Backcountry Rescue Teams Working Harder Than Ever In 2021

Rescue calls are way up this year, and officials want skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers to take the proper precautions.

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  • Canada approves Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, says other shots arriving faster than planned

    Canada's drug regulator has approved Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such shot to be given the green light, Ottawa said on Friday, amid frustration over the slow pace of inoculations. "The last year hasn't been easy, but we are going to get through this ... to people watching at home right now who are looking forward to getting their shot - your turn is coming," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a briefing. Canada is the second major jurisdiction to approve the shot after the United States.

  • Republicans are attacking Democrats by framing Biden's 'Neanderthal' comment like one of Trump's racist remarks

    Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that Biden "should apologize for his insensitive comments and seek training on unconscious bias."

  • Exclusive: Oxford study indicates AstraZeneca effective against Brazil variant, source says

    Preliminary data from a study conducted at the University of Oxford indicates that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca PLC is effective against the P1, or Brazilian, variant, a source with knowledge of the study told Reuters on Friday. The data indicates that the vaccine will not need to be modified in order to protect against the variant, which is believed to have originated in the Amazonian city of Manaus, said the source, who requested anonymity as the results have not yet been made public. The source did not provide the exact efficacy of the vaccine against the variant.

  • Meghan Markle Tells Oprah Winfrey She Wasn’t ‘Allowed’ to Make Her Own Choices as a Royal

    Rosa Woods - Pool/Getty ImagesMeghan Markle has said she was not allowed to make her own choices when she was a member of the royal family.The comments were made in a new preview clip from Oprah Winfrey’s eagerly-awaited interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, which dropped Friday morning on CBS This Morning.In the new clip, Meghan said that she had not been “allowed” to give an interview before.In the clip, Oprah told Meghan that she recalled calling her before her wedding and asking for an interview.Meghan said: “I recall that conversation very well. I wasn’t even allowed to have that conversation with you personally. Right? There had to be people from the [communications team] sitting there…”Oprah then said: “You turned me down nicely…What is right about this time?”Meghan replied: “Well, so many things. That we are on the other side of a lot of life experience that’s happened. And also that we have the ability to make our own choices in way that I couldn’t have said yes to you then. That wasn’t my choice to make. So, as an adult who lived a really independent life, to then go into this construct, that is, um, different, than I think what people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say, ‘Yes, I am ready to talk.’ To say it for yourself…. To be able to just make a choice on your own, to be able to speak for yourself.”Meghan’s new comments appear to reiterate a frequent complaint of hers that she was denied her voice and agency when she was a member of the royal family.The new clip came as tensions between Meghan and Harry and Buckingham Palace boiled over into all-out war, with reports in the British media suggesting multiple witnesses were ready to come forward and give evidence to a hastily-announced inquiry into alleged bullying by Meghan of her staff at Buckingham Palace.Meghan’s friends responded to the bullying claims by launching a social media fightback against Buckingham Palace today calling her a “warm, kind, caring person.”In a previous clip Meghan accused the palace of “perpetuating falsehoods” about them.An emotional Meghan said: “I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there is an active role that The Firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Bella Thorne says she's working on 'super poetic' music that gets back to 'the heart and soul of hip-hop'

    "People look at me and they go, 'Oh, she can sing and she's white, so she should be a singer,'" she told Insider. "Every person is put in a box."

  • Fears of renewed conflict in East Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv trade blame for escalating violence

