PoliticsAxiosPence breaks silence to condemn Democrats' sweeping voting reform bill
In some of his most extensive remarks since Jan. 6, former Vice President Mike Pence wrote an op-ed Wednesday condemning House Democrats' sweeping election and anti-corruption proposal as an "unconstitutional power grab" by "leftists." Why it matters: Pence has largely stayed quiet since the Capitol insurrection, during which rioters were heard chanting "hang Mike Pence" after former President Trump promoted the claim that the vice president could block the certification of the Electoral College. The big picture: Writing in The Daily Signal, Pence repeated dubious claims that the 2020 election was "marked by significant voting irregularities."
PoliticsReutersJobless aid, direct checks in play as U.S. Senate nears vote on COVID-19 aid bill
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote as early as Wednesday on whether to move forward on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, an action that would set up a final Senate vote on passage for later this week. The 100-seat chamber, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, is due to consider a motion to begin 20 hours of debate on the sweeping legislation, according to a Senate Democratic aide. A vote to proceed could be an early indicator of how much Republican opposition the package faces.
U.S.The ConversationHow some people can end up living at airports for months – even years – at a time
In January, local authorities arrested a 36-year-old man named Aditya Singh after he had spent three months living at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Since October, he had been staying in the secure side of the airport, relying on the kindness of strangers to buy him food, sleeping in the terminals and using the many bathroom facilities. It wasn't until an airport employee asked to see his ID that the jig was up.
PoliticsAxiosNational Guard chief says it took over 3 hours for Pentagon leaders to grant Jan. 6 request
William Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, testified to the Senate on Wednesday that it took three hours and 19 minutes for Pentagon leadership to approve a request for National Guard assistance during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Why it matters: The timeline over when National Guard requests were made and granted has been a key point of contention in congressional hearings examining the security failures surrounding the Capitol riots. At House hearings last week, the former and current Capitol Police chiefs testified that the House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving took an hour to approve a request for National Guard backup.
PoliticsReutersExclusive: U.S. sanctions for Navalny poisoning may come on Tuesday - sources
The United States is expected to impose sanctions to punish Russia for the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as early as Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter said. President Joe Biden's decision to impose sanctions for Navalny's poisoning reflects a harder stance than taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump, who let the incident last August pass without punitive U.S. action. The sources said on Monday on condition of anonymity that the United States was expected to act under two executive orders: 13661, which was issued after Russia's invasion of Crimea but provides broad authority to target Russian officials, and 13382, issued in 2005 to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
PoliticsAxiosCNN: Pentagon watchdog says Ronny Jackson drank on duty and harassed staff
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) allegedly made "sexual and denigrating" comments about a female staffer, drank alcohol and took sleeping medication while working as White House physician, according to an official report obtained by CNN Tuesday night. The big picture: The Department of Defense inspector general's report stems from a years-long investigation into allegations against Jackson of alcohol abuse and overprescription of medication, which Jackson has called "false and fabricated." Of note: The DoD report was based on White House documents and interviews with 78 witnesses and covers his time as White House physician during the Obama and Trump administrations, per CNN.
U.S.Miami HeraldLawyer of wife of ‘El Chapo’ called Univision journalist an ‘idiot’ on live television
The lawyer who represents the wife of “El Chapo” Guzmán, Jeffrey Lichtman, called a journalist an “idiot” during a live interview. The lawyer repeatedly responded aggressively when asked if Emma Coronel Aispuro had surrendered to the United States authorities. Lichtman described journalist Satcha Pretto of Univision's morning show “Despierta América” with that word when she asked him if he was working pro bono or being paid for his legal services.
BusinessReutersOPEC oil has advantage over U.S. shale during pandemic recovery
The once-brash U.S. shale industry, which spent profusely in recent years to grab market share, is now focused on preserving cash, putting it at a disadvantage to low-cost OPEC producers as the global economy begins to gear up again. Prior to the pandemic-induced downturn, OPEC countries led by Saudi Arabia restrained their production, eager to bolster prices to fund national budgets dependent on oil revenue. Shale drillers took advantage, boosting U.S. output to a record 13 million barrels a day.
BusinessAssociated PressWith sale of the Venetian, Las Vegas Sands exits the Strip
Las Vegas Sands is selling the iconic Venetian casino resort and its Sands Expo and Convention Center for $6.25 billion, withdrawing from gambling operations on the Las Vegas Strip after changing the nature of the casino business there and just about everywhere else. The name of the Venetian, the expo center as well as the Palazzo, the Sands' luxury casino and resort that is part of the same complex, will remain, and the company's headquarters will stay in Las Vegas. Under Adelson, the company's focus turned to Asia years ago, where revenue eventually outpaced even the operations on the Las Vegas Strip.
PoliticsCBS NewsSchumer says "we'll have the votes" to pass COVID relief bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed confidence on Tuesday that President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill will pass in the Senate this week, saying the Senate will take up the legislation as early as Wednesday. The Senate is using the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill, which limits time for debate and allows legislation to pass with a simple majority. Schumer spoke to reporters after Mr. Biden addressed Democratic senators virtually during their caucus lunch.
U.S.The IndependentWhat happened to George Floyd, whose alleged killer goes on trial next week
Authorities in Minneapolis are building barbed wire barriers and protective walls ahead of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, last summer, setting off nationwide protests. Jury selection begins next Monday (8 March), and a federal civil rights investigation that languished during the Trump administration is kicking back into gear. On 25 May, a convenience store employee in Minneapolis called 911 and said that Mr Floyd, 46, had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
PoliticsReutersFormer Trump Attorney General Sessions regrets migrant family separations
Jeff Sessions, the top official behind former President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" border strategy, says it was "unfortunate" that migrant children and parents were not reunited quickly after being split apart at the U.S.-Mexico border. Thousands of children were separated from their parents at the border under the 2018 Trump policy, which charged parents with federal immigration offenses and sent them to jails, while children were labeled "unaccompanied" and placed in shelters. In a phone interview on Tuesday, Sessions defended the prosecutions, saying a person traveling with a child "shouldn't be given immunity."
