Sri Lanka in crisis: President flees and ire turns to PM
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president fled the country Wednesday, plunging a country already reeling from economic chaos into more political turmoil. Protesters demanding a change in leadership then trained their ire on the prime minister and stormed his office. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard an...
Demand for monkeypox vaccine overwhelms NYC system
NEW YORK — Soaring demand for the monkeypox vaccine caused the appointment system to crash in New York City, one of many places where supplies have been running out almost as soon as they arrive. City health officials acknowledged the frustration over the limited supply of the vaccine and vowed...
South Africa’s many illegal guns a factor in bar shootings
JOHANNESBURG — South African police are patrolling the streets of Johannesburg’s Soweto township, following a spate of bar shootings that have rocked the nation. The country’s abundance of guns held illegally is partially to blame for the shootings in which 22 people were killed at three different taverns this past...
Russia, Ukraine discuss UN plan to free up grain exports
ISTANBUL — Russia said Wednesday it has presented a package of proposals for a “practical and quick solution” to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain during talks between Russian and Ukrainian military officials in Istanbul. Both sides were seeking an agreement on a United Nations plan for the grain’s shipment...
Wall Street opens lower after another hot inflation report
NEW YORK — Early gains on Wall Street were doused Wednesday after the government reported that surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Futures for the...
Prominent Greek actor-director found guilty of 2 rapes
ATHENS, Greece — A prominent Greek stage actor and director has been found guilty of raping two men when they were minors. Dimitris Lignadis, 57, was found guilty by an Athens court Wednesday in two out of four cases of rape. Lignadis was acquitted for insufficient evidence in a third...
U.S. inflation surges again in June, raising risks for economy
WASHINGTON — U.S. inflation surged to a new four-decade high in June because of rising prices for gas, food and rent, squeezing household budgets and pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively — trends that raise the risk of a recession. The government’s consumer price index soared 9.1%...
Police: Investigation underway into death of goat working in Aspinwall park
Aspinwall police took to Facebook hoping people would come forward about what happened a goat that was part of a herd clearing brush and noxious plants at Firemen’s Memorial Park and died. Six goats from Capricious Goats, run by McCandless couple Monica and Timothy Shields, began work to clear the...
Video shows police milling in hallway during Uvalde massacre
AUSTIN, Texas — Surveillance footage captured the gunman in the Uvalde school shooting enter the building with a AR-15 style rifle and later shows officers in body armor milling in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The video published Tuesday by the...
Pennsylvania funds 3 new state parks, locations yet to be determined
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s governor tweeted he had “big news” on Tuesday, announcing the state budget passed in recent days includes funding for three new state parks. Gov. Tom Wolf’s press secretary, Beth Rementer, subsequently said the park sites haven’t been chosen, but work to identify and purchase the land is...
Prosecutor: Ohio escapee had woman at knifepoint, was killed
MASON, Ohio — A member of a law enforcement tactical team shot and killed an escaped prison inmate on Tuesday after the team entered an Ohio hotel room where authorities said he was holding a woman at knifepoint, prosecutors said. Authorities in Hamilton County had been seeking Thomas Cromwell, 27,...
John Fetterman’s fund-raising broke a record as he won the nomination for U.S. Senate
John Fetterman’s cash machine is still rolling — and gaining speed. The lieutenant governor raised $8.3 million for his U.S. Senate campaign between his Democratic primary win and the end of June, according to campaign figures shared first with The Inquirer. That was part of a record-setting $11 million haul...
Western Pa. U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung nominated to 3rd Circuit bench
President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated Cindy K. Chung to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Chung, 46, has served as the U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania since 2021. She would become the first Asian American to sit on the Third Circuit court...
‘The virus is not done with us yet’: New covid-19 variants better evade antibodies, doctors say
CHICAGO — For people who contracted covid-19 during earlier omicron surges, doctors have some unwelcome news: You are again susceptible to catching the virus. Two new variants of the virus appear to more easily evade immune protection from prior infections, meaning even some who have recovered from a case of...
Superbug infections, deaths rose at beginning of pandemic
NEW YORK — The toll of drug-resistant “superbug” infections worsened during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday. After years of decline, 2020 ushered in a 15% increase in hospital infections and deaths caused by some of the most worrisome bacterial infections, according to a...
Baby stars, dancing galaxies: NASA shows new cosmic views
GREENBELT, Md. — A sparkling landscape of baby stars. A foamy blue and orange view of a dying star. Five galaxies in a cosmic dance. The splendors of the universe glowed in a new batch of images released Tuesday from NASA’s powerful new telescope. The unveiling from the $10 billion...
Here’s what you need to know about Pa.’s new child care tax credit
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 — Gov. Tom Wolf has approved a new, permanent child care tax credit that will allow families to claim thousands...
Poll: Many young, educated Republicans ready to move on from Trump
A day after a New York Times poll indicated that a majority of Democrats do not want President Joe Biden as their 2024 candidate, a second poll shows that most young Republicans do not want Donald Trump to win their party’s nomination. The New York Times/Siena College poll showed that...
Panel says more accountability would make policing safer for communities, officers
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. Missed Spotlight PA’s event about the limitations of Pennsylvania’s police hiring database? Here are five of the most interesting takeaways from...
State lottery advertising tells players half of the story
HOUSTON — The sign at the SHOP N Go front counter says “WE SOLD $10,000 WINNER!!” Located in a Hispanic neighborhood, the store sells Texas Loteria, a popular game marketed by the state lottery that resembles the iconic bingo lotería game in Mexico. The sign and the game attract players...
Cheney: Trump attempted to contact Jan. 6 witnessVideo
WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6 committee revealed Tuesday that Donald Trump has attempted to contact a witness who was in discussions with the panel about its investigation of the former president and the 2021 attack on the Capitol. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said that person declined to answer or respond...
White House urges caution on covid variants, pushes boosters
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about covid-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country. The new variants, labeled BA.4 and BA.5,...
Pentagon: U.S. kills IS group leader in Syria in drone strike
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Syria in a drone strike. U.S. Central Command said in a news release that Maher al-Agal was killed Tuesday and an unidentified senior official in the Islamic State group was seriously injured. The...
Jill Biden apologizes for saying Latinos ‘unique’ as tacosVideo
WASHINGTON — Jill Biden apologized Tuesday for saying Latinos are “as unique” as San Antonio breakfast tacos during a speech to the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. “The first lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” tweeted Jill...
Wolf says he’ll protect abortion seekers
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf is following in the footsteps of other Democratic governors following the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and looking to protect patients who travel to Pennsylvania for the procedure from being prosecuted by their home states. Wolf on Tuesday said in a statement that he would...