Associated Press stories, Page 1540
Book: Top U.S. officer feared Trump could order China strike
Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war, according to a forthcoming book. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of...
Fires shut Sequoia National Park, could threaten huge trees
Sequoia National Park was shut down and its namesake gigantic trees were potentially threatened Tuesday as two forest fires burned in steep and dangerous terrain in California’s Sierra Nevada. Both fires were projected to advance in the direction of Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias including the...
Covid-19 cases in U.S. climbing, wiping out months of progress
Covid-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to where they were over the winter, wiping out months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for sweeping new vaccination requirements. The cases — driven by the delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting...
General promises U.S. ‘surge’ against foreign cyberattacks
The general who leads U.S. efforts to thwart foreign-based cyberattacks, and punish those responsible, says he’s mounting a “surge” to fight incursions that have debilitated government agencies and companies responsible for critical infrastructure. In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Gen. Paul Nakasone broadly described “an intense focus” by...
Slugger Ryan Braun retires after 14-year career with BrewersVideo
MILWAUKEE — Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers’ home run leader whose production was slowed by injuries during the second half of his 14-year career, announced his retirement on Tuesday. Braun hasn’t played all season and said during spring training that he was leaning toward retirement. The 2011 NL MVP made...
Foreign minister says Taliban government won’t allow militant attacks on others
KABUL, Afghanistan — The foreign minister in Afghanistan’s new Taliban-run Cabinet on Tuesday said the government remains committed to its promises not to allow militants to use its territory to attack others. The first press conference by Amir Khan Muttaqi since the Taliban formed an interim government a week ago...
Census: Relief payments staved off hardship in covid crash
WASHINGTON — The share of Americans living in poverty rose slightly as the covid-19 pandemic shook the economy last year, but massive relief payments pumped out by Congress eased hardship for many, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The official poverty measure showed an increase of 1 percentage point in 2020,...
Free rides take $104M toll on Pennsylvania Turnpike finances
CARLISLE — More than $104 million in Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls went uncollected last year as the agency fully converted to all-electronic tolling, with the millions of motorists who don’t use E-ZPass having a nearly 1 in 2 chance of riding without paying under the “toll-by-plate” license plate camera system. An...
Met Gala returns in style with Eilish, Lil Nas X, Rihanna
NEW YORK — Billie Eilish went full glam in a huge peach ball gown at the pandemic-delayed Met Gala on Monday night, while fellow host of the evening Amanda Gorman was breathtaking in cobalt blue custom Vera Wang with a diamond laurel wreath in her hair. Rihanna, ever the Met...
Patrick Cantlay wins PGA Tour player of the year award over Jon Rahm
Patrick Cantlay was voted PGA Tour player of the year on the strength of his four victories, including a one-shot advantage at East Lake that made him the FedEx Cup champion. Tuesday’s announcement was another big step for Cantlay, a 29-year-old Californian who went from being the No. 1 amateur...
Biden makes push for California’s Newsom as recall nears end
LONG BEACH, Calif. — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ended his campaign to retain his job in a recall election with a final push from President Joe Biden, who warned that the outcome of the contest could shape the country’s direction on the pandemic, reproductive rights and the battle to...
Putin to self-isolate, virus cases in inner circle
MOSCOW — The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is going into self-isolation because of coronavirus cases among his inner circle. The announcement came Tuesday in the Kremlin’s readout of Putin’s phone call with Tajikistan’s president. Putin has been fully vaccinated with the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. He received...
Nicholas makes landfall in Texas as hurricane; dumps rain along Gulf Coast
HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas hit the Texas coast early Tuesday as a hurricane and dumped more than a foot of rain along the the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, drenching storm-battered Louisiana and bringing the potential for life-threatening flash floods across the Deep South. Nicholas made...
GOP pushes unfounded fraud claims before California recallVideo
SACRAMENTO — California Republicans were trying to contain a fire of their own making a day before voting ends in the recall election against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, persuading their voters to turn out Tuesday even as party leaders promoted unsubstantiated claims that the race was rigged or compromised by...
Derek Carr’s TD pass caps Raiders rally past Ravens in overtime
LAS VEGAS — Derek Carr threw a 31-yard TD pass to Zay Jones after the Raiders squandered their first possession of overtime, beating the Baltimore Ravens 33-27 on Monday night in the team’s first game with fans in Las Vegas. Carr’s second TD pass of the game came after Carl...
Washington hospital execs: little capacity to help Idaho
SEATTLE — Washington is facing its own covid-19 crisis and has little capacity to help neighboring Idaho deal with an overwhelming surge of cases driven by unvaccinated people, state hospital executives and doctors said Monday. Taya Briley, executive vice president of the Washington State Hospital Association, called the situation “very...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatens ‘millions’ in fines for vaccine mandatesVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday threatened local governments with $5,000 fines per violation for requiring their employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus that has overrun hospitals and killed tens of thousands across the state. Local municipalities, such as Orange County and the city of Gainesville,...
Apple fixes security hole reportedly used to hack an iPhone
BOSTON — Apple released a critical software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action. Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said the security issue was exploited to plant spyware on a...
Boston College QB Phil Jurkovec has hand surgery, season in jeopardy
BOSTON — Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec underwent surgery for a hand injury that knocked him out of this weekend’s game against UMass and “could potentially miss the remainder of the year,” the school said Monday. BC also said kicker Aaron Boumerhi is out for the season with a hip...
Analysis: Browns handed more tough lessons in another loss to ChiefsVideo
CLEVELAND — Baker Mayfield lay face down in the grass, slamming his hands in frustration into the Arrowhead Stadium turf after the Browns’ final mistake. Revenge against Kansas City slipped away. Unable to put away the Chiefs for the second straight game — this time because of two critical second-half...
USC fires coach Clay Helton 2 games into 7th season
LOS ANGELES — Southern Cal fired football coach Clay Helton two games into his seventh season in charge. Athletic director Mike Bohn made the move Monday, two days after an embarrassing 42-28 home loss to Stanford. Donte Williams, the Trojans’ cornerbacks coach and associate head coach, is taking over as...
Browns’ JC Tretter calls for discipline against Chiefs assistant
CLEVELAND — Browns center JC Tretter believes Kansas City assistant coach Greg Lewis should be disciplined by the NFL for his role in a sideline skirmish with Cleveland safety Ronnie Harrison Jr. on Sunday. Harrison was ejected from Cleveland’s 33-29 loss in the first quarter after he forcefully pushed Lewis,...
Judge temporary order allows Iowa schools to mandate masks
DES MOINES — A federal judge on Monday ordered the state of Iowa to immediately halt enforcement of a law that prevents school boards from ordering masks to be worn to help prevent the spread of covid-19. Judge Robert Pratt said in an order signed Monday that the law passed...
Nicholas gets stronger, threatens to hit Texas as hurricaneVideo
HOUSTON — Tropical Storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 20 inches of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana. Although the system was...
Exelon: Contract worker killed in accident at Three Mile Island
MIDDLETOWN — A worker at the deactivated Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania died in an accident at the plant last week, officials said. The contract worker was fatally injured at about 11 a.m. Friday “while unloading equipment from a truck at Three Mile Island,” an Exelon Generation representative...
