News category, Page 1042

Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol on Saturday as Gov. Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a monthslong standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, D.C. “A...

The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Saturday his group will retaliate against any future Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, a day after his supporters fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel. Hassan Nasrallah said it would be wrong to assume Hezbollah would be constrained by internal divisions in Lebanon,...

Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting Evia, the country’s second-largest island, in half. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe.” A flotilla of ten ships —...

Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, a founding member of the long-running soul-funk band Kool & the Gang known for such hits as “Celebration” and “Get Down On It,” has died. He was 70. He died peacefully in his sleep Saturday in New Jersey, where he was a resident of Montclair, according...

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 — Theft charges against a Philadelphia-area Democrat highlight Pennsylvania’s lax rules for reimbursing lawmakers with taxpayer and donor money, two...

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. BERNVILLE — The back pain started when Luke Shultz was a teenager, and it got worse. When he was in his...

The Senate moved closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package Saturday after lawmakers from both parties came together and voted to clear a key procedural hurdle. More votes will be needed before Senate passage of one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities. The measure would provide a massive injection...

As ominous storm clouds gathered in western Colorado over a large area blackened by a recent wildfire, torrential rain fell and the charred land stripped of vegetation gave way, sending a rush of mud and boulders tumbling down steep canyon walls and onto a major highway. The July 29 mudslides...

The U.S. is now averaging 100,000 new covid-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone last seen during the winter surge in another bleak reminder of how quickly the delta variant has spread through the country. Health officials fear that cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to soar if more...

Want to find your inner Matt Damon and spend a year pretending you are isolated on Mars? NASA has a job for you. To prepare for eventually sending astronauts to Mars, NASA began taking applications Friday for four people to live for a year in Mars Dune Alpha. That’s a...

The Biden administration on Friday issued what it says will be the final extension to a student loan moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to put off debt payments during the pandemic. Under the action, payments on federal student loans will remain paused through Jan. 31, 2022. Interest rates...

Nearly two decades after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group of survivors who lost loved ones and first responders afflicted with lingering illnesses are asking President Biden to avoid ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks next month. About 1,800 who lost loved ones as well as first responders...

United Airlines will require all of its U.S.-based employees get the covid-19 vaccine by this fall. Earlier this year, United CEO Scott Kirby said he wanted to make the vaccine mandatory as long as the Chicago-based airline wasn’t the only company to do so. Now, with covid-19 cases rising, United...

CHICAGO — Alison Goodwin was eager to attend Lollapalooza, excited for both the live music lineup and the strict pandemic protocols that she had assumed would keep the event safe for her and her wife, who traveled here from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yet she became increasingly worried during the four-day festival,...

MADISON, Wis.— The leader of the state Assembly’s elections committee issued subpoenas Friday demanding extensive election materials, including all ballots and voting machines, from two Wisconsin counties in what she called a “top-to-bottom” investigation of the state’s 2020 presidential results. Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen said she has sent subpoenas to...

ALBANY, N.Y. — A staffer who accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of groping her has filed a criminal complaint against him, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday. The unnamed assistant, whose claims were detailed and corroborated in a bombshell report from Attorney General Letitia James, alleges that the...

DROSOPIGI, Greece — Thousands of people fled wildfires burning out of control in Greece and Turkey on Friday, including a major blaze just north of the Greek capital of Athens that left one person dead, as a protracted heat wave turned forests into tinderboxes and flames threatened populated areas, electricity...

It’s no surprise that GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, will close a manufacturing facility in Carlisle. Last February, the company said it would transfer operations at the plant site off Allen Road would transfer to Puerto Rico. At the time, the company said the decision would impact...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A tropical depression appears likely to form in the next few days off Africa and drift west across the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center said Friday morning. The patch of stormy weather has been given a 60% chance of forming a tropical cyclone, a rotating storm...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.— An Arkansas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its ban on mask mandates after lawmakers left the prohibition in place despite a rising number of covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox issued a preliminary injunction against the law that Gov....

TOKYO — A man with a knife stabbed at least 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo on Friday and was arrested by police after fleeing, fire department officials and news reports said. NHK public television said one passenger was seriously injured. It said the suspect left his knife...

ROME — Pompeii’s archaeological park is offering free swab tests, the Vatican Museums posted refund instructions and tourists whipped out smartphones to show QR codes along with admission tickets Friday as a new covid-19 certification rule took effect in Italy as part of the government’s plan to rein in a...

WAD EL HILU, Sudan — From time to time, a body floating down the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan was a silent reminder of a war conducted in the shadows. But in recent days, the corpses became a flow. Bloated, drained of color from their journey, the...

State prison inmates who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer will be allowed to have in-person visits from friends and family, according to Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel. Also, inmates now will be housed in Pennsylvania’s prisons based on their vaccination status. The new policy takes effect...

DALLAS — A Texas appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of a former Dallas police officer who was sentenced to prison for fatally shooting her neighbor in his home. A panel of three state judges ruled that a Dallas County jury had sufficient evidence to convict Amber Guyger...