November 29, 2020 7:56 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis, joined by the church’s newest cardinals in Mass on Sunday, warned against mediocrity as well as seeking out “godfathers” to promote one’s own career. Eleven of the 13 new cardinals sat near the central altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, where Francis on Saturday had bestowed upon them the red hats symbolizing they are now so-called princes of the church. Two of the new cardinals couldn’t make it to Rome because of pandemic travel complications. The freshly-minted cardinals who did come to the Vatican wore protective masks and purple vestments, as the Church began the solemn liturgical season of Advent in the run-up to Christmas. In his homily, Francis decried what he called “a dangerous kind of sleep: it is the slumber of mediocrity.” He added that Jesus “above all else detests lukewarm-ness.”
November 29, 2020 7:54 am
LONDON (AP) — Dave Prowse, the British weightlifter-turned-actor who was the body, though not the voice, of arch-villain Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died. He was 85. Prowse died Saturday after a short illness, his agent Thomas Bowington said Sunday. Born in Bristol, southwest England, in 1935, Prowse was a three-time British weightlifting champion and represented England in weightlifting at the 1962 Commonwealth Games before breaking into movies with roles that emphasized his commanding size, including Frankenstein’s monster in a pair of Hammer Studios horror films. Director George Lucas saw Prowse in a small part in “A Clockwork Orange” and asked the 6-foot-6-inch (almost 2-meter) actor to audition for the villainous Vader or the Wookie Chewbacca in “Star Wars.” Prowse later told the BBC he chose Darth Vader because “you always remember the bad guys.”
November 29, 2020 7:52 am
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small-business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by the widening coronavirus outbreak. In some cases, elected officials are spending the last of a federal relief package passed in the spring as an end-of-year deadline approaches and the fall COVID-19 surge threatens their economies anew. Democrats have been the most vocal in criticizing President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Senate for failing to act, but many Republican lawmakers are also sounding the alarm. Underscoring the need for urgency, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States reached 205,557 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – the first time its daily figure topped the 200,000 mark. Its previous daily high was 196,000 on Nov. 20. The total number of cases reported in the U.S., since the first one in January, has topped 13 million.
November 29, 2020 7:48 am
JEANNETTE, Pa. (WPXI) – Shortly before 6:40 a.m. Saturday, an in-flight emergency prompted an aircraft with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 171st Air Refueling Wing to make an emergency landing Saturday, which required the dumping of fuel over Westmoreland County. According to a release, the crew reported smoke in the cockpit which required an immediate emergency landing of the KC-135 Strato-tanker. The fuel was dumped over Westmoreland County per emergency protocols, the release states, out of necessity to lighten the weight of the aircraft and ensure a safe landing. The plane safely landed at Pittsburgh International Airport. The 171st Air Refueling Wing is cooperating with appropriate agencies to ascertain the effects and required follow-up actions to address the dumped fuel, according to the release.
November 28, 2020 10:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden has said little about the Guantanamo Bay detention center except that he supports closing it. That has brought a degree of hope to some of the 40 men still held there. Lawyers for some of the prisoners say they hope the Biden administration will resume Obama-era efforts to close the detention center. President Donald Trump said in his 2016 campaign that he would load up the prison with “bad dudes,” but he largely ignored it and only one prisoner was released under his administration.
November 28, 2020 10:29 am
ROME (AP) – Pope Francis is formally elevating 13 new cardinals in a ceremony marked in every way by the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the cardinals stayed home, the rest eschewed the usual celebrations and St. Peter’s Basilica was practically empty for Saturday’s service. The ceremony, known as a consistory, is the seventh of Francis’ pontificate and once again reflected the Argentine pope’s effort to name cardinals from places that have never had them before or whose service to the church he wants to highlight. Nine are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope, further solidifying the majority of Francis-appointed prelates in the College of Cardinals.
November 28, 2020 10:27 am
ATLANTA (AP) – A panel of U.S. advisers will meet next week to recommend who should be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine. Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. High priority also may be given to workers in essential industries, people with certain medical conditions and people age 65 and older. Tuesday’s meeting is for a panel that advises the government on who should get vaccines and when. Pfizer and its German partner have asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of its vaccine candidate. The FDA’s scientific advisers meet next month to review the request.
November 28, 2020 10:25 am
LONDON (AP) – The British government has appointed a vaccines minister as it prepares to inoculate millions of people against the coronavirus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi will oversee the country’s biggest vaccine program in decades. The U.K. medicines regulator is assessing two vaccines, one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The Guardian newspaper reported Saturday that hospitals were told they could receive the first doses of the Pfizer shot the week of Dec. 7, if it receives approval. U.K. authorities have agreed to purchase up to 355 million doses of vaccine from seven different producers in a bid to vaccinate most of the country’s 67 million people.
November 28, 2020 10:22 am
BUENA VISTA, Ga. (AP) – It’s two starkly different worlds on display in Georgia, where the national political spotlight is on twin Senate runoffs that will determine which party controls the chamber to open President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. Republicans need one more seat for a majority; Democrats need a sweep on Jan. 5. For Republicans, the pandemic is secondary in a runoff blitz defined by dire warnings about what it would mean if Raphael Warnock defeats Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue falls to Democrat Jon Ossoff. Democrats, meanwhile, are more than eager to talk about COVID-19 and its economic fallout. The messaging differences bleed over to the two sides’ public health protocols.
November 28, 2020 10:17 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s supreme leader is calling for “definitive punishment” of those behind killing of a scientist linked to Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear program. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment Saturday in a statement carried on his official website. Khamenei called Mohsen Fakhrizadeh “the country’s prominent and distinguished nuclear and defensive scientist.” Iranian officials have blamed Israel for the killing. Israel, long suspected of killing scientists a decade ago amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program, has yet to comment on the killing Friday. The slaying threatens to renew tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
