Mark Esper: Trump’s White House discussed blockade of Cuba and military action in VenezuelaVideo
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he prevented “dangerous things” from happening during the time President Donald Trump was in office, including military intervention in Venezuela and a blockade of Cuba. “At various times, certainly during the last year of the administration folks in the White House were proposing to...
Fugitive inmate captured after manhunt, ex-jail officer deadVideo
A former Alabama jail official on the run with a murder suspect she was accused of helping escape shot and killed herself Monday as authorities caught up with the pair after more than a week of searching, officials said. The man she fled with surrendered. The death of Vicky White,...
Rare cases of covid returning pose questions for Pfizer pill
WASHINGTON — As more doctors prescribe Pfizer’s powerful covid-19 pill, new questions are emerging about its performance, including why a small number of patients appear to relapse after taking the drug. Paxlovid has become the go-to option against covid-19 because of its at-home convenience and impressive results in heading off...
Bahamas calls on U.S. labs to help solve deaths of 3 touristsVideo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Samples extracted from three American tourists who died at a resort in the Bahamas under mysterious circumstances have been sent to a lab in the United States to expedite results and help authorities understand what happened, officials said Monday. The police commissioner of the Bahamas,...
Poll: Kathy Barnette is neck-and-neck with Oz, McCormick in Pa. Senate race
PHILADELPHIA — Maybe money really can’t buy everything. Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Kathy Barnette now appears to be running neck-and-neck with the two big-spending front-runners, Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, just days before the May 17 primary, according to a new poll. Barnette, a conservative commentator who has run a...
Philly cheesesteak shop founder, son plead in tax fraud case
PHILADELPHIA — The founder of a Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurant and one of his sons have pleaded guilty in a federal tax fraud case alleging the hiding of nearly $8 million in sales over the course of a decade. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that 83-year-old Anthony Lucidonio Sr. and 55-year-old Nicholas...
Pulitzer Prizes award Washington Post for Jan. 6 coverage
NEW YORK — The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize in public service journalism Monday for its coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an attack on democracy that was a shocking start to a tumultuous year that also saw the end of the United States’ longest...
Face-scanner Clearview agrees to limits in court settlement
CHICAGO — Facial recognition startup Clearview AI has agreed to restrict the use of its massive collection of face images to settle allegations that it collected people’s photos without their consent. The company in a legal filing Monday agreed to permanently stop selling access to its face database to private...
Death toll of Havana hotel explosion rises to 35
HAVANA — More bodies were pulled from the ruins of a luxury hotel in Cuba’s capital on Monday, bringing the official death toll of a powerful explosion at the iconic building to 35. Cuba’s Fire Department Chief Luis Guzmán told state TV that three more bodies were recovered overnight as...
Wall Street joins worldwide swoon on rate, China worries
NEW YORK — Wall Street is tumbling toward its lowest point in more than a year on Monday as renewed worries about China’s economy pile on top of markets already battered by rising interest rates. The S&P 500 was 2.2% lower in morning trading after coming off its fifth straight...
Russian envoy to Poland hit with red paint at war cemetery
WARSAW, Poland — Russia’s ambassador to Poland was splattered with red paint thrown at him by protesters opposed to the war in Ukraine, preventing him from paying respects on Monday at a Warsaw cemetery to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova...
No end in sight for Ukraine war as Putin hails Victory Day
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin used a major patriotic holiday Monday to again justify his war in Ukraine but did not declare even a limited victory or signal where the conflict was headed, as his forces continued to pummel targets across the country with few signs of significant...
White House says internet providers to discount fee for poor
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Biden administration announced on Monday that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to low-income Americans, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy. The $1 trillion infrastructure package passed by...
Call Pence or Trump? It’s decision time for Jan. 6 panel
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has interviewed nearly 1,000 people. But the nine-member panel has yet to talk to the two most prominent players in that day’s events — former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. As the investigation winds down and...
Penn State Nittany Lion Shrine closed as police investigate commencement weekend vandalism
The Nittany Lion Shrine was closed Sunday as Penn State police investigated several incidents of vandalism during commencement weekend. Someone broke an ear and splashed red paint on the Lion Shrine, the university said. The area is fenced off and unavailable for commencement photos. Paint was also used to vandalize...
Fire at Wisconsin anti-abortion office investigated as arson
MADISON, Wis. — Vandals struck an anti-abortion group office, where a fire broke out and a Molotov cocktail was found, authorities said Sunday. Madison police spokeswoman Stephanie Fryer told the Wisconsin State Journal that the fire reported shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday at the Wisconsin Family Action office in Madison...
Havana hotel death toll at 30 as dogs search for survivorsVideo
HAVANA — Search crews with dogs on Sunday hunted through the ruins of a luxury hotel in Cuba’s capital for survivors of a devastating explosion while officials raised the number of known dead to 30. The Hotel Saratoga, a five-star 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was preparing to reopen after...
Abortion opinion court leak is catnip for those who love a juicy D.C. whodunit
WASHINGTON — Washington loves a whodunit. And the latest one comes with the stunning plot twist of a leak from the famously buttoned-up Supreme Court. The publication this past week of a draft opinion that said Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion in...
Pandemic pushes public defender system to the brink
PORTLAND, Ore. — A post-pandemic glut of delayed cases has exposed shocking constitutional landmines impacting defendants and crime victims alike in Oregon, a state with a national reputation for progressive social justice. An acute shortage of public defenders means at any given time at least several hundred low-income criminal defendants...
Pennsylvania’s biggest primaries could get called on election night. But don’t get used to it
PHILADELPHIA — We probably won’t need to stay up all night this Election Day. The May 17 Pennsylvania primary elections shouldn’t create anything like the dayslong anxiety of November 2020, when the counting of mail ballots dragged on. There’s a very good chance we’ll know the Democratic and Republican nominees...
3 Americans found dead at resort in Bahamas; fourth is hospitalized
Three Americans were discovered dead at a Bahamas resort and a fourth has been hospitalized, sparking a mystery for which officials, so far, have few answers. The bodies of two men and a woman were found on Friday at the Sandals Emerald Bay resort on Exuma, Bahamas Acting Prime Minister...
Workers grapple with new stresses as they return to office
NEW YORK — Last summer, Julio Carmona started the process of weaning himself off a fully remote work schedule by showing up to the office once a week. The new hybrid schedule at his job at a state agency in Stratford, Connecticut, still enabled him to spend time cooking dinner...
After leak, religious rift over legal abortion on display
America’s faithful are bracing — some with cautionary joy and others with looming dread — for the Supreme Court to potentially overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and end the nationwide right to legal abortion. A reversal of the 49-year-old ruling has never felt more possible since a...
Oh, rats! As New Yorkers emerge from pandemic, so do rodents
NEW YORK — They crawled to the surface as the coronavirus pandemic roiled New York City, scurrying out of subterranean nests into the open air, feasting on a smorgasbord of scraps in streets, parks and mounds of curbside garbage. As diners shunned the indoors for outdoor dining, so did the...
More than 60 feared dead in bombing of Ukrainian school
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — More than 60 people were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said, while Moscow’s forces kept up their attack on defenders inside Mariupol’s steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city ahead of Russia’s...
