More European nations tighten covid rules for China flights
PARIS — France, Spain and England will implement tougher covid-19 measures for passengers arriving from China, authorities said Friday. France’s government is requiring negative tests, and is urging French citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. France is also reintroducing mask requirements on flights from China to France. French health...
Deer hunters back bill changing opening day of deer season
A coalition of hunters and businesses across the state, including many in Chester County, are supporting legislation aimed at changing the opening day of deer season back to Monday. Pennsylvania has opened its rifle deer season on the Monday after Thanksgiving for over 60 years, that is until 2019. The...
Suspect in deaths of Idaho students arrested in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said Friday. The killings initially mystified law enforcement and shook the small town...
Jan. 6 takeaways: Final revelations from investigation
WASHINGTON — Destroyed documents. Suggestions of pardoning violent rioters. Quiet talks among cabinet officials about whether then-President Donald Trump should be removed from office. Interview transcripts released by House investigators in recent days — more than 100 so far — give further insight into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and...
The pandemic, Karens, crypto craziness: We’re over you, 2022
NEW YORK — The rudeness pandemic, the actual pandemic and all things gray. There’s a lot to leave behind when 2022 comes to a close as uncertainty rules around the world. The health crisis brought on the dawn of slow living, but it crushed many families forced to hustle for...
New abnormal: Climate disaster damage ‘down’ to $268 billion
This past year has seen a horrific flood that submerged one-third of Pakistan, one of the three costliest U.S. hurricanes on record, devastating droughts in Europe and China, a drought-triggered famine in Africa and deadly heat waves all over. Yet this wasn’t climate change at its worst. With all that...
Drawing nears for $685 million Mega Millions prize
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Mega Millions jackpot increased to $685 million ahead of Friday night’s drawing, giving lottery players a chance to ring in the New Year with an even larger bonus in their bank account. There have been 21 straight drawings without a jackpot winner thanks to stiff...
Trump’s tax returns released after long fight with Congress
Democrats in Congress released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, the culmination of a yearslong effort to learn more about the finances of a onetime business mogul who broke decades of political precedent when he refused to voluntarily release the information as he sought the...
Afghan refugees in U.S. face uncertainty as legislation stalls
WASHINGTON — Congress has failed so far to create a path to residency for Afghans who worked alongside U.S. soldiers in America’s longest war, pushing into limbo tens of thousands of refugees who fled Taliban control more than two years ago and now live in the United States. Some lawmakers...
Evidence of Russian crimes mounts as war in Ukraine drags on
KYIV, Ukraine — Ten months into Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, overwhelming evidence shows the Kremlin’s troops have waged total war, with disregard for international laws governing the treatment of civilians and conduct on the battlefield. Ukraine is investigating more than 58,000 potential Russian war crimes — killings, kidnappings, indiscriminate...
Philadelphia’s gun violence remained at record levels for 3rd straight year
PHILADELPHIA — When Taneesha Brodie’s eldest son turned 8, she moved her family out of North Philadelphia to Upper Darby, seeking a safer community away from the city’s gun violence. She was proud of the people her children became, especially her eldest, Quenzell Bradley-Brown. A married father of four, the...
Former IS families face neighbors’ hatred returning home
RAQQA, Syria — Marwa Ahmad rarely leaves her run-down house in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The single mother of four says people look at her with suspicion and refuse to offer her a job, while her children get bullied and beaten up at school. She and her children are...
Putin, Xi hold talks as Russia fires another Ukraine barrage
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed Friday to deepen their bilateral cooperation against the backdrop of Moscow’s 10-month war in Ukraine, which weathered another night of drone and rocket attacks following a massive missile bombardment. Putin and Xi made no direct mention of...
Pa. state system universities try to rein in student costs to reverse enrollment losses
The promise of a new $90 million science hall, suite-style dorms and a scenic oak grove aren’t bad selling points for a public university. But these days, Indiana University of Pennsylvania can trumpet something else that might have seemed unlikely not long ago: It’s noticeably less expensive. The typical total...
New Alzheimer’s drug undergoes testing
PHILADELPHIA — A new drug designed to ward off Alzheimer’s is being tested at more than 100 sites around the world, including the University of Pennsylvania. Called lecanemab, it consists of antibodies that bind to the abnormal proteins that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Previous efforts to...
Biden signs $1.7 trillion bill funding government operations
KINGSHILL, U.S. Virgin Islands — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government operating through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023, and provide tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine for its fight against...
Biden outpacing Trump, Obama with diverse judicial nominees
WASHINGTON — For the Biden White House, a quartet of four female judges in Colorado encapsulates its mission when it comes to the federal judiciary. One of the judges, Charlotte Sweeney, is an openly gay woman with a background in workers’ rights. Nina Wang, an immigrant from Taiwan, is the...
Proposed sale of Camp Tuckahoe could help local Boy Scout council
A proposal to sell off buffer acres around Camp Tuckahoe on South Mountain could help replenish the financial reserves of the Boy Scouts of America New Birth of Freedom Council, scout executive and chief executive officer Ronald Gardner Jr. said Tuesday. Council executive board members have yet to finalize the...
Democrat wins Arizona attorney general race after recount
PHOENIX — A recount of votes has confirmed Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the Arizona attorney general’s race, one of the closest elections in state history. The highly anticipated results announced Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court are among the last in the country to come...
Honeybees are at risk, along with the crops they pollinate
PHILADELPHIA — The honeybees looked perfectly healthy, buzzing about their boxy wooden hive on a warm autumn day in central Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Capaldi suspected otherwise. Clad in a protective white suit and hat, the biologist reached out with a gloved hand to capture one of the insects in a small...
Massive fire at Cambodia hotel casino kills at least 19
POIPET, Cambodia — A massive fire at a Cambodian hotel casino Thursday injured over 60 people and killed at least 19 — a number that officials warned would rise after the search for bodies resumes Friday. The blaze, which started around midnight Wednesday, was put out over 12 hours later...
Southwest Airlines hopes to restore its full flight schedule by Friday
DALLAS — After taking desperate measures to try to stabilize its broken flight operations, Southwest Airlines could have its full schedule restored by Friday in time for another busy holiday travel weekend, company leaders told employees late Wednesday. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, in the midst of the worst operational breakdown in...
Another year of mass shootings in the U.S.
Mass shootings have become part of every year’s news, and 2022 was no exception. In May, a man targeted Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and injuring three in one of the deadliest racial massacres in recent U.S. history. Then, just days later,...
Prayers for ailing Benedict in retired pope’s native Bavaria
MARKTL AM INN, Germany — People in Pope Benedict XVI’s Bavarian homeland prayed Thursday for the retired pontiff, a favorite son of the region even 40 years after he left Germany for the Vatican and nearly a decade after his resignation stunned the world. At the St. Oswald church in...
Jan. 6 panel drops Trump subpoena as it wraps up work
WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee has dropped its subpoena against former President Donald Trump as it wraps up work and prepares to dissolve next week. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman, wrote in a letter to Trump lawyer David Warrington on Wednesday that he is formally...
