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  • Biden reportedly considering a retired four-star general to lead US military, would be first Black defense secretary if confirmed

    If confirmed, Ret. US Army Gen. Lloyd Austin would be the first Black defense secretary for the United States.

  • Macron says images of police beating Black man shameful for France

    President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that images showing Paris police beating up a Black music producer were shameful for France, and that government would have to find a way to restore public confidence in the force. Prosecutors are investigating the violent arrest of Michel Zecler, who said he was also racially abused by the officers, after CCTV footage of the incident was released. The police watchdog is also investigating.

  • Swedish government sidelines epidemiologist who steered country's no lockdown experiment as deaths rise

    The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden's no lock-down strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong. Anders Tegnell's biweekly press conference was on Thursday pushed into the shade by an overlapping press conference fronted by Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, where new scenarios prepared by the Public Health Agency were announced. "There's certainly a split, and I'm pretty sure that many in the government have rather lost faith in the Public Health Agency," said Nicholas Aylott, an associate politics professor at Stockholm's Södertorn University. "By some counts, we've now got exactly the same level of spread of the virus that we had in the spring, and that's about as clear a refutation of Tegnell's strategy as you could wish for." Dr Tegnell has always insisted that his Public Health Agency has never pursued a herd immunity strategy, but he repeatedly suggested in the summer that his counterparts in Norway, Finland and Denmark would face a tougher task over the winter because of lower levels of immunity in their populations. This month, though, the number of deaths in Sweden has again begun to soar above that of its Nordic neighbours, with 630 deaths so far registered as a result of Covid-19. That is about ten times the per capita death rate in Norway -- where just 30 Covid-19 deaths were registered between October 28th and November 25th.

  • Pictured: A doctor hugged a distraught elderly coronavirus patient on Thanksgiving, after warning the public America is headed for its 'darkest days' over Christmas

    Dr. Joseph Varon, of Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, has worked 251 days in the COVID-19 ICU. He said the 'darkest days' are to come.

  • Biden's win hides a dire warning for Democrats in rural U.S.

    Democrats once dominated Koochiching County in the blue-collar Iron Range of northern Minnesota. “We’ve got to see if we can get the Democratic Party to moderate and accept the fact that rural Minnesota is not getting more conservative,” said Bakk, who announced last week that he would become an independent after serving 25 years as a Democrat. The party lost House seats in the Midwest, and Democratic challengers in Iowa, Kansas, Montana and North Carolina Senate races, all once viewed as serious threats to Republican incumbents, fell, some of them hard.

  • Honduran ex-president Zelaya stopped at airport with bag of money

    TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said on Friday that he had been "unjustly" detained at the Central American nation's Toncontin international airport for carrying $18,000 in cash, which he said was not his. Zelaya, who led Honduras from 2006 to 2009 and was an ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was deposed by the military in a June 2009 coup as he was preparing to hold a referendum on presidential re-election, which his opponents said was a ploy to stay in power.

  • Six US oil executives jailed for corruption in Venezuela after being lured to business meeting

