TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey and the nation were not prepared when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the state “remains underprepared for the next emergency,” according to an independent report examining New Jersey’s response to the pandemic that sickened nearly 3 million people statewide and killed over 33,000. The report released Monday faults planning, communication and decision-making before and …
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Katie Britt used decades-old example of rapes in Mexico as Republican attack on Biden border policy
The Republican senator who gave the party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address used a harrowing account of a young woman’s sexual abuse to attack his border policies, but the rapes did not happen in the U.S. or during the Biden administration. First-term Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama in the GOP response criticized current immigration policies, …
Read More »US adults fracture along party lines in support for Ukraine military funding, AP-NORC poll finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia makes battlefield advances and Ukrainian soldiers run short on ammunition, U.S. adults have become fractured along party lines in their support for sending military aid to Kyiv, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Democrats are more likely to say the U.S. government is spending “too little” on funding …
Read More »Senators warily allow F-16 sale to Turkey as part of NATO expansion agreement. ‘A deal’s a deal’
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. senators declined on Thursday to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey, despite voicing deep disdain for Turkey’s conduct as an ally. They were upholding an unofficial bargain that Turks would get the fighter jets if they stopped blocking Sweden’s accession to NATO. “A deal’s a deal,” said Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the ranking Republican on …
Read More »Washington state lawmakers consider police pursuit and parents’ rights initiatives
SEATTLE (AP) — Two conservative-backed initiatives that would give police greater ability to pursue people in vehicles and declare a series of rights for parents of public-school students were considered by Washington state lawmakers Wednesday in back-to-back hearings that occasionally became heated. These initiatives are just two of six certified after a conservative group submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures …
Read More »Hunter Biden’s years of personal grief and public missteps are focus of House impeachment probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — As his father stood in the Rose Garden at the White House in the fall of 2015 and announced he would not run for president, Hunter Biden was facing his own crossroads. It was a deeply emotional and traumatic time for Joe Biden and his close-knit family, still reeling from the death of his oldest son, Beau, …
Read More »A small, nonthreatening balloon was intercepted by a fighter jet over Utah
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A small, nonthreatening balloon spotted flying high over the mountainous Western United States was intercepted by a fighter jet over Utah on Friday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD fighter pilots sent in the morning to investigate the balloon determined it was “not maneuverable” and did not present a threat to national …
Read More »Hungary’s government declines offer to meet US senators seeking approval for Sweden’s NATO bid
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators made an official visit to Hungary’s capital Sunday and called on the nationalist government to immediately approve Sweden’s request to join NATO. Hungary is the only one of NATO’s 31 existing members not to have ratified Sweden’s bid. The Hungarian government faces mounting pressure to act after delaying the move …
Read More »Republican opponent of US aid to Ukraine brings his case to an international conference
MUNICH (AP) — A Republican opponent of new U.S. funding for Ukraine argued at an international security conference Sunday that the package stuck in Congress wouldn’t “fundamentally change the reality” on the ground and that Russia has an incentive to negotiate peace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and others have advocated passage of the $60 billion …
Read More »What to know about the US strikes in Iraq and Syria and its attacks with the UK in Yemen
BEIRUT (AP) — British forces on Saturday joined their American allies in new attacks against militia in Yemen. The U.S. military earlier launched strikes on dozens of sites manned by Iran-backed fighters in western Iraq and eastern Syria in retaliation for a drone strike in Jordan in late January that killed three U.S. service members and wounded dozens. Tensions have …
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