December 27, 2023 5:20 am
MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP) — Mexican immigration officials are clearing out a migrant encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande as U.S. pressure mounts to limit a surge of migrants reaching the border. Mexico are removing tents, both occupied and unoccupied, from the encampment in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. The operation using bulldozers and workers with machetes continued Wednesday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City. Mexico says its priority in the talks with the U.S. is to reopen border crossings temporarily closed by the United States.
December 27, 2023 5:19 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces have bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza overnight, killing dozens of people. The air and ground offensive against Hamas has widened to most of the territory, and forced thousands more to flee from homes and shelters. The war has already killed over 20,000 Palestinians and driven about 85% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been leveled, largely depopulated and isolated for weeks. Many fear a similar fate awaits the south. Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas and bring back more than 100 hostages still held by the militants after their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in that assault.
December 27, 2023 5:02 am
BEIJING (AP) — China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s northwest. China is accused of sending Muslims to prison camps for brainwashing and forced labor. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that research and data analytics firm Kharon, along with its director of investigations and a human rights analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, would be barred from traveling to China. Any assets or property they have in China will be frozen and organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from making transactions with them.
December 27, 2023 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Republican primaries around the corner, a new poll finds that party members aren’t sure votes in the presidential nominating contest will be counted accurately. Only about one-third of Republicans say they’re confident that tallies in the primary will be accurate. That’s according to a new AP-NORC poll. The skepticism comes after years of former President Donald Trump blaming prior losses on voter fraud, including in the 2020 election. It also comes as Americans express pessimism about both political parties. About half of adults are pessimistic about the future of the GOP and just under half are similarly down on the Democratic party.
December 27, 2023 4:59 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A top U.S. delegation is meeting with Mexico’s president about a surge of migrants reaching the U.S. southwestern border. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he is willing to help limit the surge, as he has done before. But he says he wants to see progress in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela, which are two of the top sources of migrants. He would also like to see more development aid for the region. The U.S. team is headed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
December 27, 2023 4:57 am
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military says it has expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory. Residents reported shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians whose families fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence. The camps are now crowded with Palestinians who fled northern Gaza in the early stages of Israel’s ground offensive. Meanwhile, Gaza’s main telecom provider announced another “complete interruption” of services.
December 27, 2023 4:56 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Lee Sun-kyun, a popular South Korean actor best known for his role in the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite,” has been found dead in a car in Seoul after weeks of an intense police investigation into his alleged drug use. Police and emergency officers initially found Lee in what they believed was an unconscious state in the car parked on a street in northern Seoul on Wednesday. Police station. Police had been searching for Lee, 48, after receiving a report that he was missing. “Parasite” won Oscars for best picture and three other categories in 2020. The class satire was the first non-English-language film to win best picture in the then-92-year history of the Academy Awards, and was the first South Korean movie to win an Oscar.
December 27, 2023 4:53 am
CLAIRTON, Pa. — (WPXI) – It was a violent morning in Clairton on Tuesday. Detectives responded to Wylie Avenue and Reed Street at around 2:15 a.m. before being called to a stabbing just two blocks away. Dispatchers were notified of a body of a man in the intersection. First responders found the man who was shot and pronounced him dead at the scene. About 90 minutes later, just a few hundred feet away at the Millvue Apt. complex, a Clairton Police officer learned about a fight. Three men were injured in that fight and one of them appeared to be stabbed. All three were taken to local hospitals and are in stable condition. Allegheny County Police are leading both investigations and tell our news partners at Channel 11 the shooting and stabbing are not connected. No one is in custody in either case.
December 27, 2023 4:50 am
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A 6-year-old boy who left on a flight to visit his grandmother was put on the wrong plane. When the grandmother, Maria Ramos, showed up on Thursday at the airport in Fort Myers, Florida, to greet her grandson who was flying for the first time from Philadelphia, she was told he wasn’t on the Spirit Airlines flight. She then got a call from her grandson from the airport in Orlando, telling her that he had landed. In a statement, Spirit Airlines said the boy was under the supervision of an employee the entire time. The airline has apologized.
December 27, 2023 2:56 am
(AP) – Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86. The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday following a cancer battle. “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 with a mix of music and comedy that included satirical sketches lampooning the Establishment and railing against the Vietnam War. The show, though popular with viewers, drew the ire of network censors who constantly battled the brothers over its content. In 1970, CBS abruptly canceled the show. (Photo: AP)
