Slovak president to visit Pitt and tour Nationality Rooms
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová will visit the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday to meet with Chancellor Joan Gabel and other campus leaders, months after a delegation from that country visited to explore potential academic collaborations. Both trips come at a time when Pitt and other universities are emerging from a...
Oregon high court says 10 GOP state senators who staged long walkout can’t run for reelection
SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Supreme Court said Thursday that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun rights cannot run for reelection. The decision upholds the secretary of state’s decision to disqualify the senators from the...
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apologizes for handling of cancer and hospitalization
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apologized on Thursday over his handling of his prostate-cancer surgery and two-week hospital stay, saying he should have informed President Joe Biden and the American public. “I did not handle this right,” Austin said during a briefing at the Pentagon, where he returned to...
Pennsylvania House GOP leader asks attorney general to probe missing data
A top House Republican wants the Pennsylvania attorney general to investigate the massive data loss affecting the state police and state employees’ pension system. State Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, said he asked State Attorney General Michelle Henry to review the recent IT failure that led to the loss early last...
California pummeled by first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers as ‘Pineapple Express’ sweeps stateVideo
LOS ANGELES — Heavy rain flooded California roadways and much-needed snow piled up in the mountains as the first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pummeled the state Thursday. The storm focused its energy on the southern and eastern parts of the state after initially hitting the San Francisco Bay Area on...
Skyscraper-size asteroid will buzz Earth on Friday, safely passing within 1.7 million miles
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. Don’t worry: There’s no chance of it hitting us since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies...
Ukraine claims its sea drones sank a Russian ship. Moscow says a Patriot missiles downed its plane
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine claimed Thursday it used sea drones to sink a Russian corvette in the Black Sea as Russian investigators alleged that a Russian military transport plane that crashed last month was brought down by two U.S.-made Patriot missiles fired by Kyiv’s forces. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known...
Biden to celebrate his UAW endorsement in Detroit, where Arab American anger is boiling over Gaza
DETROIT — President Joe Biden will celebrate his recent endorsement by the United Auto Workers union by visiting Michigan on Thursday, but his time in this critical battleground state with the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans threatens to be overshadowed by growing anger over U.S. support for Israel’s war...
Farmers on tractors create chaos outside an EU summit to protest rising costs and bureaucracy
BRUSSELS — Farmers in convoys of tractors created chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters on Thursday, pelting police with firecrackers, eggs and beer bottles as they demanded leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy. With thick smoke from burning bales of hay hanging over parts...
U.K. judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’
LONDON — A judge in London on Thursday threw out a lawsuit by former U.S. President Donald Trump that accused a former British spy of making “shocking and scandalous claims” that were false and harmed his reputation. Judge Karen Steyn said the case Trump filed against Orbis Business Intelligence should...
Greta Thunberg has gone on trial over a London climate protest outside an oil and gas conference
LONDON — Climate activist Greta Thunberg went on trial Thursday for refusing to leave a protest that blocked the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference in London last year. Thunberg, 21, was among more than two dozen protesters arrested on Oct. 17 after preventing access to a...
Iran begins building 4 more nuclear power plants
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran began construction on four more nuclear power plants in the country’s south, with expected total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday. Iran seeks to produce 20,000 megawatts of nuclear energy by 2041. The country has one active nuclear power plant, a...
3 people killed, 9 injured in collapse of Boise, Idaho, airport hangar
BOISE, Idaho — A hangar under construction on the grounds of the airport in Boise, Idaho, collapsed Wednesday, killing three people and injuring another nine, officials said. Five of those injured in the collapse are in critical condition, the city said in a statement released Wednesday night. Authorities responded at...
‘Non-stop sitcom with incredible music’: Split Stage Productions brings ‘Urinetown’ to Lamp Theatre
Split Stage Productions’ latest performance doesn’t take itself too seriously, said director Rob Jessup. The theater company, which opened in 2013, will perform the musical “Urinetown” Friday and Saturday and Feb. 8-10 at The Lamp Theatre in Irwin. The 16-person cast will tell the story of a post-apocalyptic world experiencing...
European Union overcomes threat of Hungary veto to seal $54 billion aid package for Ukraine
BRUSSELS — Leaders of the 27 European Union countries sealed a deal Thursday to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in support for its war-ravaged economy after Hungary dropped weeks of threats to veto the measure. European Council President Charles Michel said the agreement “locks in steadfast, long-term,...
House passes bill to enhance child tax credit, revive key tax breaks for businesses
WASHINGTON — The House accomplished something unusual Wednesday in passing with broad, bipartisan support a roughly $79 billion tax cut package that would enhance the child tax credit for millions of lower-income families and boost three tax breaks for businesses, a combination that gives lawmakers on both sides of the...
After Teamsters meeting, Trump says of possible union endorsement, ‘Stranger things have happened’
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump met with leaders of the Teamsters Union on Wednesday in Washington as he tried to chip away at President Joe Biden’s organized labor support heading into a likely general election rematch. Trump participated in a roundtable with the union’s executive board, its president and...
Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charge in fatal film set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal on a Western movie set in New Mexico. Court documents filed Wednesday show Baldwin entered the plea in state district court in Santa Fe,...
Trump said he’ll block U.S. Steel sale if elected
Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday he will block U.S. Steel’s sale to the Japanese Nippon Steel Corporation, if elected president, reports Bloomberg. The sale was announced in December, with Nippon acquiring the iconic Pittsburgh-based steelmaker for about $14 billion in a deal that would keep U.S....
First of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pushes into California. Officials urge storm preparationsVideo
LOS ANGELES — The first of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers slowly pushed into California on Wednesday, triggering statewide storm preparations and calls for people to get ready for potential flooding, heavy snow and damaging wind. Known as a “Pineapple Express” because its long plume of moisture stretched back across the...
Federal judge dismisses Disney’s free speech lawsuit against Ron DeSantis
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed Disney’s free speech lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, leaving the company’s remaining hopes of regaining control of the district that governs Walt Disney World to a separate state court challenge. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee said in his...
Building empathy, understanding: Pitt Greensburg reading initiative sparks community discussion
When Sheila Confer finished reading “Rising Out of Hatred” by Eli Saslow, she wanted everyone to experience the book. Confer, an instructor for Pitt’s Greensburg campus, gathered about 400 students and 100 community members to read the book in 2022 through a program dubbed Westmoreland Reads. Saslow, a writer for...
Russia, Ukraine swap scores of POWs despite tensions over plane crash last week
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine have exchanged about 200 prisoners of war each, the countries said Wednesday, despite tensions stemming from last week’s crash of a military transport plane that Moscow claimed was carrying Ukrainian POWs and was shot down by Kyiv’s forces. After the Jan. 24 crash of...
Laser strikes against aircraft including airline planes have surged to a new record, the FAA says
WASHINGTON — Laser strikes aimed at aircraft including airline planes surged 41% last year to a record high, according to federal officials. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it received 13,304 reports from pilots about laser strikes last year, erasing a record set in 2021. “Aiming a laser at...
Walmart to build or convert 150-plus stores in next 5 years. It hasn’t opened new stores in 3 years
NEW YORK — Walmart plans to build or convert more than 150 stores in the next five years, while continuing to remodel existing stores. The plan, announced Wednesday, marks a big change for the discounter. In 2016, Walmart announced it was slowing its new store opening s and instead investing...
