Judge rejects GOP effort to throw out 127,000 Houston votesVideo
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic. The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County,...
Gunman who killed 4 in Vienna attack had sought to join ISVideo
A man who had previously tried to join the Islamic State group rampaged in Vienna armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest, fatally shooting four people before he was killed by police, Austrian authorities said Tuesday. Witnesses described dozens of screaming people fleeing the sounds of gunshots...
Principal in Holocaust controversy fired again in Florida
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida high school principal was fired again on Monday over a comment he made to a student’s parent last year regarding the Holocaust. The Palm Beach County School Board’s vote on Monday morning reversed an earlier decision to reinstate Spanish River High School Principal...
Trump promises court fight over Pennsylvania absentee votes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign are signaling they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election. The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those...
Colonial-themed restaurant on site of 1773 tavern closes
PHILADELPHIA — A colonial-themed restaurant on the site of a 1773 tavern in Philadelphia’s Old City has closed because of decreased business stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that City Tavern’s longtime chef-proprietor, Walter Staib, called the closure “bittersweet” and said it followed months of slow business...
Legal armies ready if cloudy election outcome heads to court
WASHINGTON — Signature matches. Late-arriving absentee votes. Drop boxes. Secrecy envelopes. Democratic and Republican lawyers already have gone to court over these issues in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. But the legal fights could take on new urgency, not to mention added vitriol, if a narrow margin in a battleground...
Many covid positive Pennsylvanians ignoring contact tracing questions
Fewer than a quarter of Pennsylvania residents who tested positive for covid-19 in late October answered questions from contact tracers as to whether they’d been to any restaurants, bars or mass gatherings, according to data released Monday by the Department of Health. “You might save a life by being honest...
Hospitals competing for nurses as US coronavirus cases surge
As the coronavirus pandemic surges across the nation and infections and hospitalizations rise, medical administrators are scrambling to find enough nursing help — especially in rural areas and at small hospitals. Nurses are being trained to provide care in fields where they have limited experience. Hospitals are scaling back services...
Pennsylvania reports nearly 4,000 new covid cases over past 2 days
Pennsylvania saw 3,969 new cases of covid-19 added over the past two days, the state’s Department of Health reported Monday. To break it down, the state added 1,909 cases on Sunday and 2,060 cases on Monday. “Daily increases are now the highest they have ever been since the start of...
Push to remove racist names draws support — and backlash
For more than two decades, Black residents of Rhode Island have argued that the official name of their state, “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” connotes slavery and should be changed. It’s a “hurtful term” that “conjures extremely painful images for many Rhode Islanders,” said Democratic state Sen....
2 children pulled alive in dramatic Turkey quake rescues
IZMIR, Turkey — When firefighter Muammer Celik reached a 3-year-old girl trapped for three days under the rubble of a deadly earthquake in a Turkish coastal city, his heart sank. She was lying motionless, covered in dust, and he asked a colleague for a body bag. But as Celik extended...
ISIS attack on Afghan university leaves 22 dead, 22 woundedVideo
KABUL, Afghanistan — Islamic State militants in Afghanistan stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador, sparking an hours-long gunbattle and leaving at least 22 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country’s largest school. Most of the casualties were students and...
Johnny Depp loses UK libel case over ‘wife-beater’ claims
LONDON — Johnny Depp lost his high-stakes libel case Monday against The Sun tabloid newspaper for labelling him a “wife beater,” as a British judge said he believed the actor had abused his ex-wife and that she frequently feared for her life. In a decision that has been cheered by...
Dutch whale tail sculpture catches metro trainVideo
SPIJKENISSE, Netherlands — This really was a fluke. The driver of a metro train escaped injury when the front carriage rammed through the end of an elevated section of rai e train was left perched upon one of two tail fins known as “flukes” several meters above the ground. It...
6 key questions going into the 2020 presidential election
Election Day is finally upon us. Or at least what we still call Election Day, since more than 93 million Americans have already cast ballots in an election that has been reshaped by the worst pandemic in more than a century, its economic fallout and a long-simmering reckoning with systemic...
Germany starts ‘wave-breaker’ shutdown as Europe locks down
BERLIN — Germany became the latest European country to embark on a partial shutdown Monday as authorities across the continent scramble to flatten a rapid rise in coronavirus infections that threatens to overwhelm their health care systems. In parts of Europe, the new restrictions — which vary in strictness —...
Moldova’s presidential election heads toward runoff
CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldova’s presidential election is heading to a runoff after no candidate earned a majority in a first round of weekend voting which, however, gave a narrow lead to a pro-Western candidate. The pro-Western former prime minister, Maia Sandu, will face the staunchly pro-Russian incumbent, Igor Dodon, in...
Libya’s warring sides discuss implementing cease-fire
CAIRO — Military leaders from Libya’s warring sides arrived Monday in the oasis town of Ghadames, the United Nations said, for the first face-to-face talks inside Libya since last year’s attack on the capital by the forces of military commander Khalifa Hifter. The fifth round of talks, brokered by the...
Police on curfew patrol as Spain fights nightlife infections
BARCELONA, Spain — At 10 p.m. each night, Barcelona’s professional crime fighters become wet blankets in uniforms. Police officers fan out across the coastal city in northeastern Spain to break up clandestine parties and to clear the streets of young adults drinking alcohol, enforcing a nationwide curfew the Spanish government...
Trump threatens to fire Fauci in rift with disease expert
OPA-LOCKA, Fla. — President Donald Trump is suggesting that he will fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after Tuesday’s election, as his rift with the nation’s top infectious disease expert widens while the nation sees its most alarming outbreak of the coronavirus since the spring. Speaking at a campaign rally in Opa-locka,...
Top Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologizes for appearing on Russian state TV
Scott Atlas, the controversial Trump coronavirus adviser, apologized Sunday after appearing on Russian state TV. Atlas appeared on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, which the U.S. government designates as a propaganda outlet. “I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,” Atlas...
2 dead, 5 injured in crash at northern West Virginia college
PHILIPPI, W.Va. — A single-vehicle accident Sunday on the campus of Alderson Broaddus University in northern West Virginia left two people dead and five others injured, university officials said. The accident involving seven people in a vehicle was reported shortly after midnight on the campus in Philippi. The small, private...
Trump administration funds plasma company based in owner’s condo
WASHINGTON — An obscure South Carolina company may be in line for millions of dollars in government funding to produce a coronavirus treatment after a former Republican senator with a financial stake in the business lobbied senior government officials. Plasma Technologies LLC has received seed money to test a possible...
Trump decries FBI probe of supporters surrounding Biden busVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested the FBI should stop investigating an incident in which his supporters were seen surrounding a Biden campaign bus in Texas, which led Democrats to cancel an event there. The president’s tweet came hours after the FBI confirmed that it was “aware of...
Texas high court denies GOP effort to reject Houston votesVideo
DALLAS — The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday denied a Republican-led petition to toss nearly 127,000 ballots cast at drive-thru voting places in the Houston area. The state’s all-Republican high court rejected the request from GOP activists and candidates without explaining its decision. The effort to have the Harris County...
