WHO: Covid triples across Europe, hospitalizations double
LONDON — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalization rates have also doubled, although intensive care admissions have remained low. In a statement on Tuesday, WHO’s Europe director, Dr. Hans...
Russia pounds Ukraine as Putin holds talks in Tehran
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting homes, a school and a community center as Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to discuss a U.N.-backed proposal to unblock exports of Ukrainian grain. In Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province...
UK breaks its record for highest temperature as heat builds
LONDON — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seized swaths of Europe — and the national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill prepared for such extremes. The typically temperate nation was just the latest...
Greek Church protests baptism for celebrity same-sex parents
ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s Orthodox Church says it will send a letter of protest to the archbishop who heads the church in the United States after he baptized the children of celebrity fashion designer Peter Dundas and his partner, Evangelo Bousis. Archbishop Elpidophoros of America presided at the July 9...
Two decades of shooter response strategy ignored in Uvalde
A total of 376 officers converged on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — more than the entire police force in a midsize American city like Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or Tempe, Arizona. But for more than 70 minutes on May 24, not one stopped the shooter. Amid the sounds of...
House passes same-sex marriage bill in retort to high court
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by many conservative Americans. In a robust but lopsided debate, Democrats argued intensely in favor of enshrining...
Hawaii waves swamp homes, weddings during ‘historic’ swellVideo
HONOLULU — Towering waves on Hawaii’s south shores crashed into homes and businesses, spilled across highways and upended weddings over the weekend. The large waves — some more than 20 feet high — came from a combination of a strong south swell that peaked Saturday evening, particularly high tides and...
Rand Paul blames ‘secret deal’ for sinking judicial nomination
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul on Monday accused Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of cutting “a secret deal with the White House that fell apart,” blaming a lack of communication by his fellow Kentuckian for the failure of a federal judicial nomination. Further exposing long-simmering tensions between the...
Former White House aides to testify at next Jan. 6 hearing
WASHINGTON — Two former White House aides are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday as the panel examines what Donald Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the plans. Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security...
Pair charged with making straw donations to Trump committees
NEW YORK — Two Chinese American businesspeople were charged Monday with funneling foreigners’ money into political donations that bought entry to an exclusive dinner with then-President Donald Trump so the duo could impress and swindle Chinese investors. Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang were being held without bail after...
Authorities: West Virginia woman awakens from coma, identifies brother as attackerVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man has been charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, authorities said. News outlets reported that Wanda Palmer was found unconscious with serious head injuries at her home in Jackson County...
Strategy to recruit, retain teachers in Pa. introduced by Wolf administration
Out of Gov. Tom Wolf’s commitment to leaving the state’s education system in better shape than he found it comes a three-year strategy to recruit and retain more educators to work in Pennsylvania’s classrooms, according to Acting Education Secretary Eric Hagarty. Hagarty said filling vacancies at schools is the most...
Judge blocks enforcement of West Virginia abortion ban
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge in West Virginia’s capital blocked enforcement of the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban on Monday, opening the door for abortions to resume in the state, at least for now. Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tera L. Salango granted the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia a...
Police laud actions of man who killed Indiana mall attackerVideo
GREENWOOD, Ind. — Authorities on Monday identified the gunman who shot five people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them, before a shopper shot and killed him as a 20-year-old local man. Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood, began firing after leaving a bathroom at the Greenwood Park Mall...
U.S. Rep. Jody Hice fights subpoena in Georgia election probe
ATLANTA — Republican U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia is fighting a subpoena seeking to have him testify before a special grand jury that is investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in the state. The subpoena, which Hice received on...
‘Nontraditional’ DNA technology leads to arrest in 1975 stabbing death of Pa. newlywed
Lancaster County investigators arrested a 68-year-old man in connection with the brutal stabbing death of a 19-year-old newlywed 46 years ago using new DNA technology and genealogical research. Police on Sunday arrested David Sinopoli, of Lancaster, in the death of Lindy Sue Biechler, on Dec. 5 1975 inside her apartment...
New Pa. budget injects $125M into private school tax credit program that lacks accountability
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan 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 — When Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-led Legislature hammered out the $45.2 billion budget deal in early July, they...
What does ‘plead the Fifth’ mean? Will the Trumps do it?
NEW YORK — Donald Trump and two of his children — Donald Jr. and Ivanka — were due to face questioning under oath in New York’s civil investigation into their business practices. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said last week it had agreed to postpone the scheduled depositions...
Amid Russia shelling, Zelenskyy seeks to strengthen ranks
KYIV, Ukraine — With Russian shelling across the country showing no signs of easing, Ukraine’s leaders on Monday were looking to strengthen their own ranks after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed from office some of his most prominent officials because of alleged “poor performance” over clearing their agencies of “collaborators and...
Doug Mastriano is deleting his videos from Facebook as he runs for Pa. governor
PHILADELPHIA — In early April, Doug Mastriano was recording a Facebook Live video on his phone after a legislative session in Harrisburg when he segued into his thoughts on global warming. The state senator from south-central Pennsylvania, who would become the Republican nominee for governor the following month, told his...
UN decries rising death toll, rights violations in Haiti
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. human rights office expressed concern about rising violence around Haiti’s capital, saying 99 people have been reported killed in recent fighting between rival gangs in the Cite Soleil district alone. The warning came hours after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution renewing the...
Millions swelter as UK endures its 1st extreme heat warning
LONDON — Millions of people in Britain stayed home or sought shade Monday during the country’s first-ever extreme heat warning, as hot, dry weather that has scorched mainland Europe for the past week moved north, disrupting travel, health care and schools. The red heat alert covers a big chunk of...
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he will retire by end of Biden’s 1st term
The United States will grapple with covid-19 long after Dr. Anthony Fauci leaves his post as the president’s chief medical adviser, the Brooklyn native said in a Politico interview announcing his plans to retire by the end of Joe Biden’s first term. Fauci, 81, became the face of the covid-19...
Florida high school shooter’s penalty trial begins
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began on Monday, the deadliest U.S. mass shooting to go before a jury. Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of first-degree murder at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in the deaths of 14 students...
U.S. markets point higher ahead of another busy earnings week
NEW YORK — Wall Street appeared to be headed for gains before markets opened Monday ahead of another week loaded with quarterly earnings reports from major U.S. corporations. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% as did futures for the S&P 500. Oil prices also rose. Chinese markets...
