June 13, 2021 7:57 am
CARBIS BAY, England (AP) — The Group of Seven leaders aim to end their first summit in two years with a punchy set of promises Sunday, including vaccinating the world against coronavirus, making huge corporations pay their fair share of taxes and tackling climate change with a blend of technology and money. They want to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. But it was uncertain how firm the group’s commitments will be on coronavirus vaccines, the economy and the environment when the leaders issue their final communique. Also unclear was whether all of the leaders would back the United States’ call to chastise China for repressing its Uyghur minority and other abuses. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit’s host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a “Global Britain,” his government’s push to give the midsized country outsized global influence. Yet Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland. But overall, the mood has been positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The last G-7 summit was in France in 2019, with last year’s event in the United States scuttled by the pandemic.
June 13, 2021 7:54 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for ditching the getaway car following the murder of a woman in western Pennsylvania just before she was to meet with federal authorities about another man’s involvement in a New Jersey-supplied heroin ring. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak imposed the 90-month term on Glenn Lee Thomas on Friday. Thomas was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the 2014 murder of 34-year-old Tina Crawford in Pittsburgh. Prosecutors said Crawford made drug runs for another man, Price Montgomery, and wiretapped calls indicated that they traveled to Newark, New Jersey, where agents allege they bought heroin from his supplier. Crawford was slain about an hour before she was to meet with federal prosecutors in August 2014. Her 63-year-old mother, into whose home she had moved following threats, was wounded. Montgomery was convicted of killing a federal witness. Prosecutors had long said they believed Thomas was the second shooter in the slaying, but he was never charged with that crime. Prosecutors sought to introduce evidence of that contention to support an enhanced term, but defense attorney Lee Rothman accused them of trying to impose a “backdoor” punishment without filing charges.
June 13, 2021 7:52 am
PITTSBURGH — Police say three people are dead after a car crashed into a plasma donation center on Western Avenue in the Manchester neighborhood. A Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) notification was issued due to the severity of the damage and the unknown amount of entrapped victims at the time that police and EMS arrived. Medics pronounced three victims dead, one of them being a person in the vehicle. Police said two others were also injured. One of them is in critical condition. A medic from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and two Pittsburgh Firefighters were treated for minor smoke inhalation as well. There were around 10 employees and five doners in the building at the time, now many of them are left shaken. One witness was inside the building at the time of the crash and says it was a surreal moment for him. A small fire started in the building after the crash and two first responders were treated for smoke inhalation. Crews managed to pull a red Hyundai out of the building.
June 13, 2021 3:17 am
PITTSBURGH – Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor on Friday released an audit of the Washington County Clerk of Courts office that found the county’s use of an alternative sentencing program effectively short-changed the state $513,178 in fines and penalties between 2016 and 2019 – and the practice is ongoing. “I understand the value of alternative sentencing programs but they must operate within the law,” DeFoor said. “Certain types of convictions carry fines and penalties that provide needed funding for victims’ services, domestic violence programs and law enforcement training.” The audit found that some defendants can avoid paying fines, costs, fees and surcharges by agreeing to perform community service or receiving credit for time served. There were 3,420 such case adjustments during the audit period, representing more than $1.5 million in fines, costs, fees and surcharges left uncollected. Of that total, $513,178 should have been paid to the state. Under state law, only a judge has the authority to change a sentence – but only in certain types of cases and only after a hearing is held to determine a defendant’s ability to pay. “The use of the alternative sentencing program should be reviewed to ensure that it does not contradict what is required by state law,” DeFoor said. “We also recommend that that valid justification is documented when the alternative sentencing program is used.” The audit also contained seven other findings, including confirmation of the Washington County Controller’s 2019 audit that uncovered more than $97,000 in misappropriated funds from the clerk’s office. After pleading guilty to theft charges in October 2020, the former clerk of courts, Frank Scandale, was sentenced to seven years of probation and ordered to pay restitution. Review the Washington County Clerk of Courts audit report.
June 12, 2021 11:29 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Authorities say someone opened fire in a busy entertainment district in downtown Austin, wounding 13 people before getting away. Police Chief Joseph Chacon said at news conference that investigators are looking into what sparked the shooting, which occurred at around 1:30 a.m. along a popular stretch of 6th Street with many bars and restaurants. He says investigators weren’t able to get a detailed description of the shooter, but they believe it was a man. Chacon says officers reached the scene quickly and managed to apply tourniquets and take other life-saving steps. Some even drove patients to hospitals because it was hard for ambulances to reach the scene. Two of the wounded are in critical condition.
June 12, 2021 9:38 am
CARBIS BAY, England (AP) – The United States plans to push democratic allies to publicly call out China for forced labor practices as the Group of Seven leaders gather for day two of their summit in England. Leaders will also unveil an infrastructure plan meant to compete with Beijing’s efforts in the developing world. President Joe Biden is trying to get fellow democratic leaders attending the seaside summit to present a more unified front to compete economically with China in the century ahead. The White House says Biden wants G-7 leaders to speak out in a single voice against forced labor practices targeting Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.
June 12, 2021 9:34 am
Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the Group of Seven summit. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass “paddle out protest” organized by a group campaigning for more action to protect oceans. Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on the beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G-7 summit. The leaders from seven wealthy democracies are meeting near the town of St. Ives for talks focusing on the pandemic and climate change.
June 12, 2021 9:30 am
FALMOUTH, England (AP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has held meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of a G-7 summit, as post-Brexit turbulence strains relations between Britain and the EU. After Britain’s top diplomat accused the EU of taking a “bloody-minded” approach to relations, Johnson also met the bloc’s leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. The two sides are locked in an escalating diplomatic feud over Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with the bloc. The spat has drawn in U.S. President Joe Biden, who is concerned about the potential threat to Northern Ireland’s peace accord.
June 12, 2021 9:28 am
BEIJING (AP) – Top U.S. and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the U.S. to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing it of politicizing the search for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call Friday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Yang said China was “gravely concerned” over what he called “absurd” stories that the virus escaped from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where cases were first discovered.
June 12, 2021 3:48 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The shooting of a 6-year-old Pittsburgh girl sparked a fight between two sides of her family at the hospital where she was being treated, spurring another shooting that left two men wounded and a third facing charges. Authorities say the brawl in front of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on Thursday night involved at least 30 people. It occurred about four hours after the girl was shot in the abdomen and critically injured. Some people in the crowd were arguing when the dispute turned physical. Gunfire soon erupted and one man was shot several times, causing critical injuries. The second victim didn’t realize he had been wounded until he had returned home.
