Officials: Al-Qaida could threaten in 1-2 years
WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials say al-Qaida could begin to threaten the homeland from Afghanistan within one to two years, echoing warnings that were issued prior to the U.S. withdrawal ending its 20-year war. Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, gave that estimated timeframe Tuesday while...
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...
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...
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...
Secretary of State Blinken defends Afghanistan withdrawal at congressional hearingVideo
WASHINGTON — Facing often-hostile questioning by some Republican lawmakers Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken vigorously defended his department’s handling of the massive, if incomplete, evacuation from Afghanistan of U.S. citizens, green card holders and other at-risk Afghans. The top U.S. diplomat testified in the administration’s first public congressional...
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,...
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...
Most people don’t need covid vaccine booster, scientists say
Covid-19 vaccines work so well that most people don’t yet need a booster, an all-star panel of scientists from around the world said in a review that’s likely to fuel the debate over whether to use them. Governments would be better served to focus on immunizing the unvaccinated and to...
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...
Veronica Wolski, Chicago woman at the center of ivermectin firestorm, dies
CHICAGO — Veronica Wolski, the QAnon adherent whose recent hospitalization made her a cause célèbre for the controversial medication ivermectin, died in the intensive care unit of AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center early Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said. She was 64. Wolski’s social media followers said she was being treated...
Police arrest California man carrying machete, bayonet in truck near DNC headquarters
WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol Police on Monday arrested an Oceanside, California, man outside the Washington headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on suspicion of possession of prohibited weapons. Around midnight, an officer on patrol noticed a black Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a swastika and other white supremacist symbols outside...
Gov. Wolf pulls election nominee, slams Senate GOP over handling
HARRISBURG — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday withdrew his nominee to be Pennsylvania’s top elections official, accusing state Senate Republicans of turning the confirmation process into a partisan charade. Wolf said Republican leaders were seeking a “record number” of hearings to confirm his acting secretary of state, Veronica Degraffenreid,...
Wolf administration ordered to reveal details of cannabis use as drug addiction treatment
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — The public could soon know for the first time how many patients use medical marijuana to treat opioid use...
Expiring covid-19 waivers could make Pa. health-care staffing shortages worse
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Regulatory waivers established last year to help hospitals and health-care workers fight covid-19 will expire this month, and those...
Oldest U.S. veteran of WWII celebrates his 112th birthday
A Louisiana man who is the oldest living World War II veteran in the United States has marked his 112th birthday. Lawrence Brooks celebrated Sunday with a drive-by party at his New Orleans home hosted by the National World War II Museum, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. He also...
