August 23, 2025 8:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Now that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has signaled that the central bank could soon cut its key interest rate, he faces a new challenge: how to do it without seeming to cave to the White House’s demands. For months, Powell has largely ignored President Donald Trump’s relentless hectoring that he reduce borrowing costs. Yet on Friday, in a highly-anticipated speech, Powell suggested that the Fed could take such a step as soon as its next meeting in September. It will be a fraught decision for the Fed, which must weigh it against persistent inflation that remains a problem and an economy that could also improve in the second half of this year. Both trends, if they occur, could make a cut look premature.
August 23, 2025 4:09 am
HOUSTON (AP) — The push to redraw congressional maps in Texas is shifting the dynamics of the state’s 2026 Senate campaign. It is renewing hope for Democrats as they gain attention for pushing back against the GOP redistricting efforts led by President Donald Trump. Republican rivals are using the moment to burnish their leadership credentials. Texas Democrats have ended a two-week walkout aimed at stopping a Republican effort to redraw districts before the 10-year timeline in order to secure Trump more allies in the U.S. House during the 2026 midterms.
August 23, 2025 4:05 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iran nuclear sites angered President Donald Trump. That’s according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official. They said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Another U.S. official says Hegseth also fired Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, who is chief of the Navy Reserve, as well as Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command. The ousters have ramped up the Trump administration’s targeting of both military leadership and the intelligence community.
August 23, 2025 3:53 am
A person was shot in Independence Township and transported to a Pittsburgh hospital, according to a 911 dispatcher. A portion of Route 50 in the area was closed briefly to allow for the medical helicopter to land. State police responded to the incident in the 1900 block of Avella Road.
August 22, 2025 3:42 pm
PEMBROKE, N.Y. (AP) — A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls has crashed on an interstate highway, killing and injuring multiple people. The accident happened Friday near Pembroke, about 25 miles east of Buffalo. Police say the bus lost control, leading to shattered windows and passengers being ejected. The driver survived. Several ambulances and medical helicopters transported patients to area hospitals. The New York State Thruway Authority has shut down a lengthy stretch of the roadway, urging drivers to avoid the area.
August 22, 2025 3:28 pm
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has halted further expansion of the immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades. The judge on Thursday also ordered the facility to wind down operations within two months. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams stated that Florida officials never adequately explained the need for the facility in the middle of the sensitive wetlands. She also noted that state and federal defendants failed to conduct an environmental review before building the detention center. Federal and Florida officials had hailed the facility as a model for President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
August 22, 2025 7:51 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is searching the Maryland home and Washington office of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter Friday. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The person says Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes. FBI Director Kash Patel says cryptically online, “NO ONE is above the law.” Messages left with a spokesperson for Bolton haven’t been returned. Bolton served as President Donald Trump’s third national security adviser for 17 months and clashed with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
August 22, 2025 5:07 am
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is declaring victory after an appeals court threw out the massive civil fraud penalty against him. But the court has upheld other punishments, such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. A five-judge panel ruled Thursday in New York state’s lawsuit accusing the businessman-turned-politician of exaggerating his wealth. The decision in the mid-level Appellate Division altered a verdict that stood to cost Trump more than $515 million and rock his real estate empire. The Republican president says the case and the verdict were political moves by Democrats. New York’s Democratic attorney general says the court affirmed the finding Trump was liable for fraud.
August 22, 2025 5:06 am
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s defense minister warned on Friday that Gaza City could be destroyed unless Hamas accepts Israel’s terms, as the country prepares for an expanded offensive in the area. A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorize the military to seize Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the enclave’s largest city could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas reduced to rubble earlier in the war. “The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X.
August 22, 2025 5:05 am
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday opened the door ever so slightly to lowering a key interest rate in the coming months but gave no hint on the timing of a move and suggested the central bank will proceed cautiously as it continues to evaluate the impact of tariffs and other policies on the economy. In a high-profile speech that will be closely watched at the White House and on Wall Street, Powell said that there are risks of both rising unemployment and stubbornly higher inflation. That puts the Fed in a tough spot, because it would typically cut its short-term rate to boost hiring, while keeping it high — or raising it — to fight inflation.
