Man balances on a slackline while playing guitar
Watch this guy balance on a slackline while playing guitar
"The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight," a senior Biden transition official told NBC News in an exclusive interview.
A boy who was killed in an alleged murder-suicide by his father has been identified as 9-year-old Pierce O’Loughlin. Family tragedy: The boy and his father, Stephen O'Loughlin, 49, were both found dead at their home on Scott Street, Marina District in San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, SF Chronicle reports. The boy’s mother, Lesley Hu, asked authorities to check on her son after learning that he did not show up for school that day.
The FBI on Monday shared with law enforcement agencies an intelligence report warning that far-right extremists have talked about going to D.C. for the inauguration and posing as National Guard members, The Washington Post reports.The Post obtained a copy of the document, which said "lone wolves" and QAnon followers — including some who participated in the mob that stormed the Capitol earlier this month — have indicated they intend on traveling to Washington for the inauguration. The report also said people have been observed downloading and distributing maps of sensitive locations in D.C.The briefing did not include any specific plots, the Post reports, and noted that "numerous" extremist groups and militias have publicly stated they don't want to see any violence targeting the transition of power. At the request of the FBI, the Post did not share all of the details inside the intelligence report, in order to protect intelligence-gathering methods and avoid publicizing security vulnerabilities.The Secret Service coordinates all security for the inauguration, while the FBI gathers intelligence on threats made against the event. Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray said agents are monitoring an "extensive amount of concerning online chatter" and it can be difficult to "distinguish what's aspirational versus what's intentional."More stories from theweek.com 5 more scathing cartoons about Trump's 2nd impeachment Statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico only needs 50 votes What the Constitution really says about removal from office
Armenia has returned all Azeri prisoners who were captured during last year's conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, but the process with Armenian prisoners has been held up, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday. The six-week conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh was brought to a halt in November by a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement under which Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces were expected to exchange all captives. Armenia has said that many of its prisoners of war remain in Azerbaijan, a problem it has raised with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group.
Court documents recounted the man's telling his children that he would consider them "traitors" if they contacted authorities.
A lot of the characters are the same for President-elect Joe Biden but the scene is far starker as he reassembles a team of veteran negotiators to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. President Donald Trump worked to blow up the multinational deal to contain Iran’s nuclear program during his four years in office, gutting the diplomatic achievement of predecessor Barack Obama in favor of what Trump called a maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Down to Trump's last days in office, accusations, threats and still more sanctions by Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Iran's decision to spur uranium enrichment and seize a South Korean tanker, are helping to keep alive worries that regional conflict will erupt.
Russian state prosecutors have jailed Alexei Navalny for 30 days, as the Kremlin critic appeared in front of a hearing he labelled as "the highest degree of lawlessness" on Monday (January 18). Navalny was detained the previous evening at a Moscow airport when flying home for the first time since he was poisoned last summer. In a video posted on social media from inside the police station, Navalny also hit out at President Vladimir Putin. “I have seen a lot of times the mockery of justice, but it looks like the old man in his bunker is so scared of everything, that the criminal procedures' code has been blatantly torn up and thrown into the garbage. The thing which is happening here is simply impossible. This is the highest degree of lawlessness.” Upon the announcement of Navalny's remand in pre-trail detention, he urged the people to take to the streets. Around 200 of his supporters gathered outside the police station in temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celsius and demanded he be set free, a Reuters witness said. The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy had earlier called for Navalny's release, while the U.N. human rights office said it was "deeply troubled" by his arrest. One of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's top aides Jake Sullivan also joined the calls for Moscow to free Navalny. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brushed off any criticism of the actions damaging Russia's image, saying the country isn't just "young ladies going to a ball." “You can feel the joy of their carbon-copy comments. Joy, because it (Navalny returning) apparently help the Westerns politicians to think that they now can distract (their citizens) from the deepest crisis the liberal system has found themselves in." The head of Cinema for Peace, the activist group that brought Alexei Navalny to Germany for life-saving treatment after his poisoning has also spoken out. Jaka Bizilj simply called it a "crime" that Russia had detained the Kremlin critic on his return to Russia.
