Netanyahu defends new military offensive in Gaza and says it will be wider than announced
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended a new military offensive in Gaza that’s more sweeping than previously announced, declaring in the face of growing condemnation at home and abroad that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.” Even...
Thousands march against plan to build massive bridge linking Sicily to Italy’s mainland
ROME — Thousands of people marched in the Sicilian city of Messina on Saturday to protest a government plan to build a bridge that would connect the Italian mainland with Sicily in a massive $15.5 billion infrastructure project. Protesters staunchly oppose the Strait of Messina Bridge project over its scale,...
Haiti declares a 3-month state of emergency as gangs ravage country’s central region
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Haiti’s government announced Saturday that it is implementing a three-month state of emergency in the country’s central region as gang violence surges. The measure will cover Haiti’s West, Artibonite and Center departments “to continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food...
$7,000 worth of Labubu dolls stolen from Los Angeles store, authorities say
LOS ANGELES — A group of masked thieves stole about $7,000 worth of Labubu dolls from a Los Angeles-area store earlier this week, authorities said. The incident took place early Wednesday morning at a store in La Puente, a city about 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, the...
Astronauts return to Earth with SpaceX after 5 months at the International Space Station
Four astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after hustling to the International Space Station five months ago to relieve the stuck test pilots of Boeing’s Starliner. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Pacific off the Southern California coast a day after departing the orbiting lab. “Welcome home,” SpaceX Mission Control...
Israel faces growing global condemnation over military expansion in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — International condemnation grew Saturday over Israel’s decision for a military takeover of Gaza City, while little appeared to change immediately on the ground in the territory shattered by 22 months of war. Health officials said that 11 Palestinians seeking aid were shot dead, and 11...
Georgia authorities identify suspect in CDC shooting as a 30-year-old man from suburban Atlanta
ATLANTA — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified the man who opened fire at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White of Kennesaw, Ga. The GBI statement says White died and Officer David Rose with the DeKalb County Police Department was shot and...
Shooting in New York City’s Times Square wounds 3 people, police say
NEW YORK — Three people were wounded during a shooting at New York City’s iconic Times Square, police said Saturday. One person was held in custody and questioned over the shooting, the New York Police Department said. No charges have been pressed yet. Video on social media shows people running...
Suspected gunman, police officer dead in shooting near CDC, Emory University, police say
ATLANTA — A suspected gunman and a police officer are dead after law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter near the adjoining campuses of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University on Friday, authorities said. No civilians are believed to have been injured, but...
Hegseth reposts video on social media featuring pastors saying women shouldn’t be allowed to vote
WASHINGTON — The man who oversees the nation’s military reposted a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote. The extraordinary repost on X from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, made Thursday night, illustrates his deep and personal connection to...
Trump says he will meet Putin in Alaska, discuss ending Ukraine war
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential breakthrough after weeks of expressing frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting. The Kremlin has not confirmed the details,...
Police say a suspect is dead and a police officer has been injured at Emory University
ATLANTA — A suspected shooter at the campus of Emory University in Atlanta is dead and one law enforcement officer is injured after police responded to reports of an active shooter Friday, according to police. The incident took place near the entrance to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...
A man suspected of killing 4 people at a Montana bar is in custody, authorities say
ANACONDA, Montana — Authorities said Friday they have captured a man suspected in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead and prompted a lockdown of a neighborhood. Michael Paul Brown, 45, was captured seven days after the Aug. 1 shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda,...
Trump executive order gives politicians control over all federal grants, alarming researchers
NEW YORK — An executive order signed by President Donald Trump late Thursday aims to give political appointees power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies. Scientists say it threatens to undermine the process that has helped make the U.S. the world leader in research and...
Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97
CHICAGO — James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97. Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Ill., NASA said in a statement Friday. “Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach...
Trump administration seeks more Pa. voter information, raises potential legal concerns
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. The U.S. Justice Department is asking Pennsylvania to turn over its complete voter rolls, a request that appears to encompass voters’ personal information, including Social Security and driver’s license...
Hidden talents of Pa. lawmakers: The legislators lurking in episodes of ‘Succession’ and ‘Cheers’
This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a look at the people, places, and foods that make Pennsylvania so unique. Months before launching his bid for a Schuylkill County state House seat, Tim Twardzik spent an entire day on the set of The...
Wounded Pennsylvania troopers recovering after chaotic shooting that left gunman, neighbor dead
A man fatally shot his neighbor in rural Pennsylvania and then unleashed a hail of gunfire on first responders, wounding two state troopers, running an EMT off the road and sniping a police drone from the sky, officials said. The chaotic scene unfolded Thursday morning after Thompson resident Lori Wasko’s...
A bus carrying mourners from a funeral overturns in Kenya, killing 21 people
NAIROBI, Kenya — A bus carrying mourners back home from a funeral in southwestern Kenya overturned and plunged into a ditch on Friday evening, killing at least 21 people, police said. The bus was traveling from the western town of Kakamega to the city of Kisumu, where the incident happened....
Advocates call for closure of ICE facility near Philipsburg after detainee’s death
A coalition of several local and national immigration rights groups on Thursday called for the closure of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center — the largest federal immigration detention center in Pennsylvania and the rest of the Northeast — after the death earlier this week of a 32-year-old Chinese national. Chaofeng...
3 Sept. 11 victims’ remains are newly identified, nearly 24 years later
NEW YORK — Three 9/11 victims’ remains have newly been identified, officials said this week, as evolving DNA technology keeps making gradual gains in the nearly quarter-century-long effort to return the remains of the dead to their loved ones. New York City officials announced Thursday they had identified remains of...
Justice Department subpoenas New York AG James as it investigates whether she violated Trump rights
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of an investigation into whether she violated President Donald Trump’s civil rights, according to people familiar with the matter. The subpoenas sought records related to a lawsuit James filed against Trump over alleged fraud in...
Husband suspected wife of poisoning him before she killed 3 relatives with toxic mushrooms
MELBOURNE, Australia — The husband of a woman convicted of killing three people with a meal laced with deadly mushrooms suspected his wife had been poisoning him more than a year before the fatal meal, an Australian court has heard. A judge on Friday lifted a gag order on pretrial...
Flash floods kill at least 10 people and leave 33 missing in northwestern China
BEIJING — At least 10 people died and 33 were missing after flash foods in Yuzhong County in China’s northwestern Gansu province, Chinese state media reported Friday. Heavy rains since Thursday had triggered flash floods and at least one landslide in mountainous areas near the city of Lanzhou, according to...
Hand over the body for burial at home, a South African court tells Zambian ex-president’s family
JOHANNESBURG — A South African court on Friday ruled in favor of the government of Zambia and ordered that it can repatriate the remains of its former president and bury him in his home country, against his family’s wishes. The Zambian government and the family of the late Edgar Lungu,...
