Biden toughens border, offers legal path for 30,000 a month
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Thursday the U.S. would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally, his boldest move yet to confront the arrivals of migrants that have spiraled since he took office two years ago. The new rules expand on...
U.S. to send Ukraine dozens of Bradleys in $2.85B aid package
WASHINGTON — The U.S. will send Ukraine nearly $3 billion in military aid, in a massive new package that will for the first time include several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles, U.S. officials said Thursday, in the Biden administration’s latest step to send increasingly lethal and powerful weapons to help Ukraine...
As covid surges in China, U.S. begins testing more travelers
NEWARK, N.J. — Shubham Chandra knows how dangerous the coronavirus can be: He lost his dad during the pandemic. So when he cleared customs at Newark Liberty International Airport and saw people offering anonymous covid-19 testing, he was happy to volunteer. “It’s a minimum amount of effort to help a...
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey to undergo prostate cancer surgery
HARRISBURG — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Thursday that he will undergo surgery for prostate cancer but is expected to make a full recovery. Casey, 62, said in a statement that he was diagnosed last month. “While this news came as a shock, I can report that I...
McCarthy fails for 3rd long day in GOP House speaker fight
WASHINGTON — For a long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans kept the speaker’s chair of the U.S. House sitting empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed again and again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber’s gavel. Pressure was building...
Police: Idaho slaying suspect’s DNA found at crime scene
BOISE, Idaho — The DNA of the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene, and cellphone data shows he was in the area of the victims’ home around the time of the November attack and on a...
$940M Mega Millions prize just latest of massive jackpots
DES MOINES, Iowa — Call it the Golden Age of lottery jackpots. Or to put it another way, what’s up with all the massive lottery prizes? The latest haul up for grabs is a $940 million Mega Millions jackpot, with a drawing set for Friday night. The prize ranks as...
Beds run out at Beijing hospital as covid-19 spreads
BEIJING — Patients, mostly older people, laid on stretchers in hallways or took oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as a covid-19 outbreak stretched public health facilities’ resources in China’s capital Beijing, even after its reported peak. The Chuiyangliu hospital in the city’s east was packed Thursday with newly arrived patients....
Russian church head calls for Ukraine truce, finds no takers
KYIV, Ukraine — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church called Thursday for a 36-hour Christmas cease-fire in Ukraine at the end of this week, but his appeal looked unlikely to bring any breakthrough in halting the war that began last February with Russia’s invasion. Moscow Patriarch Kirill suggested a...
Seoul: Kim’s daughter reveal hints at prolonged family rule
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s disclosure of his daughter in recent public events was likely an attempt to show his people that one of his children would one day inherit his power in what would be the country’s third hereditary power transfer, South Korea’s spy...
Faithful mourn Benedict XVI at funeral presided over by pope
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis joined tens of thousands of faithful in bidding farewell to Benedict XVI at a rare requiem Mass Thursday for a dead pope presided over by a living one, ending an unprecedented decade for the Catholic Church that was sparked by the German theologian’s decision to...
8 dead in Utah murder-suicide after wife sought divorce
ENOCH, Utah — A Utah man fatally shot his five children, his mother-in-law and his wife, then killed himself two weeks after the woman had filed for divorce, according to authorities and public records. Enoch Police Chief Jackson Ames said during a Thursday press conference that officers had been involved...
Ron DeSantis to scrutinize higher ed programs for diversity, critical-race theory activities
As Gov. Ron DeSantis targets “trendy ideology” in higher education, his administration is asking state colleges and universities for information about resources they are putting into activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory. DeSantis has made the fight against critical race theory — which is based...
Evacuations ordered as California braces for rain, floodsVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state on Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened to knock out power and flood roadways. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a...
PennDOT employee accused of helping immigrants on driver’s license tests
HARRISBURG — A former Pennsylvania Department of Transportation employee accused by authorities of charging immigrants up to $350 to help pass the knowledge test and ultimately obtain driver’s licenses said Wednesday he was seeking to help them. Angelo Carrion, 66, charged immigrants to furnish them with correct answers to get...
Congress more Christian, more religious than U.S. population, survey finds
Religiously speaking, the incoming 118th Congress looks like America — that is, the America of decades past, rather than today. Congress is far more Christian, and religious overall, than today’s general population. Even though nearly three in 10 Americans claim no religious affiliation — a rate that has risen steadily...
NYPD cop suspended for pummeling 12-year-old girl while breaking up after-school brawlVideo
NEW YORK — An NYPD cop was suspended after he was caught on video pummeling a 12-year-old girl while trying to break up an after-school brawl on Staten Island, police said Wednesday. The department’s Internal Affairs Bureau was looking into the incident as a video surfaced on social media of...
FBI boosts reward for pipe bomb info ahead of Jan. 6 anniversary
Law enforcement agencies are boosting a reward for information on the unknown individual who placed pipe bombs outside political targets one day before the Capitol riot in Washington ahead of the second anniversary of the attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the...
Proud Boys go to trial on sedition as Jan. 6 probe heats up
WASHINGTON — As members of the Proud Boys extremist group stormed past police lines and swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, their leader cheered them on from afar, prosecutors say. “Do what must be done,” Enrique Tarrio wrote on social media. “So what do we do now?” someone asked...
West Virginia school bus crash sends 15 children to hospitalVideo
WHEELING, W.Va. — A school bus crash on Wednesday morning in West Virginia sent 15 children to the hospital, authorities said. The students were taken to Wheeling Hospital as a precaution after the bus crashed, officials told news outlets. Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard told WTRF-TV that there were no...
Biggest boost in a decade brings maximum Pell Grant award to nearly $7,400 for college students
Millions of college students who receive the federal need-based Pell Grant will see the yearly maximum award increase by $500 to $7,395 this fall, the largest boost in a decade and the second increase in two years. The boost is tucked into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill to operate...
Facing migration flood, U.S. resumes services at Cuba embassy
HAVANA — Grappling with the biggest flood of Cuban migrants in decades, the United States reopened their long-closed legal pathway on Wednesday by resuming all visa services at its embassy in Havana. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans desperate to leave the island’s flailing economy and reunite with family in the...
Here’s what you need to know about new Pa. House Speaker Mark Rozzi
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 House picked state Rep. Mark Rozzi to be the chamber’s new speaker Tuesday in a surprise vote....
Russian military flaws seen in troop deaths
KYIV, Ukraine — The Russian military’s top brass came under increasing scrutiny Wednesday as more details emerged of how at least 89 Russian soldiers, and possibly many more, were killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack on a single building. The scene last weekend in the Russian-held eastern Ukrainian town of...
Pa. native Molly Broad, UNC’s first female system president, dies at 81
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Molly Corbett Broad, the first female president of the University of North Carolina system and who later became a top advocate for U.S. higher education, has died at age 81. Broad died early Monday, according to a statement from her family. The statement was provided to...
