August 7, 2022 8:36 am
BEIJING (AP) — China said Sunday it carried out its fourth consecutive day of military drills in the air and sea around Taiwan in the wake of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island, despite international calls to calm the tensions. The People’s Liberation Army said the exercises focused on testing its long-range air and ground strikes. It did not say if it will continue the drills after Sunday. Taiwan said that it continued to detect several batches of Chinese aircraft, ships and drones operating around the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island and mainland China, and “simulating attacks on the island of Taiwan and our ships at sea.” Taiwan’s official Central News Agency meanwhile reported that Taiwan’s army will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday, in response to the Chinese exercises. The drills will include snipers, combat vehicles, armored vehicles as well as attack helicopters, said the report, which cited an anonymous source.
August 7, 2022 8:35 am
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said Sunday that it killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in a crowded Gaza refugee camp, the second such targeted attack since it launched its high-stakes military offensive against the militant group just before the weekend. The Iran-backed militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, and the risk of the cross-border fighting turning into a full-fledged war remained high. Gaza’s ruling Hamas group, which fought an 11-day war with Israel in May 2021, appeared to stay on the sidelines for now, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control. The Islamic Jihad commander, Khaled Mansour, was killed in an airstrike on an apartment building in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza late Saturday. Two other militants and five civilians were also killed in the attack, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 31 since the start of the Israeli offensive on Friday. Among the dead were six children and four women. The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 250 people were wounded since Friday.
August 7, 2022 8:34 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Four more ships carrying agricultural cargo held up by the war in Ukraine received authorization Sunday to leave the country’s Black Sea coast as analysts warned that Russia was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the ports to stave off a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The body overseeing an international deal intended to get some 20 millions of grain out of Ukraine and to feed millions of impoverished people who are going hungry in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia said the loaded vessels were cleared to depart from Chornomorsk and Odesa. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations signed agreements last month to create a sea channel that would allow cargo ships to travel safely out of ports that Russia’s military had blockaded and through waters that Ukraine’s military had mined. Implementation of the deal, which is in effect for four months, has proceeded slowly since the first ship embarked last Monday.
August 7, 2022 8:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats drove their election-year economic package toward Senate approval early Sunday, debating a measure with less ambition than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but that touches deep-rooted party dreams of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations. Debate began Saturday and by early Sunday morning, Democrats had swatted down over a dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation or create campaign ads attacking Democratic senators. Despite unanimous GOP opposition, Democratic unity in the 50-50 chamber — buttressed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote — suggested the party was on track for a morale-boosting victory three months from elections when congressional control is at stake. “I think it’s gonna pass,” Biden told reporters as he left the White House early Sunday to go to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, ending his COVID-19 isolation. The House seemed on track to provide final congressional approval when it returns briefly from summer recess on Friday.
August 7, 2022 8:19 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. — First responders were tasked with a propane tank explosion that started a house fire in the City of Washington Saturday night just after 10:00 p.m. Crews were called to the 900 block of Ewing Street for a fire in the rear of the home. Reports say the family escaped safely, but the back of the home was badly damaged.
August 7, 2022 8:12 am
NEW EAGLE, Pa. — Multiple crews were called to the scene of a house fire in New Eagle Saturday afternoon. Police arrived first on scene just before 4 p.m. to find a house on 1st Avenue with heavy flames coming from the windows and an individual trapped on the 2nd-floor roof. Emergency responders were able to rescue the victim and knock the fire down within a half hour. New Eagle Volunteer Fire Department was joined by Valley Inn, Monongahela, Donora, Elrama Finleyville and Bentleyville Fire Departments. No one was seriously injured in this incident. (Photo: Facebook – Fire Incidents of Washington County)
August 7, 2022 4:36 am
CARMICHAELS, Pa. — A Greene County man has been sentenced in federal court to 37 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release on his convictions for cyberstalking and communication of threats to injure according to United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung. U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Kaleb Levicky, 23, formerly of Carmichaels, Pennsylvania. According to information presented in court, from November 3rd through November 30, 2020, Levicky sent numerous messages via Instagram and multiple telephone numbers to an unnamed person, her friend and her boyfriend. In these messages, Levicky threatened to cause serious bodily injury and death to the unnamed victim. Subsequently, in December that year, Levicky sent a text message to the friend, threatening to “kill hundreds of innocent people” with firearms. Investigators with the Federal Bureau of investigation confirmed that Levicky previously purchased these firearms, and investigators ultimately seized these firearms from Levicky.
August 7, 2022 4:07 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The developer of a major pipeline system has pleaded no contest to criminal charges that it systematically polluted waterways and residential water wells across hundreds of miles in Pennsylvania. Dallas-based Energy Transfer Operating agreed Friday to independent testing of homeowners’ water and promised to remediate contamination. The settlement involves two separate criminal cases brought by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Under a plea deal, the company will pay $10 million to restore watersheds and streams along the Mariner East pipeline network. Mariner East has been one of the most penalized projects in Pennsylvania history. Energy Transfer had no immediate comment.
August 6, 2022 4:52 am
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza as rockets rained on southern Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 11 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl. The fighting began with Israel’s dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued into the morning Saturday, drawing the sides closer to an all-out war. But the territory’s Hamas rulers appeared to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained, for now. Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years.
August 6, 2022 4:49 am
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana has become the first state in the nation to pass new legislation restricting access to abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that overturned Roe v. Wade. Indiana lawmakers on Friday approved the near-total abortion ban with some exceptions, including in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life and physical health of the mother. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb immediately signed the bill. Indiana was among the first Republican-run state legislatures to debate tighter abortion laws after the Supreme Court ruling that removed constitutional protections for the procedure.