Dominion Voting Systems on Monday sent a cease and desist letter to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell over his spread of misinformation related to the 2020 election.Why it matters: Trump and several of his allies have pushed false conspiracy theories about the company, leading Dominion to take legal action. It's suing pro-Trump lawyer Sydney Powell for defamation and $1.3 billion in damages, and a Dominion employee has sued Trump himself, OANN and Newsmax.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America. * The letter also orders Lindell to "preserve and retain all documents relating to Dominion and your smear campaign against the company." * Lindell also must preserve all communications with any member of the Trump campaign, in addition to communications with Rudy Giuliani, Powell, Jenna Ellis and Lin Wood. The big picture: Lindell met with Trump last week and was caught by photographers with notes referencing martial law and Sidney Powell. The CEO has become known for pedaling election-overturning conspiracies and last year promoted a fake cure to the coronavirus. What they're saying: Dominion's letter reads... "Despite knowing your implausible attacks against Dominion have no basis in reality, you have participated in the vast and concerted misinformation campaign to slander Dominion ... Litigation regarding these issues is imminent."A spokesperson for My Pillow did not immediately return a request for comment. Read the full letter here: Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
A woman identified as having taken part in the storming of the US Capitol is accused of stealing a laptop belonging to top Democrat Nancy Pelosi which she hoped to sell to a Russian spy agency, according to the FBI. There is no indication Riley June Williams, a 22-year-old careworker from Pennsylvania, took a laptop from Ms Pelosi's office. The FBI, which is working off a tip, said in the court record the "matter remains under investigation." The complaint, filed late Sunday in US District Court in Washington, sought the arrest of Williams on grounds including "violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds." Relying on several photos and videos of the chaotic January 6 riot, an FBI agent said Williams was seen near the office of Ms Pelosi, US House Speaker. A witness, identified in the court document only as W1 but who claimed to be "the former romantic partner of Riley June Williams," alleged that Williams planned to send the laptop to a friend in Russia to sell it to the SVR foreign intelligence agency. That sale "fell through for unknown reasons, and Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it," the affidavit says.
The officer who may have saved the life of Vice President Mike Pence could now be giving him the side-eye. The cop hailed as a hero for leading a crowd of insurrectionists away from the Senate floor and potentially saving hundreds of lawmakers’ lives has, perhaps, left the vice president on read. Vice President Mike Pence has reportedly reached out to thank Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman for his heroism on Jan. 6, but they have yet to connect.
A Honduran migrant worker claimed that a migrant caravan was headed to the U.S. because incoming president Joe Biden would give migrants “100 days” to arrive at the country, in an interview with CNN. Biden may seek to enact a 100-day moratorium on deportations, however transition team officials have cautioned that the president-elect will not be able to overhaul immigration policy immediately upon taking office. Even so, a group of about 3,000 migrants from Honduras clashed with Guatemalan security forces on Sunday during their trek north to the U.S.-Mexico border. One migrant claimed the caravan was heading north because Biden had promised to help them, in a CNN interview later reposted by The Hill. Honduran migrant: President-elect Biden is "going to help all of us." pic.twitter.com/LkrVCsXcSb — The Hill (@thehill) January 18, 2021 “I just want patience and prayers that we can get to the U.S. because they [will] have a new president, Biden,” the migrant said. “He’s going to help all of us, he’s giving us 100 days to get to the U.S. and give us [legal] papers, so we can get a better life for our kids, and for our families.” Meanwhile, Guatemala deemed the attempted crossing illegal. “Guatemala’s message is loud and clear: These types of illegal mass movements will not be accepted, that’s why we are working together with the neighboring nations to address this as a regional issue,” the office of Guatemala’s president said in a statement on Sunday.
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine's party said on Sunday that it was preparing to challenge President Yoweri Museveni's election win and condemned what it called the house arrest of Wine, as news emerged of two people killed in protests over the result. Protests broke out on Saturday after results from Thursday's election were announced in two areas, Luwero district north of Kampala and Masaka to the southwest, and security forces killed two people and arrested 23 in total, NTV Uganda reported on Sunday, citing local police. "We have evidence of ballot stuffing and other forms of election malpractice and after putting it together we are going to take all measures that the law permits to challenge this fraud," Maathias Mpuuga of Wine's National Unity Party (NUP) told a news conference.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and more than a dozen have been killed in recent days in flooding on Indonesia's Borneo island, officials said Sunday. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati said floods brought by intense rains caused floodwaters as high as 3 meters (10 feet). As of Sunday, 39,549 people had been evacuated and at least 15 had been killed due to floods that affected 10 districts and cities in South Kalimantan province on Borneo island.
