and...
Pa. takes over troubled mortgage relief program from contractor after complaints, backlogs
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 an abrupt change, Pennsylvania’s struggling mortgage relief program will no longer work with the private company originally hired...
Russia said to be eyeing eastern Ukraine push; Kyiv targets graft
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive as the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches. Also Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government continued its crackdown on alleged corruption. The government dismissed...
Biden, McCarthy meet at White House on debt crisis worries
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met face-to-face for high-level budget talks Wednesday at the White House, but expectations were low for significant progress as the new Republican leader tried to negotiate steep federal spending cuts in a broader deal to prevent a national debt limit...
Black history class revised by College Board after criticism
BATON ROUGE, La. — High school senior Kahlila Bandele is used to courses that don’t address the African American experience. Then there’s her 9 a.m. class. This week, it spanned topics from Afro-Caribbean migration to jazz. The discussion in her Advanced Placement course on African American studies touched on figures...
U.S. opens embassy in Solomon Islands to counter China
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The United States opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands on Thursday in its latest move to counter China’s push into the Pacific. The embassy is starting small, with a chargé d’affaires, a couple of State Department staff and a handful of local employees. The U.S....
Top U.S. official urges WHO to address sexual misconduct
LONDON — A top U.S. health official urged the World Health Organization to address allegations first reported by The Associated Press that one of its doctors repeatedly engaged in sexual misconduct. “There are many of us who stand with survivors and stand with those who identify as victims and are...
Job market still hot, December openings rise to 11 million
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings rose to 11 million in December, delivering a setback to the Federal Reserve’s effort to cool a hot job market. Openings were up from 10.44 million in November and were the highest since July, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department. Economists had...
