PoliticsThe WeekMcConnell 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.
WorldAssociated PressUN 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. They will most likely be held under dire conditions in detention centers that Libya has become notorious for.
WorldReutersNigerian appeals court throws out blasphemy convictions that caused outcry
A Nigerian court threw out two blasphemy convictions on Thursday that had caused an international outcry, freeing a teenager from a 10-year prison sentence and ordering a new trial for a man sentenced to death. The two had been convicted in August by a sharia court in Nigeria's northern, mainly Muslim state of Kano. Teenager Omar Farouq was accused of making blasphemous comments during an argument, while Yahaya Aminu Sharif was accused of having shared a blasphemous message on WhatsApp.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Biden says COVID death toll will likely reach 500K in February
During an event at which he signed executive orders aimed at fighting the coronavirus pandemic, President Biden said “things are going to continue to get worse before they get better,” adding that the death toll will likely top 500,000 in February.
PoliticsLos Angeles Times OpinionOp-Ed: Why the mob thought attacking the Capitol was their '1776 moment'
Shortly before thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Donald Trump gave a rousing speech to that crowd, calling them “amazing patriots.” While it remains to be seen whether Trump's words that day rise to the level of criminal incitement, it is beyond dispute that by casting doubt on the outcome of the election months before it occurred, he emboldened his supporters to take up arms in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's clear victory. By wrapping his lies in the cloak of patriotism, Trump fueled the view that a violent assault on the Capitol, which resulted in five people dead, was a legitimate action — similar to the actions of the American founders in 1776.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestAD100 Designer Monique Gibson Designs a Tribeca Aerie with High-Impact Views
800 feet up in the sky, the Dreamy 6,000 square foot space offers panoramic views from the East River to the Hudson Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsMilitary.comUniformed Man Seen Kneeling at Iraq Vet Beau Biden's Grave During Inauguration
As President Joe Biden was addressing the nation Wednesday after swearing in as the 46th U.S. president, a quiet moment was captured 110 miles away from the nation's capital. A journalist with The News Journal in Delaware saw a lone person in a blue uniform kneeling over the grave of the president's late son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015 at the age of 46. "No one else was around on this cold, windy afternoon except for a few people doing outside work at the cemetery," Patricia Talorico, the News Journal reporter, wrote about the moment.
WorldAssociated PressIndonesia ends search for crashed plane's victims, debris
Indonesian authorities on Thursday ended the search for remaining victims and debris from a Sriwijaya Air jet that nosedived into the Java Sea, killing all 62 people on board. Transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi said retrieval operations have ended after nearly two weeks, but that a limited search for the missing memory unit from the cockpit voice recorder will continue. Divers retrieved its battered casing and cover last week near the location where the flight data recorder was recovered three days after the accident.
WorldThe TelegraphPolitics latest news: Ease lockdown now R rate has fallen, senior Tory demands
Boris Johnson to give press conference at 5pm - watch live Ministers consider £500 payment for positive Covid test Boris Johnson suggests lockdown could last until summer Fraser Nelson: Vaccines may usher in Fortress Britain Coronavirus latest news: R-rate falls below 1 across the UK Boris Johnson must “show some ankle” and set out when restrictions will be eased, senior Tories have said as the country's R-rate dropped below one. The UK's reproduction rate is now estimated to be 0.8-1.0, suggesting a decline in the number of new infections. Last week, it was between 1.2 and 1.3.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden's team reportedly realized after inauguration that Trump really had no vaccine distribution plan
It's been more than a month since the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved for distribution, and nearly a year since it became clear the coronavirus pandemic would require a vaccine to fully end. But former President Donald Trump's administration still failed to arrange a usable plan for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to Americans, as President Biden's incoming administration reportedly just discovered. Biden's team expected to find major flaws in Trump's distribution plans when they arrived at the White House on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the administration's COVID-19 work tell CNN.
WorldAssociated PressStrong earthquake shakes southern Philippines; no tsunami
A powerful earthquake shook parts of the southern Philippines on Thursday night, but authorities said it was too deep to cause major damage and no tsunami warning was issued. The quake measured magnitude 7.0 and was located 95.8 kilometers (60 miles) below the sea and about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Pondaguitan in Davao Occidental province, the U.S. Geological Survey said. In Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, some residents ran out of their houses as the ground shook and power cables and business signs swayed, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.
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Israeli warplanes strike Syria, kill 4, including children
Israeli warplanes fired several missiles toward central Syria early on Friday, killing a family of four — including two children — and wounding four other people, state media reported. Separately, the Israeli military said it downed a drone that had crossed into Israel from Lebanon. There was no immediate word from the Lebanese side but the militant Hezbollah group has sent drones into Israel's airspace in the past.
PoliticsReutersTop Republicans ask Biden for tougher response to China sanctions on Trump officials
The Biden administration faced pressure from Republican lawmakers on its second day in office for a more forceful response to Beijing's announcement of sanctions against the architects of former President Donald Trump's tough China policy. As Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as president on Wednesday, China announced sanctions against outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and 27 other Trump officials in a striking repudiation of its relationship with the previous U.S. administration. The Biden administration, which is seeking Republican support for a policy to "out-compete" China, responded by calling the move "unproductive and cynical" and urged Americans from both parties to condemn it.
WorldAssociated PressGerman virus death toll tops 50,000 even as infections sink
The death toll from the coronavirus in Germany has passed 50,000, a number that has risen swiftly over recent weeks even as infection figures are finally declining. The country's disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that another 859 deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, taking the total so far to 50,642. Germany had a comparatively small number of deaths in the pandemic's first phase and was able to lift many restrictions quickly.
