Italy shifts to the right as voters reward Meloni’s party
ROME — A party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, won the most votes in Italy’s national elections, looking set to deliver the country’s first far-right-led government since World War II and make its leader, Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first woman premier, near-final results showed Monday. Italy’s lurch to the...
Official: 2 killed amid crashes during pop-up New Jersey car rally
WILDWOOD, N.J. — A pop-up car rally over the weekend in southern New Jersey led to multiple crashes and the deaths of at least two people riding in a golf cart, officials say. Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron told NJ Advance Media on Sunday that there were a series of car...
Poll: Most Democrats say ditch Biden as 2024 nominee; Trump is preferred candidate among Republicans
A majority of U.S. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents want the party to replace President Joe Biden as its nominee in the 2024 presidential election, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll reported on Sunday. Just 35% of this group prefer Biden for the nomination, while 56% say the Democratic Party should...
Report: Man arrested in child sex sting was Harrisburg area minister
A man arrested in a child sex sting in the Philadelphia suburbs was a minister at a Harrisburg area church, according to information from the Montgomery County District Attorney and reporting by ABC27. David Kohlmeier, 46, was arrested Sept. 16 on charges stemming from an operation in which detectives posed...
Exit poll: Italian far-right leader’s alliance leading vote
ROME —Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s electoral alliance appeared to hold a wide lead in Italy’s national vote, an exit poll on state television suggested Sunday evening following a record-low turnout. Rai state broadcaster said Meloni’s Brothers of Italy in alliance with two right-wing parties appeared headed to take 45% of...
Puerto Ricans await aid, fret about post-hurricane recovery
TOA BAJA, Puerto Rico — City worker Carmen Medina walked purposefully through the working-class community of Tranquility Village under a brutal sun, with clipboard, survey forms and pen in hand — part of a small army of officials trying to gauge the scope of disaster caused by Hurricane Fiona’s strike...
Ian strengthens into a hurricane, heads toward Cuba, FloridaVideo
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Forecasters say Tropical Storm Ian has strengthened into a hurricane as it moves closer to Cuba on a track expected to take it to Florida in the coming days. Ian was forecast to intensify rapidly and become a major hurricane as soon as late Monday. Authorities in...
Texas vow to ‘eliminate all rapists’ rings hollow at clinics
AUSTIN, Texas — When Texas’ new abortion law made no exceptions in cases of rape, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended it with an assurance: Texas would get to work eliminating rapes. One year later, Lindsey LeBlanc is busy as ever helping rape victims in a college town outside Houston. “The...
Josh Shapiro’s low-key style poses test for Dems in Pennsylvania
CHAMBERSBURG — Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is perhaps best known as an election denier who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. John Fetterman, the Democrat hoping to flip the state’s Senate seat, has revolutionized how campaigns use social media. And Dr. Mehmet Oz...
Chinese survivors had no food, water on sinking boat
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia — The list of survivors from a boat that sank near a Cambodian island increased Saturday to 30 of the 41 passengers from China, who described embarking on what they believed would be a short-term fishing job and ended up without food and water aboard the vessel and...
Russia shells Ukrainian cities amid Kremlin-staged votes
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kremlin-orchestrated votes took place in occupied regions of Ukraine to create a pretext for their annexation by Moscow. Ukraine’s presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19. Oleksandr Starukh, the Ukrainian...
Arizona judge: State can enforce near-total abortion ban
PHOENIX — Arizona can enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years, a judge ruled Friday, meaning clinics statewide will have to stop providing the procedures to avoid the filing of criminal charges against doctors and other medical workers. The judge lifted a decades-old...
QAnon follower who chased officer convicted in Jan. 6 trial
WASHINGTON — An Iowa man was convicted Friday of charges that he led a crowd of rioters in chasing a U.S. Capitol police officer up a staircase and accosting other officers guarding the Senate, one of the most harrowing scenes of the mob’s attack that day. A federal jury deliberated...
Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, others visit Monongahela to unveil House GOP’s midterm agenda
MONONGAHELA — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and some other big Republican names stopped by a manufacturing facility in Monongahela on Friday to reveal the House GOP’s “Commitment to America.” The GOP leader — along with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and...
Looming election jolts Harrisburg into action as Pa. lawmakers pass a flurry of bills, cash in on fundraisers
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 — Horse-trading, nose-holding, and a whole lot of cash. The Pennsylvania Capitol this week jolted into action with just six...
Some cities are passing bans on natural gas appliances to help curb emissions, climate change
Cookin’ with gas? Maybe not for long. According to CBS News, “major cities across the U.S. are passing bans on gas stoves and other appliances that run on natural gas because of their planet-warming emissions.” About 80 local governments — mostly in California — have passed laws requiring or encouraging...
Trump allies create a new super PAC called MAGA Inc.
NEW YORK — Top allies of former President Donald Trump are creating a new super PAC that’s expected to serve as the main vehicle for his midterm spending and could become a key part of his campaign infrastructure should he move forward with a 2024 White House run. The political...
Execs: U.S. internet casino gambling is poised for expansion
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — As sports betting has swept across the country with states, casinos and consumers eagerly embracing a new gambling market, internet casino games have grown much more slowly. But the online casino market has tremendous potential for growth and expansion, participants in a major casino conference said...
Oz releases health records to spotlight Fetterman’s stroke
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, released his health records as he maneuvers to keep questions about Democratic rival John Fetterman’s recovery from a stroke front and center in the hotly contested campaign. Dr. Rebecca Kurth in New York City wrote in a four-page letter...
New model to enlist regular Americans to resettle refugees
SAN DIEGO — When nearly 80,000 Afghans arrived in the United States, refugee resettlement agencies quickly became overwhelmed, still scrambling to rehire staff and reopen offices after being gutted as the Trump administration dropped refugee admissions to a record low. So the U.S. State Department, working with humanitarian organizations, turned...
Bargain hunter scores 700-year-old medieval times document
PORTLAND, Maine — A bargain hunter who went to an estate sale in Maine to find a KitchenAid mixer, a bookshelf or vintage clothing walked away with a 700-year-old treasure. Instead of a kitchen appliance, Will Sideri stumbled upon a framed document hanging on a wall. It had elaborate script...
Russian men join exodus, fearing call-up to fight in Ukraine
ISTANBUL — Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin’s partial military mobilization. Queues stretching for 6 miles formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according...
Syrian official says 73 dead after migrant boat sinks
DAMASCUS, Syria — The death toll from a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon that sank in Syrian waters has risen to at least 73, state TV quoted Syria’s health minister as saying on Friday. Syrian authorities said some family members of the victims have started crossing into Syria from neighboring...
Moscow-held regions of Ukraine in ‘sham’ vote to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine — Voting began in Russian-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Moscow-backed officials there said Friday as Ukrainian and United Nations officials reported evidence of war crimes during the nearly seven-month war in the country. The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely denounced by...
Hurricane Fiona roars by Bermuda, on route to Canada
CAGUAS, Puerto Rico — Fiona, a Category 3 hurricane, pounded Bermuda with heavy rains and winds early Friday as it swept by the island on a route forecast to have it approaching northeastern Canada late in the day as a still-powerful storm. Authorities in Bermuda opened shelters and closed schools...
