Judge accepts insanity plea deal for man in face-biting case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A judge accepted a plea deal Monday for a man who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face that will send him to a mental hospital for treatment. Austin Harrouff, 25, pleaded not guilty by...
Buffalo gunman pleads guilty in racist supermarket massacre
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing that he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two...
Pa. Republicans look inward after voters quashed the expected red wave
Votes were barely counted in the Nov. 8 election before the “autopsy” stories started rolling in on the Pennsylvania Republican Party. After Democrats took back the state House after 12 years and won contested congressional races, the governor’s race, and U.S. Senate seat in an expected “red wave” year for...
Ukraine on edge for more attacks, West eyes humanitarian aid
KYIV — Ukraine prepared for more Russian strikes on Monday and warned of the possibility for a new round of evacuations from the capital during a relative lull from the airstrikes on energy facilities and other key infrastructure in recent weeks. In the West, meanwhile, preparations were stepped up to...
Pennsylvania campaign wild card Fetterman turns to governing
HARRISBURG — When John Fetterman goes to Washington in January as one of the Senate’s new members, he’ll bring along an irreverent style from Pennsylvania that extends from his own personal dress code — super casual — to hanging marijuana flags outside his current office in the state Capitol. Pennsylvania’s...
China’s Xi faces threat from public anger over zero covid
SHANGHAI — Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year. Demonstrators poured into the streets...
Crews rescue 2 from plane caught in power lines in Maryland
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Two people were rescued early Monday more than six hours after their small plane crashed into live power lines, causing widespread outages in Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said the plane got stuck in the lines about 100 feet (30 meters) above the...
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupts, officials warn people to prepareVideo
HONOLULU — Waves of orange, glowing lava and smoky ash erupted Monday from the world’s largest active volcano and people living on Hawaii’s Big Island were warned to be ready if their communities are threatened. The eruption of Mauna Loa wasn’t immediately endangering towns, but officials told residents to be...
Hospitals embrace mergers as path to survival
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a three-day series examining the rapidly changing health care landscape in Western Pennsylvania. As Excela Health CEO John Sphon irons out the details of a merger with Butler Health System, his message to the public is clear. He believes the alliance...
Newborn among 7 dead in landslide on Italy’s Ischia island
MILAN — Search teams have recovered seven dead, including a 3-week-old infant and a pair of young siblings, buried in mud and debris that hurtled down a mountainside and through a densely populated port city on the resort island of Ischia, officials said Sunday. The Naples prefect confirmed that five...
Trump faulted for dinner with white nationalist and rapper Ye
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is renewing attention to his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House. Trump had dinner Tuesday...
Kim’s daughter appears again, heating up succession debate
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter made a public appearance again, this time with missile scientists and more honorific titles as her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” child. She’s only about 10, but her new, bold photos are deepening the debate over whether she’s being...
Crowd angered by lockdowns calls for China’s Xi to step down
SHANGHAI — Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China’s powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party. Police using pepper spray drove away demonstrators in Shanghai...
As Western Pa. hospitals expand, fears grow over higher health care costsVideo
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a three-day series examining the rapidly changing health care landscape in Western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania’s two health care giants have jumped into a controversial nationwide hospital building boom, spending billions on glitzy, state-of-the-art facilities that critics say patients ultimately will pay for...
New state voter fraud units finding few cases from midterms
WASHINGTON — State-level law enforcement units created after the 2020 presidential election to investigate voter fraud are looking into scattered complaints more than two weeks after the midterms but have provided no indication of systemic problems. That’s just what election experts had expected and led critics to suggest that the...
At Nantucket retreat, Biden family weighs 2024 run
President Joe Biden and his family are tackling a weighty question during their Thanksgiving holiday retreat to the chilly quiet of Nantucket: whether he’ll seek a second term in 2024. A final decision won’t be made on the Massachusetts island, where the Bidens are staying at a home owned by...
Judge to decide on Florida face-biter insanity plea
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former college student who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face finally goes on trial Monday, with a judge deciding whether he goes to prison for life or to a mental hospital. Austin Harrouff,...
Judge denies bid for new trial in Whitmer kidnapping case
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A federal judge has denied a new trial request by two men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Lawyers for Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. alleged misconduct by a juror and unfairness by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker following their conviction...
Police: Brazil school shooter wore swastika, planned attack
BRASILIA, Brazil — A former student armed with a semiautomatic pistol and a revolver who killed three people and wounded 13 in two schools in Brazil had a swastika pinned to his vest and had been planning the attacks for two years, police said. The shootings took place Friday at...
Sober or bright? Europe faces holidays during energy crunch
VERONA, Italy — Early season merrymakers sipping mulled wine and shopping for holiday decorations packed the Verona Christmas market for its inaugural weekend. But beyond the wooden market stalls, the Italian city still has not decked out its granite-clad pedestrian streets with twinkling holiday lights as officials debate how bright...
Civilians escape Kherson after Russian strikes on freed city
KHERSON, Ukraine — Fleeing shelling, hundreds of civilians on Saturday streamed out of the southern Ukrainian city whose recapture they had celebrated just weeks earlier. The escape of hundreds from Kherson came as the country paid homage to the millions of Ukrainians who died in a Stalin-era famine — and...
Inflation hovers over shoppers seeking deals on Black Friday
NEW YORK — Cautious shoppers hunted for the best deals at stores and online as retailers offered new Black Friday discounts to entice consumers eager to start buying holiday gifts but weighed down by inflation. Due to elevated prices for food, rent, gasoline and other essentials, many people were being...
Here’s why Pa. House Democrats will lose their majority for at least a few weeks
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 — Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania state House on Nov. 8, but their majority is going to disappear for...
Emboldened Biden, Dems push ban on so-called assault weapons
WASHINGTON — When President Joe Biden speaks about the “scourge” of gun violence, his go-to answer is to zero in on so-called assault weapons. America has heard it hundreds of times, including this week after shootings in Colorado and Virginia: The president wants to sign into law a ban on...
U.S. official urges de-escalation as Turkey strikes Syria
BEIRUT — A U.S. official in Syria on Friday called for an “immediate de-escalation” following days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syria-Turkey border, saying the actions destabilize the region and undermine the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected...
