White House secures foreign steel for ballroom project
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has championed the U.S. steel industry, promising to strengthen it and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors. Yet the White House has secured tens of millions of dollars’ worth of donated foreign steel for Trump’s $400 million ballroom...
Trump administration proposes gutting rules targeting coal plant ash that threatens groundwater
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of ash produced by burning coal. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Trump administration proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater...
U.S. abortion opponents want Trump’s FDA to act on abortion pill restrictions
/ U.S. abortion opponents are increasingly frustrated with the lack of action by President Donald Trump’s administration to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online that they view as undermining state abortion bans. A court ruling this week in a lawsuit the Louisiana attorney general brought against Trump’s Food...
Melania Trump delivers statement at the White House denying knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimesVideo
WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump is denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his sex crimes, saying Thursday that the “stories are completely false” and calling accusations that she was somehow involved “smears about me.” Reading an extraordinary statement at the White House, Melania Trump said she and...
Coming home may be the most dangerous part of Artemis II
The Artemis II heat shield, NASA agrees, is flawed. The heat shield is the critical layer at the bottom of a spacecraft that protects it — and the astronauts inside — from searing temperatures upon reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. If the shield fails, the underlying metallic structure could melt, rupture...
Netanyahu authorizes direct talks with Lebanon ‘as soon as possible’
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he has authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible,” as a tentative ceasefire in the Iran war staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut. Netanyahu said he gave the order in response to...
NASA prepares for Artemis II splashdown after historic moon flyby
As the four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission were zooming closer to home Thursday after their record-breaking swing around the moon, extensive preparations were underway to ensure their safe return to Earth. The astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the...
Netanyahu authorizes direct talks with Lebanon in potential boost to ceasefire efforts
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorized direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors. The two countries have technically been...
Russian court criminalizes the activities of the Nobel Prize-winning rights group Memorial
Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday effectively criminalized the activities of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group Memorial, the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent and civil society organizations in the country amid its war in Ukraine. Following a closed-door hearing, the court ruled on a petition from the...
Republican fears grow as Democrats keep notching election victories ahead of midterms
MADISON, Wisc. — The bluntest assessment of Republican failures during this week’s elections in Wisconsin came from one of their own. “We got our butts kicked,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor. He was referring to Democratic victories in campaigns for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and...
A 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock will soon house the world’s 1st permanent nuclear waste site
OLKILUOTO, Finland — With the push of a button, the elevator descends hundreds of meters in seconds into the dark depths of Onkalo. “We are now at about minus 430 meters (1,411 feet),” muttered geologist Tuomas Pere as he steered a car through a labyrinth of man-made tunnels. “We are...
Democrats grow bolder on talk about removing Trump from office after his Iran threats
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s threats to wipe out Iran, “a whole civilization,” ended the restraint that Democrats have mostly practiced when it comes to questions of removing him from office in his second term. By the dozens, Democrats came out to say that Trump should no longer serve in...
As Trump throws lifeline to coal plants, critics warn of higher costs and health risks
WASHINGTON — Before Donald Trump returned to the White House, the Biden administration and many electric utilities were building a future dominated by renewable energy. They aimed to replace coal, slashing greenhouse gases and reducing air pollution that kills more than a thousand people annually. Dozens of coal plants —...
Police in the Bahamas arrest husband of U.S. woman who vanished from boat
Police in the Bahamas said late Wednesday they have arrested the husband of a U.S. woman who was aboard a boat near the archipelago and vanished. Authorities said the 59-year-old man whom they did not identify was arrested in Abaco and is being questioned. A Coast Guard spokesperson told The...
Former UPMC doctor accused of trying to kill his wife convicted of attempted manslaughterVideo
HONOLULU — A Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a cliffside hike last year has been convicted of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter. A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations. The crime he...
Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on U.S.-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement
NEW YORK — A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers. These bets were made even though,...
Army veteran charged with sharing classified details of an elite commando unitVideo
RALEIGH, N.C. — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing classified information about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official said put “our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk.” Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is accused of violating federal law, as well...
Legendary mountaineer Jim Whittaker, the 1st American to summit Mount Everest, dies at 97
SEATTLE — The celebrated mountaineer Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest, has died. He was 97. Whittaker, who also served as the first full-time employee of the outdoor retailer REI and later as its president and CEO, died Tuesday at his home in Port Townsend, Washington, according...
GOP hawks, Israel backers question Trump’s Iran ceasefire
Republican hawks and supporters of Israel expressed uneasiness on Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s shaky ceasefire deal with Iran, suggesting it was negotiated without Israel’s input and could allow Tehran to rebuild its military threat. As new rounds of attacks threatened to derail the agreed two-week truce, Sen. Lindsey Graham,...
Pennsylvania teens who plotted ISIS-inspired NYC terror attack sought to kill up to 60, feds say
Two Pennsylvania teenagers accused of instigating an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot outside New York’s Gracie Mansion last month watched “radical content” online and hoped to kill up to 60 people in the attack, according to new court documents. Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown, were charged...
Pam Bondi won’t appear on Capitol Hill for scheduled Epstein deposition next week
WASHINGTON — Pam Bondi, the former attorney general whom President Donald Trump fired last week, will not appear next week for a scheduled deposition with the House Oversight Committee as part of its inquiry into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The committee said in a statement Wednesday that it would...
RFK Jr is launching a podcast to expose ‘lies’ that have made Americans sick
NEW YORK — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is launching a new podcast that he says will begin “a new era of radical transparency in government,” according to a teaser video first obtained by The Associated Press. The show, titled “The Secretary Kennedy Podcast,” will launch next week and...
How Trump went from threatening Iran’s annihilation to agreeing to a 2-week ceasefire with Tehran
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump, over the course of a single day, went from threatening Iran with “annihilation” to proclaiming that the battered Islamic Republic’s leadership had presented a “workable” plan that led him to agree to a 14-day ceasefire that he hopes will pave the way to end the nearly...
March smashes record as most abnormally hot month for continental U.S., federal meteorologists say
WASHINGTON — March’s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts...
Fire breaks out at Rio de Janeiro Olympic Park; no injuries reported
RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire broke out Wednesday morning at Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park velodrome, prompting a major emergency response involving about 80 firefighters and 20 vehicles, authorities said. Rio state military fire department said the blaze was under control and largely confined to the venue’s fabric roof....
