January 28, 2022 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration and its allies are taking an unusually proactive approach to publicizing intelligence findings and trying to defuse influence campaigns by Russia as they raise alarms about a possible new Russian invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has mounted a concerted campaign to counter disinformation, which has long been a tactic of Moscow to create confusion and sow discord in conflicts. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the administration is taking lessons learned from 2014, when Russia mounted a massive disinformation campaign to build local support for its annexation of Crimea.
January 28, 2022 2:48 am
Frontline workers at Washington Health Systems’ flagship hospital voted Wednesday to authorize their negotiating committee to issue a strike notice to administration if no settlement is reached in ongoing contract negotiations. Heading into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington Hospital workers are demanding improved wages and working conditions to begin solving the staffing crisis that they say has devastated the hospital. Close to 300 essential workers at Washington Hospital, represented by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, have been trying to reach a new agreement with management since December of last year. “Over the last two months, Washington management has failed to make the kind of progress needed to bring workers to our hospital and keep existing staff here. While we hope management doesn’t force us to strike, we will do whatever it takes to ensure a fair contract for all workers in our union,” said Debbie Torboli, Dietary Aide. Workers say that since the onset of the pandemic, countless workers have left the hospital, in search of better pay and improved working conditions. Employees say they have proposed many solutions to address staffing, retention of existing workers, and recruitment of potential employees, and in turn, they say management has rejected these proposals, and instead has proposed concessions, asking workers to give back gains they fought for in the current agreement. Additional bargaining sessions are scheduled for Friday, January 28th and Monday, January 31st. No date has been set for any potential strike, as the group works towards an amicable settlement with management before the contract expires at midnight on January 31st. Washington Health System issued an emailed statement in response to the threat of a strike, “At this time. WHS officials have not received an official strike notice. We are working hard to negotiate an agreement that both sides can accept in order to continue providing great patient care to our patients and our community, at a time when they need WHS the most.”
January 27, 2022 10:52 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Ben Roethlisberger’s NFL career is over. The longtime Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback has announced his retirement. In a video message, Roethlisberger said it was “time to clean out my locker, hang up my cleats” after 18 years, two Super Bowls, countless team records and a likely spot in the Hall of Fame. The 39-year-old said it was time to clean out his locker and hang up his cleats. Roethlisberger called his journey from a kid growing up in Ohio to the 11th overall pick in the 2004 draft to a likely future Hall of Famer “exhilarating,” but he added he is retiring “a truly grateful man.” The Steelers never had a losing season during Roethlisberger’s tenure and captured Super Bowls 40 and 46.
January 27, 2022 8:46 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week following three straight increases economists blamed on the surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 last week, slightly less than the 265,000 analysts were expecting. The four-week average of claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, rose by 15,000 to 247,000. Altogether, nearly 1.7 million people were collecting jobless aid the week that ended Jan. 15, a nominal increase of 51,000 from the previous week.
January 27, 2022 4:17 am
LONDON (AP) – Most coronavirus restrictions including mandatory face masks have been lifted in England, after Britain’s government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations. From Thursday, face coverings are no longer required by law anywhere in England, and a legal requirement for COVID passes for entry into nightclubs and other large venues has been scrapped. While infections continue to fall, health officials said that omicron remained prevalent across the country, especially among children and the elderly. Some shops and public transport operators say they will continue to ask people to don their face masks. Face coverings will still be required on London’s buses and subway trains.
January 27, 2022 4:16 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s military says North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its sixth round of weapons launches this month. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons, which were likely short-range, were launched from an eastern coastal area, but it didn’t immediately say how far they flew. North Korea has upped its testing activity recently in an apparent effort to pressure the Biden administration amid long-stalled nuclear talks. The renewed pressure comes as the pandemic further shakes the North’s economy, which was already battered by crippling U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program and decades of mismanagement by its own government.
January 27, 2022 4:15 am
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – The U.S. says it has made no concessions to the main Russian demands over Ukraine and NATO in a long-awaited written response delivered to Russia on Wednesday in Moscow. The response comes as Russia has placed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and ratcheted up war games in the region. Moscow denies it is planning an assault, but the United States and its NATO allies fear that Russia is planning for war and are also preparing for one. Russia increased its pressure Wednesday by saying it would quickly take “retaliatory measures” if the U.S. and its allies rejected its security demands. Ukrainian officials are seeking to calm nerves.
January 27, 2022 4:13 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Will the pandemic ever really be “over”? And what would that mean? A new AP-NORC poll shows that few Americans – just 15% – say they’ll consider the pandemic over only when COVID-19 is largely eliminated. By contrast, 83% say they’ll feel like the pandemic is over when it’s largely a mild illness, like the seasonal flu. The AP-NORC poll also shows that for many Americans, strict precautions like avoiding socializing and travel are making a comeback because of the omicron variant. And the poll underscored what authorities say are alarmingly low vaccination rates for children ages 5 to 11.
January 27, 2022 4:12 am
BEIJING (AP) – China is demanding the U.S. end “interference” in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin next month. The Foreign Ministry said Minister Wang Yi made the demand in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday Beijing time. The U.S. has said it will not send dignitaries to the Games, which begin on Feb. 4, in a protest over China’s detention of more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, along with crackdowns on human rights elsewhere in the country. According to a news release posted on the ministry’s website Thursday, Wang also called for an end to U.S. support for self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
January 27, 2022 4:11 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has strongly affirmed that he will nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said Thursday that such historic representation is “long overdue” and he’s promising to make his selection by the end of February. In a White House ceremony marking a moment of national transition, Biden praised retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who will have spent nearly 28 years on the high court before he leaves at the end of the term, as “a model public servant at a time of great division in this country.” And with that, the search for Breyer’s replacement was underway in full.
