Why airlines fear 5G will upend travel this week
AT&T will postpone new wireless service near some airports planned for this week after the nation’s largest airlines said the service would interfere with aircraft technology and cause massive flight disruptions. The company said Tuesday it would delay turning on new cell towers around runways at some airports — it...
Fun in the snow: Readers share photos of sledding, shoveling, snowball fights
Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania saw its first major snowfall of the season and the people across the region got out and enjoyed it. Check our gallery of images submitted from readers of people having winter fun. Did you capture a fun photo in the snow Sunday or Monday? We’d love...
Hong Kong to kill 2,000 animals after hamsters get covid
HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will kill about 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, after several tested positive for the coronavirus at a pet store where an employee was also infected. The city will also stop the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals,...
Decaying fixer-upper on ‘best block’ in San Francisco sells for $2M
OAKLAND, Calif. — A decaying, 122-year-old Victorian marketed as “the worst house on the best block” of San Francisco has sold for nearly $2 million — an eye-catching price that the realtor said was the outcome of overbidding in an auction. A developer’s $1.97 million cash offer for the 2,158-square-foot...
Blinken to visit Ukraine as U.S.-Russia tensions escalateVideo
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Ukraine this week and meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate over a possible Russian invasion of its neighbor, the State Department said Tuesday. Blinken will be in Kyiv on a hastily arranged trip to...
Biden year 1 takeaways: Grand ambitions, humbling defeats
Joe Biden’s long arc in public life has always had one final ambition: to sit behind the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office. He achieved it — albeit, at 78, as the oldest person to assume the presidency. After the turbulence and chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden was...
Suspended professor who made profanity-filled video threatens to sue if he’s not reinstated
DETROIT — A Michigan professor who was suspended after making a profanity-filled video for his students is threatening to file a lawsuit if Ferris State University doesn’t quickly lift the sanction. An attorney for Barry Mehler warned the school in a letter Tuesday, saying the history teacher is protected by...
Abortion clinics challenging Texas law dealt new setback
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Monday steered a decision about Texas’ strict abortion law to the state’s Republican-majority Supreme Court, dealing opponents another defeat and raising their concerns that the near-total ban on abortions will remain intact for the foreseeable future. The Texas law that bans abortion...
Winter storm whipping northeast U.S. with snow, thunderstormsVideo
NEW YORK — A dangerous winter storm brought significant snowfall, strong thunderstorms and blustery wind to the northeastern United States on a holiday Monday. The storm system dropped a foot or more of snow in parts of New York state, Ohio and Pennsylvania Sunday night through Monday morning after pummeling...
Trump backers sought ways into Michigan Capitol for electors meetingVideo
LANSING, Mich. — Supporters of former President Donald Trump privately discussed ways they could gain access to the Michigan Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, when the battleground state’s presidential electors met, according to four sources with knowledge of the planning. The conversations reveal some of Trump’s Michigan backers were considering...
Texas hostage-taker had ‘mental health issues,’ his brother saysVideo
DALLAS — The brother of the hostage-taker who held four people captive at a Colleyville synagogue over the weekend said the British national had “serious mental health issues” prior to traveling to the U.S. and allegedly getting a gun on the streets. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, of Blackburn, England, is...
North Korea fires short-range missiles in 4th launch this monthVideo
North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea Monday in its fourth weapons launch this month, South Korea’s military said, with the apparent goal of demonstrating its military might during paused diplomacy with the United States and pandemic border closures. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North...
Out of this world: 555.55-carat black diamond lands in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Auction house Sotheby’s Dubai has unveiled a diamond that’s literally from out of this world. Sotheby’s calls the 555.55-carat black diamond — believed to have come from outer space — “The Enigma.” The rare gem was shown off on Monday to journalists as part of...
Official: Alec Baldwin surrenders phone for shooting probe
SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin has surrendered his cellphone to authorities as part of the investigation into a fatal shooting on a New Mexico film set last fall, a law enforcement official said. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Juan Rios said Baldwin’s phone was turned over Friday to...
Flights sent to assess Tonga damage after volcanic eruptionVideo
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage a huge undersea volcanic eruption left in the Pacific island nation. A towering ash cloud since Saturday’s eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand hopes to send...
Pa. GOP answered Wolf vetoes with constitution changes in strategy that’s here to stay
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 vetoed more than 50 bills as he begins his final year in office, a number...
Western Pa. native, Pitt grad helped shine new light on betrayal of Anne Frank
AMSTERDAM — A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II’s enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the “most likely scenario” of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family. Their answer, outlined in a...
On MLK Day, Janet Yellen says U.S. economy is unfair to Black people
ATLANTA — The U.S. economy “has never worked fairly for Black Americans — or, really, for any American of color,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech delivered Monday, one of many by national leaders acknowledging unmet needs for racial equality on Martin Luther King Day. Major events for...
Pa. state police seize $72 million in illegal drugs in 2021
Cocaine’s comeback made a big leap in 2021, with Pennsylvania State Police confiscating nearly 1,000 pounds of the illegal drug. The 986 pounds seized by troopers last year, valued at $21.7 million, was more than the combined amount in 2020 (300 pounds) and 2019 (425 pounds.) In all, state police...
In Greece, unvaccinated people 60 and up face monthly fines
ATHENS, Greece — Greece imposed a vaccination mandate Monday for people 60 and older, as the country’s vaccination rate remains below the European Union average and a spike in infections has put sustained pressure on Greek hospitals. Older people failing to get vaccinated will face penalties, starting at a 50-euro...
Pandemic hasn’t slowed China’s love for U.S. lobster
PORTLAND, Maine — China is showing no signs of slowing its demand for American lobster this year despite disruption to the supply chain and international trade caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese demand for the crustaceans grew dramatically during the 2010s in part because of the expansion of the country’s...
Russia denies looking for pretext to invade Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russia’s top diplomat on Monday angrily rejected the U.S. allegations that it was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine as Russian troops have remained concentrated near the border. The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern...
Celebrated Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee dies at 102
Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who flew 409 fighter combat missions over three wars, has died. He was 102. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on Sunday announced his death on Twitter, both of them calling McGee an American hero. “While I am saddened...
Woman killed in subway shove at Times Square
NEW YORK — A woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at the Times Square station Saturday, police said, a little more than a week after the mayor and governor announced plans to boost subway policing and outreach to homeless people in New York City’s...
Snow, ice blasts through South with powerful winter stormVideo
ATLANTA — A dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice swept through parts of the U.S. Southeast on Sunday, knocking out power, felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous, frigid glaze. Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and...
