December 29, 2025 5:08 am
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army is staging a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan. It’s unleashing live-fire exercises as part of what it calls “Justice Mission 2025” to showcase its ability to deter any external armed support for the self-ruled island that it has long insisted is part of its sovereign territory. The PLA sent destroyers, frigates, fighters and bombers to the waters to the north and south of the island to test its ability in sea-air coordination and blockading. Its ground forces carried out long-range, live-fire drills. Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration was notified that seven temporary “dangerous zones” had been set up, affecting international and domestic air travelers.
December 30, 2025 5:09 am
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge has ordered the release of a transcript from a closed-door hearing in October over whether the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk must be shackled during court proceedings. State District Judge Tony Graf said Monday in ordering the transcript’s release that public transparency was “foundational” to the judicial system. Graf had earlier rejected a request by the defense that Robinson not be shackled. Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of the conservative activist Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem. They plan to seek the death penalty. Robinson has not yet entered a plea.
December 29, 2025 2:36 pm
GENEVA (AP) — The United States has announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance funding. The money is a tiny fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount that will maintain the United States’ status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor. The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to individual agencies and priorities. The announcement caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations as the U.S. and other Western donors have cut billions in funding, prompting massive cuts in spending and jobs.
December 29, 2025 5:00 am
A big change in the weather on Monday. Rain will move across the region bringing with it strong winds. Crashing temperatures will follow behind the cold front, dropping to the freezing mark by lunchtime. We do have a wind advisory that will be in effect until 1 a.m. Tuesday. Wind gusts could reach 50 mph in some locations. Scattered snow showers are expected by afternoon, with possible snow squalls in the area Monday evening through Tuesday morning. Snowfall will be around 1.5 inches or less, with higher amounts north of I-80 and in the ridges and mountains.
December 29, 2025 4:54 am
FALLOWFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A woman was injured in a single vehicle crash in Fallowfield Township late Sunday night. The unidentified woman was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital and there is no word on her condition. Washington County 911 says emergency crews were called to the intersection of Rodgers Lane and Fremont Road just after 9:30 p.m. Her vehicle reportedly crashed into a tree. No other information is available at this time.
December 29, 2025 5:06 am
FREEPORT TOWNSHIP, Pa. — An 18-year-old is in custody, suspected of shooting his parents in Greene County. State Police say Jared Noll was taken into custody on Saturday. He was located by West Virginia State Police in Hundred, W.Va., after someone called in reporting a person who matched his description. Noll was reportedly armed at the time. Troopers were sent to a home on Garrison Ridge Road in Freeport Township around 2 p.m. on Friday for the reported shooting. They found a man and woman, who PSP says were husband and wife, shot. Both were taken to a Morgantown hospital for treatment. The woman later died of her injuries. The man has since been released from the hospital and is said to be stable. Police say Noll is the couple’s biological son. Police say Noll did not waive his right to extradition.
December 28, 2025 5:10 am
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. They aim to boost a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, which faces challenges as it looks to move into a more complicated second phase. Trump hopes to leverage his relationship with Netanyahu to speed up the peace process. The ceasefire began in October and has mostly held, but progress has slowed lately. The second phase involves rebuilding Gaza under international supervision, creating an international security force and normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world.
December 29, 2025 5:10 am
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace deal, but he acknowledges that negotiations could still break down and leave the war dragging on for years. Trump spoke Sunday as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort. Earlier Trump had what he described as an “excellent,” two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump insisted he believed Putin wants peace, even as Russia launched fresh attacks on Ukraine while Zelenskyy flew to the United States. Trump and Zelenskyy both acknowledged thorny issues remain, including whether Russia can keep Ukrainian territory it controls.
December 29, 2025 5:11 am
HONG KONG (AP) — The Chinese military says it dispatched air, navy and rocket troops to conduct joint military drills around Taiwan to warn against what it called separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing its forces on alert and called the Beijing government “the biggest destroyer of peace.” The drills came after Beijing expressed anger at U.S. arms sales to the territory and a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that the world’s second-biggest economy says must come under its rule. But the Chinese military did not mention the U.S. and Japan in its statement.
December 29, 2025 5:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol told investigators after his arrest that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen. He also said he wanted to target the country’s political parties because they were “in charge.” That’s according to a memo filed by the Justice Department on Sunday that argues that Brian J. Cole Jr. should remain jailed as the case moves forward. Cole was arrested earlier this month on charges of placing pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees.
