Biden threatens sanctions on Myanmar after military coup
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is threatening to slap new sanctions on Myanmar after a coup that saw the military arrest the civilian leaders of its government. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been a U.S. democracy promotion project for decades, though there have been recent and serious concerns about...
As virus cuts class time, teachers have to leave out lessons
English teachers are deciding which books to skip. History teachers are condensing units. Science teachers are often doing without experiments entirely. With instruction time reduced as much as half by the coronavirus pandemic, many of the nation’s middle school and high school teachers have given up on covering all the...
Iran state TV airs launch of new satellite-carrying rocket
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian state TV on Monday aired the launch of the country’s newest satellite-carrying rocket, which it said was able to reach a height of 310 miles. The footage of the solid-liquid-fueled rocket showed the launch taking place during daytime in a desert environment. The report did not...
A Pa. Dept. of State error means some sex-abuse victims will again have to wait for justice
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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— Pennsylvania’s top election official will resign after her agency made a mistake that will delay a statewide vote on whether...
Prince Harry accepts apology, damages in U.K. libel suit
LONDON — Prince Harry on Monday accepted an apology and damages from the publisher of British tabloid The Mail on Sunday and its online version, MailOnline, in a libel lawsuit relating to articles about his relationship with the British armed forces. Harry sued Associated Newspapers for libel over two articles...
Biden to meet with GOP lawmakers to discuss virus relief
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to meet Monday with a group of 10 Republican senators who have proposed spending about one-third of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking in coronavirus aid, though congressional Democrats are poised to move ahead without Republican support. An invitation to the White House...
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group says it shot down Israeli drone
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said its fighters shot down an Israeli drone on Monday over a southern village near the border with Israel. The Israeli military did not confirm the shootdown but said a drone had crashed on Lebanese territory. Tensions in the region have been rising over...
Videos show Rochester officers pepper-spraying 9-year-oldVideo
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Police in Rochester released two body-camera videos Sunday of officers restraining a distraught 9-year-old girl who was handcuffed and sprayed with what police called a chemical “irritant.” The Democrat and Chronicle reported that prior to the release of the videos, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren expressed her concern...
Anti-vax ‘mob’ that closed Dodger Stadium vaccination site sparks outrageVideo
LOS ANGELES — After a group of protesters managed to disrupt operations at Dodger Stadium’s mass covid-19 vaccination site Saturday, some Los Angeles officials expressed fury at the demonstrators while calling for increased security at testing and vaccination installations. Los Angeles Fire Department officials closed the main entrance to the...
Military stages coup in Myanmar, detains Aung San Suu Kyi
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Myanmar’s military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy...
Trump names 2 lawyers to impeachment defense team
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Sunday named two lawyers to his impeachment defense team, one day after it was revealed that the former president had parted ways with an earlier set of attorneys. The two lawyers representing him will be David Schoen, a criminal defense lawyer with offices in Alabama...
Retired Larimer minister served church, community
Claudia Papenmeier grew up attending St. John’s United Church of Christ in Larimer, and she remained active in the church well into her 70s. Mrs. Papenmeier met her husband, Arthur, at the church, where he served as a pastor in the 1950s. It was a role that she herself took...
Major storm heads to Northeast after blanketing MidwestVideo
After days of frigid temperatures, the Northeast braced for a whopper of a storm that could dump well over a foot of snow in many areas, create blizzard-like conditions and cause travel problems for the next few days. The storm system blanketed parts of the Midwest in the most snow...
EU: AstraZeneca to supply 9 million more vaccine dosesVideo
BERLIN — Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc’s executive arm said Sunday. The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half what the British-Swedish...
‘We traffic in lies’: House Republican Kinzinger launches campaign to ‘take back our party’Video
WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party wrestles with its identity in the wake of former President Trump, an Illinois Republican is out to prove there is a GOP voter base that wants to give up the division and conspiracy theories that he says have come to define the party. “The...
Philadelphia deputy health commissioner resigns after Philly Fighting Covid controversy
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Deputy Health Commissioner Caroline Johnson has resigned after records obtained by The Inquirer show she gave an advantage in a city bidding process to Andrei Doroshin, Philly Fighting Covid’s young CEO who until this week the city entrusted to run its largest vaccination site. Johnson sent a...
3 found dead after house fire in Oil City
OIL CITY — A house fire in northwestern Pennsylvania claimed the lives of three people over the weekend, authorities said. The Oil City fire department was called to the home shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. Chief Mark Hicks told the Oil City Derrick that arriving crews found a “well seated...
Young men accuse Lincoln Project co-founder of harassment
WASHINGTON — The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics. The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, “a predator, a liar, and...
How wildfires became ripe areas for right-wing conspiracy theories
LOS ANGELES — When Lilli Heart fled California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, she was stuck in traffic for two hours outside the town of Paradise with her two cats in a car that was running low on gas. As the septuagenarian sat behind the wheel on Neal Road — waiting...
Russia arrests nearly 5,000 at wide protests backing NavalnyVideo
MOSCOW — Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Nearly 5,000 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and...
GOP lawmakers seek tougher voting rules after record turnout
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years. Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has...
Pa. could become national outlier in how it elects appellate judges, worrying some experts
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It’s made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members including the Tribune-Review/TribLIVE, and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A proposal moving through the GOP-led Pennsylvania legislature...
Report: Alaska AG quit after reports of sexual misconduct
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s then-attorney general resigned while the Anchorage Daily News and the ProPublica investigative journalism organization were preparing an article about allegations of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl three decades ago. The Daily News and the ProPublica Local Reporting Network reported Saturday that the resignation of Ed...
Thousands flee Hong Kong for UK, fearing China crackdown
LONDON — Cindy had a comfortable lifestyle in Hong Kong: she owned several properties with her husband, they had a good business going. But last year she made up her mind to leave it all behind and move her family to Britain, and not even a global pandemic was going...
Trump parts with impeachment lawyers a week before trial
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trump’s defense team....
