Ingested Articles

Boat, snowmobile, camel: Vaccine reaches world's far corners

Getting the vaccine to the world's farthest corners means delivering it by boat to Maine islands, by snowmobile to Alaska villages and via complex Amazon waterways in Brazil. Although the vaccination rollout has been choppy in much of the world and some places are still waiting for their first doses, there’s an urgent push to inoculate people in hard-to-reach places that may not have had COVID-19 outbreaks but also may not be equipped to deal with them if they do. Robin Nandy, the chief of immunization for UNICEF, says before it's over, drones, motorcycles, elephants, horses and camels will have been used to get vaccines to the most far-flung places.

Indonesia landslides death toll rises to 119, dozens missing

The death toll from mudslides in eastern Indonesia has risen to 119 with scores still missing as rain continued to pound the region and hamper the search. The village of Lamanele on Adonara island suffered the highest losses with 60 bodies recovered so far and 12 missing. Mud tumbled down from surrounding hills early on Sunday, catching people at sleep. On nearby Lembata island, the downpour triggered by Tropical Cyclone Seroja sent solidified lava from a volcanic eruption in November to crash down on more than a dozen villages, killing at least 28 and leaving 44 unaccounted for. Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes searching for those buried. 

Indonesia landslides death toll rises to 119, dozens missing

LEMBATA, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from mudslides in eastern Indonesia has risen to 119 with scores still missing, officials said Wednesday, as rain continued to pound the region and hamper the search. The village of Lamanele on Adonara…

Cole 7 shutout innings, 13 Ks leads Yanks over Orioles 7-2

Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and walked none over seven scoreless innings in his most dominant start since joining the New York Yankees, overwhelming the Baltimore Orioles 7-2 for his first win this season. Cole allowed four hits, three of them singles, in the type of the performance that showed why the Yankees made his baseball’s highest-paid pitcher with a $324 million contract. Jay Bruce backed him with his first Yankees home run and Aaron Judge added a three-run homer. New York has won a team-record 12 straight home games against the Orioles since May 2019 outscoring Baltimore 76-28.    

Survey: Even as schools reopen, many students learn remotely

A new survey from the Biden administration finds that large numbers of students are not returning to the classroom even as more schools reopen for full-time, in-person learning. The findings reflect a nation that has been locked in debate over the safety of reopening schools. Even as national COVID-19 rates continued to ebb in February, key measures around reopening schools barely budged. Nearly 46% of public schools offered five days a week of in-person to all students in February, according to the survey, but just 34% of students were learning full-time in the classroom. White students were far more likely to be learning in-person than their nonwhite classmates. 

Asian stocks mixed after lackluster day on Wall Street

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street took a breather, with major indexes edging lower. Japan's benchmark Nikkei fell 0.5% to 29,544.93 and the Shanghai Composite index sank 0.7% to 3,459.25. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3%…

LEADING OFF: Tatis on IL, Reds and Baddoo off to big starts

Now that Fernando Tatis Jr. has been placed on the injured list, the San Diego Padres hope their electrifying shortstop won’t be sidelined too long. Tatis should be able to avoid surgery on his left shoulder, the team said a day after he slightly dislocated it taking a hard swing. An MRI on Tuesday showed a slight labral tear and the Padres put the 22-year-old Tatis on the 10-day IL. General manager A.J. Preller said the club wasn’t ruling out anything, including Tatis’ possible return when he’s eligible. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit rookie Akil Baddoo are both off to smashing starts this season.

Breyer says big Supreme Court changes could diminish trust

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Stephen Breyer on Tuesday said liberal advocates of big changes at the Supreme Court, including expanding the number of justices, should think “long and hard” about what they’re proposing. Politically driven change could diminish the trust…

Woo hoo! Baddoo hits again, Tigers rookie tops Twins in 10th

Akil Baddoo added another big hit in this charmed start to his big league career, lining an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Detroit Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Baddoo made his debut Sunday and homered on the first pitch thrown to him. Then he hit a grand slam in a 15-6 loss to the Twins on Monday. The 22-year-old entered Tuesday’s game as a pinch-runner and stayed in until he ended it with a winning hit to right off Hansel Robles. Nelson Cruz and Byron Buxton homered for the Twins, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit.

Nats finally play, beat Braves 6-5 on Soto's walk-off in 9th

Juan Soto drove in the winning run with a single on a 3-0 pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the coronavirus-depleted Washington Nationals to a 6-5 comeback victory over the Atlanta Braves after waiting five days to start their season. Lefty reliever Will Smith entered for the ninth and promptly gave up a single to new leadoff hitter Victor Robles, then hit Trea Turner with a pitch. That brought up Soto, the 2020 NL batting champion who went into this pivotal at-bat 0 for 4 on Tuesday. But Soto delivered a line drive to center field. Atlanta is 0-4.

eBay auction of Japanese internment art pulled after protest

The auction of a series of sketches purportedly drawn by an artist at the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar has been canceled after groups protested it was offensive and immoral to profit off the misery of incarcerated people. The auction was halted Tuesday by eBay hours before it was to conclude after company executives met with Japanese American groups who called the sale “hurtful, and a degrading reminder of the mass roundup and incarceration.” The auction site said the sale violated a policy prohibiting the sale of items from government or protected lands. The seller claimed they did nothing wrong.

