July 23, 2025 3:26 pm
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court in a landmark advisory opinion says countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations. Advocates immediately cheered the International Court of Justice opinion on nations’ obligations to tackle climate change and the consequences they may face if they don’t. Notably, the court said a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” is a human right. That paves the way for other legal actions, including states returning to the ICJ to hold each other to account as well as domestic lawsuits.
July 23, 2025 2:15 pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor has pleaded guilty to illegally supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry before the overdose death of the ‘Friends’ star. On Wednesday, Dr. Salvador Plasencia admitted in federal court to providing Perry with ketamine vials, lozenges, and syringes in the weeks leading up to his death on October 28, 2023. Prosecutors say Plasencia also injected Perry with the drug and taught his assistant how to administer it. Prosecutors outlined the charges in court before the plea, and said that he did not sell Perry the dose that killed the actor. Perry had struggled with addiction for years. Plasencia faces up to 40 years in prison but has not yet been sentenced and may get a lighter sentence.
July 22, 2025 2:30 am
(AP) – The gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice of heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne has died. A family statement said he died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76. The statement did not include a cause but in 2020, Osbourne revealed he had Parkinson’s disease. Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents’ groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show “The Osbournes.” (Photo: AP)
July 21, 2025 2:46 am
A routine traffic stop by Pennsylvania State Police in Cecil Township uncovered a woman posing as a nurse. Shannon Womack aka Shannon Larson, 39 of Pittsburgh, was found to have several warrants against her car. During the stop she provided the trooper with false identification. A search of the car revealed 20 aliases, seven social security numbers and medical records from multiple nursing homes from Georgia to Connecticut. Charging documents allege that Womack posed as a nurse in nine nursing homes throughout Western Pennsylvania and countless others in other states. Womack faces 43 charges including felonies of operation of a corrupt organization, endangerment of a care dependent person, forgery and unlawful use of a computer. Womack is not a nurse but falsely presented herself to be a nurse to the facilities. She worked as an R.N., an L.P.N. and an R.N. Supervisor. She was dismissed from many of the health facilities over missing prescription medicines. Womack was formally arraigned on Monday. Her preliminary hearing will be held on August 12.
July 21, 2025 2:49 am
Authorities are investigating the death of a Charleroi man Sunday night. Washington County Coroner Tim Warco says the man has been identified as 33-year-old Duvanet Esperance. There have been few details released at this time. Warco says the circumstances surrounding his death have not been released. An autopsy is pending.
July 22, 2025 4:48 am
PITTSBURGH — When Saudia 35 left King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning, a landing at Pittsburgh International Airport wasn’t on the schedule for the 13-hour flight. But when bad weather slammed into Washington, D.C., and arrival at Dulles International wasn’t in the cards, Pittsburgh International Airport was where the big Boeing 777 ended up landing safely. Same thing Saturday for United Airlines Flight 804 from Tokyo to Dulles International and, on Monday, American Airlines Flight 168, a Boeing 787-900 flying from Tokyo to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Each were diverted for a safe landing at PIT when the weather precluded their original destination after many hours in the air across the Pacific Ocean and Canada and holding patterns. It’s been a busy month for diversions at Pittsburgh International Airport, with 70 in June alone and 285 in 2025 through July 14. The busiest day was Tuesday, July 8, where bad weather on the East Coast saw 18 flights on their way to Reagan National and Dulles in Washington landing instead at Pittsburgh International. The flights came from all over the place, whether they were longhauls from London and Frankfurt, Germany, or closer to home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
July 22, 2025 4:53 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s reached a trade agreement with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. following a meeting at the White House. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there. The online announcement of a loose framework of a deal comes as the countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. Marcos’ government had indicated ahead of the meeting he was prepared to offer zero tariffs on some U.S. goods.
July 21, 2025 4:56 am
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced an ex-Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the 2020 deadly Breonna Taylor raid, declining a U.S. Justice Department recommendation that no prison time be given. Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid but didn’t hit anyone, was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman’s death. He is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests against racial injustice and policing five years ago. U.S. District Judge Grady Jennings sentenced Hankison at a hearing Monday afternoon.
July 21, 2025 4:55 am
Martin Luther King Jr.’s two living children are urging people to tread lightly with a newly released trove of records related to their father’s assassination. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King opposed the Trump administration’s decision to release more than 240,000 pages of records concerning the slain civil rights leader. King’s children noted that their father was the victim of sometimes illegal surveillance by then-FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who viewed King as a radical. Some civil rights activists said Trump is using the King files to distract from his own troubles related to Jeffrey Epstein.
July 22, 2025 4:57 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Pentagon has ordered U.S. Marines to leave Los Angeles after more than a month in the city. The 700 Marines were deployed on June 9 during protests against the administration’s immigration policies. Their presence was limited to federal buildings, including an ICE office and detention facility. On Monday, the Pentagon decided to withdraw the Marines following last week’s reduction of half of the National Guard troops in the city. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated the military presence sent a strong message against lawlessness. About 2,000 National Guard troops remain in Los Angeles.