WorldReutersMyanmar U.N. envoy, junta make rival claims to U.N. representation
Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations in New York has formally staked his claim as the country's legitimate representative while the junta seeks to replace him in a dispute that will likely have to be settled by the world body's 193 member states. Myanmar state television announced on Saturday that Kyaw Moe Tun had been fired for betraying the country, a day after he urged countries to use "any means necessary" to reverse a Feb. 1 coup that ousted the nation's elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But in letters to the U.N. General Assembly president Volkan Bozkir and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken - seen by Reuters on Tuesday - Kyaw Moe Tun said he remains Myanmar's U.N. ambassador.
WorldReutersSouth African scientists find antibodies from variant may offer cross-protection
Research by South African scientists suggests that antibodies triggered by exposure to the country's dominant coronavirus variant can prevent infection by other variants, the scientists said on Wednesday. The findings in laboratory studies offer hope that COVID-19 vaccines based on the 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year could protect against multiple variants circulating in different parts of the world. The more contagious variant drove a second wave of infections in South Africa that peaked in January and is believed to have spread to many other countries in Africa and other continents.
PoliticsArchitectural DigestHouse Call: Cue the Waterworks and Welcome to March
Zoë's newsletter comes to a web page near you, and the theme of the day is damp Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- HealthYahoo News Video
CDC's Walensky concerned about decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths stalling
At the White House COVID-19 response team briefing on Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky expressed concern about a leveling off of the decline in weekly coronavirus cases.
- U.S.Tribune Publishing
Man who raped sisters to spend decade in prison
Matthew George Mantik, 29, appeared before Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough on Tuesday after he entered guilty pleas on two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and one count each of corruption of minors and indecent assault of an unconscious person. Mantik entered the guilty pleas in January 2020, but his sentencing date was pushed off repeatedly due court closures during the pandemic. The investigation into Mantik began in early 2019, when Kingston detectives interviewed a then-14-year-old, who said she had been raped by Mantik in February 2018.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden calls Mexican president an ‘equal’ partner amid surge in border crossings
And while Mr Biden has kept Mr Trump's policy in place to send new migrants back to Mexico due to concerns about Covid spread, the new president has already begun rolling back other Trump-era policies that hardened the border against refugees and other migrants seeking opportunities or safe haven in the US. The Biden administration has ended Mr Trump's so-called Remain in Mexico programme that forced more than 70,000 asylum-seekers to stay south of the border while their cases wound their way through immigration courts. Thousands of those enrollees have now crossed into the US under the Biden administration's supervision.
PoliticsBusiness Insider10 hours in Cancún hurt Ted Cruz's job approval more than when he tried to flip the presidential election
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz drew national ire after he attempted to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, but according to a new poll from Morning Consult, his overall job approval from Texans was hurt far more when he vacationed in Cancún during a winter storm that left much of Texas without power or water for days. According to polling conducted between February 18-28, Cruz's net approval rating dropped from +6 to -5 in the weeks following his Cancún excursion. A net approval rating is calculated by subtracting the share of disapproving Texan voters from the share of voters that approve of Cruz.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘Morally compromised.’ Why one archdiocese urges Catholics to avoid newest COVID vaccine
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has advised Catholics against receiving the new Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, calling the one-dose shot “morally compromised. In a statement Friday, the religious organization said the new vaccine should be avoided due to its link to an “abortion-derived cell line” used in the vaccine's development and production phases. But the available vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are “morally acceptable,” the archdiocese wrote, because only some lab testing utilized stem cells from aborted fetuses, making their connection to abortion “extremely remote.
PoliticsINSIDERCrossFit condemns Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for 'loathsome and dangerous lies'
Fitness brand CrossFit, a staple of Marjorie Taylor Greene's political brand, is distancing from the Republican. A spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that the company is against Greene's conspiracy theories. CrossFit's statement comes after the House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden news: Tanden drops out over Twitter row, as president says vaccines for all adults by May
Joe Biden says the US will have enough vaccines for all adults in the country by the end of may after invoking the Defence Production Act to accelerate manufacturing of the newly-approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Late in the day, the White House announced the withdrawal of Neera Tanden as its nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget after it became increasingly clear she didn't have support from the Senate. FBI director Christopher Wray earlier told a Senate judiciary committee hearing that the attack at the Capitol on 6 January was considered by the FBI as “domestic terrorism”.
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Kayleigh McEnany says she wished Biden press secretary Jen Psaki well on way out of White House
Part two of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's sit-down with Fox News' Harris Faulkner on 'The Faulkner Focus.
WorldBusiness InsiderNorth Korea is the most isolated country on the planet, but it still finds ways to steal billions of dollars
We're also seeing reports coming out that North Korea may have been able to hack cryptocurrency through DeFi, decentralized finance platforms, which is a new field for them. Insider: Has the proportion of sanctions evasions through online means, compared to overland and ship-to-ship transfers, increased recently, especially after coronavirus? Bartlett: Time will tell.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastBernie Sanders Won’t Help Out Josh Hawley This Time
When Sen. Josh Hawley voiced his support late last year for giving millions of Americans $2,000 checks, he said he got a call from Sen. Bernie Sanders' camp. What happened next was the formation of one of Capitol Hill's stranger political odd couples, as the Trumpist Republican from Missouri and the Democratic Socialist from Vermont joined together to make a very public push for a shared priority. The Missouri Republican was a lead endorser and amplifier of former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories that he unfairly lost the 2020 election—theories that fueled the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”