Ingested Articles

President Vladimir Putin says he will get a coronavirus vaccine shot on Tuesday, several months after widespread vaccination has started in Russia. Putin said at a meeting with government officials on Monday that he will get his shot “tomorrow,” without specifying which vaccine out of three approved for use in Russia he will take. Putin said that over 6 million people in Russia have already received at least one shot, and more than 4 million have gotten both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Widespread vaccination with the domestically developed Sputnik V shot started in Russia in December, but has so far been going slower than in many other countries.

Former President Donald Trump has endorsed a conservative Georgia congressman in his bid to unseat the Republican secretary of state who refused to help overturn the November election results. The move marks Trump's most direct attempt at retribution against those he blames for his loss to President Joe Biden. Rep. Jody Hice, a tea party favorite and Trump acolyte, is the first major challenger to Brad Raffensperger since the secretary of state certified Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia and disputed Trump’s false allegations of fraud. Hice didn't mention Trump in his announcement but has said previously that he expected the former president's support. Trump has said separately that he also wants to help defeat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, another Republican, in 2022. 

A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at a Georgia massage business last week said police held him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack. Mario Gonzalez told Spanish-language news website Mundo Hispanico in a video interview that he heard the gunshots and worried about his wife, who was in a separate room. Cherokee County sheriff's deputies arrived minutes later. The website says deputies detained him in handcuffs for about four hours outside the spa. Gonzalez questions whether they treated him badly because he's Mexican. The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Monday welcomed a decision by state authorities to examine the police response to a weekend anti-lockdown protest during which participants openly flouted coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Scuffles broke out between some of the 20,000…

Four upsets in eight second-round games at the NCAA Tournament may be a sign the mid-major revolution is on. Or maybe not. It's too soon to draw conclusions, but there's few who doubt the little guys had a good day Sunday and four more mid-majors will pick up the banner in games Monday. No. 11 seed Loyola and No. 15 Oral Roberts are headed to the Sweet 16 after stunning top-seeded Illinois and seventh-seeded Florida, and neither cares much for the Cinderella label. Says Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills, “We are not capitulating to anybody here.” 

VERSAILLES, France (AP) — Ikea’s French subsidiary and several of its former executives went on trial Monday over accusations that they illegally spied on employees and customers. Trade unions reported the furniture and home goods company to French authorities in…

Like many famous comics, Jo Koy had early struggles at comedy clubs. But, unlike them, the half white and half Filipino comedian could only seem to book spots on ethnic theme nights like “Wonton Wednesdays” and “Asian Invasion.” “There’s a…

BEIJING (AP) — A second Canadian citizen held for more than two years on spying charges in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a senior executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei went on trial in Beijing on Monday. The trial…

The Supreme Court will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment. The justices agreed Monday to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions of 13 federal inmates in its final six months in office. The case won’t be heard until the fall, and it’s unclear how the new administration will approach Tsarnaev’s case. The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president. But Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty.

Volunteers from abroad will not be allowed into Japan for the postponed Tokyo Olympics when they open in four months. The announcement comes two days after Tokyo organizers said they would ban international fans from coming into Japan. A limited number of volunteers might be allowed to enter if they have special skills. Olympic organizers had planned to use about 80,000 unpaid volunteers. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government had lined up 30,000 more. Most are from Japan. It's not clear how many will be used this time.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 28-April 3: March 28: Harmonica player Charlie McCoy (“Hee Haw”) is 80. Actor Dianne Wiest is 75. Country singer Reba McEntire is 66. Actor Alexandra Billings (“Transparent”) is 59. Rapper Salt of Salt-N-Pepa…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — What is expected to be a complex process to form a new Dutch government got underway Monday with leaders of parties that won seats in last week's parliamentary elections laying out their preferred coalition options.…

LONDON (AP) — A protest in the English city of Bristol against new policing legislation turned into violent clashes that left at least 20 officers injured — two of them seriously — widespread damage to a police station and police…

BRUSSELS (AP) — The king and queen of Belgium paid tribute Monday to the victims of the suicide bombings that killed 32 people and injured hundreds more in the Brussels subway and airport exactly five years ago. King Philippe and…

The redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains had not burned in decades. But they burned the year one data journalist lived there. Aug. 18, 2020 will forever be ingrained in the mind of the journalist who was displaced from her home by wildfire and tasked with covering the blaze that threatened her community. She rescued her pets from her home and then went to stay at a relative's house. Next, she got to work scouring social media and communicating with neighbors. She bonded with fellow evacuees to share their collective story. And, she took her experience with data to report on the human impact of the wildfire smoke.

AstraZeneca says advanced trial data from a U.S. study on its COVID vaccine shows it is 79% effective. The U.S. study comprised 30,000 volunteers, 20,000 of whom were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots. The early findings from the U.S. study, announced Monday, are just one set of information AstraZeneca must submit to the Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory committee will publicly debate the evidence behind the shots before the agency decides whether to allow emergency use of the vaccine. While the AstraZeneca vaccine has been authorized in more than 50 countries worldwide, it has not yet been approved in the U.S.  

The new head of the Small Business Administration says she expects to make changes at the agency that she says will enable it to further help small companies devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with The Associated Press two days after her swearing-in, Isabella Casillas Guzman says her immediate focus is implementing small business provisions in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package President Joseph Biden signed into law last week. But Guzman also foresees changes in the SBA's loan programs and upgrades in its technology that ultimately will help companies. She's hoping for feedback from business owners to help set the agency's agenda.