Jill Biden to visit Namibia, Kenya, part of U.S.-Africa push
WASHINGTON — Jill Biden will visit Namibia and Kenya this week as part of a push by the United States to step up engagement with Africa as a counterweight to China’s influence on the continent, the White House announced Tuesday. President Joe Biden told African leaders who came to Washington...
Supreme Court won’t upset Arkansas anti-Israel boycott law
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to step into a legal fight over state laws that require contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel. The justices rejected an appeal on behalf of an alternative weekly newspaper in Little Rock, Ark., that objected to a state law that reduces...
Ukraine’s health care on the brink after hundreds of attacks
KRASNOHORIVKA, Ukraine — Valentyna Mozgova sweeps shattered glass and other debris from the vacant halls of the bombed-out hospital where she began her career. Living in the basement, the 55-year-old lab technician now works as its solitary guard. Russian artillery strikes targeted Marinskaya Central District Hospital in 2017 and again...
Democratic governors form alliance on abortion rights
Democratic governors in 20 states are launching a network intended to strengthen abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision nixing a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy and instead shifting regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments. Organizers, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom,...
Putin suspends Russia’s involvement in key nuclear arms pact
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States — sharply upping the ante amid tensions with Washington over the fighting in Ukraine. Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address,...
Buttigieg urges safety changes after fiery Ohio derailment
OMAHA, Neb. — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants the nation’s freight railroads to immediately act to improve safety while regulators try to strengthen safety rules in the wake of a fiery derailment in Ohio that forced evacuations when toxic chemicals were released and burned. Buttigieg announced a package of reforms...
Explosion at Ohio metals plant kills 1 worker, injures 13
OAKWOOD VILLAGE, Ohio — A maintenance worker was killed in explosion at an Ohio metals plant that sparked a large fire and sent more than a dozen people to hospitals, with at least two in critical condition, authorities said. Emergency crews were called to the I. Schumann & Co. copper...
Students, faculty return to Michigan State after shooting
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University students and faculty returned to the East Lansing campus Monday as the university resumed normal operations, one week after a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others. The 50,000-student university’s campus remained relatively quiet on the first day back, with...
Republican lawmakers bash Biden’s trip to Ukraine
Republicans on Monday trashed President Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine, claiming the visit to support Kyiv is an “insult” to Americans. Dumping the tradition of politics ending at the water’s edge, right-wing lawmakers said Biden was wasting American taxpayers’ money defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion. “The President of the...
Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe out at right-wing organizationVideo
MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said in a speech posted online Monday that he has been removed as the right-wing group’s leader. In remarks that appeared to have been made at a Project Veritas’ office, O’Keefe said the board had stripped him of all decision-making. The move...
New quake hits battered Turkey, Syria; 3 dead, hundreds hurt
ANKARA, Turkey — A new 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Monday killed three people and injured more than 200 in parts of Turkey laid waste two weeks ago by a massive quake that killed tens of thousands, authorities said. More buildings collapsed, trapping some people, while scores of injuries were recorded...
Arrest made in killing of Catholic bishop in California
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna says a man arrested Monday in the weekend killing of a Catholic auxiliary bishop is the husband of the victim’s housekeeper and had done work at his home. Luna says a SWAT team arrested Carlos Medina in the morning at his home...
In test, zaps to spine help 2 stroke survivors move arms
WASHINGTON — A stroke left Heather Rendulic with little use of her left hand and arm, putting certain everyday tasks like tying shoes or cutting foods out of reach. “I live one-handed in a two-handed world and you don’t realize how many things you need two hands for until you...
Social Security and Medicare: Troubling math, tough politics
WASHINGTON — It seems no one wants to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits. Not President Joe Biden, who is already telling voters his upcoming federal budget proposal will “defend and strengthen” the programs. Not Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has declared cuts to the programs off the table...
Pa. Department of Health sues to keep medical marijuana program data secret
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 — The Pennsylvania Department of Health is again suing Spotlight PA in an attempt to keep information about how patients...
Revelers enjoy Carnival street parades across Germany
DUESSELDORF, Germany — Hundreds of thousands of revelers took to the streets across Germany Monday to celebrate Carnival dressed up in colorful costumes, amid an abundance of candy, flowers and alcohol. Popular street parades in traditional Carnival strongholds such as Duesseldorf, Cologne and Mainz in the Rhineland drew huge crowds...
Israel’s Netanyahu advances judicial changes despite uproar
JERUSALEM — Israel’s government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls for restraint by the United States. Thousands of demonstrators were gathering outside the parliament,...
Trump absent as Iowa 2024 GOP caucus train begins to roll
DES MOINES, Iowa — Nikki Haley is swinging through Iowa this week fresh off announcing her presidential campaign. Her fellow South Carolinian Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, will also be here as he decides his political future. And former Vice President Mike Pence was just in the state courting influential evangelical...
Record 6,542 guns intercepted at U.S. airport security in ’22
ATLANTA — The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster. The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns...
1 dead, 4 wounded, after Mardi Gras shooting in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — One person has died and four are in stable condition after a shooting during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, police said Monday. The New Orleans Police Department said one suspect was taken into custody shortly after the Sunday night shooting. The department said in a...
Biden declares ‘Kyiv stands’ in surprise visit to Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — President Joe Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “One year...
Penn State Thon sets another fundraising record. Here’s how much money was raised
UNIVERSITY PARK — After hitting a record-breaking fundraising total in 2022, the 2023 Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon smashed the record again, raising $15 million to combat pediatric cancer. Each year, the largest student-run philanthropy raises money for the Four Diamonds Fund, which goes toward cancer research and covers childhood...
Pete Buttigieg warns Norfolk Southern to support Ohio community
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter Sunday to the CEO of Norfolk Southern, warning that the freight rail company must “demonstrate unequivocal support for the people” of East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding areas after a fiery train derailment led to the release of chemicals and residents expressing...
North Korea fires short-range missiles after making threats
In its second weapons test in three days, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Monday, rekindling regional animosities over U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. The weapons firings follow an intercontinental ballistic missile launch Saturday and North Korea’s threats to...
Party officials say Casey, Fetterman health issues ‘too early’ to raise concern
It is a rare moment in modern history when both of a state’s U.S. senators are sidelined with health issues. But if the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-seat majority, were in session today Pennsylvania’s two Democratic senators would be absent. Pennsylvania’s senior senator, Bob Casey, is recovering from surgery...
