Consumers cut back on spending as income drops

Consumer spending dropped in November for the first time since the recovery from the recession started in May, weighed down by a plunge in income. Fred Katayama reports.

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  • Psaki announces new White House effort to combat domestic extremism in wake of Capitol riot

    On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki described a multipronged approach to combating domestic extremism.

  • Biden's acting attorney general signed off on reassigning prosecutor who objected to family separations

    The incident would have made Wilkinson aware families were being separated long before the Texas pilot program for zero tolerance was known to the public.

  • McConnell threatens to block Senate's power-sharing agreement if it doesn't preserve the filibuster

    The evenly split Senate is having a hard time agreeing who's in charge.Georgia's two new Democratic senators were sworn in Wednesday, giving Republicans and Democrats 50 senators each, with Vice President Kamala Harris as a Democratic tiebreaker. The two parties are now working out a power-sharing agreement, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) commitment to the filibuster is standing in the way.McConnell on Thursday formally acknowledged Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the chamber's new majority leader. But as he has been for days, McConnell again implored Democrats to preserve the filibuster that lets a senator extend debate and block a timely vote on a bill if there aren't 60 votes to stop it. Democrats "have no plans to gut the filibuster further, but argue it would be a mistake to take one of their tools off the table just as they're about to govern," Politico reports; More progressive senators do want to remove the option completely.If his filibuster demands aren't met, McConnell has threatened to block the Senate power-sharing agreement that would put Democrats in charge of the body's committees. But Democrats already seem confident in their newfound power, with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) telling Politico that "Chuck Schumer is the majority leader and he should be treated like majority leader." Giving in to McConnell "would be exactly the wrong way to begin," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) echoed.Other Democrats shared their resistance to McConnell's demands in tweets. > McConnell is threatening to filibuster the Organizing Resolution which allows Democrats to assume the committee Chair positions. It's an absolutely unprecedented, wacky, counterproductive request. We won the Senate. We get the gavels.> > -- Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 21, 2021> So after Mitch McConnell changed the Senate rules at a blistering pace during his 6 years in charge, he is threatening to filibuster the Senate's organizing resolution unless the Democratic majority agrees to never change the rules again.> > Huh.> > -- Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 21, 2021More stories from theweek.com Biden's next executive order will let people stay on unemployment if they quit an unsafe job 7 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's White House exit McConnell is already moving to strangle the Biden presidency

  • UN agency: Libyan navy intercepts over 80 EU-bound migrants

    Libya’s coast guard intercepted on Friday more than 80 Europe-bound migrants in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the North African country, the U.N. migration agency said. The migrants were returned to Libyan soil, said the International Organization for Migration. “So far this year, some 300 people, including women and children, were returned to the country and ended up in detention,” said the IOM.

  • Newly installed senior counterintelligence official names China as top long-term threat

    Counterintelligence official Michael Orlando joins a growing chorus of voices on both sides of the political aisle who point to China as a major national security threat, particularly in terms of technology and cybersecurity.

  • Lawyers for accused Capitol rioters outline a defense: The president made them do it

    Facing federal charges that could land them in prison, some of the defendants charged with participating in the attack at the U.S. Capitol are preparing to shift the blame onto other participants — or to former President Donald Trump.

  • Lucas Interior Embraces Color to Modernize Palm Springs Spanish Revival Home

    “The materials and colors took center stage,” said David Lucas when it came to the design of the home.Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Kenosha killing suspect Rittenhouse's bond terms changed after bar visit

    Attorneys for Rittenhouse did not object to the changes. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two amid protests last year.

  • Iran, pressured by blackouts and pollution, targets Bitcoin

    Iran's capital and major cities plunged into darkness in recent weeks as rolling outages left millions without electricity for hours. With toxic smog blanketing Tehran skies and the country buckling under the pandemic and other mounting crises, social media has been rife with speculation. Within days, as frustration spread among residents, the government launched a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin processing centers, which require immense amounts of electricity to power their specialized computers and to keep them cool — a burden on Iran's power grid.

  • Sean Hannity denounces Biden’s first week as ‘disastrous’ before the president completed a full day of work

    ‘The Biden administration is off to a very rocky start,’ Fox News host says

  • Navalny wants to take on the Kremlin. Are Russians listening?

    Alexei Navalny is back in Russia and calling for protests against Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. But his sway with the Russian public remains modest.

  • Fauci: It's ‘liberating’ to let the ‘science speak’ without fear of repercussions

    At a White House press conference Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci made several remarks about what it was like working with the Trump administration, saying that his transparency got him “in trouble sometimes.” He said that now, however, it's “somewhat of a liberating feeling” to base his statements on science without fear of a backlash from President Biden.

