Biden hosts Jordan’s king amid tough choices in Mideast
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to host King Abdullah II of Jordan during one of the most difficult moments of the Jordanian leader’s 22-year rule and at a pivotal time in the Middle East for Biden. Abdullah arrives Monday afternoon at the White House. Last week a Jordanian...
Garland formally prohibits seizure of reporters’ records
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday formally prohibited federal prosecutors from seizing the records of journalists in leak investigations, with limited exceptions, reversing years of department policy. The new policy largely codifies the commitment Garland made in June, when he said the Justice Department would abandon the practice...
Russia reports successful test launch of hypersonic missile
MOSCOW — The Russian military reported another successful test launch of a new hypersonic cruise missile on Monday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Zircon missile was launched from the Admiral Groshkov frigate in the White Sea. The ministry said the missile flew at a speed seven times the speed of...
Commission meeting to review Massachusetts’ controversial state seal, flag
BOSTON — A state commission tasked with reviewing and suggesting changes to Massachusetts’ seal and motto, which includes a controversial depiction of a Native American man, is meeting for the first time. The 19-member Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth was set to gather virtually...
Capitol rioter who breached Senate sentenced to 8 monthsVideo
CHICAGO — A Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber carrying a Trump campaign flag was sentenced Monday to eight months behind bars, the first resolution for a felony case in the Capitol insurrection. Paul Allard Hodgkins apologized and said he was ashamed of his actions on Jan 6....
Biden transfers 1st Guantanamo detainee to home country
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday transferred a Guantanamo Bay detainee to his home country for the first time, a policy shift from the Trump presidency that sent a Moroccan man back home years after he was recommended for discharge. The prisoner, Abdullatif Nasser, who’s in his mid-50s, was...
Firefighters rescue Ohio dog trapped between concrete walls
CINCINNATI — A dog in Ohio who had been missing for five days is back home after it was found trapped between two concrete walls in a nearby home’s garage and freed by firefighters using a saw and a sledgehammer. The homeowner called the Cincinnati Fire Department on Sunday after...
Microsoft Exchange email hack was caused by China, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday blamed China for a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year. The administration and allied nations also disclosed a broad range of other cyberthreats from Beijing, including ransomware attacks from...
Pa. requested $340 million in emergency contracts in 2020 with little oversight
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 — Lawmakers this week will probe whether state agencies had too much leeway in securing emergency contracts during the pandemic,...
Investigation: Journalists, activists among firm’s spyware targets
BOSTON — An investigation by a global media consortium based on leaked targeting data provides further evidence that military-grade malware from Israel-based NSO Group, the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire outfit, is being used to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents. From a list of more than 50,000...
Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western U.S.
BLY, Ore. — The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days. The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to...
With pandemic worsening in U.S., Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is worriedVideo
The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that he’s concerned about what lies ahead with cases of covid-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly. Noting that nearly all coronavirus deaths now are among the tens of millions of people who haven’t received...
Appeals court blocks order lifting CDC virus rules on cruise ships
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a Florida lawsuit challenging the regulations. The one-paragraph decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed...
Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western U.S.Video
BLY, Ore. — The largest wildfire in the U.S. torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the West as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days. The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to...
Merkel tours ‘surreal’ flood scene, vows aid, climate action
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel surveyed what she called a “surreal, ghostly” scene in a devastated village on Sunday, pledging quick financial aid and a redoubled political focus on curbing climate change as the death toll from floods in Western Europe climbed above 180. Merkel toured Schuld, a village...
In Trump’s Jan. 6 recast, attackers become martyrs, heroes
WASHINGTON — A cocktail of propaganda, conspiracy theory and disinformation — of the kind intoxicating to the masses in the darkest turns of history — is fueling delusion over the agonies of Jan. 6. Hate is “love.” Violence is “peace.” The pro-Donald Trump attackers are patriots. Months after the then-president’s...
Pennsylvania election audit gets GOP campaign trail embrace
HARRISBURG — Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and scores of recounts. But in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Trump lost by 80,000 votes eight months ago, they’re finding new signs of life. A Republican...
Tribe claims remains of kids who died at assimilation school in Pennsylvania
The remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania meant to assimilate them into white culture have been returned to their South Dakota tribe for burial on its reservation. The Rosebud Sioux planned to rebury the remains during...
California fire prompts evacuations; Oregon blaze balloons
A rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe forced the evacuation of a mountain town and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada, leaving thousands of riders and spectators stranded Saturday and rushing to flee the area. The Tamarack Fire, which was sparked by lightning on...
Philadelphia backyard chickens are surging despite city law
A cooped-up flock of law-breaking Philadelphians continued to grow in number and prosper during the pandemic. Thousands of chickens are being raised citywide, according to one estimate, despite a 2004 ordinance designed to eliminate the practice. This particular urban farming trend is becoming more popular, as penned-up residents look to...
Europe flood death toll tops 160, costly rebuilding ahead
Rescue workers labored to clear up damage laid bare by receding water Saturday as the death toll from disastrous flooding in Western Europe rose above 160 and thoughts turned to the lengthy job of rebuilding communities devastated in minutes. The death toll in western Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state, home to the...
‘A blaring siren’ for Democrats after ruling halts DACA
Immigrants and advocates are urging Democrats and President Joe Biden to quickly act on legislation to protect young immigrants after a federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled illegal an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of them brought into the U.S. as children. Plaintiffs have vowed to...
Air cargo company that ditched plane off Hawaii is grounded
A cargo airline whose plane ditched into the ocean off Hawaii has been grounded after investigators looked into the company’s safety practices before the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it will bar Rhoades Aviation of Honolulu from flying or doing maintenance inspections until it meets FAA regulations....
Indictment: White supremacists were rewarded for violence
TAMPA, Fla. — A white supremacist group rewarded members with tattoo “patches” for committing acts of violence, including assaulting peaceful demonstrators at a racial justice protest last summer, according to a federal racketeering indictment of 16 members in Florida. Members of the group, Unforgiven, also attempted to use corrupt law...
3 men charged over 2018 fatal Missouri duck boat accident
A local prosecutor on Friday filed a total of 63 felony criminal charges against three employees over a July 2018 tourist boat accident on a Missouri lake that killed 17 people. The charges were filed in Stone County against the captain, the general manager and the manager on duty the...
