PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden's team has made contact with Dr. Fauci, and the president-elect said he has been 'very, very helpful' in briefings with staff
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has reached out to President-elect Joe Biden's transition staff, Bloomberg reported. "I haven't had a chance to speak to Dr. Fauci," Biden said Tuesday, but Fauci himself confirmed to CNN that he has been talking to the president-elect's staff. The news comes a day after the General Services Administration recognized Biden as the apparent president-elect.
WorldAssociated PressChina criticizes pope over comment on Uighur Muslim minority
China criticized Pope Francis on Tuesday over a passage in his new book in which he mentions suffering by China's Uighur Muslim minority group. Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Francis' remarks had “no factual basis at all.” “People of all ethnic groups enjoy the full rights of survival, development, and freedom of religious belief," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
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Russia chases off U.S. warship in row over waters in Sea of Japan
Russia said on Tuesday one of its warships caught and chased off a U.S. destroyer operating illegally in its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, but the U.S. Navy denied wrongdoing by its vessel and accused Moscow of making excessive maritime claims. The Admiral Vinogradov, a Russian destroyer, verbally warned USS John S. McCain, a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, and threatened to ram it in order to force it to leave the area, prompting it to return to neutral waters, Moscow said.
PoliticsYahoo NewsDemocratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock bet big on 'record-shattering turnout' in Georgia
But Democrats say they've figured out how to win in Georgia, a state that had voted Republican in six straight presidential elections between 1996 and 2016 and hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years. And Republicans have won all but one of the statewide general election runoffs in Georgia since 1988. What we are focusing on when we go and talk to voters in these communities, something that we learned from Stacey Abrams, is we go and ask them what they need, and when they answer … we let them know Rev.
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump loyalist pushed out of White House now leading a shake-up at the Pentagon
A retired Special Forces colonel, Miller had worked to revamp civilian oversight over special operations forces in a previous Pentagon job. A driving force behind the current initiative is Ezra Cohen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who has held several national security positions during the Trump administration and is now the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, or SO/LIC. The appointment of Cohen as the acting assistant secretary was a major factor behind the decision to implement the congressional legislation.
WorldAssociated PressMine explodes, damaging oil tanker off Saudi Arabia
A mine in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia's coast near Yemen exploded and damaged an oil tanker Wednesday, authorities said, the latest incident targeting the kingdom amid its long war against Yemen's Houthi rebels. The blast happened before dawn and struck the MT Agrari, a Maltese-flagged, Greek-managed oil tanker near Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia. “Their vessel was attacked by an unknown source,” a statement from the Agrari's operator, TMS Tankers Ltd., said.
WorldReutersGermany, Turkey trade accusations over interception of Turkish vessel
Turkey and Germany traded barbs on Tuesday after German soldiers boarded a Turkish vessel on behalf of an EU military mission in the Mediterranean, with Berlin calling its NATO ally's protests unjustified and Ankara saying the move was illegal. Turkey protested on Monday after German forces belonging to the European Union's Irini mission, tasked with enforcing a U.N. arms embargo against Libya, boarded and searched a Turkish cargo ship the EU suspected of taking weapons to Libya illegally. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the boarding was an act of "piracy" and Ankara would "respond on the ground, as well as pursuing legal and political processes."
PoliticsAssociated PressThe Latest: Trump won't be at Giuliani election fight event
President Donald Trump will not be appearing at an event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani aimed at trying to discredit the results of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won. The decision comes after a member of Trump's campaign legal team, Boris Epshteyn, announced Wednesday he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Epshteyn attended a press conference with Giuliani in Washington last week during which Giuliani continued to lob meritless accusations of mass voter fraud despite no evidence to support his claims.
WorldAssociated PressIran says British-Australian academic freed for 3 Iranians
Iran on Wednesday freed a British-Australian academic who had been detained in the country for over two years, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad, state TV announced. The television report was scant on detail, saying only that the three Iranians freed in the swap had been imprisoned for trying to bypass sanctions on Iran. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was picked up at the Tehran airport while trying to leave the country after attending an academic conference in 2018.
WorldAssociated PressTrudeau: Canadians won't be among the first to get vaccine
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday Canada will have to wait for a vaccine because the very first ones that roll off assembly lines are likely to be given to citizens of the country they are made in. Trudeau noted Canada does not have vaccine-production facilities. Trudeau said it is understandable that an American pharmaceutical company will distribute first in the U.S. before they distribute internationally.
PoliticsReutersBiden Cabinet picks may face rough Republican reception in Senate
Republican members of the U.S. Senate fired warning shots to President-elect Joe Biden that they may be prepared to stand in the way of his Cabinet appointments, despite the long-held tradition of a new president having the right to choose who will run government agencies. The threats, from senators including Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, highlighted the importance of a pair of runoff elections in Georgia in early January that will determine whether Republicans keep majority control of the Senate, or cede it to Democrats after six years in the minority.
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Raffensperger: Georgia recount should be 'very similar' to first two
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shares election results expectations for the state's third recount.
TechnologyArchitectural DigestThe Top 6 Black Friday Deals for Vacuums
We have you covered with all the best vacuum deals that you need to know about Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
U.S.Associated PressIsraeli leader tells convicted spy: 'We're waiting for you'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday phoned Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, telling him: “We're waiting for you.” The U.S. Justice Department announced last Friday that Pollard had completed his parole, clearing the way for him to move to Israel 35 years after he was arrested. “You should have now a comfortable life where you can pursue, both of you can pursue your interests,” Netanyahu said in a conversation with Pollard and his wife Esther.
