4 Ukrainian separatist regions plan votes to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukrainian forces successfully battling...
Explainer: Bused, flown migrants can live in U.S. — for now
Republican governors have been sending more migrants released at the U.S. border with Mexico to Democratic strongholds, raising questions about their legal status, how they are lured on board buses and planes and the cost to taxpayers. Florida’s Ron DeSantis flew about 50 Venezuelans last week to the small, upscale...
Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion
WASHINGTON — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights, underscoring how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before the November midterm elections. With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than...
U.S. court awards millions to victims of Hezbollah rockets
JERUSALEM — A U.S. court has ordered the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to pay millions of dollars in damages to a group of Americans who sued saying they were wounded by the group’s rockets during a war with Israel in 2006. The case was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act...
Strong earthquake shakes Mexico’s Pacific coast; 1 killedVideo
MEXICO CITY — A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico’s central Pacific coast on Monday, killing at least one person and setting off a seismic alarm in the rattled capital on the anniversary of two earlier devastating quakes. There were at least some early reports of damage to buildings from the...
Texas sheriff investigating flights to Martha’s VineyardVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas sheriff on Monday opened an investigation into two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but did not say what laws may have been broken in putting 48 Venezuelans on private planes last week from San Antonio. Bexar County Sheriff...
Beyond Meat executive accused of biting man’s nose outside a game
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An executive of a vegan food products company has been charged with felony battery and making a terroristic threat after a fracas outside a football game in which he’s accused of biting a man’s nose, officials said. Beyond Meat Chief Operations Officer Doug Ramsey has been accused...
‘Out of control’ STD situation prompts call for changes
NEW YORK — Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts. “It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD)...
In letter released by Shapiro campaign, 60 veterans blast Doug Mastriano’s Confederate uniform photo as ‘shameful’
A group of nearly 60 veterans from Pennsylvania signed a letter deriding Republican candidate for governor Doug Mastriano for being photographed wearing a Confederate Army uniform, calling it “shameful” and saying it’s “an insult to those of us who served and those who continue to serve.” The letter, released by...
California woman Sherri Papini gets 18 months for kidnapping hoax in 2016Video
SACRAMENTO — A Northern California mother of two was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for faking her own kidnapping so she could go back to a former boyfriend, which led to a three-week, multi-state search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Sherri Papini, 40, pleaded guilty...
A day after blackout, Fiona dumps more rain on Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Fiona unleashed more rain on Puerto Rico on Monday, a day after the storm knocked out power and water to most of the island, and National Guard troops rescued hundreds of people who got stranded. The governor warned that it could take days to...
Texas Sen. John Cornyn leads Senate GOP push for special counsel in Hunter Biden probeVideo
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and 32 other Senate Republicans are demanding special counsel powers for the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, warning Attorney General Merrick Garland to take steps needed to avert political meddling on behalf of the president’s son. “There is no way of knowing the entire...
‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossedVideo
BALTIMORE — A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” a true-crime series that transfixed listeners and revolutionized the genre. At...
NASA Mars lander captures strikes by 4 incoming space rocks
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet’s surface. Scientists reported Monday that Mars InSight detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. A satellite orbiting the red planet confirmed the...
Skill games company woos Pa. lawmakers with trips to wild Wyoming rodeo
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 — “It’s the sounds, the lights, the competition or the experience of a lifetime. Everyone comes for a different reason...
California’s dead will have a new burial option: Human composting
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will begin allowing an alternative burial method known as human composting in 2027, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday. Assembly Bill 351 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) will create a state regulatory process for natural organic reduction, a method in which...
How to get a student loan refund if you paid during pandemic
NEW YORK — When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they’d made the right choice. Borrowers who paid down their debt during a pandemic freeze that started in March 2020 can in fact get...
Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires like U.S. Steel
More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee. It was powered largely by African American men who had been arrested for minor offenses — like stealing a hog — if they committed any crime...
Ukraine says Russian missile struck close to nuclear plant
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile struck close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine without damaging the three reactors but hit other industrial equipment in what Ukrainian authorities denounced Monday as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” The strike followed warnings from Russian President Vladimir Putin of possible stepped-up...
Family of American says he was freed by Taliban in swap
WASHINGTON — An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released, his family said Monday, as a Taliban drug lord jailed by the United States was also freed and returned to Kabul. Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who had spent more...
Russia, China agree to expand security ties
MOSCOW — A top Russian security official declared Monday on a visit to China that the Kremlin considers beefing up ties with Beijing as a top policy goal. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the national Security Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the “strengthening of comprehensive partnership and strategic...
U.S. aircraft carrier to visit S. Korea amid N. Korean threats
SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. aircraft carrier is to visit South Korea this week for its first joint training with South Korean warships in five years, officials said Monday, in an apparent show of force against increasing North Korean nuclear threats. The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its...
Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeralVideo
LONDON — Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who thronged the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age. In a country...
Biden: Classified documents at Mar-a-Lago raise concernsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says the discovery of top-secret documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate raised concerns that sensitive data was compromised and called it “irresponsible.” Biden, who rarely does interviews, spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday. He said that when he...
Zelenskyy promises no ‘lull’ in taking back Ukrainian towns
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised his country there would be no letup in the counteroffensive that has reclaimed towns and cities from Russian troops, as shelling continued Sunday across a wide stretch of Ukraine. Zelenskyy ran through a list of towns that Ukraine has taken back in...
