Pa.’s richest person has spent at least $18 million on 2022 primary — mostly to influence 1 issue
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 — What does a conservative upstart challenging a top House Republican in York County have in common with a scion...
North Korea’s Kim faces ‘huge dilemma’ on aid as virus surges
SEOUL, South Korea — During more than a decade as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un has made “self-reliance” his governing lynchpin, shunning international help and striving instead for domestic strategies to fix his battered economy. But as an illness suspected to be covid-19 sickens hundreds of thousands of his...
Fall of Mariupol appears at hand; fighters leave steel plant
KYIV, Ukraine — Mariupol appeared on the verge of falling to the Russians on Tuesday as Ukraine moved to abandon the steel plant where hundreds of its fighters had held out for months under relentless bombardment in the last bastion of resistance in the devastated city. The capture of Mariupol...
Livestreamed carnage: Tech’s hard lessons from mass killings
These days, mass shooters like the one now held in the Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket attack don’t stop with planning out their brutal attacks. They also create marketing plans while arranging to livestream their massacres on social platforms in hopes of fomenting more violence. Sites like Twitter, Facebook and now the...
‘Like every other day’: 10 lives lost on a trip to the store
BUFFALO, N.Y. — They were caregivers and protectors and helpers, running an errand or doing a favor or finishing out a shift, when their paths crossed with a young man driven by racism and hatred and baseless conspiracy theories. In a flash, the ordinariness of their day was broken at...
Students protest, discontent grows over China’s covid policy
BEIJING — Administrators at an elite Beijing university have backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions on students as part of China’s “zero-covid” strategy after a weekend protest at the school, according to students Tuesday. Graduate students at Peking University staged the rare, but peaceful protest Sunday over...
Democratic governor candidate Josh Shapiro says he has covid
Attorney General Joshua Shapiro, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, announced that he has tested positive for covid-19. He tweeted that Monday night, before heading to Johnstown and Pittsburgh, he took a precautionary covid test. “I’m experiencing some mild symptoms and will continue serving the people of Pennsylvania as I...
Shooting along Indiana highway where SUV was stopped kills 2
PALMYRA, Ind. — Two men were fatally shot after a police officer and two good Samaritans stopped along a southern Indiana highway to help a driver who was stopped in the roadway, police said. The shooting happened Monday night after an officer with the Palmyra Police Department stopped to assist...
Clashes break out in Tripoli, drive rival Libyan PM away
CAIRO — An attempt by one of Libya’s rival prime ministers to seat his government in the capital of Tripoli triggered clashes Tuesday between competing militias, forcing the newly appointed premier to leave the city. The development underscored the fragility of the situation in the war-wracked country while the two...
Pennsylvanians to cast 1st ballots under redistricted maps
The first electoral aftershocks from legislative redistricting earlier this year will be felt Tuesday, when Pennsylvania voters pick primary candidates for Congress, 203 state House seats and 25 Senate districts. Many voters will not notice a thing — they will be at a familiar polling place and cast votes for...
Queen makes surprise appearance to mark new subway line
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II made a surprise visit Tuesday to a train station in central London to see a newly completed subway line named in her honor. The 96-year-old monarch, who has reduced most of her public engagements, appeared Tuesday at Paddington Station to see the east-west Elizabeth Line,...
Arizona state senator slammed for Buffalo shooting comments
PHOENIX — The Arizona Senate on Monday opened an ethics investigation into a firebrand Republican member who tweeted inflammatory comments about last weekend’s racist attack at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket that left 10 people dead. The referral of Sen. Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff to the Ethics Committee was in lieu...
White House moves to loosen remittance, flight rules on Cuba
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Monday that it will expand flights to Cuba, take steps to loosen restrictions on U.S. travelers to the island, and lift Trump-era restrictions on remittances that immigrants can send to people on the island. The State Department said in a statement that it will...
With echoes of Trump, GOP splinters over $40B aid for Ukraine
WASHINGTON — Signs of Republican resistance are mounting over a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, a reemergence of the Trump-led isolationist wing of the GOP that’s coming at a crucial moment as the war against the Russian invasion deepens. The Senate voted late Monday to advance the Ukraine aid...
7 people shot in separate incidents in North Carolina city
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Police in a North Carolina city are investigating a series of shootings in which seven people were wounded and none of the cases are random, authorities said. Winston-Salem police said in a news release that officers responded on Sunday evening to multiple reports of gunfire at a...
1 in 9 covid hospital patients die or get readmitted within 30 days, study finds
One in 9 hospitalized covid-19 patients die or get readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being sent home, a new study has found. Deaths were observed more often in men, older individuals, those with comorbidities and people who had a history of prior hospital stays, according to the...
Florida will likely take over Disney World’s Reedy Creek, Gov. DeSantis saysVideo
SANFORD, Fla. — The state will likely assume control of Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, rather than local governments absorbing it, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday. DeSantis said he is working on a proposal that likely will be considered by the Legislature after the November elections. Reedy Creek, which...
Gov. Wolf calls recent mass shootings ‘appalling,’ reiterates call for gun reforms
Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday condemned deadly mass shootings that happened over the weekend in Buffalo and Orange County, Calif. Ten people were killed and three others injured at a shooting inside a grocery store in Buffalo on Saturday, while one person was killed and five others injured in the...
Jury selection underway in trial tied to FBI’s Russia investigation
WASHINGTON — Jury selection got underway Monday in the trial of a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign who is accused of lying to the FBI as it investigated potential ties between Donald Trump and Russia in 2016. The case against Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity attorney who represented the...
All the information you need for the Pa. primary
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 — Pennsylvania’s 2022 primary is just one day away. To make sure you’re ready to vote on May 17, Spotlight...
Western Pa. 2022 primary day election guide: Information on races, candidates and issues
Primary election day in Pennsylvania is Tuesday, May 17. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and anyone in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote. The state has an online tool to let voters find their polling place by entering their address. For more information...
Reversing Trump, Biden acts to deploy U.S. troops to Somalia
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday signed an order to deploy U.S. troops to Somalia amid heightened concerns about the country’s Islamic extremist rebels, known as al-Shabab. The move is a reversal of President Donald Trump’s decision last year to remove nearly all 700 special operations forces that had...
U.S. deaths from covid hits 1 million — less than 2½ years in
The U.S. death toll from covid-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration. The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. It is roughly equal...
Video of racist remarks to Lyft driver outside Pa. bar goes viral, police investigating
A Lyft driver’s video of passengers making racist comments and being kicked out of the car in the Lehigh Valley is going viral as local police confirm they are investigating the incident. The driver, James Bode, posted the video on his personal Facebook page late Friday night of the incident...
Starbucks will cover travel for workers seeking abortions
Starbucks said Monday it will pay the travel expenses for U.S. employees to access abortion and gender-confirmation procedures if those services aren’t available within 100 miles of a worker’s home. The Seattle coffee giant said it will also make the travel benefit available to the dependents of employees who are...
