Government shutdown averted with little time to spare as Biden signs funding before midnight
WASHINGTON — The threat of a federal government shutdown suddenly lifted late Saturday as President Joe Biden signed a temporary funding bill to keep agencies open with little time to spare after Congress rushed to approve the bipartisan deal. The package drops aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed...
Donald Trump’s rivals search for paths to stop him as he blazes his own trail
DES MOINES, Iowa — Having stood out in two presidential debates, Nikki Haley has booked her largest venue in Iowa since launching her campaign. She’s hoping to fill a 600-person hall in a western Des Moines suburb on Saturday. That would be a huge number for most of her rivals....
On the brink of a federal shutdown, House passes a 45-day funding plan and sends it to Senate
WASHINGTON — On the brink of a federal government shutdown, the House on Saturday swiftly approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate. The...
The Flying Scotsman locomotive collided with another train in Scotland. Several people were injured
LONDON — Several people were injured after the Flying Scotsman, the historic steam locomotive that’s celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, was involved in a low-speed crash with another heritage train in the Scottish Highlands on Friday, authorities said. The National Railway Museum said the “shunting incident” took place at...
Pope Francis creates 21 new cardinals who will help him to reform the church and cement his legacy
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals at a ritual-filled ceremony Saturday, including key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy as he enters a crucial new phase in running the Catholic Church. On a crisp sunny...
Putin marks anniversary of annexation of Ukrainian regions as drones attack overnight
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday insisted that the residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed a year ago “made their choice — to be with their Fatherland.” In an address released in the early hours to mark the first anniversary of the annexation, Putin...
Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh’s people have left, Armenia’s government says
YEREVAN, Armenia — An ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm, the Armenian government said Saturday. Nazeli Baghdasaryan, the press secretary to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said that 100,480 people had arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh,...
Pitt trustees OK $100 million in campus renovations
University of Pittsburgh trustees on Friday elected a new chairman, received their first full report from Chancellor Joan Gabel on university progress and approved $100 million in campus building renovation projects. Board members meeting in the William Pitt Union in Oakland also encountered protests. They ranged from a boisterous but...
7,000 more workers at 2 plants join picket line in United Auto Workers strike
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union expanded strikes against Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on the companies to improve their offers. It was the second time the union has widened the walkouts, which started...
Baltimore Archdiocese files for bankruptcy before new law on abuse lawsuits takes effect
BALTIMORE — The Archdiocese of Baltimore on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization days before a new state law goes into effect removing the statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims and allowing victims to sue their abusers decades after the fact. The step will allow the oldest...
McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the government open collapses, making a shutdown almost certain
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed in dramatic fashion Friday as a robust faction of hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain. McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly...
New York City area gets one of its wettest days in decades, as rain swamps subways and streets
NEW YORK — Rain walloped the New York metropolitan area with a startling punch Friday, knocking out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranding drivers on highways, flooding basements and shuttering a terminal at LaGuardia Airport in one of the city’s wettest days in decades. As much as 6.7 inches...
Top Shapiro staffer was accused of sexual harassment before resigning
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds the power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — A top official and longtime ally of Gov. Josh Shapiro who abruptly resigned this week had been accused months earlier of sexually...
McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep government open collapses, making shutdown almost certain
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed on Friday as a robust faction of hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain. McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to...
United Autoworkers strikes spread to Chicago and Lansing as 7,000 more workers join picket line
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union says its two-week strike against Detroit automakers will spread to 7,000 more workers at a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near Lansing, Michigan. Union President Shawn Fain told workers on a video appearance Friday that negotiations haven’t broken...
Penn Township, Greensburg natives will receive awards from Pitt-Greensburg
Scott Szypulski and Myron Jones II will receive awards from the Pitt-Greensburg Alumni Association on Saturday. Their reaction? “It’s full-circle.” Szypulski, of Oakland, grew up in Penn Township and graduated from Pitt-Greensburg in 2014. Jones, of Washington, Pa., spent his high school years in Greensburg and attended Westminster College for...
Bus carrying kids overturns in England, killing the driver and a 14-year-old girl
LONDON — A bus carrying dozens of schoolchildren overturned on a highway near the English city of Liverpool on Friday, killing the driver and a 14-year-old girl, police said. The bus was transporting students from Calday Grange Grammar School and West Kirby Grammar School on the Wirral Peninsula, across the...
Supreme Court will decide if state laws limiting social media platforms violate the Constitution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether state laws that seek to regulate Facebook, TikTok, X and other social media platforms violate the Constitution. The justices will review laws enacted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas. While the details vary, both...
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California dies at 90
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90. Three people familiar with the situation confirmed...
Biden calls for up to 3 oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, disappointing all sides
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday proposed up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico but none in Alaska as it tries to navigate between energy companies seeking greater oil and gas production and environmental activists who want Biden to shut down new...
Traveling with Milley: A reporter recalls how America’s top soldier was most at home with his troops
STE MERE EGLISE, France — The soldier had target fixation. He had three beers in hand, a full day of leave and a group of young women waiting. But a crowd of Army uniforms also gathered for this French village’s D-Day celebrations stood in the way. The soldier navigated another...
Leader of Spain’s conservatives fails in his 2nd attempt in parliament to become premier
MADRID — The leader of Spain’s conservatives on Friday failed for the second time in three days to get parliamentary support for his bid to become prime minister following his party’s victory in a national election. In a vote in the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, the Spanish parliament’s lower...
Dozens dead after blast in southwestern Pakistan at rally celebrating birthday of Islam’s prophet
QUETTA, Pakistan — A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of people celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding nearly 70 others, authorities said, in one of the country’s deadliest attacks targeting civilians in months. An open...
A green card processing change means U.S. could lose thousands of faith leaders from abroad
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. — For more than two hours on a Sunday afternoon, the Rev. Gustavo Castillo led the Pentecostal congregation he’s been growing in this Minneapolis suburb through prayer, Scriptures, rousing music and sometimes tearful testimonials. But it all may end soon. A sudden procedural change in how the...
U.S. quietly acknowledges Iran satellite successfully reached orbit as tensions remain high
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States has quietly acknowledged that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard successfully put an imaging satellite into orbit this week in a launch that resembled others previously criticized by Washington as helping Tehran’s ballistic missile program. The U.S. military has not responded to repeated requests...
