After Biden win, McConnell says Trump OK to fight election
WASHINGTON — Despite President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump is “100% within his rights” to question election results and consider legal options. The Republican leader said Monday the process will play out and “reach its conclusion.” Trump has declined to concede the presidential...
Pa. Health Secretary: Fall coronavirus surge likely is not over
Covid-19 continues to surge across Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole, with the percent positivity rate rising along with the case count. The state’s top health officials said Monday the fall resurgence likely isn’t over. “I don’t think we have peaked,” said Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine....
Notre Dame mandates virus testing after football celebration
INDIANAPOLIS — University of Notre Dame students are now subject to mandatory coronavirus testing and face strict penalties if they leave town before getting their test results after thousands of fans stormed the football field and threw parties to celebrate a double-overtime upset over Clemson. The mass of students, players...
U.K., EU make one more push for elusive Brexit trade deal
LONDON — Negotiators from Britain and the European Union met Monday to seek a breakthrough in gridlocked trade talks, with just days until a deadline to strike a post-Brexit deal. As EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier met his British counterpart, David Frost, in London, members of Britain’s House of Lords...
In abrupt move, Trump fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, an unprecedented move by a president struggling to accept election defeat and angry at a Pentagon leader he believes wasn’t loyal enough. The decision, which could unsettle international allies and Pentagon leadership, injects another element of uncertainty to...
Trump’s election night party adds to virus scrutiny as HUD Secretary Ben Carson tests positive for covid
WASHINGTON — It was supposed to be a scene of celebration. Instead, the Trump campaign’s election night watch party in the White House East Room — with few masks and no social distancing — is being eyed as a potential coronavirus super-spreading event and yet another symbol of President Donald...
Kremlin: Putin won’t congratulate Biden until challenges end
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t congratulate President-elect Joe Biden until legal challenges to the U.S. election are resolved and the result is official, the Kremlin announced Monday. Putin is one of a handful of world leaders who have not commented on Biden’s victory, which was called by major...
Russian military helicopter shot down in Armenia, 2 killed
YEREVAN, Armenia — Russia said Monday that one of its military helicopters was shot down in Armenia, near the border with Azerbaijan, killing two servicemen. The incident occurred near the border with the Azerbaijan exclave of Nakhchivan. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have been fighting for six weeks over the region...
Pennsylvania adds over 6,300 new covid cases in 2 days
Since Saturday, Pennsylvania has added more than 6,300 new cases of coronavirus, the state’s Department of Health said Monday. On Sunday and Monday, there were 6,311 new cases of covid-19 — 2,909 on Sunday, 3,402 on Monday — making for 22,300 new cases in the past week. Since the beginning...
Vice President Mike Pence heading to Florida vacation island
WASHINGTON — One week after Election Day, Vice President Mike Pence appears ready to take some time off. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Pence is scheduled to travel to Sanibel, Fla., from Tuesday through Saturday. Pence has vacationed on the island along Florida’s Gulf Coast several times previously. Pence’s...
Utah governor issues statewide mask mandate amid virus surge
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide mask mandate in an attempt to stem a surge in coronavirus patient hospitalizations that is testing the state’s hospital capacity. Herbert and the Utah Department of Health late Sunday issued executive and public...
Tropical Storm Eta floods already drenched Florida citiesVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A deluge of rain from Tropical Storm Eta caused flooding Monday across South Florida’s most densely populated urban areas, stranding cars, flooding businesses, and swamping entire neighborhoods with fast-rising water that had no place to drain. The system made landfall in the Florida Keys and posed...
Biden cheers vaccine progress but says masks remain a must, names advisory coronavirus board
WILMINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday cheered news about the promising development of a coronavirus vaccine but cautioned Americans need to be aggressive about mask wearing and social distancing as infections continue to surge around the country. The Democrat’s transition team also unveiled members of Biden’s coronavirus working group...
Russia’s Putin says time for Syrian refugees to return home
DAMASCUS, Syria — Millions of Syrian refugees who fled their country’s civil war should start returning home to help rebuild Syria now that large parts of the Arab nation enjoy relative peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday. Putin’s comments came in a video call with Syrian President Bashar Assad...
Referendum on Trump shatters turnout records
With votes still being counted, turnout in the 2020 presidential election has hit a 50-year high, exceeding the record set by the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama — an extraordinary engagement in what amounted to a referendum on President Donald Trump’s leadership. As of Sunday, the tallied votes accounted...
Pfizer says early data signals its covid-19 vaccine 90% effective
Pfizer says an early peek at its vaccine data suggests the shots may be 90% effective at preventing covid-19, indicating the company is on track later this month to file an emergency use application with U.S. regulators. Monday’s announcement doesn’t mean a vaccine is imminent: This interim analysis, from an...
Turkish finance minister, Erdogan’s son-in-law, resigns post
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s finance minister and son-in-law to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his resignation on social media Sunday. Berat Albayrak said on Instagram that he was stepping down from his post for health reasons and would spend more time with his family. Albayrak, 42, was appointed minister of...
Global coronavirus case total tops 50 million
BOSTON — The coronavirus has hit another sobering milestone: more than 50 million positive cases worldwide since the pandemic began. Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker reported more than 50.2 million covid-19 cases globally as of Sunday. There have been more than 1.2 million deaths from the disease worldwide since the...
Trump faces calls to work with Biden team on transitionVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — President Donald Trump is facing pressure to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden’s team to ensure a smooth transfer of power when the new administration takes office in January. The General Services Administration is tasked with formally recognizing Biden as president-elect, which begins the transition. But the agency’s...
Astronauts arrive at launch site for 2nd SpaceX crew flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday for SpaceX’s second crew launch, coming up next weekend. For NASA, it marks the long-awaited start of regular crew rotations at the International Space Station, with private companies providing the lifts. There will be double the number...
Trump, who never admits defeat, mulls how to keep up fight
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump never admits defeat. But he faces a stark choice now that Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House: Concede graciously for the sake of the nation or don’t — and get evicted anyway. After nearly four tortured days of counting yielded a victory for...
Eta expected to be hurricane and strike Florida KeysVideo
HAVANA — A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta sliced across Cuba on Sunday and was aimed at the southern tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America. The U.S. National...
Red wave threatening 3 Western Pennsylvania state lawmakers
Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Pennsylvania may be overshadowing a red wave in Southwestern Pennsylvania threatening to wash away three Democrats with more than 60 years’ combined experience in the General Assembly. Preliminary returns showed the last resident Democrat in the Westmoreland County legislative caucus, state Rep. Joe Petrarca, a...
Election 2020: Presidential vote count and Pennsylvania races in charts
Here is a roundup of charts and graphics that illustrate the presidential race, as well as races in Pennsylvania. Here is the breakdown of the U.S. Electoral map. PA vote countInfogram Presidential votes in Western PAInfogram U.S. Rep Conor Lamb won reelection in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District in a tight...
Message of Election 2020: Trump lost, but Trumpism did not
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lost. But Trumpism did not. It won in the parts of the country and with the voters whom Trump catered to over four years, constantly jabbing the hard edges of almost every contentious cultural issue into Red America, on the bet that fear and anger...