PoliticsThe TelegraphTrump spends first night as a private citizen 'looking for lawyers for his impeachment trial'
Donald Trump spent his first hours as a private citizen scrambling to find lawyers to represent him in his upcoming impeachment trial, as he settled into his new home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. One of Mr Trump's first calls after leaving office was to Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator and staunch ally, telling him he was now “looking for some lawyers” for the imminent Senate hearing. Mr Trump will not be drawing on his usual litigators: Rudy Giuliani, his longtime personal lawyer, is likely to step aside as he could be called as a witness, while attorneys who represented him at the first impeachment hearing have declined.
PoliticsBBCKamala Harris: What the vice-president did on her first day
Kamala Harris has made history, becoming the first woman and first black and South Asian American to serve as US vice-president. "The role of the vice-president was, frankly, to just be that heartbeat away from the president," said Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Centre. "One of the vice-presidents in the early 20th Century said, 'Every day I ring the doorbell at the White House and hope the president will answer,'" Ms Perry said.
PoliticsAssociated PressChina hits Trump officials with sanctions on their way out
China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former Trump administration officials moments after they left office on Wednesday. In a statement released just minutes after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, Beijing slapped travel bans and business restrictions on Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and U.N. ambassador, Kelly Craft. Others covered by the sanctions include Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro; his top diplomat for Asia, David Stilwell; health and human services secretary, Alex Azar; along with former national security adviser John Bolton and strategist Stephen Bannon.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden proposes 5-year extension of nuke treaty with Russia
President Joe Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of a nuclear arms treaty that is otherwise set to expire in February, the White House said Thursday. Biden proposed the extension even as he asked the intelligence community to look closely into Russia's cyberattacks, its alleged interference in the 2020 election and other actions, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. Russia has said for some time that it would welcome an extension of the New START treaty, which limits the number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons.
U.S.Business InsiderJon Ossoff was sworn in using a Hebrew Bible from a rabbi who was an ally to MLK and had his synagogue bombed by white supremacists
Newly elected Sen. Jon Ossoff was sworn in to Congress on Wednesday using a Hebrew Bible that was once owned by a Georgia rabbi whose synagogue was bombed by white supremacists, and who was an ally to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ossoff, Georgia's first Jewish senator, was sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside the Rev. Raphael Warnock, Georgia's first Black senator, and Alex Padilla, who's filling Harris' seat. As Ossoff was sworn in, he clutched the Hebrew Bible that once belonged to Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, the former leader of Atlanta's Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple.
WorldBBCWuhan lockdown: A year of China's fight against the Covid pandemic
A year ago on 23 January 2020 the world saw its first coronavirus lockdown come into force in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the pandemic is believed to have started. One year on, China is often held up as one of the virus success stories - not least by Beijing itself. How did China tackle the outbreak?
PoliticsReutersYellen's call to 'act big' reflects long re-think on big government debt
At U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Janet Yellen's confirmation hearing Tuesday she nodded to the need for the federal debt to be put on a "sustainable" path, at least eventually. Her more extensive comments defending President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending plan, however, reflected a steady shift in economists' thinking about the mountains of government debt across the developed world that has been underway for a decade and has roots in the near collapse of the euro zone. Forget about the amount being borrowed, Yellen, a former Federal Reserve chair, told members of the Senate Finance Committee.
PoliticsUSA TODAY'Andy spread election fraud lies': Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs' brothers call for his removal
U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs' two brothers have publicly castigated the Arizona Republican for sowing doubt about President Joe Biden's election win and called for his removal from office. In a letter to the editor at The Arizona Republic, William Biggs and Daniel Biggs of Tucson said their brother, who argued to set aside Arizona's election results in Congress, is “at least partially to blame” for the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago. William Biggs, 67, said he is a Democrat who isn't close to his Republican brother but could no longer quietly disagree with his political efforts after the riot.
PoliticsAssociated PressDemocrats formalize Jaime Harrison as national party chair
The Democratic National Committee elected Jaime Harrison of South Carolina as chair on Thursday, signifying an early alignment between newly inaugurated President Joe Biden and state party leaders around the country. Vice chairs on the roster include Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela Jr. of Texas. Harrison — a former chair of South Carolina's Democrats who proved his mettle as a fundraising powerhouse in his 2020 challenge to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — already has been anointed by Biden, continuing the tradition of sitting presidents choosing their own party's chair.
WorldBusiness InsiderArchaeologists unearthed 210 sarcophagi in an Egyptian city of the dead. They'd remained undisturbed for at least 2,500 years.
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY Decorated wooden sarcophagi from Saqqara on display during the official announcement of the discovery on January 17, 2021. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY The underside of a wooden sarcophagus discovered at Saqqara. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY Colored coffins from Saqqara on display October 3, 2020.
HealthINSIDERDermatologists debunk 9 skincare myths and reveal how to get and keep healthy-looking skin
Dermatologists debunk nine skincare myths and offer advice on how to have healthy skin without falling for trendy, pseudoscience. It's important to remember that genetics play a large role in your skin's overall texture and appearance. The same skincare routine isn't for everyone, and it may take some trial and error to determine what's right for you.
“If you’re looking to win elections, it is probably best not to urge your supporters not to vote.”
“Warnock’s portrayal of himself as a dog lover, a means of overcoming white suspicions of Black men, smacked of pure genius.”
“Trump has done damage to the Republican brand among suburban voters that goes well beyond just races where he is on the ballot.”
“Once more, Democrats must profusely thank activist Stacey Abrams.”
“Overall, demographic trends show that the state’s electorate is becoming younger and more diverse each year.”