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MOUNTAIN VIEW Google is once again postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-January. The internet search giant is also to requiring all employees to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened. The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has allowed dozens of truckloads of construction materials into the Gaza Strip, easing a tight blockade it has maintained on the Hamas-ruled territory since an 11-day war in May. The imports Tuesday came during a tense period in which Hamas activists have launched

By EMILY McFARLAN MILLER Religion News Service Terry Wildman hopes a new translation of the New Testament published Tuesday will help Christians and Indigenous peoples read Scripture again in a fresh way. Wildman, a licensed local pastor in the United Methodist Church, has been working for two decades to translate the Bible into words and

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi says he has fully recovered from COVID-19, less than two weeks after being diagnosed. The 70-year-old Wicker says Tuesday that he’s looking forward to traveling in Mississippi this week. He’s one of three senators who announced Aug. 19 that they had tested positive for COVID-19.

By PAUL J. WEBER and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Legislature has signed off on a sweeping GOP rewrite of election laws after months of protests by Democrats. The nearly 75-page bill that won final approval Tuesday in both the House and Senate would ban 24-hour polling locations and empowers

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say rain from Tropical Depression Ida is temporarily hampering cleanup efforts for a rural Tennessee community ravaged by recent deadly flooding. But the extra dousing has brought on no recurrence of flooding Tuesday. The Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency said about 2.5 inches of rain

By DAVID I. KLEIN Religion News Service The grounds of the Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Camp in Copake, New York, were alive in mid-August with a gaggle of nearly 100 campers, young and old. Like at many camps, they played sports, boated in the lake, swam in the pool and sang songs around the campfire. But

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The parents and brother of an American journalist who has been detained in Myanmar for 100 days are vowing to never stop working to secure his release. Danny Fenster is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, an independent online news outlet based in Yangon, which is the Southeast

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — An environmental group says groundwater around at least six military installations in the Great Lakes region is contaminated with high levels of PFAS chemicals. The Environmental Working Group says Pentagon records show the compounds have been discovered in water around bases in Michigan, New

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mike Richards is out as executive producer of “Jeopardy!”, days after he exited as the quiz show’s newly appointed host because of past misogynistic and other comments. Richards is also no longer executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune,” according to a memo to staff that was confirmed by Sony, which produces

By DAVID KOENIG and PAUL WISEMAN AP Business Writers Oil companies began gradually to restart some of their refineries in Louisiana, and key fuel pipelines fully reopened, providing hopeful signs that the region’s crucial energy industry can soon recover from the blow of Hurricane Ida. Exxon Mobil said its Hoover platform in the Gulf of