WorldAssociated PressAzerbaijani leader vows to revive region ceded by Armenia
Azerbaijan's president vowed Wednesday to rebuild and revive the Kalbajar region, the latest territory that Armenian forces have ceded in a truce that ended six weeks of intense fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. “We will restore Kalbajar, let no one have doubts about that, and life will return there,” President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation soon after Azerbaijani troops entered the region. “I gave an order to prepare a general layout of the reconstruction of the town, and not just the town of Kalbajar, but of all of the towns" in the region, also known as Kalbajar.
WorldReutersJailed Saudi women's rights activists given rare court appearance
Four jailed Saudi women's rights activists were given a rare appearance in court on Wednesday, the family of one of them said, as the kingdom's human rights record faces new scrutiny following the election defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump. Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, looked weak, her body shaking uncontrollably and her voice faint, her sister Lina told Reuters, adding that her parents had sat next to her in court. It was her first appearance since March last year.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastBiden Weighs Mike Morell as His CIA Chief. A Key Dem Senator Says Don’t Bother.
President-elect Joe Biden is strongly considering Mike Morell, the former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to run the CIA, according to four individuals familiar with the matter. Morell served as deputy CIA director for three years under President Barack Obama and also worked as acting director of the agency twice. According to three of the four sources familiar with the matter, the president-elect was considering both Morell and Avril Haines, another former deputy CIA director, for the position.
WorldAssociated PressJapan, China agree on economic ties, split over islands
China's top diplomat told Japan's leader on Wednesday that Beijing wants the two Asian powers to have good relations and cooperate in fighting the coronavirus and reviving their pandemic-hit economies, but the two sides remained at odds over an island dispute. Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping expressing his hope of developing positive relations with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and "strengthen cooperation with Japan in pandemic measures and for the economic recovery," Wang told reporters after meeting with Suga. Wang told Suga that ties between the two countries have improved through high-level dialogue and mutual efforts and that China wants to cooperate further in a range of areas.
PoliticsReutersLame-duck president pardons turkey; Trump breaks post-election isolation for tradition
President Donald Trump emerged from self-imposed isolation on Tuesday to show that at least one thing in Washington would run according to tradition: the pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey. In the Rose Garden, Trump stuck to the script in pardoning a 42-pound turkey named Corn as part of an annual presidential ritual, the sparing of a turkey from American dinner tables on the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. "Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon,” Trump said, raising a hand over the white bird with long wattle.
WorldAssociated PressIndian state outlaws religious conversion by marriage
India's ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in the country's most populous state that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree for the state of Uttar Pradesh was passed Tuesday and follows a campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against interfaith marriages. The party describes such marriages as “love jihad,” an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
HealthAssociated PressEXPLAINER: China's claims of coronavirus on frozen foods
China has stirred controversy with claims it has detected the coronavirus on packages of imported frozen food. Frozen shrimp imported from an Ecuadorian company was banned for one week on Tuesday in a continuing series of such temporary bans. While experts say the virus can survive for a time on cardboard and plastic containers, it remains unclear how serious a risk that poses.
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Clashes as police clear new Paris migrant camp
Footage posted online showed police and demonstrators pushing against each other as they moved in to clear the square of migrants' tents, which the police said had been set up without official permission. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday (November 24) he was launching a probe into the clashes, adding that images of the scuffles were "shocking".
PoliticsReutersWith Senate on the line, Trump's claims of election fraud put Georgia Republicans in bind
President Donald Trump's baseless attacks on the U.S. election may be endangering Republican chances of keeping control of the Senate, as Republican candidates in twin January runoffs in Georgia try to drive voters to the polls while amplifying Trump's claim that the system is rigged. The state on Tuesday at Trump's request began tallying its 5 million ballots for a third time, which officials expect will again confirm Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's statewide victory. That has Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler threading the needle on the campaign trail, calling themselves a last bastion against Democratic priorities without explicitly admitting Trump lost the Nov. 3 election.
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UN agency: Israel's Gaza blockade has devastated economy
Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and sent poverty and unemployment skyrocketing, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the closure. The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development echoed calls by numerous international bodies over the years criticizing the blockade. Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel's existence, violently seized control of Gaza from the forces of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
CelebrityThe WeekMeghan Markle discloses miscarriage in a candid op-ed urging compassion
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, revealed that she had a miscarriage over the summer in a remarkable New York Times op-ed published Wednesday. "Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few," she wrote, adding that "despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning." Markle's op-ed follows Chrissy Teigen's essay about her miscarriage in September, but while Teigen and her husband, John Legend, frequently share stories about their personal and family lives, Britain's royal family keeps a famously tight lid on private issues.
“Donald Trump defeated Donald Trump.”
“The victory was a vindication of a style of American politics that many feared was gone forever.”
“Mr. Biden’s victory — and Mr. Trump’s defeat — is a testament to the resilience of American democracy.”
“Trump’s 2020 reelection bid was doomed by his boorish behavior. Time and again, he refused to act like a president.”
“Biden took the opportunity to unite the Democratic Party.”