  • Hungary PM says too early to talk about lifting COVID-19 restrictions

    Hungary cannot lift restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus until it can carry out a mass inoculation of the people, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday. Orban said the best approach was to authorise the use of several vaccines as competition would force manufacturers to speed up shipments. "We don't need explanations, we need vaccines," Orban said, adding that he hoped Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who is in Moscow for talks on Friday, can secure a deal to buy Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

  • US military moves to try Bali bomb suspects at Guantanamo

    After an unexplained delay, the Pentagon announced plans Thursday to move ahead with a military trial for three men held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who are suspected of involvement in deadly bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003. A senior military legal official approved non-capital charges that include conspiracy, murder and terrorism for the three men, who have been in U.S. custody for 17 years for their alleged roles in the deadly bombing of Bali nightclubs in 2002 and a year later of a J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. The timing of the charges, which had been submitted under President Donald Trump but not finalized, caught attorneys for the men by surprise and would seem to be in conflict with President Joe Biden's intention to close the detention center.

  • ‘We’re a National Guard family’: Jill Biden visits Capitol troops with cookies after some were forced to stay in garage

    "The National Guard always holds a special place in the hearts of all the Bidens. So thank you,” Dr Biden says

  • Ugandan army says it has killed 189 al Shabaab fighters in Somalia

    Ugandan soldiers working as part of a peacekeeping force in Somalia have killed 189 al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab fighters in an attack on one of their camps, the Ugandan army said. Ugandan troops are part of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, whose aim is to support the central government and stop al Shabaab's efforts to topple it. The Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) said in a statement that its soldiers on Friday had raided al Shabaab hideouts in the villages of Sigaale, Adimole and Kayitoy, just over 100 km (62 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

  • Diplomats contact Canadian held for over 2 years in China

    Canada said its officials have met online with former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years in a case related to an executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Canada’s Foreign Ministry said officials led by Ambassador Dominic Barton were given “on-site virtual consular access” to Kovrig on Thursday. Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been confined since Dec. 10, 2018, just days after Canada detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant.

  • Biden needs to talk about KN95s

    When walking around the neighborhoods and grocery stores in Philadelphia, virtually everyone I see is wearing a mask. That's great news — we should all be happy to endure a little discomfort to fight the pandemic. Unfortunately, nearly all the masks are simple cloth varieties. While these are better than nothing, there are better masks available. President Biden and his administration should be pointing this out, and doing what they can to get those masks into the hands of the American people.There have been multiple studies on whether masks work to slow the spread of coronavirus, and the general consensus is that they do — but the better the mask, the more they help. Cloth masks are good, 3-ply surgical masks are better, and medical-grade N95 or N100 respirators are better still. Yet so far public health authorities, and Biden himself, have typically just recommended the use of masks in general without any quality distinctions.The CDC website is confusing on this point. It recommends that people do not use medical-grade N95s, as apparently there is still a global shortage and they should be reserved for medical workers. But it also recommends against surgical masks, which are widely available, for the same reason, and does not mention KN95s, which are probably only a bit worse than normal N95s. (Alas, there are reportedly a slew of counterfeit or low-quality masks out there.)The Biden administration could upgrade its pandemic-fighting strategy by clearly explaining what kinds of masks are good and appropriate for normal citizens. It could further certify which manufacturers are trustworthy, so people aren't tricked by sleazy ripoff artists on Amazon. Best of all, as part of Biden's invocation of the Defense Production Act, he could send every household in the United States a free weekly supply of the best masks that can be produced (as Taiwan is doing). I would wager that within a month or two, every American could be using KN95s at least, and the spread of coronavirus would be slowed markedly, saving many thousands of lives.More stories from theweek.com Biden's next executive order will let people stay on unemployment if they quit an unsafe job 7 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's White House exit McConnell is already moving to strangle the Biden presidency

  • Bidens left stuck outside White House on Inauguration Day after ‘petty’ final Trump act

    ‘There was a protocol breach when the front doors were not held open’

  • WHO says Pfizer deal could allow poor countries to start vaccinating in Feb.

    The World Health Organization said on Friday it had reached an agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech for 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and should be able to start delivering vaccines to poor and lower-middle income countries next month under its COVAX programme. The COVAX scheme, led by the WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance, signed deals for hundreds of millions of doses to vaccinate people in poor and lower-middle income countries, but vaccinations have yet to start. Pfizer's vaccine is so far the only one that has WHO emergency approval.