July 16, 2025 4:52 am
Vice President JD Vance was in the swing political turf of northeastern Pennsylvania to begin selling President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget-and-policy package. Vance’s stop Wednesday in West Pittston is in a working-class district that could see a ferocious congressional campaign next year. Vance’s tiebreaking vote got the bill through the Senate, and he has promoted the bill’s passage as another example of the Trump administration’s “promises made, promises kept.” Debate over the package is expected to shape the 2026 midterm battle for control of the House of Representatives, which Democrats see as their best opportunity to block Trump’s agenda in his final two years in the Oval Office.
July 16, 2025 5:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he plans to place tariffs of over 10% on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean. “We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said Tuesday, adding that it could be “a little over 10% tariff” on goods from at least 100 nations. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean, places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the U.S. and would be relatively insignificant for addressing Trump’s goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world.
July 16, 2025 5:27 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs only to engage in a whipsawed frenzy of tariffs. Trump has declared that the U.S. effectively has no more inflation as he has attempted to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into cutting short-term interest rates.
July 16, 2025 5:29 am
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United States says it has sent five men to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program. The U.S. has already deported eight men to another African nation, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. In a post on X, Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says the men, who are citizens of Vietnam, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, have arrived in Eswatini on a plane.
July 16, 2025 5:23 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Officials say Russian weapons pounded Ukrainian cities overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, injuring at least 15 people in an attack that mostly targeted energy infrastructure. The latest bombardment in Russia’s escalating aerial campaign against civilian areas came ahead of a Sept. 2 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war, under the threat of possible severe Washington sanctions if it doesn’t. No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. Two previous rounds delivered no progress apart from prisoner swaps.
July 16, 2025 5:28 am
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An American aid organization in Gaza says 20 Palestinians were killed at a distribution site in Khan Younis. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund said 19 died in a stampede, and one was fatally stabbed on Wednesday. The group accuses Hamas of spreading panic but provides no evidence. The United Nations reports 875 Palestinians have died near aid sites since May. Meanwhile, hospital officials say Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children. Israel claims its strikes target Hamas infrastructure, accusing the group of hiding among civilians. Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis, with over 2 million residents struggling amid ongoing conflict and blockades.
July 16, 2025 5:26 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he has finally found a way to achieve his goal of removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing him of mismanaging the U.S. central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation project. The push comes after a monthslong campaign by Trump to try to rid himself of the politically independent central banker. Powell has resisted the president’s calls to slash interest rates out of concerns about the administration’s tariffs sparking higher levels of inflation. But the president indicated Tuesday that Powell’s handling of an extensive renovation project on two Fed buildings in Washington could be grounds to take the unprecedented and possibly legally dubious step of firing him.
July 16, 2025 5:24 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in floodwaters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight. Authorities said Tuesday their names haven’t been released yet. Meanwhile, York City’s subway system is fully operational following overnight heavy rains. But some roads in New Jersey and Pennsylvania remained closed and there were dozens of flight delays and cancelations at area airports, including 159 total cancelations at Newark Liberty Airport.
July 15, 2025 1:24 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Four independent voters in Pennsylvania are asking the state Supreme Court to rule that the closed primary system violates the state constitution. They filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that keeping independents out of primaries effectively denies them the right to vote in many districts where primaries determine the outcome. Pennsylvania is one of 14 states with closed primaries. New Mexico passed a law this year allowing voters with no party affiliation to vote in primary elections without changing their nonpartisan status. Lawsuits are pending in Wyoming, Oregon and Maryland.
July 15, 2025 4:38 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — President Donald Trump and Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania have announced tens of billions of dollars of energy and tech investments at a new summit focusing on energy and innovation. The Republican president has repeatedly pledged U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Pennsylvania is a swing state critical to Trump’s wins in 2016 and 2024, and is at the forefront of his energy agenda. Coal is a key part of that and is a big industry in the state. In opening remarks to attendees, McCormick said Tuesday’s summit is about catalyzing ”$90 billion in investment and tens of thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania.” Participating companies at the summit include Blackstone, Bridgewater, SoftBank, Amazon Web Services and ExxonMobil.
