NYC again reopens schools to in-person learning
NEW YORK — It’s back to school again for some New York City schoolchildren, weeks after the schools were closed to in-person learning because of rising covid-19 cases. The nation’s largest public school system, which shut down in-person learning last month, on Monday brought back preschool students and children in...
Virginia Military Institute removing Confederate statue
LEXINGTON, Va. — The Virginia Military Institute began work Monday to remove a prominent statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, an effort initiated this fall after allegations of systemic racism roiled the school. A crew was inspecting the statue at the public military college in Lexington, poised to haul...
Trump cementing death penalty legacy up to Biden inaugural
CHICAGO — As Donald Trump’s presidency winds down, his administration is ratcheting up the pace of federal executions despite a surge of coronavirus cases in prisons, announcing plans for five starting Thursday and concluding just days before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. If the five go off...
Vatican says pope will visit Iraq in March, pandemic permitting
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting, the Vatican said Monday, in announcing what would be the pontiff’s first trip aboard in more than a year. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Monday said Francis will make the March 5-8 visit, with...
Romania’s opposition Social Democrats win national election
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s opposition Social Democrats have taken a surprise lead over the governing National Liberals after a parliamentary election but appear less likely to emerge on top in what promises to be prolonged post-election wrangling to form a new coalition government. With 95% of ballots counted Monday, the...
Sinovac aims for 600 million dose capacity for covid vaccine
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese vaccine company Sinovac announced Monday that it is planning to complete a new facility to double its annual vaccine production capacity to 600 million doses by the end of the year, while also securing a $500 million investment in a boost to its covid-19 vaccine development...
Nobel ceremonies go low-key this year because of coronavirus
STOCKHOLM — The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. There will be no glitzy banquet honoring winners in Stockholm or Oslo as the global pandemic curtails the usual celebrations. Instead, their achievements will...
Hundreds ill, 1 dead from unidentified disease in India
NEW DELHI — At least one person has died and 200 others have been hospitalized because of an unidentified illness in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, reports said Monday. The illness was detected Saturday evening in Eluru, an ancient city famous for its hand-woven products. Since then, patients...
Georgia Senate runoff: Loeffler, Warnock face off in heated debateVideo
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and the Rev. Raphael Warnock faced off in their first, and possibly only, one-on-one debate Sunday night at the Atlanta Press Club, trading barbed attacks in their fight for the right to represent Georgia in the Senate for the next two years. Over the...
Pa. Department of Corrections reports 3 covid deaths in 2 days
Prison officials in Pennsylvania reported three inmate deaths in two days as the active covid-19 case count in state correctional facilities neared 1,800. The Department of Corrections reported two deaths Friday, at SCIs Mercer and Smithfield and one on Saturday at SCI-Pine Grove. Two of the incarcerated individuals were in...
U.S. Supreme Court moves up deadline in congressman’s bid to upend Pa. election results
PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Supreme Court moved up a key deadline Sunday for Pennsylvania officials to respond to a last-minute bid by one of Trump’s top boosters in Congress to decertify the state’s elections results. Previously, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees emergency matters arising out of Pennsylvania...
Biden picks California AG Xavier Becerra to lead HHS, pandemic response
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response. If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the...
Sheriff: Defiant New York City bar owner slams deputy with his car
NEW YORK — The co-owner of a New York City bar that authorities said has been defying coronavirus restrictions was taken into custody early Sunday after running over a deputy with a car, authorities said. Danny Presti tried to drive away from his bar, Mac’s Public House, as deputies were...
Health officials warn Americans not to let their guard downVideo
With a covid-19 vaccine perhaps just days away in the U.S., most of California headed into another lockdown Sunday because of the surging outbreak and top health officials warned Americans that this is no time to let their guard down. “The vaccine’s critical,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus...
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tests positive for covidVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump’s inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the country. Giuliani was admitted Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to...
How phones can alert you to covid-19 exposure
More than 8.1 million people in the U.S. have turned their iPhones and Android devices into pandemic contact-tracing tools, but it hasn’t been of much use when their neighbors, classmates and coworkers aren’t on the same system. Apple and Google co-created “exposure notification” technology to alert phone users if they...
Double Dragons: SpaceX launches space station supplies
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a newer, bigger version of its Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station on Sunday, marking the first time the company has two capsules in orbit at the same time. The Dragon — packed with Christmas treats and presents — should reach the...
Despite promise, few in U.S. adopting covid-19 exposure apps
RALEIGH, N.C. — Six months ago, Apple and Google introduced a new smartphone tool designed to notify people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus, without disclosing any personal information. But for the most part, Americans haven’t been all that interested. Fewer than half of U.S. states and territories...
Will U.S. ever have a national covid-19 testing strategy?
NEW YORK — As the coronavirus epidemic worsens, U.S. health experts hope Joe Biden’s administration will put in place something Donald Trump’s has not — a comprehensive national testing strategy. Such a strategy, they say, could systematically check more people for infections and spot surges before they take off. The...
Gene-editing treatment shows promise for sickle cell disease
Scientists are seeing promising early results from the first studies testing gene editing for painful, inherited blood disorders that plague millions worldwide, especially Black people. Doctors hope the one-time treatment, which involves permanently altering DNA in blood cells with a tool called CRISPR, may treat and possibly cure sickle cell...
Trump presses Georgia governor to help subvert election
President Donald Trump fruitlessly pressed Georgia’s governor on Saturday to call a special legislative session aimed at subverting the presidential election results in that state as Trump’s fixation with his defeat overshadowed his party’s campaign to save its majority in the Senate. Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp spoke by...
A bleak outlook for millions facing cutoff of jobless aid
INDIANAPOLIS — Tina Morton recently faced a choice: Pay bills or buy a birthday gift for a child? Derrisa Green is falling further behind on rent. Sylvia Soliz has had her electricity cut off. Unemployment has forced aching decisions on millions of Americans and their families in the face of...
Fire guts historic church home to New York’s Liberty Bell
A historic church in lower Manhattan that houses New York’s Liberty Bell and whose congregation dates to the city’s earliest days was gutted by a massive fire early Saturday that sent flames shooting through the roof. The Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village burned before dawn after a fire...
Japan capsule carrying asteroid samples lands in Australia
Japan’s space agency said its helicopter search team has spotted a capsule, which is carrying asteroid samples that could explain the origin of life, that landed on a remote area in southern Australia as planned Sunday. Hayabusa2 had successfully released the small capsule on Saturday and sent it toward Earth...
GOP leaders ask Congress to reject Pa.’s electors for Joe Biden
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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — More than 60 Republicans, including the top...
