December 31, 2025 3:12 pm
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Drummers pounded in the New Year and a stampede of computer-generated horses was shown over part of the Great Wall as China and elsewhere in Asia marked the start of 2026. Temple bells rang across Japan, and some climbed mountains to see the year’s first sunrise. Hong Kong held subdued celebrations following a recent deadly fire. And Sydney saluted the new year with joy and defiance less than three weeks after Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. (File Photo: AP)
December 31, 2025 8:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain low despite a weakening labor market. U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 27 fell by 16,000 to 199,000 from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 208,000 new applications. Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Dec. 20 fell by 47,000 to 1.87 million, the government said.
December 31, 2025 4:54 am
PITTSBURGH — We have a winter weather advisory that will ring in the new year. Snow will continue through the evening and into New Year’s Day. Snow will be steady to heavy at times and could include snow squalls, especially during the evening hours. Travel is expected to be slippery and hazardous for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Bursts of snow will quickly cover roads, and visibility could drop to near zero. Total snow for much of the area will range from two to four inches for New Year’s Eve, and isolated higher amounts are possible. Most of the snow exits by early New Year’s Day morning.
December 30, 2025 5:01 am
CANONSBURG, Pa. — Snow squalls made for a busy day for road crews and had a serious effect on the Tuesday morning commute here in Washington County. Canonsburg officials say they got nine inches of snow. Crews started working around 11 p.m. on Monday to try to keep the roads clear with each round of snow. Canonsburg’s Borough Manager Angela Senay said it was a team effort to stay on top of the slow-moving band of lake-effect snow. Canonsburg’s director of streets said the borough went through 125-130 tons of salt on Tuesday alone as road crews prepare for the possibility of more snow.
December 31, 2025 4:50 am
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — A large police response Tuesday after reports of shots fired and an assault outside South Hills Village Mall. Bethel Park Police said they were called to the AMC Theatre at 4 p.m. Officers said they found a man who had been assaulted and evidence of an unknown number of shots fired when they arrived. No injuries were reported. Allegheny County Police said a juvenile boy was arguing with a group of people who were traveling in a vehicle outside of the theater. That vehicle was later determined to be stolen. As the situation escalated, police said the boy struck a second vehicle and caused damage to it. The driver of that second vehicle got out and began yelling at the boy. That confrontation turned physical. As the fight broke out, the driver of the first vehicle, an 18-year-old man, fired shots in the direction of the second driver. The boy involved in the fight then got into the vehicle from which shots had come and fled the scene. The vehicle was found traveling through Mt. Lebanon and Dormont. Allegheny County Police said the people inside that stolen vehicle got out and ran from it along Route 19 in Dormont. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Allegheny County Police Tip Line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Tips can be left anonymously.
December 31, 2025 5:06 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Federal Reserve officials who supported cutting a key interest rate earlier this month could have instead backed keeping the rate unchanged, minutes released Tuesday show, underscoring the divisions and uncertainty permeating the central bank. At their December 9-10 meeting Fed officials agreed to cut their key interest rate by a quarter point for the third time this year, to about 3.6%, the lowest in nearly three years. The minutes underscored the deep split on the 19-member policymaking committee over what constitutes the biggest threat to the economy: weak hiring or stubbornly-elevated inflation.
December 31, 2025 5:05 am
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Renee Hardman has been elected to the Iowa state Senate in a holiday-week special election, denying Republicans’ bid to reclaim two-thirds control of the chamber. Hardman bested Republican Lucas Loftin on Tuesday to win the seat representing parts of Des Moines’ suburbs. It became vacant after the Oct. 6 death of state Sen. Claire Celsi, a Democrat. Hardman becomes the first Black woman elected to the Senate. A GOP win would have given Republicans a super-majority once again, just months after a Democrat flipped a Republican seat in an August special election.
December 31, 2025 5:10 am
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has “hit” a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela. But the U.S. offered few details. Trump initially seemed to confirm a strike in what appeared to be an impromptu radio interview Friday. When questioned Monday by reporters about “an explosion in Venezuela,” the president said the U.S. struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs “load up.” Trump declined to say if the military or CIA was involved or where it occurred. He didn’t confirm it happened in Venezuela. The White House and Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for more details or comment.
December 30, 2025 5:09 am
Environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, one of three grandchildren of the late President John F. Kennedy, has died after a battle with leukemia. Her family disclosed her death in a statement released Tuesday by the John. F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Schlossberg was 35. The daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, the journalist revealed she had terminal cancer in a November 2025 essay in The New Yorker. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 at age 34 while in the hospital for the birth of her second child. In the essay titled “A Battle with my Blood,” Schlossberg recounted rounds of chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and clinical trials.
December 31, 2025 5:08 am
The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility. The institution’s president is accusing the performers of making their decisions because of politics. The Cookers, a jazz supergroup, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website. Doug Varone and Dancers, a dance group based in New York, said they would pull out of a performance slated for April, saying they “can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.” Musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance last week.
