Friday, Jan 29, 2021 Evening Forecast

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  • CPAC: Gaetz says media ‘biased’ over Ted Cruz’s Cancun trip and should have focused on ‘caravans’ of migrants instead

    Outspoken GOP congressman complains ‘the left and the media’ were less concerned about ‘caravans going through Mexico’ than Texas senator visiting

  • Scottish Tories to portray new Labour leader as soft on independence ahead of Holyrood elections

    The Tories will attempt to portray Scottish Labour's new leader as soft on independence, whichever candidate wins the contest tomorrow. Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, will today warn the Labour leadership candidates that pro-UK voters are not looking for “fair weather” unionists who might “change direction like a weather vane” after the May 6 election. Mr Ross, who has previously claimed that he would focus on non-constitutional issues when he took over as leader last year, will challenge both leadership hopefuls to rule out working with the SNP. Anas Sarwar and Monicca Lennon, both running for the leadership after Richard Leonard stepped down in January, have clashed on the issue of a second independence referendum. Ms Lennon has said she would accept a democratic mandate for a new vote. Mr Sarwar has taken a harder line, ruling one out for the term of the next parliament as the country rebuilds from Covid. However, senior Tories have claimed no new votes should be held for several decades. In a speech today, Mr Ross will claim that whoever wins the leadership, Labour will be “half-hearted on the constitution” because “either Monica Lennon will make the SNP’s arguments for them or Anas Sarwar will tell the SNP ‘not today but tomorrow is fine’ for your indyref2.”

  • Tiger Woods ‘in good spirits’ after suffering serious injuries in car crash

    Golfer cut from car after vehicle collided with tree before toppling over several times

  • France to play All Blacks in opener of 2023 Rugby World Cup

    Three-time champion New Zealand and three-time runner-up France will square off in a blockbuster opening match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The teams have combined to deliver some of the most storied matches in the tournament's history, including the 1987 and 2011 finals, both won by the All Blacks. Host France and New Zealand were confirmed on Friday in the schedule release as the first game of 48 on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 at Paris' Stade de France.

  • Brig. Gen. Janeen Birckhead has led historic career

    Maryland National Guard Brig. Gen. Janeen Birckhead has led a historic journey to the top tier of the guard, becoming front and center the day after the siege on the U.S. Capitol, leading 14,000 troops to support the 59th presidential inauguration. Birckhead was commissioned after graduating from Hampton University in Virginia. Her military career has spanned 28 years -- and it all started out by chance.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Liz Cheney ‘a fool’ for criticising Trump

    Controversial congresswoman previously said the Republican party belong to former president

  • Coronavirus latest news: 'This battle is not won yet,' says Jonathan Van-Tam after cases increase in parts of UK

    Teachers, police and BAME will not get vaccine priority Analysis: Queen shows personal commitment in a time of crisis Merkel refuses Oxford jab amid calls to 'lead by example' Age remains the key factor that determines each person’s level of risk Subscribe to The Telegraph for a month-long free trial Coronavirus cases are rising in parts of the UK showing that "this battle is not won," Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has said. Prof Van-Tam, speaking at a Downing St briefing, said some parts of England were "burning quite hot" with new cases, including in the Midlands and, increasingly, the west coast of England. "This is not a good sign and reinforces the fact that I'm afraid this battle at the moment is not won." Prof Van-Tam said there were some worrying signs that people who had received a vaccine were breaking lockdown rules. "This is all going very well but there are some worry signs that people are relaxing and taking their foot off the brake at exactly the wrong time. "Do not wreck this now, it is too early to relax, we are so close." Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the rate of cases in England was down to one in 145 people but the decline was "slowing". Follow the latest updates below.

  • Libyan PM-designate proposes unity government plan

    Libya's designated prime minister, chosen via a U.N.-facilitated process last month, said on Thursday he had proposed a governing plan to the country's divided parliament as part of a peace process. The new interim government is intended to replace Libya's two rival administrations and oversee the run-up to national elections planned for December in a roadmap to end years of chronic chaos and violence. "It will be a government of technocrats representing the whole Libyan spectrum," designated prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh told a news conference in Tripoli, adding that he had attempted a "fair distribution" of posts between the west, east and south of the country.

  • Decades ago, 9 Russian hikers mysteriously fled their tent and froze to death. A new study sheds light on the cold case.

    In 1959, nine hikers fled their tent in Russia's snowy Dyatlov Pass and froze. A new study suggests a slab avalanche crushed their tent in the night.

  • A plastic surgeon attended his virtual traffic trial while performing surgery on a patient in California

    Dr. Scott Green from Sacramento, California, was wearing scrubs and appeared to be in an operating room during the Zoom court appearance.

  • Trump begins settling scores with Republican opponents by endorsing a former aide's primary challenge to an Ohio congressman who backed impeachment

    Trump weighed in for the first time after he indicated he would play an active role on the campaign trail during the 2022 midterm elections.

  • Biden is on the verge of making the same dangerous mistakes as the presidents before him

    Opinion: The costs of a foreign policy that emphasizes US global preeminence are now inescapable clear, and US leaders need to change course.

