Trump orders U.S. military to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats choking Strait of HormuzVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said Thursday, a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel. Trump’s post on social media...
Senate passes budget plan for ICE and Border Patrol in bid to reopen Homeland Security Department
WASHINGTON — The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House. The entire department has been shut down...
Immigration officer is charged with assault after protest outside Colorado ICE facility, DA says
An immigration officer has been charged with third-degree assault and criminal mischief following an investigation into how he treated a protester who said the officer put her in a chokehold. Multiple videos from bystanders show a masked agent grabbing and pulling Franci Stagi across the street during a protest in...
Supreme Court hears arguments on U.S. power to strip green cards
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices grappled over a president’s power over immigration enforcement Wednesday during oral arguments over a technical challenge to the government’s ability to take away someone’s green card as they enter the country. Over the course of more than an hour of oral arguments, the justices delved...
New York Times says FBI investigated reporter after article about director Kash Patel’s girlfriend
NEW YORK — The New York Times says the FBI investigated whether one of its reporters, Elizabeth Williamson, violated laws against stalking after she wrote a story nearly two months ago about how federal agents had been assigned to protect and give rides to FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend. The...
Pentagon says Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving, the latest departure of a top defense leader
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced Wednesday that the Navy’s top civilian official, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, is leaving his job. In a statement posted to social media, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately.” Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao will become acting secretary of...
U.S. health officials nix publication of a study on covid vaccine effectiveness
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials stopped the publication of a study on whether the covid-19 vaccine was keeping adults from becoming sick enough to have to go to the hospital. A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman on Wednesday confirmed the decision to halt publication, citing a...
Fetterman looks to expand SNAP benefits to include hot rotisserie chicken
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman says hot rotisserie chicken from Costco is a staple on his family’s dinner table. At $4.99 apiece, Costco’s hot rotisserie chicken is “America’s best (and delicious) affordability play,” the Democrat from Braddock said. “It’s one of my family’s favorites,” Fetterman added. But Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program...
Photos: Inside the NFL Experience on the North Shore
Members of the media had the opportunity to interact in the NFL Draft Experience at Acrisure Stadium during a behind-the-scenes tour on Wednesday....
Federal appeals court blocks California law requiring federal agents to wear identification
LOS ANGELES — A federal appeals court issued an order Wednesday blocking a California law passed in 2025 requiring federal immigration agents to wear a badge or some form of identification. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in November challenging the law, arguing that it would threaten the safety of...
Chemical leak at a West Virginia plant kills 2 people and sends 30 others to hospitals, officials say
INSTITUTE, W.Va. — A chemical leak at a West Virginia silver recovery business on Wednesday killed two people and sent about 30 others to hospitals, including one in serious condition, authorities said. The leak occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute as workers were preparing to shut down at...
U.K. passes bill that will eventually ban cigarette purchases
LONDON — Opponents of smoking got a breath of fresh air as Parliament passed a bill that will put cigarettes out of reach for future generations. “The end of smoking, and the devastating harm it causes, is no longer uncertain — it’s inevitable,” Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on...
Charlie Kirk assasination: Does the recovered bullet match Tyler Robinson’s gun?
Just weeks after reports of a bombshell claim by the defense for Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year, there is a new twist in the case. According to multiple reports, documents filed by the defense in the case claimed the bullet used in...
Ukraine says it asked Turkey to help seek Zelenskyy-Putin talks
Ukraine has asked Turkey to help arrange a summit meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a renewed effort to end the war, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in Kyiv. “We have addressed the Turks directly. But if another capital — other than Moscow and Belarus...
Beneath Trump’s ballroom legal case: A brief history of the White House bunker
Secrecy surrounding White House security makes details hard to come by, but President Donald Trump’s court fight over his $400 million ballroom casts some light on an underground bunker at the site that has had a role in history. The bunker emerged in the Trump administration’s court fight against the...
The Iran war could drive up costs for petroleum-derived products like clothes and crayons
NEW YORK — It might be hard to imagine the Iran war weighing on stuffed toys with names like Snuggle Glove, Bizzikins and Wobblies, but even plush playthings are not immune when oil shipments from the Middle East are constrained. Like many soft toys, the creatures developed by a manufacturer...
Iran fires on 3 ships in the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. maintains blockade and diplomacy stallsVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway. The attacks came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of...
Texas can require public schools to display Ten Commandments in classrooms, U.S. appeals court rules
DALLAS — Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools. The ruling sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the...
Florida’s attorney general launches criminal probe into ChatGPT over FSU shooting
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s attorney general on Tuesday opened a rare criminal investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT over whether the artificial intelligence app offered advice to a gunman who killed two people and wounded six others last year at Florida State University. Attorney General James Uthmeier said that prosecutors had done...
Virginia voters approve redistricting plan that could boost Democrats’ seats in Congress
Virginia voters approved a mid-decade redistricting plan Tuesday that could boost Democrats’ chances of winning four additional U.S. House seats in November’s midterm elections that will decide control of the closely divided Congress. The constitutional amendment backed by voters bypasses a bipartisan redistricting commission to allow the use of new...
Trump media company replaces CEO, ex-congressman Devin Nunes after stock plunge that wiped out billions
NEW YORK — The Trump business behind Truth Social is replacing a former congressman and big supporter of the U.S. president as leader of the social media platform after a stock collapse that wiped out billions in investor wealth. Devin Nunes, a former California congressmen in Donald Trump’s first term,...
Pennsylvania high school history instructor named nation’s Teacher of the Year
HAVERFORD — A high school history teacher in Pennsylvania who helps students look inward to find their strengths and outward to find community inside and outside the classroom has been named the 2026 National Teacher of the Year. Leon Smith, 46, has spent his entire 25-year career at Haverford High...
In reversal, Justice Department withdraws subpoenas in John Brennan investigation
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has withdrawn subpoenas issued in the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan, with officials asking for voluntary interviews instead of testimony before a grand jury, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. A small handful of subpoenas were known to have been issued...
Southern Poverty Law Center charged with defrauding donors with payments to extremist informants
WASHINGTON — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors...
Sen. Dave McCormick endorses Trump nominee for Fed chair
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick introduced the nominee to chair the Federal Reserve at a contentious Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, describing him as a personal friend who he said is the “right man for this pivotal moment.” “He will shake up a stagnant institution at a time when change...
