January 13, 2025 5:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden prepares to leave office next week, he remains insistent that his one-term presidency has made strides in restoring American credibility on the world stage and has proved that the U.S. remains an indispensable partner around the globe. That’s the message that will be at the center of a capstone address he will deliver on Monday reflecting on his foreign policy legacy. Yet, Biden’s case for his foreign policy achievements will be shadowed and shaped, at least in the near term, by the messy counterfactual that American voters are returning the country’s stewardship to Donald Trump and his protectionist worldview.
January 13, 2025 5:14 am
CAIRO (AP) — Officials say U.S. and Arab mediators made significant progress overnight toward brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and the release of scores of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, but a deal has not been reached yet. Three officials said Monday that progress has been made and that the coming days would be critical for ending more than 15 months of fighting that has destabilized the Middle East. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks. On several occasions over the past year, U.S. officials have said they were on the verge of reaching a deal, only to have the talks stall.
January 13, 2025 5:09 am
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will hold off enforcing a requirement laid out in an executive order this month that Nippon Steel abandon its $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel. The companies made the announcement over the weekend. President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel on national security grounds on Jan. 3, and his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said this week that the proposed deal had received a “thorough analysis” by interagency review body, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The delay will give the courts time to review a legal challenge brought by the parties earlier this month against Biden’s order. The parties previously had 30 days to unwind their transaction. In a joint statement the companies said; “We are pleased that CFIUS has granted an extension to June 18, 2025 of the requirement in President Biden’s Executive Order that the parties permanently abandon the transaction.” “We look forward to completing the transaction, which secures the best future for the American steel industry and all our stakeholders,” they said. U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel alleged in a lawsuit that the CFIUS review was prejudiced by Biden’s longstanding opposition to the deal, denying them of a right to a fair review. They asked a federal appeals court to overturn Biden’s decision to allow them a fresh review to secure another shot at closing the merger.
January 13, 2025 4:58 am
HENRY CLAY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – State police are looking for the person who damaged multiple vehicles belonging to a business in Fayette County with a pellet gun. Troopers said windshields on multiple vehicles had been shot with a pellet gun. The vehicles belonged to The U Company LLC and the incident happened at the 400 block of Mae West Road in Henry Clay Township. Multiple company trucks and a skid steer had been shot. The damage was valued at $3,800. A suspect has not been identified at this time. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police’s Uniontown barracks by calling 724-439-7111.
January 13, 2025 4:57 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith says in a new report that his team “stood up for the rule of law” as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Smith says he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges against the president-elect and says he believes Trump would have been convicted had he not won the 2024 election. The report, coming just days before Trump is to return to the White House on Jan. 20, focuses fresh attention on his frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020. The Justice Department sent the report to Congress early Tuesday after a judge refused to block its release.
January 13, 2025 4:55 am
Another blast of arctic air is heading our way. Temperatures slowly dropped through Monday afternoon, bringing much colder air for the overnight hours. Tuesday and Wednesday highs will only make it to the upper teens with subzero wind chills expected and snow showers are possible again on Tuesday afternoon and night. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has issued a Cold Weather Advisory for the ridges of Westmoreland, Indiana and Fayette counties along with eastern Preston and Garrett counties in Maryland from 1 a.m. Tuesday through 10 a.m. Wednesday, where wind chills could get as low as -11 degrees. Snow showers will also be around at times starting Tuesday afternoon from lake effect snow. On and off snow showers are possible through Thursday. The big headline is the cold stretch that will continue through midweek, Wednesday morning wind chills will be back below zero. Make sure to limit time outdoors, wear warm layers if you are heading out, and keep pets inside.
January 13, 2025 1:52 am
One person was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital Monday morning after an accident near the Longhorn Steakhouse on Route Nineteen in South Strabane Township. Fire Chief Jordan Cramer says they were called out around eight-thirty for reports of a vehicle over an embankment with entrapment. When firefighters arrived, Cramer says they found that a vehicle had gone through a fence in the Longhorn parking lot and had dropped about twenty-feet over a retaining wall and into a retention pond. Cramer says the vehicle landed on its roof and the driver, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was trapped. There’s been no information released on the nature of their injuries or the severity. (Photo courtesy of South Strabane Fire Department)
January 12, 2025 6:09 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department after submitting his investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump. It was an expected move that comes amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead. The department disclosed Smith’s departure in a court filing Saturday, saying he had resigned one day earlier. The resignation, 10 days before Trump is inaugurated, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal prosecutions against Trump that were withdrawn following Trump’s White House win in November. At issue now is the fate of a two-volume report that Smith and his team had prepared about their twin investigations on Trump.
January 12, 2025 6:07 am
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, many elected officials in Republican and Democratic states are preparing to either aid or oppose his policies. From immigration to education to transgender rights, a red-state blue-state divide has become common. For example, Republican state officials are pledging to aid Trump’s deportation efforts while many Democratic state officials remain wary or vocally resistant. Democratic attorneys general also are preparing to sue over a variety of other expected Trump administration policies. In most states, one party controls both the legislature and governor’s office.
January 12, 2025 6:03 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office says the confirmed death toll from the wildfires ravaging the area has risen to 16. The coroner’s office says Saturday evening in a statement that five of the deaths have been attributed to the Palisades Fire and 11 are the result of the Eaton Fire. Firefighters are racing to cut off the spreading wildfires before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward the world famous J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles. New evacuation warnings are leaving homeowners on edge while a fierce battle against the flames is underway in Mandeville Canyon. Firefighters are using hoses to beat back leaping flames as thick smoke blankets the hillside.
