U.S. covid-19 deaths top 300,000 just as vaccinations beginVideo
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 on Monday just as the country began dispensing covid-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak. The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of...
Pa. corrections department tells officer with covid symptoms to return to work early
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...
Company targeted by vote fraud claims strikes back at Trump
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...
Apple’s app stores open new privacy window for customers
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...
Endangered-species decision expected on beloved monarch butterfly
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...
Scientists focus on bats for clues to prevent next pandemic
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,...
Canada administers first doses of covid-19 vaccine
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,...
Dr. Rachel Levine: ‘Today is a great day,’ but vaccine’s arrival doesn’t end pandemic
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,”...
U.S. sanctions NATO ally Turkey over Russian missile defense
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...
Turkey announces 4-day curfew over New Year’s to fight virus
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president has announced a four-day lockdown starting New Year’s Eve to curb the spread of covid-19. Speaking after a cabinet meeting Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the curfew would begin the evening of Dec. 31 and go until the morning of Jan. 4 The government this...
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...
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...
With over 18,000 new covid cases, Pennsylvania nears 500K mark
Health officials reported Monday there were 18,646 new cases of covid-19 in Pennsylvania over the past two days. The Department of Health reported 10,684 of those cases Sunday and 7,962 on Monday. The new cases bring the state’s seven-day average of daily cases to 10,474, while its seven-day case total...
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...
Pennsylvania electors cast their votes for BidenVideo
In a ceremony often considered as little more than a formality, Pennsylvania’s College of Electors on Monday certified their 20 votes for president-elect Joe Biden. The event mirrored similar ceremonies in states across the nation, as state electors cast ballots in a constitutionally mandated event to formalize Biden’s 306-232 Electoral...
Wolf: Federal covid relief package needed ‘right now’
As coronavirus relief negotiations languish in Congress, Gov. Tom Wolf and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday there is a dire need to pass a package sooner rather than later to ensure an economic recovery from the pandemic. “It’s disgraceful, disgraceful that right now in the midst of 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...
