Trump says he has directed Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing cost
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote...
Court grants request to block detained Venezuelan immigrants from being sent to Guantanamo
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the president’s immigration crackdown. In a legal filing earlier in the day, lawyers for the men said the detainees...
Trump says he will announce 25% steel, aluminum tariffs Monday, and more import duties are coming
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week. “Any steel coming into the United States is going to...
Pa. dog wins agility competition to extend Border Collie streak at Westminster show
A dog owner-handler from eastern Pennsylvania is celebrating this weekend. Emily Klarman of Doylestown, Buck County, watched Vanish, a Border Collie, win the 12th Annual Masters Agility Championship Finals on Saturday at the Westminster Dog Show in New York City. Vanish’s win marks the ninth for a Border Collie out...
Trump official orders consumer protection agency to stop work
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down an agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and...
U.S. officials are bound for Europe for top-level talks on Ukraine
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday that top administration officials will meet with European officials this week about how to end the war in Ukraine, nearly three years after Russia launched an all-out invasion. Less than a day earlier, the New York Post reported that Trump had a...
Trump at the Super Bowl, latest chapter in a complicated legacy with football
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As a student, Donald Trump played high school football. As a business baron, he owned a team in an upstart rival to the NFL and then sued the established league. As president, he denigrated pros who took a knee during the national anthem as part...
The remains of all 10 people killed in Alaska plane crash have been recovered, authorities say
JUNEAU, Alaska — The remains of all 10 people killed when their small plane crashed into ice on the Bering Sea have been recovered, authorities said. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department made the announcement on its Facebook page Saturday afternoon. Recovery crews had been racing to recover the bodies before...
Trump’s AI ambition and China’s DeepSeek overshadow an AI summit in Paris
PARIS — The geopolitics of artificial intelligence will be in focus at a major summit in France where world leaders, executives and experts will hammer out pledges on guiding the development of the rapidly advancing technology. It’s the latest in a series of global dialogues around AI governance, but one...
Israeli forces withdraw from key Gaza corridor as concerns mount over extending ceasefire
MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces withdrew from a key corridor in Gaza on Sunday, Israeli officials and Hamas said, the latest commitment under a tenuous ceasefire that faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension. Israelis’ shock at the sight of three emaciated hostages...
Magnitude-7.6 earthquake shakes Caribbean
MEXICO CITY — A magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook the Caribbean Sea south of the Cayman Islands Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Several islands and countries urged people near the coastline to move inland but authorities in most places later lifted the tsunami alerts. The quake struck at 6:23 p.m....
Trump’s 3rd week saw more executive orders, a trade war that wasn’t and a Mideast jolt
WASHINGTON — Three weeks in, President Donald Trump keeps cranking out executive orders designed to remake the government while billionaire Elon Musk hunts for more ways to upend the federal workforce. Trump also provoked — then called off — trade wars with Canada and Mexico but allowed one with China...
Here’s what we know about a commuter plane crash in Alaska that killed 10 people
JUNEAU, Alaska — Authorities are working to recover the wreckage of a plane crash in western Alaska that killed 10 people while investigators are trying to determine what caused the small commuter aircraft to go down in the icy Bering Sea. The single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet to...
Why is Trump punishing South Africa and who are the Afrikaners he wants to give refugee status to?
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — U.S. President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to punish South Africa by signing an executive order Friday stopping all aid to the country over what he called a human rights violation against a white minority group. The Trump administration says a land expropriation...
Zelenskyy confirms new Ukrainian offensive in Russia’s Kursk region
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed a new Ukrainian offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and said that North Korean troops were fighting alongside Russian forces there. “In the areas of the Kursk operation, new assaults have taken place,” Zelenskyy said during his Friday address, adding, “Russia has once...
Hamas releases 3 frail-looking Israeli hostages for 183 Palestinian prisoners under Gaza ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas-led militants released three gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages and Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners Saturday in the latest exchange of a ceasefire agreement that has paused 16 months of war in Gaza. The hostages’ condition and scenes of Hamas forcing them to speak in...
Missing commuter plane found crashed on Alaska sea ice and all 10 aboard died, authorities say
JUNEAU, Alaska — A small commuter plane that crashed in western Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome was located Friday on sea ice and all 10 people on board died, authorities said. Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard, said rescuers were searching the...
Trump says he’s revoking Biden’s security clearance, ending intelligence briefings in payback move
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump said Friday he’s revoking former President Joe Biden’s security clearance and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving in payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021. Trump made the announcement on social media shortly after arriving at Mar-a-Lago for the...
Federal judge weighing whether to block DOGE access to U.S. Labor Department
WASHINGTON — A federal judge heard arguments Friday over whether to block Trump adviser Elon Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department, which has investigated the billionaire’s companies. The Trump administration agreed earlier this week that DOGE wouldn’t get access to Labor Department data until after a ruling...
Judge says he will temporarily block Trump from placing 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday said he will temporarily block the Trump administration from placing 2,200 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development on paid leave. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, sided with two federal employee associations in agreeing to...
Police: DNA technology still not good enough to find JonBenet Ramsey’s killer
ATLANTA — It’s been nearly three decades since Atlanta-born child beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey was brutally killed in her Colorado home. Her family now hopes advances in DNA technology can help solve the case soon, but it’s unclear if police have engaged the private companies at the center of...
Senate GOP unveils $340B budget plan with Trump’s deportation and defense funds, as House stalls
WASHINGTON — As House Republicans missed another deadline Friday to produce a massive budget package of tax cuts and slashed spending, Senate Republicans jumped ahead, unveiling a more tailored $340 billion blueprint focused on President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda and bolstered U.S. defense spending. Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged his own...
More GOP-led states seek to follow Trump’s lead in defining male and female
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Katherine Bartle said she spent her years growing up in Alabama trying anything to “fix” herself and exist as a man. Eventually she realized it wasn’t possible. “I am a woman. I assure you that this is not a costume, nor is it by my own choice,”...
Iran supreme leader criticizes proposed nuclear talks with U.S., upending push to negotiation
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader said Friday that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” after President Donald Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” but stopped short of issuing a...
Russia claims it’s taken another eastern Ukraine town. Kyiv officials make no comment
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Friday that its forces had captured the coal mining town of Toretsk in their latest breakthrough in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where Ukrainian defenses are creaking. Ukrainian officials did not immediately make any comments on the Russian claim. A Ukrainian officer in...