    The Kremlin yesterday warned the frozen war in eastern Ukraine was on the brink of dangerous escalation as Moscow and Kyiv blamed one another for a recent surge in violence. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, on Thursday accused Kyiv's forces of shelling in breach of the ceasefire agreement and entering areas where they were not meant to be. Ukraine accused pro-Russian forces, which are widely believed to be under Russian command, of shelling its troops to provoke retaliation. Mr Peskov said Russia, which officially denies deploying its own troops to the area, was using its influence to restrain pro-Russian forces and called on France and Germany to do the same for Ukraine "We also hope all our partners… will pay attention to the growing tension on the contact line and will use their influence to prevent this escalation from crossing a dangerous line,” Mr Peskov said. "A red line would be the resumption of full-scale hostilities,” he said. Russia and Ukraine have been in a state of undeclared war since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Crimea and sent weapons and troops to support a separate uprising in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region. At least 14,000 people have died in the war to date. Intense fighting ended following a ceasefire in early 2015, but there have been repeated skirmishes along the line of contact over the past six years. A stricter ceasefire introduced last summer stopped most tit-for-tat shelling, but the pace of violations has grown in recent weeks and at least 10 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since New Year. On Wednesday the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, one of two Russian-backed breakaway statelets in East Ukraine, said it had authorised its forces to pre-emptively fire on Ukrainian positions in response to what it said were Ukrainian ceasefire violations. Ukraine's military on Thursday accused pro-Russian forces of shelling its positions to provoke them into returning fire. It said Russian-backed forces had violated the ceasefire four times within 24 hours. Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of Ukraine and head of the country’s delegation to a tri-lateral contact group with Russia and the OSCE, said Ukrainian forces would answer enemy fire “symmetrically.” He earlier accused Russia of escalating the military confrontation in response to a series of moves by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, to challenge Russia off the battlefield. They include the decision last month to revoked the broadcast licenses of three television channels owned by Taras Kozak, a politician from a pro-Russian opposition party. On February 19 he also sanctioned Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of Mr Kozak. Mr Medvedchuk, a prominent tycoon, is a Ukrainian citizen but has close ties to Vladimir Putin and has been described as one of the Kremlin’s key advisors on Ukraine. Security officials said at the time that they were investigating Mr Medvedchuk over alleged financing of terrorism in relation to the sale of coal from mines in territory controlled by pro-Russian forces. The moves were praised by some in Ukraine as a long-overdue confrontation with enablers of Kremlin influence in the country. Critics said the move amounted to silencing political opponents.

  • Saudi-led coalition says it downed six Houthi drones fired at Khamis Mushait

    The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it had intercepted six explosive drones fired towards the kingdom on Friday, with the Houthis claiming to have launched attacks into southern Saudi Arabia since dawn. The Iran-aligned Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border drone and missile attacks on Saudi cities, mostly targeting the southern part of the country. The Houthis fired the six intercepted drones towards Khamis Mushait near the Yemen border in attacks since dawn, the coalition said in statements carried by Saudi state news agency SPA and Ekhbariya TV.

  • FBI: Trump appointee arrested in connection with Capitol riot

    Federico Klein, a former State Department aide who worked on former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, was arrested Thursday on charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the FBI announced Thursday night. This is the first known instance of a Trump appointee facing prosecution in connection with the attack, Politico reports. An FBI Washington Field Office spokeswoman told Politico that Klein, 42, was taken into custody in Virginia, but did not release any information on the charges against him. Federal Election Commission records show Klein worked as a tech analyst for the 2016 Trump campaign, Politico says, and after the election he was hired at the State Department. A federal directory from last summer lists Klein as a special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, making him a "Schedule C" political appointee, Politico reports. On Jan. 6, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Biden's victory. Klein's mother, Cecilia, told Politico on Thursday night that he told her he was in Washington, D.C., on the day of the riot, and "as far as I know, he was on the Mall." She is a retired economist and trade official, and told Politico because of their different views, she rarely spoke about Trump or politics with her son. "Fred's politics burn a little hot," she said. "But I've never known him to violate the law." More stories from theweek.comWhy the Dr. Seuss 'cancellation' is chillingWhat Republicans talk about when they talk about the 'working class'7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's CPAC appearance

  • Report: Ten Aides Ready to Testify in Meghan Markle Bullying Investigation

    Charles McQuillan/Getty ImagesAt least ten former staffers who worked for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are “queuing up” to cooperate with an investigation ordered by the queen into allegations that Meghan bullied her staff, it was claimed Thursday evening.The claim was made in the British newspaper the Mirror and is likely to be taken seriously as it was made by well-sourced royal reporter Russell Myers.Sources connected to the group, who have been assured of confidentiality as the investigation continues, said the staffers were considered to be “hugely professional and proud of their efforts” while working at Kensington Palace.One source told The Mirror, “A group of people are queuing up to be involved. They have been silent for too long and there is much to talk about.”Meghan Markle Dismisses Bullying Allegations as Pre-Oprah ‘Calculated Smear Campaign’It came after a report in the Daily Mail said that some alleged victims of workplace bullying by Meghan dub themselves the “Sussex Survivors Club” and are believed to be suffering a form of post-traumatic stress.The paper’s royal reporter Rebecca English said that during a royal tour in Fiji, “I witnessed Meghan turn and ‘hiss’ at a member of her entourage, clearly incandescent with rage about something, and demand to leave. I later saw that same—female—highly distressed member of staff sitting in an official car, with tears running down her face. Our eyes met and she lowered hers, humiliation etched on her features.”A bombshell report in The London Times Tuesday said that Meghan systematically bullied members of the staff and that her head of communications, Jason Knauf, was so appalled by Meghan’s behavior that he put his concerns in writing to his superiors. That email was leaked to The Times.Buckingham Palace responded by ordering a full investigation into the bullying claims.Meghan’s camp has been keen to point out that the complaints raised by Knauf were dropped. However, the Mirror’s source said, “The complaint was considered and those members of staff were spoken to and given the option of taking it further. For whatever reason, they decided not to, possibly because they were still in their job and they were worried about the implications.”A source close to the Sussexes told the Mirror of the palace probe: “The first we heard about this was via the press—this is a whole tit-for-tat scenario... it’s very hard to know what the process is. If this was a private company, we’ve effectively already been fired and I’m not entirely sure what any process could be.”A spokesperson for Meghan and Harry declined to comment to The Daily Beast.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Nancy Pelosi dismisses new QAnon threat to Capitol as ‘silliness’

