News category, Page 1229

Moderna Inc.’s vaccine is safe and effective for preventing covid-19, U.S. regulators said, clearing the way for a second shot to quickly gain emergency authorization and add to the country’s sprawling immunization effort. The Food and Drug Administration’s staff said in a report on Tuesday that the experimental vaccine is...

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect on Tuesday, saying the Electoral College “has spoken.” The Republican leader’s statement, delivered in a speech on the Senate floor, ends weeks of silence over President Donald Trump’s defeat. It came a day after electors met and...

Health care workers on the frontlines battling the coronavirus are getting the covid-19 vaccine first. So will first responders, teachers, other “essential” workers and adults with covid health risks. But, if you aren’t one of those, where do you fit in line? The New York Times developed a tool in...

BERLIN — Germany on Tuesday increased the pressure on European regulators to speed up their review of a coronavirus vaccine, with its health minister, a hospital association and several lawmakers urging that the vaccine be given the stamp of approval by next week. “Our goal is an approval before Christmas,”...

MOSCOW — A fire in a retirement home in Russia’s southern Urals killed 11 people while three more were hospitalized with injuries, local officials said Tuesday. The fire broke out in the early hours in a wooden, one-story building of a private retirement home in a village in the Bashkiria...

NEW DELHI — With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleeves to receive coronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months. But for poorer countries, the road will be far longer and rougher....

SANTA FE, N.M. — Democratic electors in New Mexico cast their votes for Joe Biden on Monday as the Democratic president-elect cleared the 270-electoral-vote mark to formalize his presidential victory, amid new local protests and objections by Republicans to the voting process and outcome. Biden won the statewide popular vote...

WASHINGTON — Congressional action on coronavirus relief legislation may hinge on a little-known question that turns out to be political dynamite: Should private businesses be immune from lawsuits involving covid-19? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, has been advocating for such a shield since spring at the urging of business...

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general...

WASHINGTON — The Electoral College gave Joe Biden a solid majority of its votes Monday, confirming his victory in last month’s election in state-by-state voting that took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he lost. California’s 55 electoral votes put Biden over the...

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Kansas that sought to revive a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. A federal appeals court had declared the law unconstitutional. Kansas had been the only state to require people to show a physical document such as a...

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 — The state Department of Corrections defied federal guidelines and a doctor’s order last week, demanding that an officer who...

MIAMI — The head of an electronic voting company being targeted by allies of President Donald Trump said baseless claims that it helped flip the 2020 election for Joe Biden threatens to undermine Americans’ faith in democracy. Antonio Mugica, CEO of Florida-based Smartmatic, said for years he watched as democracy...

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple has begun spelling out what kinds of personal information is being collected by the digital services displayed in its app stores for iPhones and other products made by the trendsetting company. Starting Monday, the additional disclosures will begin to appear in apps made for iPads, Mac...

Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species. Stepped-up use of farm herbicides, climate change and destruction of milkweed plants on which they depend...

Night began to fall in Rio de Janeiro’s Pedra Branca state park as four Brazilian scientists switched on their flashlights to traipse along a narrow trail of mud through dense rainforest. The researchers were on a mission: capture bats and help prevent the next global pandemic. A few meters ahead,...

TORONTO — Canada administered its first doses of a covid-19 vaccine Monday, becoming one of the first countries to do so in the effort to beat back the pandemic. Five front-line workers in Ontario were among the first Canadians to receive the vaccine at one of Toronto’s hospitals. Anita Quidangen,...

As Pennsylvania officials on Monday celebrated the first vaccinations of health care workers against covid-19 , Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reiterated warnings this is the first step in a long road to the end of the pandemic. “Today is just a great day, when we start immunizing people,”...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on its NATO ally Turkey over its purchase of a Russian air defense system, setting the stage for further confrontation between the two nations as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office. The move comes at a delicate time in relations...