  • Princess Diana wasn't allowed to call Prince Charles by his first name until they were engaged

    It's been 40 years since Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement with a televised interview.

  • Students from Rep. Madison Cawthorn's college said he used 'fun drives' to corner women with sexual advances, report says

    Two former resident assistants told BuzzFeed News they warned women in their dorms not to go on drives with Cawthorn because "bad things happened."

  • FBI pinpoints a single suspect in the death of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick

    Federal investigators zeroed in on the assailant after video footage showed the suspect attacking officers with bear spray, The Times reported.

  • Teen in hospital for sledding injury dies after dad died visiting her, Ohio mom says

    “Her daddy got to heaven just before she did.”

  • Why QAnon are pinning their last desperate hopes on Trump emerging as president on March 4

    QAnon's most devout followers believe bizarrely that former President Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 19th President on March 4, 2021.

  • She taught piano to kids in NC for years. Then her daughter accused her of sex crimes.

    This is the shocking story of the alleged sexual abuses that led to the January arrest of Sandra Hiler — aka Charlotte piano teacher Keiko Aloe — as told by her 21-year-old daughter.

  • The White House is beginning to look past recreational marijuana use to fill key Biden administration roles

    Previous users who secure a position must agree to not use pot during their tenure in office and undergo random drug tests, NBC News reported.

  • Biden Fires a Warning Shot at Iran

    After only a month in power, President Biden has used lethal military force in reaction to Iranian-sponsored attacks on Americans in Iraq. The strike, said to be by F-15 jets, apparently attacked buildings owned by Iraqi Shiite militia groups along the Iraqi-Syrian border. It’s worth pausing to note that those Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite groups and not the government of Iraq control that part of the border. In other words, Iran and its proxies control a route from Iraq through Syria to Lebanon, where the largest Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, is situated. The borders have been erased. The Biden strike is a message to Iran, a warning shot against continuing attacks by the militias Tehran backs. According to press reports, Biden was presented with a range of options and chose one of the softest — a limited strike inside Syria rather than Iraq. There is a logic to this choice. First, U.S. attacks inside Iraq would likely complicate life for Prime Minister Kadhimi, whom we are generally supporting, and spur the forces hostile to any U.S. presence — not least the Iranian-allied militias — to demand that all U.S. forces be expelled. Second, should further Iranian-sponsored attacks require Biden to hit Iranian-backed forces again, this limited strike allows him to say he tried patience and restraint and they failed. But the strike inside Syria and at Iranian proxies may also send messages Biden does not intend: that the United States will never hit Tehran’s proxies inside Iraq and that it will never hit Iran. If that’s what the Iranian regime infers, they will have the militias strike again and again; they will not be deterred because they will see the attacks as nearly cost-free. The law of averages suggests that sooner or later these continued attacks will kill Americans. That’s when the president will face the need to punish Iran and truly establish deterrence; merely attacking its proxies will be inadequate. One of the key functions of the Shiite militias in Iraq is to allow Iran to attack U.S. forces while, by absorbing any penalty, keeping Iran safe. If there are a series of attacks, harming Americans and eventually killing one or more, the kind of limited response from the United States that we saw this past week will not be enough. That does not mean World War III and it does not mean American bombers over Tehran, but it does mean that Biden must contemplate striking Iranian assets rather than expendable proxy groups. Meanwhile, there was zero progress on the nuclear-negotiations front this past week. On the contrary, Iran did not agree to attend the EU-sponsored talks that the United States has agreed to attend, it limited International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors’ access to Iran, and it threatened to enrich uranium to 60 percent. Nuclear power requires enrichment to no more than 5 percent; the only use for uranium enriched to 60 percent is in preparing a nuclear weapon. The very least that can be said about President Biden’s second month in power is that we are seeing any dreams of a quick return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA, and a quick resolution to U.S.-Iranian confrontations dissolve before our eyes. The president’s refusal, thus far, to lift any sanctions and his willingness to use force against Iranian proxies suggest a more realistic assessment of Iran than many feared. No doubt there will be many deep discussions, even debates, within the administration over what the next move should be. The administration’s willingness to return to the JCPOA if Iran went back into compliance with it has not moved the Islamic Republic an inch. Similarly, the administration’s reversal of the designation of the Houthis in Yemen as a terrorist group, and its decision to halt the sale of “offensive” weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, were met with zero flexibility by the Houthis — who have carried out additional terrorist attacks since the policy changes. Down the road the administration faces an even greater challenge than what to do about attacks on Americans in Iraq. President Biden has already decided that they will be met with force, and one must assume that if the attacks continue and escalate, the counter-attacks will as well. But what about Iran’s expulsion of nuclear inspectors, which violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the “Additional Protocol” to the JCPOA (that allowed snap inspections)? What about enrichment to 60 percent, if that indeed occurs? How far down the road toward building a nuclear weapon will the administration be willing to let Iran go? That’s a hypothetical question today, but if Iran keeps going it will soon be keeping U.S. officials up at night. Biden is the fifth American president in a row, by my count, to say Iran would never be permitted to build a nuclear weapon. Unless Iran changes course he could be the first to have to prove it.