Facebook removes accounts tied to Iranian exile group

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Tuesday it has removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an Iranian exile group and a troll farm in Albania. The accounts posted content critical of Iran's government and supportive of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a dissident…

Not quite 'Your 2021 Washington Nationals!' finally playing

The Washington Nationals finally got their season started five days later than they were supposed to after a delay because of a coronavirus outbreak. Four players tested positive for COVID-19 and seven others were told to quarantine after contact tracing deemed they potentially were exposed to the illness. Washington hosted the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday and won 6-5 on Juan Soto's tiebreaking RBI single in the ninth. The 2019 World Series champion's season-opening series against the New York Mets was scrapped, as was the series-opening game Monday against the Braves. That one will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday.

Attorney Lin Wood: Blasting South Carolina's top Republicans

The pro-Trump attorney seeking to lead the GOP in South Carolina is taking on two of the state’s most notable Republicans and has questioned the level of loyalty of the state GOP chairman for former President Donald Trump. Attorney Lin Wood told a crowd in Greenville Tuesday that the party doesn’t belong to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. He also challenged the Republican credentials of former Gov. Nikki Haley, an ex-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump. Wood has mounted a campaign to challenge Drew McKissick as chairman of South Carolina’s Republican Party. McKissick is finishing up his second term in the post. 

Padres say Tatis should be able to avoid shoulder surgery

The San Diego Padres say shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. should be able to avoid surgery on his left shoulder. Tatis slightly dislocated it taking a hard swing on Monday. An MRI on Tuesday showed a slight labral tear and the Padres put the electrifying 22-year-old on the 10-day injured list. General manager A.J. Preller said the club wasn’t ruling out anything, including Tatis’ possible return when he’s eligible. Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract on Feb. 22, the longest deal in big league history.

Red Sox unveil blue-and-yellow uniforms before Patriots' Day

The Boston Red Sox will have a new look on Patriots’ Day weekend. They’ll honor the Boston Marathon and the city by wearing blue-and-yellow uniforms, the colors that stretch across the finish line of the famous race. They’ll be the first of seven major league teams to wear new uniforms to honor the city they represent. The Red Sox will wear them April 17 and 18 when they play the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park. The Red Sox unveiled the new look Tuesday on their Twitter site. 

Tanzania's new president changes policy on COVID-19, media

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania's new president appears to be taking a new, scientific approach to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. President Samia Suluhu Hassan said Tuesday she will form a technical committee to advise her about the scope of COVID-19…

Toronto schools shutdown amid third wave of infections

TORONTO (AP) — Schools in Canada’s largest city will shut down Wednesday and move to online learning because of a third surge of coronavirus infections fueled by more-contagious virus variants. Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa said…

Toddler, 7 adults wounded in latest Chicago shootings

Police say a 21-month-old boy is in critical condition after being shot in the head while riding in a car along Chicago's famed Lake Shore Drive. The 11 a.m. shooting happened about 12 hours after seven people involved in a fight on a sidewalk on the city's South Side were shot and wounded. Nobody is in custody in either shooting, although police say they are questioning a person of interest in the shooting involving the infant. The shootings marked the latest bursts of violence in what is shaping up to be one of Chicago's most violent years in memory. Police have reported 131 homicides in the city and more than 700 shooting victims by the end of March.

McConnell warns biz off political speech, says it's 'stupid'

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says “it’s quite stupid” for corporations to speak out against the Georgia voting law. The GOP leader intensified his warning to big business on Tuesday to stand down as Congress delves into voting rights, President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package and other defining issues. Speaking in Kentucky, McConnell said he still wants companies to give freely to political campaigns. But the colorful language from the typically reserved McConnell shows the dilemma ahead for the party and its fractured relationship with the business community. Last week Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball voiced opposition to Georgia’s new, more restrictive voting law. 

AP FACT CHECK: Biden's job inflation on infrastructure

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his team have offered a vastly inflated projection of how many jobs his infrastructure plan would create, an account his press secretary corrected Tuesday. Biden has also drifted beyond the facts when dismissing…

Marines open another probe into sunken tank blamed on errors

The Marine Corps is launching a probe looking at the readiness of its troops before they participated in an exercise that ended in tragedy with the sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle off the Southern California coast that killed eight Marines and one sailor. The announcement Tuesday comes more than a week after the maritime branch released its findings that the accident was caused by inadequate training, shabby maintenance and poor judgment by leaders. Marine Corps leaders said the training accident that was one of the deadliest for the Marines in recent years could have been prevented.

Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West

Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet. That's the conclusion of a sweeping government study released Tuesday that finds the situation for the region is worsening. The most dramatic changes have been seen in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between storms increased from 30 days to 45 days since the 1970s. The consequences of intense dry periods pummeling areas of the West in recent years have been severe: more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation on the landscape to support livestock and wildlife.

Lawmakers call YouTube Kids a 'wasteland of vapid' content

A House subcommittee is investigating YouTube Kids. The panel says the Google-owned video service feeds children inappropriate material in “a wasteland of vapid, consumerist content” so it can serve them ads. In a letter sent Tuesday to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy says YouTube isn't doing enough to protect kids from material that could harm them. It says YouTube relies on artificial intelligence and creators’ self-regulation to decide what videos make it on to the platform.