New Mexico adult dies with measles, though cause of death isn’t yet confirmed
An adult who was infected with measles has died in New Mexico, state health officials announced Thursday, though the virus has not been confirmed as the cause. The person who died was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care, a state health department spokesperson said in a statement. The person’s...
SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosionVideo
Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart. This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen...
Adnan Syed to remain free after judge decides on time served for his murder sentence in ‘Serial’ case
BALTIMORE — Adnan Syed, whose case amassed a worldwide following of “Serial” podcast listeners, will remain free — even though his murder conviction still stands, a Baltimore judge ruled on Thursday. Judge Jennifer Schiffer agreed to reduce Syed’s sentence to time served under a relatively new state law that provides...
CIA lays off some recently hired officers as Trump shakes up intelligence community
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency will fire an unreleased number of junior officers as President Donald Trump’s efforts to downsize and reshape the federal government reverberate through America’s intelligence community. The agency will review personnel hired within the past two years, an agency spokesperson said Thursday, and those officers...
Elon Musk tells Republican lawmakers he’s not to blame for federal firingsVideo
WASHINGTON — It’s not his fault. Billionaire Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers that he is not to blame for the firings of thousands of federal workers, including veterans, as pushes to downsize the government. Instead, he said in private talks this week that those decisions are left to the...
Yearly cost of Trump’s border missions could exceed $1 billion
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s use of thousands of U.S. troops to aid in immigration enforcement is set to cost the Defense Department from $1 billion to $2 billion this year, Pentagon officials recently told lawmakers. The money will support a bolstered U.S. military force along the U.S.-Mexico border and...
Federal judge reinstates labor board member fired by President Trump
WASHINGTON — A federal judge agreed Thursday to reinstate a board member whom President Donald Trump removed from an independent labor agency. National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox sued Trump after he fired her and the agency’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, on Jan. 27. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell...
Private lunar lander may have fallen over while touching down near the moon’s south poleVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over. Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the...
Medical plane’s voice recorder likely wasn’t working for years before Philadelphia crash
PHILADELPHIA — The cockpit voice recorder was not working on a medical transport plane that killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January and likely had not been functional for several years, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Thursday. The NTSB also...
Trudeau expects trade war between Canada and U.S. for the ‘foreseeable future’
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he welcomed indications that the U.S. would delay substantial tariffs on Canadian products for a month, but said Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would remain in place for now. U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has postponed 25% tariffs on most goods...
Without U.S. intelligence, Ukraine will struggle to strike targets inside Russia
KYIV, Ukraine — The U.S. decision to stop sharing military intelligence with Ukraine hobbles its ability to strike and defend against the Russian army, and increases the pressure on it to accept a peace deal being pushed by the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, the U.S. suspended weapons shipments...
Trump changes course and delays some tariffs on Mexico, Canada
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the...
Second federal judge extends block preventing the Trump administration from freezing funding
BOSTON — A second federal judge on Thursday extended a block barring the Trump administration from freezing grants and loans potentially totaling trillions of dollars. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states after a...
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits falls as labor market remains sturdy
Applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell last week as the labor market remains sturdy ahead of an expected purge of federal government employees. The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell by 21,000 to 221,000 for the week ending March 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s significantly fewer...
Gallery: Photos from March 6, 2025
Embark on a visual journey around the Western Pennsylvania region with TribLive’s latest collection of captivating images for Thursday, March 6, 2025. From the rustic landscapes of Western Pa. to diverse corners of the globe, experience the shared moments of humanity....
Federal judge blocks NIH funding cuts to medical research, including at CMU
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs. The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer,...
Ancient humans made tools from animal bones 1.5 million years ago
WASHINGTON — Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago. A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by around 1 million...
Hamas brushes off Trump’s threat and says it will only free hostages in return for lasting truce
CAIRO — The Hamas militant group on Thursday brushed off President Donald Trump’s latest threat and reiterated that it will only free the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas accused Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to back out...
2.3M birds culled in Pa. this year as flu spreads in commercial, backyard flocks
Ken Pounds has a coop full of turkeys, and with justifiable concerns about bird flu, that’s all he wants in there. No flies if he can help it. Definitely no people who don’t need to be there. And certainly no other birds. “The biggest thing you can do is have...
Facing Trump’s threats, Columbia investigates students critical of Israel
NEW YORK — Columbia University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel. The probe is part of a...
How Trump justifies his tariffs — from budget balancing to protecting ‘the soul’ of America
WASHINGTON — To President Donald Trump, “tariff” is more than “the most beautiful word in the dictionary,” something he says often. Tariffs, in Trump’s view, are also a cure for a number of the nation’s ills and the tool to reach new heights. Most economists see taxes paid on imports...
At the Voice of America, the Trump administration is moving swiftly to assert its vision
As it has with other government agencies, the Trump administration is moving swiftly to assert its vision at the Voice of America. As it does so, a question hangs in the air: Is the news organization’s journalistic mission, which dates to World War II, in for some fundamental changes? Within...
The House censures Democratic Rep. Al Green for disrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday voted to censure an unrepentant Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. Green was joined in the well of the House by more than 20 fellow Democrats as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., read the censure resolution. Green and some...
Veterans fired from federal jobs say they feel betrayed, including some who voted for Trump
Nathan Hooven is a disabled Air Force veteran who voted for Donald Trump in November. Barely three months later, he’s now unemployed and says he feels betrayed by the president’s dramatic downsizing of the federal government that cost him his job. “I think a lot of other veterans voted the...
Cracker plant in Beaver County could be sold as Shell looks to offload chemical assets
Shell is considering a sale of its chemical assets in the U.S. and Europe, including the cracker plant in Beaver County. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, has reported one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies could offload its less-profitable chemicals division as part...