ST. LOUIS (AP) — The number of daily COVID-19 cases in St. Louis has tripled since the start of December, a trend the city’s health director calls “alarming.” Meanwhile, people seeking to get tested for the virus are struggling to find kits in stores or appointments at testing sites. Urgent care centers and pharmacies in…
CHICAGO (AP) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. The surge has been driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark was 250,000 cases per day,…
NEW YORK (AP) — Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Saturday as staffing issues tied to COVID-19 disrupted holiday celebrations during one of the busiest travel times of the year. FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, notes 875 flights entering, leaving or inside the U.S. canceled Saturday, up from 689 Friday. About 200 more flights were already canceled…
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) — France’s health minister says omicron infections are rapidly spreading and the variant will become the dominant infection in the last days of 2021. Olivier Veran ruled out additional restrictions on public life and said the government’s main effort to stop the spread of the virus is a robust vaccination campaign, including…
A trademark tiff between America’s oldest beer maker and its best-selling beer brand appears to be over before it really began. Last week, D.G. Yuengling & Son demanded its much larger rival, Anheuser-Busch, stop using a tagline for its forthcoming Bud Light Next zero-carb beer. Bud Light had been calling it the “next generation of…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican state representative has introduced legislation that would ban nearly all abortions in Missouri, mirroring a new Texas law. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the bill introduced Thursday by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold would prohibit the termination of a pregnancy once cardiac activity is detected…
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main nurses’ union has warned that exhaustion and surging coronavirus cases among medical staff are pushing them to the breaking point. That is adding to pressure on the government for new restrictions to curb record numbers of infections driven by the omicron variant. The warning Monday throws into stark relief the…
NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense has rested its case after two days of presenting evidence on the British socialite’s behalf. Not among that evidence was testimony from the longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate herself. Around a half-hour after Maxwell told the court Friday she would not testify in her own defense because “the government…
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Police say they’ve made an arrest after a woman charged in a 2020 St. Louis homicide was herself killed in a shooting in St. Louis’ Hamilton Heights neighborhood. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 28-year-old Tatyana Smiley was found shot to death Tuesday morning inside a building in the same block…
LONDON (AP) — Christmas revelers across Europe are lying low and changing plans as new restrictions and fears about the omicron variant of the coronavirus persuade many to stay home. That’s magnifying concerns about a second lost holiday season for airlines, restaurants and shops already battered by the pandemic. Scotland and Wales on Friday pledged…