July 11, 2022 4:18 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is visiting Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Joe Biden. The trip comes a month after López Obrador snubbed Biden’s invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. And the Mexican leader has called U.S. support for Ukraine “a crass error.” On the other side, U.S. officials want López Obrador to retreat on his preference for fossil fuels. The U.S.-Mexico relationship was a straightforward tradeoff during the Trump administration, with Mexico tamping down on migration and the U.S. not pressing on other issues. Now it has become a wide range of disagreements over trade, foreign policy, energy and climate change.
July 11, 2022 4:16 am
The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Scientists say the variant, which is called BA.2.75, may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than the globally dominant omicron variant BA.5. But scientists are concerned about the fact that it’s geographically widespread. It’s been detected in distant states in India as well as about 10 other nations.
July 11, 2022 4:15 am
TOKYO (AP) – Public outrage, handwringing and vows of defiance in media and among political commentators are widespread in Japan following the daylight assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Part of the collective shock is because crime is so rare in Japan. But it can also be traced to the setting. Abe was killed on the street near a crowded train station, in the middle of a campaign speech for parliamentary elections, something that Japan, despite a long history of one-party political domination and growing voter apathy, takes seriously. One academic called it the first assassination of a former or serving leader in postwar Japan. It could lead to an emergency review of the way Japan guards its officials, and a tightening of security at large-scale events.
July 11, 2022 4:13 am
(AP) – Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection is expected to examine ties between people in former President Donald Trump’s orbit and extremist groups who played a role in the U.S. Capitol riot. Top leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases the Justice Department has brought so far. At least two men close to Trump – longtime friend Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn – have known contacts with far-right groups and extremists who, in some cases, are alleged to have been involved in Jan. 6.
July 11, 2022 4:11 am
CHIPPEWA TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – Police say a baby is dead after it was found in a pool in Beaver County. Chippewa Township police said that they responded to the incident at around 7:40 p.m. The baby was found inside of a pool on Braun Road in Chippewa Township. Officers said they performed CPR on the child but were unable to revive it. The coroner was called to the scene but the cause of death has not officially been released. The investigation is ongoing.
July 11, 2022 4:09 am
JEFFERSON HILLS, Pa. — (WPXI) – Fire crews battled a house fire in Jefferson Hills Sunday afternoon. According to Allegheny County 911, crews responded to the 100 block of Roberts Drive around 12:04 p.m. Firefighters said the flames were strongly damaging the attic when they arrived. The second floor window was boarded up when Channel 11 arrived on scene. All residents of the house were able to get out safely, including the family pets. Responders say that the heat of the day was a factor in putting out the fire. “It was a very hot day we had great mutual aid response, from Clairton, Pleasant Hills, White Hall, Lincoln Borough for their tankers. We need the extra crews today with the heat. Our crews made a good stop with the fire with the situation we had with the heat,” said Justin Allan, the assistant fire chief in Jefferson Hills. It is unclear what caused the fire to happen and the extent of the damage is unknown.
July 11, 2022 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday rejected three bills passed by the Republican majority Legislature, vetoing measures regarding transgender athletes in school sports and poll watchers. He also struck down the Human Services Code, blowing a hole in the state budget as lawmakers were trying to finish the annual flurry of votes that accompany the annual spending plan. Wolf had previously warned he would strike down the bill to prohibit transgender athletes from playing sports that align with their gender identity. In his veto message, he said the bill would have “a devastating impact on a vulnerable population already at greater risk of bullying and depression.” He also vetoed a bill — sponsored by Franklin County Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s nominee for governor — to let all registered voters of Pennsylvania serve as poll watchers in any precinct in the state. This bill does nothing to increase access to voting,” he wrote. “Instead, this bill undermines the integrity of our election process and encourages voter intimidation.” Wolf’s third veto was based on a provision in the Human Service Code that would have prohibited a state agency from contracting with a vendor of financial management services. Vetoing the legislation created a $1.8 billion gap in the budget, Wolf said, but after the veto lawmakers put language from the Human Services Code into a different bill and passed it.
July 11, 2022 3:35 am
MONONGAHELA, Pa. — PennDOT and Norfolk Southern say crews will extend the closing of State Route 88 at the railroad crossing between Lenzi’s Service Station and Sheetz through Tuesday, July 12th. The closure will start at 6:00 a.m. and last for 24 hours to complete track maintenance and repair. A detour will be set by PennDOT to utilize Park Avenue (State 481) to Coyle Curtain Road around the closure.
July 10, 2022 8:10 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least 15 people were killed when a Russian rocket hit an apartment building in the eastern Ukraine town of Chasiv Yar and more than 20 people may still be trapped in the rubble, officials said Sunday. The Saturday night rocket assault is the latest in a recent burst of high-casualty attacks on civilian structures. At least 19 people died when a Russian missile hit a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk in late June and 21 people were killed when an apartment building and recreation area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region this month. Russia has repeatedly claimed that it is hitting only targets of military value in the war. There was no comment on Chasiv Yar at a Russian Defense Ministry briefing on Sunday. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region that includes Chasiv Yar, said the town of of about 12,000 was hit by Uragan rockets, which are fired from truck-borne systems. The Ukrainian emergency services later said the death toll had risen to 15 and that an estimated two dozen people were under the wreckage. Rescuers made voice contact with at least three people trapped in the rubble, it said. Chasiv Yar is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they grind westward.
July 10, 2022 8:08 am
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese went to the polls Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was gunned down while making a campaign speech. Abe’s governing party appeared to be cruising to a major victory. As people voted, police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation. A day earlier a top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet at the still-influential former Japanese leader. In a country still recovering from the shock, sadness and fear of Abe’s shooting — the first former or serving leader to be assassinated in postwar Japan — polling started for half of the upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. Abe was shot in Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested a former member of Japan’s navy at the scene. Police confiscated a homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment. The alleged attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he acted because of Abe’s rumored connection to an organization that he resented, police said, but had no problem with the former leader’s political view. The man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that bankrupted a family business, according to media reports, including some that identified the group as the Unification Church.
