March 24, 2025 5:49 pm
(AP) – Firefighters in North and South Carolina are battling multiple wind-driven wildfires. The fires are burning in rugged terrain that is complicating efforts to contain them. North Carolina State University forestry professor Robert Scheller says millions of trees knocked down by Hurricane Helene last fall have dried out and are helping fuel the blazes. Burn bans remain in effect in both Carolinas and mandatory evacuations continue in parts of North Carolina’s Polk County. Hundreds of miles north in New Jersey, the state Forest Fire Service says a wildfire in the Pinelands region was 100% contained on Monday morning.
March 23, 2025 5:05 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been reinstated as the acting president as the Constitutional Court overturned his impeachment. Han, South Korea’s No. 2 official, had become acting leader after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached over his imposition of martial law in December. Han thanked the court after Monday’s ruling and said he would attend to the most urgent matters. He also called for national unity. The court ruled 7-1 that Parliament didn’t have a a quorum to pass the impeachment motion, that the accusations against Han weren’t against the law or that they weren’t serious enough to remove him from office. Many experts said the ruling on Han didn’t signal how the court would rule on Yoon’s impeachment.
March 23, 2025 7:13 am
The Taliban say the U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government. Sirajuddin Haqqani no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website, although the FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the U.S. government had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani. Other Taliban officials hailed the developments as the beginning of normalization.
March 23, 2025 7:10 am
Wildfires forced a mandatory evacuation in one North Carolina county as emergency crews fought separate fires in an area of the state still recovering from Hurricane Helene, while South Carolina’s governor declared an emergency in response to a growing wildfire. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety issued a mandatory evacuation Saturday night for parts of Polk County in western North Carolina. The agency warns residents could be trapped, injured, or killed if they remain in the impacted areas. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster has declared a state of emergency as part of an effort to stop a blaze in Pickens County called the Table Rock Fire that started Friday in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
March 23, 2025 7:05 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least seven people were killed after Russia launched a barrage of drones across Ukraine overnight on Sunday, according to local Ukrainian officials and emergency services. Sunday’s overnight attacks occurred ahead of expected ceasefire negotiations in Saudi Arabia in which Ukraine and Russia are expected to hold indirect U.S.-mediated talks. Extended sounds of explosions were heard in the early hours of the night across Kyiv as the air raid blared for over five hours. Russian drones and debris from shot-down drones, which were flying at lower altitudes to evade air defenses, fell on residential buildings across the Ukrainian capital
March 23, 2025 7:02 am
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has appeared on a hospital balcony to bless the crowd in his first public outing in five weeks and ahead of his release after surviving a life-threatening bout of pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope gave a thumbs up and acknowledged the crowd after he was wheeled out onto the balcony overlooking the main entry of Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where hundreds of people had gathered on a brilliant Sunday morning. Chants of “Viva il papa!” and “Papa Francesco” erupted from the crowd.
March 23, 2025 6:57 am
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump attended the NCAA wrestling championships for the second time in three years. Saturday night’s trip was the latest example of how he has mostly limited travel early in his new term to trips built around sports events. Trump arrived at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to a standing ovation and chants of USA! USA! In the two-plus months since returning to the White House, Trump has attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Daytona 500 in Florida. While president-elect, he went to a UFC fight in New York.
March 23, 2025 3:54 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in two Pennsylvania state legislative districts will elect new members in special elections Tuesday. Democrats are defending a state House seat on friendly turf with control of the deadlocked chamber on the line, while Republicans look to pad their advantage in the state Senate in a reliably GOP district. In the state House, voters in District 35 will elect a replacement for Democratic state Rep. Matt Gergely, whose death in January left the parties tied at 101 seats each. Democrats won a slim majority of state House seats in 2022 for the first time in more than a decade and have had to defend their narrow advantage in a series of special elections since then.
March 22, 2025 4:02 am
PITTSBURGH —(WPXI)- Pittsburgh commuters are preparing to feel the impact of expected changes coming to PRT. “I think that’s going to be hard on a lot of people. That’s going to limit a lot of mobility to and from Pittsburgh,” said Dakotah Clark, a PRT rider. People who rely on the T are worried after Pittsburgh Regional Transit proposed major service cuts and increased fares that would impact riders, businesses and communities across our region. “If I don’t have a trolley, it would be very difficult to get to and from work,” said Clark. The agency announced Thursday the proposed 35% service cut and 25 cent fare increase would go into effect in February 2026. The cuts include eliminating public transit in 19 municipalities, getting rid of all service after 11 p.m., and cutting 41 of about 100 bus routes, plus, eliminating the T’s silver line which runs between downtown through Overbrook to Library. The agency said it’s facing a $100 million budget deficit. It took a hit during the pandemic and there was a 50% drop in ridership between 2001 and 2023. PRT also said state funding is no longer able to meet the needs of Pennsylvania’s second-largest transit agency. Governor Josh Shapiro spoke about these potential cuts on Friday. “For the last two and half years, I’ve been calling for increased investment at the state level for our mass transit systems like PRT and others all across Pennsylvania. I put forth a specific proposal the House of Representatives have passed it, and the Senate has refused to act. The Senate needs to step up and fund our mass transit agencies. I put forth a plan that is paid for,” said Governor Josh Shapiro. PRT’s board meets next Friday. If it approves this proposal, 3 public hearings will be scheduled in April, May and June.
March 22, 2025 4:17 am
MIAMI (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security says it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month. The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022. They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