In 1898 a white mob stormed Wilmington, North Carolina and forced locally elected leaders to resign.
‘I really can’t keep the ARs on the wall’ gun store manager says as enthusiasts stock up over fears new administration will enact gun-control laws
An independent panel said on Monday that Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until Jan. 30. The experts reviewing the global handling of the pandemic, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, called for reforms to the Geneva-based United Nations agency.Their interim report was published hours after the WHO's top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, said that global deaths from COVID-19 were expected to top 100,000 per week "very soon". "What is clear to the Panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January," the report said, referring to the initial outbreak of the new disease in the central city of Wuhan, in Hubei province.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has authorized the dispatch of oxygen to Brazil to help its South American neighbor treat people sickened amid another wave of the coronavirus, despite frosty relations between the two governments and Venezuela's own lack of hospital supplies. Maduro approved departure for a convoy of six tanker trucks loaded with oxygen in a national broadcast Sunday on state TV. It's destined for the city of Manaus in the northern state of Amazonas.
A suspected Turkish intelligence agent turned whistleblower who handed himself in to Austrian police claiming he had been ordered to assassinate a prominent politician has been deported before he can stand trial, it has emerged. Feyyaz Öztürk, a 53-year-old Italian citizen of Turkish heritage, is still set to go on trial in Vienna on charges of spying for a foreign state next month. But he was released shortly before Christmas and deported to Italy, Austrian prosecutors confirmed. Berivan Aslan, the Viennese politician Mr Öztürk claimed he was ordered to assassinate, accused the Austrian authorities of trying to brush the incident under the carpet. “You cannot simply eliminate dangerous and extremist attitudes by deporting them, because they continue to exist and will organise themselves elsewhere,” Ms Aslan told the Telegraph. She said she believes her “aggressors” will not be discouraged by the decision — an assessment that appears to be shared by Austria’s BVT intelligence service, which still classifies the threat to Ms Aslan as “real” and “latent”, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry. Ms Aslan remains under police protection and only leaves her home for the most pressing appointments. “This situation massively restricts my freedom,” she said. Mr Öztürk, by contrast, can move freely both inside and outside Italy following his deportation, and it is now likely his trial will have to be held in absentia. Contacted by the Telegraph, he said he had already left Italy and is now in North Africa. The case has raised serious concerns over how far Turkey is prepared to go to silence its critics under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and whether it is ready to resort to assassinations on European soil. Mr Öztürk handed himself in to Austrian authorities last year claiming he had been blackmailed by Turkey’s MIT intelligence service into taking part in an operation to assassinate Ms Aslan. “It wasn’t important whether she got hurt or died,” he told Austrian police in his initial interrogation, according to a police report seen by the Telegraph. The aim, he claimed, was to “spread chaos” and for Ms Aslan and others to “get the message.” The Turkish embassy in Vienna has denied the allegations and any links to Mr Öztürk. An Austrian citizen of Kurdish heritage, Ms Aslan is a leading campaigner for Kurdish and women’s rights. Mr Öztürk also claimed he had been ordered to take part in a violent attack on Peter Pilz, a prominent Austrian politician and former party leader who has no Turkish or Kurdish roots but has been highly critical of the Erdogan regime. Despite the seriousness of the charges against him, Vienna prosecutors confirmed that Mr Öztürk was released from custody on 21 December. “It was assumed that remanding him further in custody would no have longer been appropriate considering the legal framework and the length of time he had already been held,” Nina Bussek, a spokesman for the prosecutors, said. An interior ministry source told the Telegraph Austrian intelligence has opened investigations against a number of other suspects in connection with the case, without naming them. One analyst suggested the alleged assassination plot may never have existed and the entire episode could have been a sophisticated psychological operation by Turkish intelligence. “One should not underestimate the possibility of confusion and disinformation being sown here,” Thomas Riegler, intelligence expert at Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS) said. “It is also conceivable that the aim was to exert psychological pressure on Ms Aslan. Her freedom of movement has been restricted for months. She was muzzled.”
SLC’s ‘Save America’ rally also saw a defiant teenage protester and an attack on a local media member.
U.S. officials who have engaged in "nasty behaviour" over Chinese-claimed Taiwan will face sanctions, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after Washington lifted curbs on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese officials. Sino-U.S. ties have worsened as China has already condemned this month's easing, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the waning days of President Donald Trump's presidency. Further adding to China's anger, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, spoke last week to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, after a planned trip to Taipei was called off.