    Men plead innocence following arrest in 2017 as State Department demands release

  • Iran diplomat skips trial in Belgium over failed bomb plot

    An Iranian diplomat refused to appear at the first day of his trial in Belgium on Friday, where he and three others face charges of plotting to bomb an Iranian exile opposition meeting in France that was attended by five British MPs. Antwerp prosecutors accuse Vienna-based diplomat Assadolah Assadi and three co-defendants of conspiring to attack a 2018 rally of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Labour's Roger Godsiff and Conservative MPs Bob Blackman, Matthew Offord, Sir David Amess and Theresa Villiers, attended the event in Villepinte near Paris, where US President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gave the keynote speech. “Had the plot remain undiscovered, it would have been Iran’s biggest ever state-sponsored terrorist act,” claimed Mr Blackman, who is one of 25 civil parties to the case. “It is time to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its repression and home and now in Europe,” he told The Telegraph. The trial is the first time a European Union state has prosecuted an Iranian official for terrorism. "I think the words 'brave little Belgium' are entirely appropriate today," said Rik Vanreusel, a lawyer representing participants at the rally. "We are one of the only countries that has dared to put such rather politically sensitive matters in a proper perspective." Mr Assadi, 48, denies the charges and did not cooperate with investigators. Lawyer Dimitri De Beco said his client claimed diplomatic immunity. He was arrested while on holiday in Germany, where prosecutors say immunity did not apply. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that diplomatic immunity cannot be used to evade prosecution where the charges are terror related, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. According to a police report obtained by Reuters, Mr Assadi warned authorities in March that unidentified groups could carry out retaliatory attacks if he was found guilty. Tehran dismisses the charges against him as a “false flag” plot by the NCRI, which it calls a terrorist organisation. But French officials say Mr Assadi, who was the third counsellor at Iran’s Austrian embassy, was directed from Tehran to carry out the attack. France says Iran’s intelligence ministry was responsible for the plot and subsequently expelled an Iranian diplomat. Belgian authorities say he gave a Belgian couple of Iranian origin half a kilogram of explosives and a detonator, which they believe he brought to Vienna from Tehran aboard a commercial flight. The explosives were found in the car of the couple, Nassimeh Naami, 36, and Amir Saadouni, 40, when they were arrested in Brussels in a joint operation involving Belgian, French and German security services. They are charged alongside another alleged co-conspirator Mehrdad Arefani, 57. Their lawyers deny they planned to kill anyone at the rally, which was attended by an estimated 25,000 people, including a delegation of 35 Britons, according to the NCRI. The NCRI is the political wing of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, otherwise known as the MEK, which supports the overthrow of the Iranian government. The group carried out a series of attacks against the government in the 1980s. The MEK was removed from EU and US terrorism blacklists in 2009 and 2012 respectively after renouncing violence and following an intensive lobbying effort. The trial, which may deliver a verdict as early as the end of the month, could strain relations between Iran and the EU. The 2015 nuclear deal promised to improve relations between Iran and the West but European countries have subsequently accused Tehran of several attacks against opponents abroad. These included two killers in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2017 and a failed assassination in Denmark, all of which Tehran denied involvement in.

  • Fists and pig guts fly in Taiwan parliament

    Since the latest session of parliament began in mid-September, the KMT had blocked Premier Su Tseng-chang from delivering regular reports and taking questions by occupying the podium where he speaks, to protest against the pork decision. As Su began speaking, KMT lawmakers threw buckets of pig guts his way, and some exchanged blows, with a particularly vicious encounter between KMT party whip Lin Wei-chou and Chen Po-wei from the small Taiwan Statebuilding Party. President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would, from January 1, allow imports of U.S. pork containing ractopamine, an additive that enhances leanness but is banned in the European Union and China, as well as U.S. beef more than 30 months old. While welcomed in Washington, and removing a roadblock to a long sought after U.S. free trade deal for Taiwan, the KMT has strongly opposed the decision, tapping into public concern about food safety after several high-profile scandals in recent years. The DPP condemned the protests, saying in a statement the throwing of the pig guts was a waste of food that "stank up" the parliament floor and was "disgusting". Taiwan is a rambunctious democracy and fighting is not uncommon in Taiwan's parliament.

  • White rice spikes blood sugar levels and 'has almost the same effect as eating pure table sugar,' according to Harvard Medical School

    White rice contains less fiber, protein, and other key nutrients compared to brown rice. As a result, white rice has fewer health benefits.

  • Letters to the Editor: Most Catholics don't care what bishops say about Joe Biden

    Ever out of step with the Catholic laity, bishops are considering denying Joe Biden communion. That would be a huge mistake.

  • Facing the first loss of their voting lives, young Republicans are surprisingly hopeful, but want the GOP to work for Gen Z

    Five leaders of college Republican groups told Business Insider what they thought of President Donald Trump's election loss.

  • El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala stage mass raids on gangs

    The Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have rounded up hundreds of suspected street gang members as part of a U.S.-backed effort known as “Operation Regional Shield.” The attorney general’s office in El Salvador has taken the lead, reporting that it obtained arrest warrants for 1,152 suspects, of whom 572 had been arrested by Friday. The U.S. Department of Justice noted that authorities in El Salvador and Honduras arrested three dozen suspected immigrant traffickers.

