Military moves to cut suicides, but defers action on guns
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a number of improvements in access to mental health care on Thursday to reduce suicides in the military, but held off on endorsing more controversial recommendations to restrict gun and ammunition purchases by young troops, sending them to another panel for study. An...
Penn State president says cuts will be deeper than anticipated as leaders finalize layoff plans
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — A Penn State administrator directed university leaders representing nearly all departments to...
U.S. pregnancy deaths dropped in 2022, after covid spike
NEW YORK — Deaths of pregnant women in the U.S. fell in 2022, dropping significantly from a six-decade high during the pandemic, new data suggests. More than 1,200 U.S. women died in 2021 during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth, according to a final tally released Thursday by the Centers for...
Macron shuns parliament to raise French retirement age
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power. Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick...
U.S. releases video of Russian jet dumping fuel on its droneVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone’s propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea. The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the...
Freight train carrying hazardous material derails in Arizona
TOPOCK, Ariz. — A freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in western Arizona, near the state’s border with California and Nevada, an official said. The train derailed Wednesday evening near the town of Topock, Anita Mortensen, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said, adding that she was not...
Georgia grand jury heard another Trump call recording
ATLANTA — A special grand jury that investigated whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia heard a recording of the former president pushing a top state lawmaker to call a special session to overturn his loss in the state, according to a newspaper...
Utah bans abortion clinics in wave of post-Roe restrictions
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation Wednesday that will effectively ban clinics from providing abortions, setting off a rush of confusion among clinics, hospitals and prospective patients in the deeply Republican state. Administrators from hospitals and clinics have not publicly detailed their plans to adapt...
Caesars Palace to demolish rotunda along Las Vegas Strip
LAS VEGAS — Caesars Palace is bidding farewell to its rotunda along the Strip, a move that will clear space ahead of this fall’s Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Clark County Building Department issued a demolition permit last week for the domed, Roman-themed structure along Las Vegas Boulevard,...
Ex-Wells Fargo exec to plead guilty for role in bank scandal
LOS ANGELES — A former Wells Fargo Bank executive accused of overseeing a ruse that created millions of bogus customer accounts has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges likely to send her prison for her role in the scandal. The agreement filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court...
North Korea launches ICBM before South Korea-Japan summit
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in a display of military might Thursday just hours before the leaders of South Korea and Japan were to meet at a Tokyo summit expected to be overshadowed by North Korean nuclear threats. The launch, the North’s first ICBM...
Arizona governor blasted for plans to defy execution order
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing heavy pushback from a victim’s sister and a powerful county prosecutor for her plans to defy a court order to execute a prisoner next month for his conviction in a 2002 killing. The newly elected Democratic governor vowed nearly two weeks ago...
Long-used U.S. abortion pill under threat in Texas lawsuit
AMARILLO, Texas — A federal judge in Texas raised questions Wednesday about a Christian group’s effort to overturn federal regulators’ decades-old approval of a leading abortion drug, in a case that could threaten the country’s most common method for ending pregnancies. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard more than four hours of...
Gov. Shapiro’s NCAA bracket pits Pitt vs. Penn State in Sweet 16
It’s a bold prediction. One only a Pennsylvania governor could dream up. Right there in his Sweet 16 round, Gov. Josh Shapiro has Pitt meeting Penn State in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The governor shared his bracket Wednesday on social media. It's the best three weeks in basketball, Pennsylvania.Take a...
Stormy Daniels meets with prosecutors investigating Trump
NEW YORK — Porn actor Stormy Daniels met Wednesday with prosecutors who are investigating hush money paid to her on former President Donald Trump’s behalf, her lawyer said Wednesday. The news emerged as Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney who orchestrated the payment, was giving a second day of testimony...
Macron’s pension plan advances despite strikes across France
PARIS — French people hoping to preserve their retirement benefits took to the streets nationwide on Wednesday as President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension plan was validated by a committee of lawmakers meeting behind closed doors. Macron had the means on the joint Senate and National Assembly committee to advance his...
Why U.S. troops remain in Iraq 20 years after ‘shock and awe’
WASHINGTON — Twenty years after the U.S. invaded Iraq — in blinding explosions of shock and awe — American forces remain in the country in what has become a small but consistent presence to ensure an ongoing relationship with a key military and diplomatic partner in the Middle East. The...
What’s known and not about U.S. drone-Russian jet encounter
WASHINGTON — When a Russian fighter jet collided with a large U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, it was a rare but serious incident that triggered a U.S. diplomatic protest and raised concerns about the possibility Russia could recover sensitive technology. U.S. and Russian officials had conflicting accounts of...
Fox’s Benjamin Hall talks survival after nearly dying in Ukraine
NEW YORK — A year after nearly being killed by Russian bombs while covering the war in Ukraine, Fox News’ Benjamin Hall credits a relentless optimism — and what he describes as an unexplained miracle — for getting him through. Truth is, it was probably several miracles that enabled Hall...
Not magic: Opaque AI tool may flag parents with disabilities
PITTSBURGH — For the two weeks that the Hackneys’ baby girl lay in a Pittsburgh hospital bed weak from dehydration, her parents rarely left her side, sometimes sleeping on the fold-out sofa in the room. They stayed with their daughter around the clock when she was moved to a rehab...
How Washington came to rescue U.S. banks
WASHINGTON — After the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters started furiously working the phones to find out what was going on with the failed lender — and what would happen to its panicked depositors. Waters, former chair of the House Financial Services Committee, had...
‘Nazi’ references: BBC sportscaster’s tweet revives debate
NEW YORK — The references seem endless, and they can come from anywhere. In recent days, Pope Francis compared Nicaragua’s repression of Catholics to Hitler’s rule in Germany. In Britain, a BBC sportscaster likened the nation’s asylum policy to 1930s Germany, resulting in his brief suspension and a national uproar....
Pa.’s ‘Most Wanted’: How do Pennsylvania State Police decide who makes the list?
Five are wanted for killing or trying to kill someone. One, a suspected rapist, police have been trying to apprehend since 1998. Police say they’ve committed crimes against people in the commonwealth’s biggest cities, as well as in small towns like Meadville or in suburban Chester County. And now they...
NASA Webb telescope captures star on cusp of death
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Webb Space Telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a star on the cusp of death. NASA released the picture Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The observation was among the first made by Webb following its launch in...
Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over toxic train derailment
Ohio filed a lawsuit against railroad Norfolk Southern to make sure it pays for the cleanup and environmental damage caused by a fiery train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last month, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday. The federal lawsuit also seeks to force the company to pay for groundwater...
