4 dead, at least 20 injured in South Carolina island shooting
Four people were killed and at least 20 injured in a shooting at a restaurant in a South Carolina island town on Sunday, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies were called to Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island just before 1 a.m. and found several people suffering...
Madagascar president warns of coup attempt as more soldiers join protests
ANTANANARIVO — Madagascar’s presidency said on Sunday that an attempt to grab power by force was underway in the African nation as more soldiers joined a youth-led protest movement that has rocked the former French colony for more than two weeks. Troops from the elite CAPSAT unit that helped President...
Beijing blames U.S. for raising trade tensions, defends rare earth curbs
BEIJING/HONG KONG — China called President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on Chinese goods hypocritical on Sunday and defended its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment, but stopped short of imposing new levies on U.S. products. Trump on Friday responded to Beijing’s most recent export controls by imposing...
Dozens killed in Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes, border closed
ISLAMABAD — Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both sides said on Sunday, in the most serious fighting between the neighbours since the Taliban came to power in Kabul. The Pakistan military said that 23 of its soldiers were killed in the clashes....
Partisan shutdown standoff ignores key risk to U.S. stability: rising national debt
WASHINGTON — The ongoing shutdown debate between Democrats and President Donald Trump’s Republicans is largely avoiding the difficult fiscal issues clouding the country’s future — the rising national debt and the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The fifteenth partial federal government shutdown since 1981 has been sparked...
Ceasefire holds in Gaza ahead of hostage release and Trump’s visit to IsraelVideo
CAIRO/JERUSALEM — A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held in Gaza for a third day on Sunday ahead of the expected release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and an address by U.S. President Donald Trump to Israel’s parliament. Thousands of Palestinians continued to travel north towards Gaza City, the...
Appeals court rejects Trump request to deploy National Guard in Chicago area
A federal appeals court on Saturday rejected the Trump administration’s request to immediately allow the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, leaving in place a lower court’s order that blocked the mobilization temporarily. In a brief order, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the federal government remains...
White House: Trump gets covid shot in preparation for upcoming travel
President Donald Trump has received updated flu and covid-19 booster shots in preparation for upcoming travel, the president’s physician announced Friday. Sean P. Barbabella, a Navy captain, shared the information in a letter submitted Friday to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “President Donald J. Trump successfully completed a scheduled...
Education Department lays off roughly 20% of its workforce amid shutdown
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education on Friday laid off over 460 employees, dramatically reducing the workforce of a beleaguered agency that is already struggling to serve students on the heels of massive cuts. The number was made public in a court filing the same day from the Justice...
Trump to posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Medal of Freedom at White House ceremony
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he will posthumously award slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Medal of Freedom at a White House celebration next week. Trump said he’ll be rushing back to the U.S. from Israel and Egypt, following a trip that’s tied to a ceasefire and hostage-release deal...
White House lays off thousands of U.S. government workers, blaming shutdown
President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Democrats for his decision to lay off thousands of workers across the U.S. government as he followed through on his threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown. Job cuts were under way at the Treasury Department, the U.S. health agency, the...
Nor’easter without a name to bring ocean flooding and high winds to U.S. East Coast
A storm without a name was expected to bring flooding to the East Coast from South Carolina to New Jersey and high winds to New York City over the holiday weekend. While the storm affecting the eastern U.S. wasn’t tropical, two other tropical storms were churning in the Atlantic Ocean...
MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding; other schools still mulling
Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Friday said she “cannot support” a memo the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding. In an open letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Kornbluth said...
Trump ratchets up U.S.-China trade war, promising new tariffs
President Donald Trump revived the trade war against Beijing on Friday, ending an uneasy truce between the two largest economies with promises to sharply hike tariffs in a reprisal against China curbing its critical mineral exports. The president unveiled additional levies of 100% on China’s U.S.-bound exports, along with new...
19 missing, deaths confirmed as explosion rocks manufacturing plant in Tennessee
Nineteen people are unaccounted for after an explosion Friday at an explosive manufacturing plant in Tennessee. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis initially said some people had died in the blast, later telling reporters 19 people were missing in wake of the explosion that occurred at 7:45 a.m., calling it a...
White House budget chief says government job cuts have begun
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s administration has begun laying off federal workers on Friday during the government shutdown, with a White House budget office spokesperson characterizing the layoffs as “substantial” in number. The U.S. health agency confirmed that some of its workers have received layoff notices. “The RIFs have begun,”...
Trump sees no reason to meet China’s Xi, threatens tariffs in new rift
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese exports and cancel a meeting with President Xi Jinping, in a broadside against Beijing on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world’s largest economies into a spiral. Trump, due to meet Xi in about three weeks in...
Age 62, 67 or 70? Here’s the best time to claim Social Security
Some older Americans, staring down potential Social Security benefit cuts, might look to access the program as soon as possible. Experts say that could be a mistake. Instead, potential beneficiaries should consider their health and life expectancy, what buckets of money they can pull from, if they’re done working for...
Trump didn’t win the Nobel prize he coveted, but prizewinner dedicated it, in part, to him
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s dream of becoming a Nobel laureate did not come true this year, although the prizewinner dedicated the honor to him, in part, for supporting her cause. The Norwegian committee that determines the winner of the prestigious awards passed Trump over for the peace prize he...
Trump administration airs video at airports blaming Democrats for government shutdown
WASHINGTON -President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday began airing a video at airports across the country that blames Democrats for a nine-day-old government shutdown that has prompted significant flight delays. Some 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must still turn up for work during the...
Trump proposes barring Chinese airlines from flying over Russia on U.S. routes
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday proposed banning Chinese airlines from flying over Russia on routes to and from the United States, saying the reduced flight time this practice enables puts American carriers at a disadvantage. The proposal is another escalation of the trade war between the world’s two...
White House says Nobel Committee places ‘politics over peace’
The White House responded to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Venezuelan opposition activist María Corina Machado by saying the prize committee was playing politics by not giving it to President Donald Trump. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House Communications Director Steven...
Federal government shutdown: White House says mass layoffs of federal workers have begun
WASHINGTON – The federal government shutdown rolled on to Day 10 on Friday after senators the day before voted down dueling funding bills for the seventh time. With both sides not budging from their positions, it appears increasingly likely the shutdown will crash into the weekend and the next week....
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado
OSLO — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights and fighting dictatorship, receiving the award despite President Donald Trump’s repeated statements he deserved it. Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer who lives in hiding, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela’s courts...
Killing of man who shot 2 troopers ‘100% justified,’ Franklin County DA says
The commissioner of Pennsylvania State Police said it was “fierce gunfight” that left two Pennsylvania State Police troopers injured and a suspect dead in Franklin County on Wednesday. The shooting that followed a retail theft report and pursuit from outside Chambersburg to south of Greencastle on Interstate 81 was detailed...
