October 21, 2025 4:53 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, President Donald Trump welcomed Senate Republicans for lunch at the White House. It was not for urgent talks on how to end the shutdown, but a celebratory display of unity as they refuse to negotiate on Democratic demands for health care funds. Trump is praising GOP leaders by name. But Senate Democrats are also expressing confidence in their strategy to keep voting against a House-passed bill that would reopen the government until Trump and other Republicans engage them. Democrats want to extend health care subsidies that are expiring. Trump says he’ll discuss health care, but only after the government reopens.
October 21, 2025 4:52 am
LONDON (AP) — A problem at Amazon’s cloud computing service disrupted internet use around the world. The outage on Monday took down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms. Amazon said the outage was resolved as of Monday evening. The all-day disruption and the ensuing exasperation it caused served as the latest reminder that 21st century society is increasingly dependent on just a handful of companies for much of its internet technology, which seems to work reliably until it suddenly breaks down.
October 21, 2025 4:49 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed a critical-minerals deal at the White House. The United States is eyeing Australia’s rare-earth resources as China imposes stricter export rules on its critical minerals. Monday’s White House meeting comes after Beijing announced this month that foreign companies must get approval to export magnets with rare-earth materials from China. Trump administration officials say this gives China control over the tech supply chain. The two leaders also discussed a security pact among Australia, the U.S. and the United Kingdom that was signed during Joe Biden’s administration. Trump noted that AUKUS was established “a while ago” but that the agreement now is “moving along very rapidly, very well.”
October 21, 2025 4:46 am
Gas prices are down eight cents this week in Western Pennsylvania. AAA says the average stands at $3.31 per gallon. Here in Washington our average remains a little higher at $3.35. The national average has dropped more than five cents over the past week to $3.03. Several factors are behind the drop, including falling crude oil prices, lower gasoline demand and cheaper winter-blend gasoline at the pump. Today’s national average is 16 cents less than one month ago and 15 cents lower than one year ago.
October 21, 2025 4:42 am
Emergency crews were called to a one-vehicle, rollover crash early Tuesday morning in the City of Washington. Washington County 9-1-1 says it happened just after 3:30 a.m. in the 300-block of Locust Avenue. Dispatchers say no one was transported from the scene by ambulance. The roadway was briefly closed but has since reopened. No other details are available.
October 20, 2025 8:17 am
LONDON (AP) — Amazon’s cloud computing service experienced a major outage on Monday, disrupting many online services like Snapchat, Roblox, and Signal. The issue began around 3 a.m. Eastern Time, affecting Amazon’s own services like Ring and Alexa. Amazon blamed the problem on its domain name system, which translates web addresses into IP addresses. By around 6 a.m., Amazon reported recovery across most services. This isn’t the first time AWS has faced such issues, with previous outages in 2023 and 2021. Experts say these disruptions highlight the internet’s reliance on a few major cloud providers.
October 20, 2025 5:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds, in what is a potential warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way to hiring freezes and elevated inflation. High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey. Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very” or “not at all confident” they could find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question was last asked in October 2023. Electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults at a time when the expected build-out of data centers for artificial intelligence could further tax the power grid. Just more than one-half said the cost of groceries are a “major” source of financial stress, about 4 in 10 said the cost of housing and health care were a serious strain and about one-third said they were feeling high stress about gasoline prices.
October 20, 2025 4:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Freed from the prison where he had been serving time for ripping off his campaign donors, former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he’s humbled by his experience behind bars but unconcerned about the “pearl clutching” of critics upset that President Donald Trump granted him clemency. “I’m pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross, he would have had critics,” Santos said Sunday in an interview on CNN. Santos, who won office after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker, pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft last year and began serving a 7-year sentence in July at a prison in New Jersey. But Trump ordered him released him Friday after he’d served just 84 days. Trump called Santos a “rogue,” but said he didn’t deserve a harsh sentence and should get credit for voting Republican.
October 20, 2025 4:55 am
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States could purchase Argentinian beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers. “We would buy some beef from Argentina,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.” Trump promised earlier this week to address the issue as part of his efforts to keep inflation in check. U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there. Trump has been working to help Argentina bolster its collapsing currency with a $20 billion credit swap line and additional financing from sovereign funds and the private sector ahead of midterm elections for his close ally, President Javier Milei.
October 20, 2025 4:51 am
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A U.S. appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump can take command of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. He’s still barred from actually deploying those troops — at least for now. A panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Monday to put on hold an order that kept Trump from taking command of the troops. Another order prohibits Trump from sending any Guard troops to Oregon at all. The administration is now asking for that order to be dissolved. Oregon’s attorney general said he would ask a broader appeals court panel to reconsider the ruling.
