Don’t go there: Independence Health thoracic surgeon warns Hempfield Area students about vaping
Independence Health thoracic surgeon Michael Szwerc asked Hempfield Area’s ninth grade students to raise their hand if they believe vaping is dangerous. Nearly all 360 students seated in the Harrold School auditorium Wednesday afternoon shot a hand into the air. Szwerc, who has practiced thoracic surgery for 26 years, has...
Sen. Fetterman is the only Democrat to vote against curbing Trump’s power to order strikes in Iran
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans voted down an effort Wednesday to halt President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, demonstrating early support for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East with no clear U.S. exit strategy. The legislation, known as a war powers resolution, failed on a 47-53 vote...
Governments scramble to bring citizens home during travel chaos caused by war in Middle EastVideo
PARIS — Governments across the world rushed to organize the return of their citizens from the Middle East on Wednesday and air traffic seemed to be picking up slightly as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening Iran war. A plane carrying French citizens from Oman and...
Western Pa. House delegation expected to vote along party lines on war powers resolution
While Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman broke from his party Wednesday by opposing a war powers resolution aiming to stop U.S. military action against Iran, Western Pennsylvania’s House delegation is expected to vote along party lines Thursday on a similar measure. U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly of Butler and Guy Reschenthaler...
Justice Department, under pressure from Trump, fails to build autopen case against Biden
The Justice Department, after calls by President Donald Trump to investigate former President Joe Biden, scrutinized whether Biden and his aides broke the law in using the autopen to sign presidential documents, but was ultimately unable to move forward with making a case, according to three people briefed on the...
House committee votes to subpoena Attorney General Bondi to answer questions over Epstein files
WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions over the Justice Department’s handling of files regarding the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. Five Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in a sign of continued...
U.S., Ecuador launch military operation against organized crime groups
QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador and the United States have begun joint military operations against organized crime groups in the South American country, the U.S. military said, but neither government has given details of the location and scope of the operation. U.S. Southern Command said in a statement late Tuesday that...
As Israel pounds Lebanon, thousands of Syrians there flee back home
Thousands of Syrians living in Lebanon have fled to their home country in recent days after Lebanon was dragged back into conflict, with Israeli airstrikes bombarding several cities. Earlier this week, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, fired rockets and launched drones toward Israel, in what it said was retaliation...
Rising energy prices from the Iran war could help Russia pay for fighting in Ukraine
FRANKFURT, Germany — The Iran war’s disruption of Middle East oil and gas supplies and soaring prices are strengthening Russia’s ability to profit from its energy exports, a pillar of the Kremlin’s budget and a key to paying for its own war in Ukraine. Prices for Russia’s oil exports have...
An Arkansas man accused of killing his daughter’s alleged abuser wins GOP sheriff’s nomination
An Arkansas man accused of killing his teenage daughter’s alleged abuser won the Republican nomination for local sheriff while waiting to stand trial for murder in his rural county, where he ran on a message of seeing the failures of law enforcement. Aaron Spencer defeated Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley...
Takeaways from the 1st elections of the 2026 midterm campaigns
WASHINGTON — The midterms are here. The 2026 campaign kicked off Tuesday with high-profile primary elections in Texas, where Republican Sen. John Cornyn is heading toward a runoff vote against state attorney general Ken Paxton. Democrats chose state Rep. James Talarico over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett to be their candidate....
Hegseth says U.S. is ‘accelerating’ war on Iran, but strike at Turkey won’t trigger NATO
The U.S. war effort against Iran was “accelerating” as American and Israeli forces fought for control of Iranian airspace and pressed farther inland to seek and destroy Iranian missile capabilities, top U.S. officials said Wednesday. “Four days in, we have only just begun to fight,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense...
Sri Lanka recovers 87 bodies from Iranian warship sunk off its coast by a U.S. submarine
GALLE, Sri Lanka — A torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, whose navy said Wednesday it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people. The Iranian vessel sunk in the Indian Ocean was the Islamic Republic’s “prize ship,” U.S. Defense Secretary...
The sea is higher than we thought and millions more are at risk, study finds
Climate change’s rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said. Researchers studied hundreds of scientific studies and hazard assessments, calculating that about 90% of them underestimated...
Gallery: Around the world or close to home, the world in focus on March 4, 2026
Every photograph tells a story. From the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania to far-flung corners of the globe, TribLive’s gallery brings those stories to life — moments of connection, place and the quiet beauty of everyday life. It’s more than a look at Western Pennsylvania. It’s a view of the...
Cracks appear in Trump’s MAGA base as leading figures criticize the Iran war
NEW YORK — For President Donald Trump, some of the sharpest criticism he’s faced in the early days of the Iran war has come from once-loyal media figures far more accustomed to singing his praises. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh are among those to express discontent. It’s been...
Freight rail industry had safest year on record in 2025, advocacy group says
A group representing the nation’s freight rail companies said Wednesday that newly released data show last year was the safest year on record for the industry. The Association of American Railroads said the overall train accident rate dropped 14 percent compared to 2024, while derailments were down 13.6%, according to...
Republicans brace for an ugly fight in the Texas Senate runoff between Cornyn and Paxton
DALLAS — The mess in Texas may be just beginning. Four-term Sen. John Cornyn and his allies spent nearly $70 million to survive the first round of the party’s nomination fight on Tuesday. He was slightly ahead of conservative firebrand Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, with more votes still...
Talarico wins Texas Senate Democratic nomination while Cornyn, Paxton head to Republican runoffVideo
State Rep. James Talarico topped Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in an expensive and fiercely contested Texas Senate Democratic primary that once again has the party dreaming of a big upset in November. Who Talarico will face depends on a May runoff between longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn and MAGA favorite Ken...
Turkey says NATO shot down Iranian missile heading to Turkish airspace
Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that a ballistic missile fired from Iran heading toward Turkish airspace had been shot down by NATO air defenses, threatening to pull more countries into the widening conflict in the Middle East. The ministry did not say what the missile’s intended target was. An attack...
Russia blames Ukrainian sea drones after tanker explodes and sinks in the Mediterranean
CAIRO — A Russian-flagged tanker carrying liquefied natural gas exploded and erupted in flames before sinking in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, authorities in the North African country said Wednesday. Russia asserted that an attack by Ukrainian sea drones was to blame. The Libyan Maritime Authority reported “sudden explosions, followed...
U.S. maternal deaths fell in 2024 and may have dropped again last year, government data shows
NEW YORK — Fewer U.S. women died around the time of childbirth in 2024, a government analysis shows, and provisional data suggests the trend may have continued last year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday reported that 649 mothers died in 2024 during pregnancy or shortly...
MrBeast is getting into financial services. Parents should pay attention
Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTube celebrity better known as MrBeast, became popular for broadcasting outlandish but charitable stunts that often involved giving away giant piles of money. Now the 27-year-old is asking his followers to entrust him with theirs. With the acquisition of Step, a financial services app for teenagers and...
London police arrest 3 men on suspicion of spying for China
LONDON — Three men suspected of spying for China were arrested Wednesday, London police said. The three were arrested for allegedly assisting a foreign intelligence service in violation of the National Security Act of 2023. Police did not name the suspects because they haven’t been charged. But they said one...
Governments scramble to bring citizens home during travel chaos caused by Iran war
PARIS — Governments across the world scrambled to organize the return of their citizens from the Middle East on Wednesday as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening Iran war. The first flight repatriating French citizens stranded in the Middle East landed in Paris early Wednesday as...
