July 15, 2022 3:47 am
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – A crucial effort to repair one of the world’s most important diplomatic relationships began with a fist bump. President Joe Biden held a carefully choreographed meeting Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man he had once shunned for human rights abuses. Biden said he raised the issue of the murder of writer Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence has said the crown prince approved. This was Biden’s first meeting with the Saudi crown prince, who is the presumed heir to the throne held by his father, King Salman. Biden vowed as a Democratic presidential candidate to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its human rights record
July 15, 2022 3:46 am
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the northwestern Xinjiang region this week amid concerns over China’s detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic native minorities. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi called Xinjiang a “core area and a hub” in China’s program of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang’s native Uygur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of separatist violence. Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as a form of cultural genocide. The U.S. and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans.
July 15, 2022 3:41 am
ELLSWORTH, Pa. — Multiple crews were called to the scene of a fire overnight in Ellsworth, but were not there very long. According to reports, Ellsworth and Bentleyville Fire Departments were sent to Walnut Street for a possible house fire just after midnight. Crews say no fire was showing from the outside of the home, but a small couch fire was contained quickly inside the structure. Crews were on scene for about 30 minutes to take care of ventilation issues. No one was injured. Cokeburg and Marianna fire crews along with Ambulance and Chair EMS were also initially dispatched to the scene.
July 15, 2022 3:23 am
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. (WPXI) — Emergency crews responded to an incident involving a plane that left the runway at Rostraver Airport on Thursday afternoon. Westmoreland County 911 confirmed that police, fire and EMS crews were called to the airport at 3:54 p.m. According to Rostraver Central Fire Department, units responded to a twin-engine aircraft that left the runway while landing. Fire crews contained a minor fuel leak from the aircraft. (Photo: Rostraver Central Fire Department Facebook Page)
July 15, 2022 1:41 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The Trump family says the former president’s first wife, Ivana Trump, has died in New York City. Trump posted on social media Thursday that “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away.” The skier-turned-businesswoman formed half of a publicity power couple in the 1980s as Trump’s wife and mother of his oldest children. They had an equally public, and messy, divorce after Donald Trump met his next wife, Marla Maples. But in recent years, Ivana Trump had been on good terms with her former husband. (Photo: ABC)
July 14, 2022 9:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week hit its highest level in nearly 8 months, but the total number of those collecting benefits fell. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 9 rose by 9,000 to 244,000, up from the previous week’s 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. Analysts had expected the number to remain flat from the previous week. The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose from the previous week. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending June 25 fell.
July 14, 2022 4:19 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – New omicron variants are again driving hospital admissions and deaths higher in recent weeks, causing states and cities to rethink their responses to COVID-19 and the White House to step up efforts to alert the public. Some experts say the warnings are too little, too late. The highly transmissible variants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by vaccination. Health officials say Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, is facing a return to a broad indoor mask mandate later this month if current trends in hospital admissions continue.
July 14, 2022 4:17 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation of the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and the events leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection is raising questions about former President Donald Trump’s role and whether he committed crimes. The various schemes and talking points that witnesses have revealed also highlight what a president has the authority to do. Government and legal experts say the bigger question is whether further limits can be put on presidential authority to make sure there are no repeats of 2020.
July 14, 2022 4:17 am
JERUSALEM (AP) – President Joe Biden will seek to bolster cooperation between the United States, Israel and other countries during his first full day in the Middle East. His schedule Thursday involves meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and a joint news conference. Lapid represents an interim government that was formed when the previous coalition collapsed, and he’s seeking a full term in November, when Israel holds its fifth election in less than four years. Although Biden will likely be cautious about showing favoritism, his appearances with Lapid could burnish Lapid’s image during a politically chaotic time in the country.
July 14, 2022 4:13 am
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A woman has been sentenced to prison in the death of an infant nearly three years ago at at unlicensed day care in suburban Philadelphia. Fifty-year-old Lauren Landgrebe of Upper Southampton had pleaded guilty in Bucks County to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the August 2019 death of 11-month-old Victoria Watson. President Judge Wallace Bateman sentenced her Tuesday to one day less than a year to one day less than two years in jail, followed by 10 years’ probation. Defense attorney Louis Busico called the sentence “in the interest of justice” but said he recognized the pain of the family.
