Family of American says he was freed by Taliban in swap
WASHINGTON — An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released, his family said Monday, as a Taliban drug lord jailed by the United States was also freed and returned to Kabul. Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who had spent more...
Russia, China agree to expand security ties
MOSCOW — A top Russian security official declared Monday on a visit to China that the Kremlin considers beefing up ties with Beijing as a top policy goal. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the national Security Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the “strengthening of comprehensive partnership and strategic...
U.S. aircraft carrier to visit S. Korea amid N. Korean threats
SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. aircraft carrier is to visit South Korea this week for its first joint training with South Korean warships in five years, officials said Monday, in an apparent show of force against increasing North Korean nuclear threats. The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its...
Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeralVideo
LONDON — Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who thronged the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age. In a country...
Biden: Classified documents at Mar-a-Lago raise concernsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says the discovery of top-secret documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate raised concerns that sensitive data was compromised and called it “irresponsible.” Biden, who rarely does interviews, spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday. He said that when he...
Zelenskyy promises no ‘lull’ in taking back Ukrainian towns
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised his country there would be no letup in the counteroffensive that has reclaimed towns and cities from Russian troops, as shelling continued Sunday across a wide stretch of Ukraine. Zelenskyy ran through a list of towns that Ukraine has taken back in...
Lawsuits to save Confederate icons dropped in South Carolina
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Lawsuits filed to stop the removal of memorials to Confederate leaders and a pro-slavery congressman in a South Carolina city have been dropped. The Post and Courier reports that the American Heritage Association helped fund one of the lawsuits. It had been filed by descendants of John...
Biden, Jill Biden share memories of 2021 visit with queen
LONDON — U.S. President Joe Biden, in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, said Sunday that his heart goes out to her family because her death has left it with a “giant hole.” “Sometimes you think you’ll never, you’ll never overcome it,” said Biden, who often speaks in...
Report: Some census takers who fudged data didn’t get fired
Some census takers who falsified information during the 2020 count didn’t have their work redone fully, weren’t fired in a timely manner and in some cases even received bonuses, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s watchdog group. The findings released Friday by the Office of Inspector General raise concerns about...
Hurricane Fiona rips through powerless Puerto RicoVideo
HAVANA — Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico’s southwest coast on Sunday as it unleashed landslides, knocked the power grid out and ripped up asphalt from roads and flung the pieces around. Forecasters said the storm would cause massive flooding and threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain, with up to...
Bidens among thousands to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II
LONDON — U.S. President Joe Biden paid his respects at Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the queen’s state funeral — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest...
Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices
Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists across the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time. In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter...
Fire at Los Angeles strip mall kills 17 cats at pet hotel
LOS ANGELES — Seventeen cats were killed at a Los Angeles pet hotel and a firefighter was injured early Saturday when a blaze ripped through a strip mall where the facility is located, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. More than 120 firefighters were dispatched to the blaze in the...
U.S.-backed Syrian forces free women in 3-week raid of IS camp
BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Syrian fighters said Saturday they have concluded a 24-day sweep at a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children linked to the Islamic State group. Dozens of extremists were detained and weapons were confiscated in the operation at al-Hol camp, which...
For Russia’s Putin, military and diplomatic pressures mount
KYIV, Ukraine — Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battlefield and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive Saturday to advance farther into Ukraine’s partly recaptured northeast. At a high-level summit in Uzbekistan, Putin vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite...
Court hearing set for Monday in Baltimore’s Adnan Syed case
BALTIMORE — A court hearing has been set for Monday in Baltimore to consider a request from prosecutors to vacate the 2000 murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn scheduled the hearing for 2 p.m., The Baltimore Sun...
Puerto Rico under hurricane warning as Tropical Storm Fiona approaches
HAVANA — Tropical Storm Fiona was expected to become a hurricane as it neared Puerto Rico on Saturday, threatening to dump up to 20 inches of rain as people braced for potential landslides, severe flooding and power outages. The storm previously battered various eastern Caribbean islands, with one death reported...
Alaska braces for huge storm, flooding, power outages
JUNEAU, Alaska — Residents on Alaska’s vast and sparsely populated western coast braced Friday for a powerful storm that forecasters said could be one of the worst in recent history, threatening hurricane-force winds and high surf that could knock out power and cause flooding. The storm is the remnants of...
Defense seeks judge’s removal in Florida school shooter case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz asked for the judge in his murder case to remove herself on Friday, two days after she scolded them when they abruptly rested their case after calling only a fraction of their expected witnesses. The Broward Public Defender’s Office...
Surprise is key part of migrant travel from Florida, Texas
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — The chief executive of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services was wrapping up work when she looked outside to see 48 strangers at her office with luggage, backpacks and red folders that included brochures for her organization. The Venezuelan migrants who were flown to the wealthy Massachusetts island from...
Pennsylvania’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race between Oz, Fetterman tightens
After a bruising primary that saw Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz emerge as the GOP nominee by less than 1,000 votes, the celebrity surgeon and TV personality’s general-election campaign got off to a slow start. That left an opening for Democratic nominee John Fetterman to define Oz early...
Efforts to ban, restrict LGBTQ curriculum in Pa. schools hinge on who becomes the next governor
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 — As a closeted gay child growing up in Lancaster in the 1990s, J Eric Fisher didn’t feel safe. He...
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signs abortion ban into law
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Friday signed into law a ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, making West Virginia the second state to enact a law prohibiting the procedure since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning its constitutional protection. The bill will go into...
Court orders Pa. diner to pay $1.35M in back wages to staff after investigation
It seems as though servers and kitchen workers employed by a Delaware County diner have some money coming to them. According to 6ABC, the government has ordered the Empire Diner to pay more than a million dollars in back wages. “We’re only here trying to make a living to feed...
Trump openly embraces, amplifies QAnon conspiracy theoriesVideo
After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows. On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with...
