March 7, 2025 5:09 am
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China will continue to retaliate for the United States’ “arbitrary tariffs” and accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” in a press conference Friday on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session. Wang said China’s efforts to help the U.S. contain its fentanyl crisis have been met with punitive tariffs, which are straining their ties. He said, “No country should fantasize that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time.” The two countries have been reengaging in tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January. The U.S. imposed flat tariffs of 20% of all Chinese imports, while Beijing has countered with additional 15% duties on key U.S. imports.
March 7, 2025 5:04 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Walgreens Boots Alliance says it has agreed to be acquired by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners as the struggling retailer looks to turn itself around after years of losing money. Walgreens said Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share, giving the deal an equity value just under $10 billion. Shareholders could eventually receive up to another $3 per share under certain conditions. A buyout to take the drugstore chain private would give it more flexibility to make changes to improve its business without worrying about Wall Street’s reaction. Walgreens has been a public company since 1927.
March 7, 2025 4:56 am
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has hit the three-week mark in his hospitalization for double pneumonia. The Vatican said the 88-year-old pope had a good night’s rest and woke up Friday morning just after 8 a.m. Doctors said they didn’t expect to give a new medical update until Saturday. Francis is in stable condition but offered a first public sign of just how weak he is on Thursday. He recorded an audio message that was broadcast to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. In it, Francis thanked the people for their prayers. But his voice was barely discernible through his labored breaths.
March 7, 2025 5:01 am
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police say a 17-year-old boy with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane in Australia before being restrained by a pilot and two passengers. Police and a passenger said the boy climbed through a hole in the airport fence and posed as a maintenance worker to board the plane Thursday. The boy was disarmed and detained before police arrived on the scene at Avalon Airport in Victoria state. Police said Friday the boy had been charged with unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, possessing a firearm and other crimes. Passenger Barry Clark, a former boxer and sheep shearer, said the boy got agitated when questioned by a flight attendant and he snuck behind the boy to push the gun away and restrain the boy.
March 6, 2025 1:52 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is postponing the 25% tariffs on most goods from Mexico for a month after a conversation with that country’s president. Trump’s announcement comes after his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, said tariffs on both Canada and Mexico would “likely” be delayed. This is the second one-month postponement Trump has announced since first unveiling the import taxes in early February. The reprieve would apply to goods that are compliant with the trade agreement Trump negotiated with Canada and Mexico in his first term. “We are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl,” Trump said on Truth Social.
March 6, 2025 1:45 pm
(WPXI) – Seven students and a bus driver were taken to the hospital after a school bus for the Mars Area School District crashed into a tree in Butler County. The crash happened a little after 8 o’clock Thursday morning in the 1600 block of Three Degree Road in Adams Township. A mass-casualty incident was initially declared for crews to get enough EMS resources to the scene. Mars Area School District superintendent Dr. Mark Gross said the all students on the bus at the time of the crash were evaluated by medics, and their parents were contacted. UPMC says seven students were treated at various hospitals and one student remains hospitalized under observation. The bus driver’s condition is currently not known. That individual was taken to Allegheny General Hospital. Gross said students who were determined by medics to be “not injured” were placed on another bus to continue to school. When those students arrived, they were checked by the school nurse before going to class. Social workers and guidance counselors will be available for any students who need assistance on Friday even though it is an in-service day for students.
March 6, 2025 12:54 pm
Parents and Guardians in the Albert Gallatin School District in Uniontown received a letter this week informing them of reports of a suspicious vehicle and person near the Edenborn, Footedale and McClellandtown areas. Officials said schools in those areas along with the district’s bus contractor have been notified as well. They say state and local police have also been contacted and will increase their presence around those areas for the next few days. The vehicle involved is described as a grey Ford Focus with a Pennsylvania license plate with the number LTL 1956.
March 6, 2025 12:52 pm
Officials in the Ringgold School District sent a letter to parents and guardians informing them of a case of Whooping Cough at their South Elementary School. Officials said children may have been exposed to a person suffering from the highly contagious disease. It is spread through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs. It begins with a cold and cough and worsens over one to two weeks. The letter included recommendations from the Pennsylvania Department of Health along with a phone number to call for questions or concerns.
March 5, 2025 10:18 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has said he wants his new education chief, Linda McMahon, to “put herself out of a job” and close the Education Department. McMahon was confirmed by the Senate on Monday, and an executive order to shut down the department could come as soon as this week. McMahon told employees it was the department’s “final mission” to eliminate bureaucratic bloat and turn over the agency’s authority to states. Eliminating the department altogether would be a cumbersome task, which likely would require an act of Congress.
March 6, 2025 10:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to censure Al Green, Democratic congressman from Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s address to Congress earlier in the week. Green offered no regrets when he explained his actions on the House floor and said he’d do it again. The resolution against Green was approved in a mostly party-line vote of 224-198 on Thursday. House Speaker Mike Johnson had Green removed from the chamber during the early moments of Trump’s speech Tuesday night. Green shouted at Trump after the Republican president said voters had given him a mandate not seen for decades. Green said Trump has no mandate to cut Medicaid. Trump has said about the health care program that “we’re not going to touch it.”
