Trump wins Iowa caucuses in crucial victory at the outset of the Republican presidential campaign
DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses Monday, a crucial victory at the outset of the Republican primary that reinforces the former president’s bond with his party’s voters even as he faces extraordinary legal challenges that could complicate his bid to return to the White House. The...
Biden and the Democrats raise $97 million to close out 2023 after a December fundraising blitz
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year, boosted by a star-studded December fundraising blitz that came even as the political world’s attention shifted to the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary....
U.S. Defense Secretary is released from hospital after complications from prostate cancer surgery he kept secret
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from the hospital on Monday, after spending two weeks there to treat complications from surgery for prostate cancer he kept secret from senior Biden administration leaders and staff for weeks. Austin will be working from home as he recovers, and his doctors...
Fake 911 report of fire at the White House triggers emergency response while Biden is at Camp David
WASHINGTON — A fake 911 call that the White House was on fire sent emergency vehicles to the complex Monday morning, when President Joe Biden and his family were at Camp David. Fire engines and other emergency vehicles responded to a report just after 7 a.m. that the White House...
Kosovo remembers 45 people killed in 1999 and denounces Serbia for not apologizing
RECAK, Kosovo — Hundreds of Kosovars gathered in a southern village on Monday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a mass killing of 45 ethnic Albanians by Serb forces, an event that helped spark international intervention to end a 1998-99 war in Kosovo. Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin...
Election results tell you who won and lost. AP VoteCast tells you why
WASHINGTON — When the dust settles from Monday’s first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, the returns will reveal who had Republican caucusgoers’ vote, but they won’t shed much light on the types of people who voted or what was on their minds as they cast their ballots. That’s where AP VoteCast comes in....
Iceland’s president says country faces daunting period after lava from volcano destroys homes in fishing town
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland’s president said the country is battling “tremendous forces of nature” after molten lava from a volcano in the island’s southwest consumed several houses in the evacuated town of Grindavik. Scientists said Monday that the eruption appeared to be dying down, but it was too soon to...
Pitt Ohio to donate semi-trailer to Forbes Road school in Monroeville
Students in Forbes Road Career & Technology School’s diesel technology program get plenty of experience working on the massive trucks that haul goods back and forth across the country. The difficulty is those trucks are often from the mid-1990s. “There’s none of the modern controls or emissions technology, and there’s...
Pope acknowledges resistance to same-sex blessings but doubles down: ‘The Lord blesses everyone’
ROME — Pope Francis has defended his controversial decision to let priests bless same-sex couples but admitted that “solitude is a price you have to pay” when you make difficult decisions. Francis doubled down and insisted that the “Lord blesses everyone,” during a Sunday interview with an Italian talk show....
Biden and the Democrats raise $97M to close out 2023 after a December fundraising blitz
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year, boosted by a star-studded December fundraising blitz that came even as the political world’s attention shifted to the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary....
King Frederik X visits Danish parliament on his 1st formal work day as Denmark’s new monarch
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s new King Frederik X visited the Danish parliament Monday, on his first formal day on the job, a day after his mother, Queen Margrethe, abdicated after 52 years on the throne. “We begin our responsible work as Denmark’s king in the belief that the Danish parliament...
Houthi rebels strike a U.S.-owned ship off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, raising tensions
JERUSALEM — Houthi rebels fired a missile, striking a U.S.-owned ship Monday just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after they launched an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, officials said. The attack on the Gibraltar Eagle,...
Arctic freeze continues to blast huge swaths of the U.S. with sub-zero temperatures
PORTLAND, Ore. — A dangerous Arctic blast will continue sweeping across the U.S. on Monday and linger through at least midweek, prolonging a bitter cold that set record-low temperatures in parts of the country and threatens to further disrupt daily life, including an NFL playoff game and the first-in-the-nation presidential...
Ukraine claims it shot down 2 Russian command and control aircraft in a significant blow to Moscow
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian air force shot down a Russian Beriev A-50 early warning and control plane and an Il-22 command center aircraft in a significant blow for the Kremlin’s forces, Ukraine’s military chief claimed Monday. The planes are key tools in helping orchestrate Russian battlefield movements in Ukraine....
Migrant deaths in Rio Grande intensify tensions between Texas, Biden administration over crossings
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — After Texas fenced off a park along the U.S.-Mexico border and began turning away Border Patrol agents, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott explained why at campaign stop near Houston. “We are not allowing Border Patrol on that property anymore,” Abbott said Friday, drawing applause from supporters at a...
Judge says Trump can wait a week to testify at sex abuse victim’s defamation trial
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump can wait a week to testify at a New York defamation trial where he could face millions of dollars in damages after a jury concluded that he sexually abused a columnist in the 1990s, a federal judge said Sunday. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan...
4 killed, 1 injured in hot air balloon crash south of Phoenix
ELOY, Ariz. — Four people were killed and another critically injured after a hot air balloon crash Sunday morning near Eloy, Arizona, authorities said. Eloy police said the crash occurred about 7:50 a.m. Sunday in a rural desert area about 60 miles south of Phoenix. The victims’ names are being...
Volcano erupts in southwestern Iceland, sending lava flowing toward a nearby settlementVideo
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted for the second time in less than a month on Sunday, sending lava snaking toward a nearby community and setting at least one home on fire. The eruption, which began just before 8 a.m. local time, came after authorities evacuated the...
District attorney defends the qualifications of a prosecutor hired in Trump’s Georgia election case
ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Sunday defended the qualifications of a special prosecutor she hired for her case against Donald Trump and others over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia after a defense lawyer accused Willis of professional impropriety. In her first public remarks...
Republican candidates try to lock down undecided Iowans in the countdown to the leadoff caucuses
INDIANOLA, Iowa — Marc Smiarowski hunched over to fight off the minus 18-degree Fahrenheit (minus 28 degrees Celsius) chill on Sunday, waiting for the doors to open for Donald Trump’s midday rally at a small college outside Des Moines. But as the weak winter sun hung low in the sky,...
Millions of Americans face below-zero temperatures as storms bring blast of Arctic air, snow and ice
Subfreezing temperatures across much of the U.S. left millions of Americans facing dangerous cold over the weekend as Arctic storms knocked out electricity to tens of thousands in the Northwest, brought snow to the South, and walloped the Northeast with blizzard conditions that forced the postponement of an NFL game....
‘The Honeymooners’ actress Joyce Randolph has died at 99; played Ed Norton’s wife, Trixie
NEW YORK — Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actress whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” provided the perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, has died. She was 99. Randolph died of natural causes Saturday night at her home on the Upper West Side...
Pa. needs to spend $5.4B to close gap between rich and poor schools, report advanced by Dems says
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will need to spend at least $5.4 billion to close the gap between rich and poor school districts, according to a long-awaited...
U.S. military academies focus on oaths and loyalty to Constitution as political divisions intensify
WEST POINT, N.Y. — For 75 minutes, Maj. Joe Amoroso quizzed his students in SS202, American Politics, about civilian leadership of the military, the trust between the armed forces and the public, and how the military must not become a partisan tool. There was one answer, he said, that would...
As legal challenges mount, some companies retool diversity and inclusion programs
NEW YORK — Sophia Danner-Okotie’s has ambitious plans for her Nigerian-inspired clothing line but a sense of dread has punctured her optimism as she watches a legal battle being waged against a small venture capital firm that has provided funding instrumental to her boutique brand’s growth. The case against the...