  • Ex-CIA boss says Ted Cruz ‘unworthy’ of Texas during Twitter row over Iran killing

    Pair arguing about killing of top Iranian nuclear scientist

  • French face three-year jail term for 'accent discrimination' in victory for regions versus Paris

    French people who discriminate against compatriots due to their accent face a maximum three-year prison term under a new bill seen as a victory for the country’s maligned provincial twangs over well-educated Parisian speech. The law, which was passed after its first reading on Thursday night, places discrimination due to accent on a par with race, gender or handicap. Those who flout it also face a €45,000 fine. Tabled by MPs in President Emmanuel Macron's centrist political party, the law notably seeks to counter prejudice in the workplace against regional and lower-class accents. The issues of “accent discrimination” came to a head in recent months after the appointment in July of Jean Castex, the new prime minister, who is a rarity among senior politicians in having retained his thick southwestern accent. Christophe Euzet, MP for the Mediterranean port of Sète and lead sponsor of the bill, said he had been appalled at the way Mr Castex, a former top civil servant and mayor of Pyrenean town Prades, had been mocked for his accent after taking the top government job. Northern French often equate southern accents with sun, aperitifs and idleness. Mr Euzet, a native of Perpignan with similar southwestern tones to Mr Castex, said it was time to end stereotypes in which a southerner is seen as "a fun guy ... not there to talk about serious things.” “Accents have no right of place in radio and television channels, in the world of politics and the helm of high office, administrations and French public businesses,” he added. Unlike in Britain, French media, in particular, has made no visible effort to employ newscasters and other prominent personalities with provincial twangs. During debates, MPs complained that TV personalities with southwestern accents were “relegated to the rugby column or the weather”. Patricia Mirallès, a Macron MP, whose parents were French from North Africa, recounted “painful” memories of being mocked for her pied-noir accent. Maina Sage, an MP from French Polynesia, denounced what she called “a form of racism” every time she opened her mouth in parliament. “Our nation, which often prides itself on the great diversity of its regions, paradoxically disappoints through the toned-down uniformity of public speech,” said Mr Euzet. The dominance of the Parisian accent is often equated with France notoriously centralised and urban administration whose failure to take into account the provincial mindset fuelled the “yellow vest” revolt two years ago.

  • U.S. appeals ruling that barred Postal Service changes before election

    The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Donald Trump late Friday appealed a federal judge's ruling suspending service changes and requiring aggressive steps to ensure ballot deliveries ahead of the November presidential election, the Justice Department said. The government said it was appealing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's preliminary injunction orders issued in late September in a pair of legal challenges.

  • Trump's national security advisor and his entourage were said to be treated as 'human petri dishes' in Vietnam, as the US COVID-19 outbreak worsens every day

    Robert O'Brien's airplane crew was also not allowed to enter Vietnam and had to spend the night in Thailand, Bloomberg reported.

  • They're baaack: Trump and allies still refuse election loss

    Monday seemed like the end of President Donald Trump's relentless challenges to the election, after the federal government acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden was the “apparent winner” and Trump cleared the way for cooperation on a transition of power. On Thursday, after a Thanksgiving evening conversation from the White House with troops stationed overseas, Trump abruptly pivoted to angrily alleging — still without any evidence — that “massive fraud” was behind his defeat. Speaking to news crews gathered to watch the traditional holiday conversation with the military, Trump denounced officials in battleground states he'd lost as “communists” and “enemies of the state.”

  • Buried under a Serbian cornfield, Roman military headquarters slowly sheds its secrets

    Buried under a Serbian cornfield close to a coalmine, the well-preserved remains of a Roman legion's headquarters are being excavated by archaeologists who say its rural location makes it unique. Covering an estimated 3,500 square meters, the headquarters - or principium - belonged to the VII Claudia Legion. There are over 100 recorded principiums across the territory of the Roman empire, but almost all are buried under modern cities, said Miomir Korac, lead archaeologist of digs there and at the Roman provincial capital Viminacium that the compound served.

  • ‘I’d rather come here than die there': Ethiopians return to Sudan camp they lived in decades ago

    For a brief moment when he saw the tree his father had planted in the Sudanese refugee camp many decades ago, the old man forgot the knives and explosions which had forced him to flee Ethiopia a second time. “My father planted this tree when we lived here before,” said Gebrehiwot Gidey. “It was 10pm when we arrived at the camp, but I could see the tree in the dark. I went up to it and kissed it. I was so happy to see it was still here.” In the Eighties, tens of thousands of people like Mr Gidey fled a ruthless Marxist dictatorship and a vast famine in Ethiopia across the mountains into the scraggy wasteland of Eastern Sudan. Mr Gidey, a 60-year-old man from the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, lived for years with his family near the border in Um-Rakoba camp. He built a house for himself there and married his wife under the tree his father planted to provide shade from the harsh desert sun. Eventually, when it was safe, Mr Gidey returned to his home in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region. But now the weathered farmer has had to flee to Um-Rakoba once again.