Associated Press stories, Page 1855
London faces tightest restrictions; sees new virus variant
London and its surrounding areas will be placed under Britain’s highest level of coronavirus restrictions beginning Wednesday as infections rise rapidly in the capital, the health secretary said Monday, adding that a new variant of the virus may be to blame for the spread. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the...
Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses Trump election lawsuit
MADISON, Wis. — A narrowly divided Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s lawsuit attempting to overturn his election loss in the battleground state about an hour before the Electoral College cast Wisconsin’s 10 votes for Democrat Joe Biden. In the 4-3 ruling, the court’s three liberal justices...
ACC close to making Northwestern AD commissioner
The Atlantic Coast Conference is finalizing a deal to make Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips the league’s next commissioner, replacing the retiring John Swofford. Two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday they expected an agreement to be reached with Phillips and the conference soon....
Fed to weigh further options for aiding U.S. economy in peril
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s policymakers face an unusual conundrum as they meet this week: A short-term economic outlook that is worsening even while the longer-term picture is brightening thanks to the emergence of coronavirus vaccines. When its meeting concludes Wednesday, the Fed could announce steps to try to offset...
Gonzaga, Baylor remain atop AP Top 25; Missouri, Clemson in
Gonzaga and Baylor sit atop an unchanged top tier of The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, while West Virginia and Tennessee have cracked the top 10. The top five teams remained in place in Monday’s latest Top 25, with Mark Few’s Bulldogs claiming 54 of 62 first-place votes to...
NCAA to play women’s NCAA Tournament at 1 site, eyes Texas
The NCAA plans to stage the entire women’s basketball tournament in one geographic area and San Antonio is the likely host site. The move, announced Monday, was made to help mitigate the risks of covid-19 and matches that of the men’s tournament, which the NCAA said last month will be...
U.S. blames Iran in abduction, death of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson
The Trump administration for the first time on Monday formally blamed Iran for the presumed death of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, publicly identifying two Iranian intelligence officers believed responsible for his abduction. Levinson disappeared in Iran under mysterious circumstances more than a decade ago, and though U.S. diplomats and...
5 years and counting: Ex-treasure hunter still stuck in jail over missing gold
A former deep-sea treasure hunter is about to mark his fifth year in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 missing coins made from gold found in an historic shipwreck. Research scientist Tommy Thompson isn’t incarcerated for breaking the law. Instead, he’s being held in contempt of court...
4 dead, 4 injured in horse and buggy crash with dump truck in Lancaster County
A crash between a horse and buggy and a dump truck killed four people and injured four others Monday morning, state police said. The crash happened about 6 miles south of Quarryville, in Lancaster County, shortly before 8 a.m., according to state police Trooper Kelly Osborne. Troopers remained at the...
Biden aides hope Electoral College vote is GOP turning point
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden’s aides have a message for President Donald Trump and his supporters: It’s long past time to move on. With the Electoral College set to formally elect Biden as president on Monday, his aides say they hope Republicans will consider their own long-term interests (and the...
U.S. set for first covid-19 shots as shipments begin arriving
Hospital workers begin unloading precious frozen vials of covid-19 vaccine Monday, with the first vaccinations against a scourge that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans expected later in the day. “It feels like the cavalry is arriving,” Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, said as New Jersey’s largest health...
Gmail, YouTube down briefly as Google suffers brief outage
Google users in the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world were briefly unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or get to their online documents during an outage Monday. Thousands of complaints popped up around 7 a.m. along the East Coast of the U.S. “We’re...
Watch live as Pa. electors formally choose Biden as presidentVideo
WASHINGTON — Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to...
Protesting Indian farmers call for 2nd strike in a week
NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers called for a national farmers’ strike on Monday, the second in a week, to press for the quashing of three new laws on agricultural reform that they say will drive down crop prices and devastate their earnings. The farmers are...
Early in-person voting begins in Georgia Senate runoffs
ATLANTA — What could be the main event in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs — early in-person voting — got underway Monday, with lines trending shorter than during the first days of early voting for the general election. More than half of the record 5 million votes in the Nov....
Sen. Kelly Loeffler campaign: She had ‘no idea’ she posed with neo-Nazi
ATLANTA — The campaign of Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is disavowing a photo circulating on social media of her posing with a longtime white supremacist at a recent campaign event, with less than a month to go until the runoff elections that will determine the balance of the...
Raiders fire defensive coordinator Paul Guenther
The Las Vegas Raiders fired defensive coordinator Paul Guenther after he failed to make any significant improvement for the unit in nearly three full seasons on the job. The Raiders (7-6) announced the decision Sunday following a 44-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts that dealt a severe blow to their...
Former development aide accuses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment
NEW YORK — A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for Manhattan borough president accused him of sexual harassment in a series of tweets Sunday, saying he made inappropriate comments about her appearance. Lindsey Boylan tweeted that the Democratic governor “sexually harassed me for...
Officials: Pittston detention facility at center of scandal is closed
WILKES-BARRE — State and county officials have confirmed the voluntary closure of a for-profit juvenile detention center in northeastern Pennsylvania to which prosecutors said juvenile offenders were improperly sent in a kickback scheme that led to the imprisonment of two judges. The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice reports that the 60-bed PA...
Dickinson scores 20 to lift Michigan past Penn St. 62-58Video
Hunter Dickinson scored 20 points, including the tying and winning scores, as Michigan scrapped past Penn State, 62-58, in a low-scoring grinder of a Big Ten opener Sunday. It was a breakout game for Michigan’s freshman starting center, who pulled down seven rebounds and blocked three shots. Dickinson scored 11...
Man shot by police after shooting at Manhattan cathedralVideo
NEW YORK — A man was fatally shot in the head by police on the steps of a landmark New York City cathedral Sunday afternoon after he began firing two semiautomatic handguns at the end of a Christmas choral concert, police said. A detective, a sergeant and an officer fired...
U.S. agencies hacked in monthslong global cyberspying campaign; Russia a possible culprit
WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies were ordered to scour their networks for malware and disconnect potentially compromised servers on Monday after authorities learned that the Treasury and Commerce departments were hacked in a global cyber-espionage campaign tied to a foreign government. In a rare emergency directive issued late Sunday, the...
Agent: Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89
LONDON — John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89, Le Carre’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday that he died in Cornwall, southwest England on Saturday...
Some in White House getting early access to covid-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON — Some White House officials who work in close proximity to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be offered coronavirus vaccines as soon as this week, while its public distribution is limited to front-line health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Two...
Vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump ralliesVideo
WASHINGTON — Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at...
