News category, Page 733

BEIJING — Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential for a bigger covid-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush. It wasn’t clear how many schools were participating, but universities in Shanghai and nearby cities...

A lunar lander built by Astrobiotic in Pittsburgh has passed a battery of critical tests, moving one step closer to touching down on the moon early next year. The Peregrine lunar lander, which stands a bit more than 6 feet tall and is about 8 feet in diameter, is expected...

ISLAMABAD — China on Tuesday advised its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country “as soon as possible,” following a coordinated attack by Islamic State militants the previous day on a Chinese-owned hotel in the heart of Kabul. The Chinese advisory appeared to be a setback for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers...

President Vladimir Putin has ditched his annual marathon news conference following a series of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine — a tacit acknowledgment that the Russian leader’s war has gone badly wrong. Putin typically uses the year-end ritual to polish his image, answering a wide range of questions on domestic and...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed gay marriage legislation into law Tuesday before a crowd of thousands, a ceremony that reflected growing acceptance of same-sex unions. “This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,” Biden said on the South Lawn of the...

PARIS — Dozens of countries and international organizations threw their weight and hundreds of millions of dollars behind a fresh and urgent push Tuesday to keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving this winter, responding defiantly to sustained Russian aerial bombardments that have plunged millions into the cold and dark...

The Department of Energy is planning an announcement Tuesday about a “major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of several sites worldwide where researchers have been trying to develop the possibility of harnessing energy from nuclear fusion. It’s a technology that has the potential to one day...

Competition for the limited-release of high-end Pappy Van Winkle products offered by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board last month in a lottery didn’t include any bourbon enthusiasts who work for the agency. Neither did it include any of those 6,800 employees’ spouses, agency board members, their children regardless of where...

ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed the Georgia secretary of state’s office and at least one metro Atlanta county as it continues to investigate former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. A copy of the Dec. 9 subpoena obtained by The Washington Post...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Republicans inside and outside Pennsylvania government say that despite a disastrous midterm election, they don’t see signs that the...

PHILADELPHIA — Crews have removed the plywood box that had been placed over a Philadelphia statue of Christopher Columbus that saw tense standoffs in 2020 between supporters of the monument and opponents who viewed it as a symbol of white supremacy. The box was removed Sunday night, as a small...

One of Pennsylvania’s largest drillers will be allowed to extract natural gas from underneath a rural Pennsylvania community where it has been banned for a dozen years because of accusations it polluted the water supply, according to a settlement with state regulators. The Department of Environmental Protection quietly lifted its...

RICHMOND, Va. — The city of Richmond — the capital of the Confederacy for most of the Civil War — removed its last city-owned Confederate statue on Monday, more than two years after it began to purge itself of what many saw as painful symbols of racial oppression. It took...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused a request from tobacco companies to stop California from enforcing a ban on flavored tobacco products that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November. R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies sought the high court’s intervention to keep the ban from taking effect...

John and Gisele Fetterman already have become political celebrities after the high-profile victory in this year’s Pennsylvania Senate race. Their profiles are poised to rise even higher as both will appear in a new Netflix film that premieres later this month. In a tweet, John Fetterman shared a photo of...

The federal Supreme Court rejected President Biden’s immediate request to revive his student debt relief plan on Dec. 1. The court will review oral arguments in February 2023 and then determine whether the leading lawsuit against the program has merit. As the case reaches the highest U.S. court of law,...

MIAMI — For more than two years, almost since the time of his arrest on U.S. warrant, Alex Saab has insisted he is a Venezuelan diplomat targeted for his work helping the South American country circumvent American economic sanctions. Starting Monday, the Colombian-born businessman will get a chance to prove...

BEIJING — China said it would stop tracking some travel, potentially reducing the likelihood people will be forced into quarantine for visiting Covid-19 hot spots, as part of an uncertain exit from the strict pandemic policies that helped fuel widespread protests. Once midnight hit Monday, the part of a smart...

With the midterm elections officially over, Republicans are pointing fingers over their disastrous performance — and the divisive role of former President Donald Trump. Herschel Walker’s loss in the closely watched Georgia Senate run off capped a campaign in which the GOP dramatically failed to engineer a sweeping red wave...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is reinstating a task force that is aimed at helping immigrants and refugees integrate into the United States. The Task Force on New Americans will be run by the Domestic Policy Council and the focus will be workforce training, education and financial access as well...