    Pelosi says House adjourned early to make time for a Republican conference – not because of QAnon conspiracy theory that Trump would be re-inaugurated on Thursday

  • Trump and Jared Kushner are barely in touch since the former president left office, report says

    Jared Kushner is said to have distanced himself back from his father-in-law but is likely to return if Trump decides on a 2024 run, sources told CNN.

  • Rudy Giuliani, who helped lead Trump's bogus election-fraud conspiracy theory, is being mocked after warning of the dangers of misinformation

    After spending months pushing Trump's election fraud conspiracy theory, Giuliani unexpectedly warned of the dangers of misinformation.

  • House impeachment manager sues Trump, allies over riot

    Rep. Eric Swalwell, who served as a House manager in Donald Trump’s last impeachment trial, filed a lawsuit Friday against the former president, his son, lawyer and a Republican congressman whose actions he charges led to January’s insurrection. The California Democrat’s suit, filed in federal court in Washington, alleges a conspiracy to violate civil rights, along with negligence, inciting a riot and inflicting emotional distress. It follows a similar suit filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson last month in an attempt to hold the former president accountable in some way for his actions Jan. 6, following his Senate acquittal.

  • The 9 best and 9 worst Pixar movies of all time

    Critics weren't too impressed with "Onward," but other movies, like "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo," top the Rotten Tomato charts.

  • Michelle Obama tears into Senate Republicans for ‘unpatriotic’ efforts to block voting rights act

    ‘Our democracy remains under attack by the partisan and unpatriotic actions of those at the state level,’ writes Michelle Obama

  • Japan's 'Wind Phone' offers solace to those grieving

    A white telephone box in a remote village of Japan has become an unlikely source of comfort for those grieving loved ones.Survivors of the 2011 Fukushima disaster say the unconnected phone line helps them keep in touch with those they have lost.Kazuyoshi Sasaki visits the booth in the town of Otsuchi to speak to his late wife.She was one of nearly 20,000 people in northeastern Japan who were killed by the earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011.Dialling her now defunct cell, he breaks down in tears as he explains to her how he searched for her for days after the disaster.He goes onto update her on things that have happened in his life - he's moved out of temporary housing, their son is building him a house, and he's lost a bit of weight.For Sasaki, the phone booth is a source of solace:"This phone booth embraces all of me. It embraces various people like the people affected (from the earthquake and tsunami). It's a place that embraces not only the people who are alive but also those who had passed away. That's how I feel."Sachiko Okawa uses the phone to call her late husband, who she was married to for 44 years.She asks him what he's been doing since he was swept away all those years ago in the Tsunami.She often brings along her two grandsons so they can also talk to their grandfather.The phone now attracts thousands of visitors from all over Japan. It is not only used by tsunami survivors, but also by people who have lost relatives to sickness and suicide. Known as the wind phone, it was built by Itaru Sasaki, who created it after he lost his own cousin to cancer a year before the Fukushima disaster.

  • Capitol riots: Who has the FBI arrested so far?

    Suspects include a state lawmaker, a firefighter, a florist and the son of a New York judge.

  • Wanda just got a badass new Scarlet Witch costume in 'WandaVision' and fans are 'obsessed'

    Scarlet Witch's costume is her coolest yet, but fans may have to wait until "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" in 2022 to see it again.

  • 16 of the most controversial celebrity interviews of all time

    While some celebrity interviews sparked immediate backlash, others resurfaced years later and were called out for being inappropriate.

  • Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's wedding-dress embroiderer says she hasn't heard from the royal family since revealing she's on the brink of homelessness

    "It just makes me feel like I don't exist," Chloe Savage, who worked on Kate Middleton's and Meghan Markle's wedding dresses, told Insider.