PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump said world leaders complained to him about the election results — but most of them have already congratulated Biden
President Donald Trump suggested on Fox Business that several world leaders have supported his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Neither Trump nor the White House offered any evidence of such conversations. Numerous world leaders have congratulated and recognized Joe Biden as the president-elect, almost immediately after the race was called for him.
U.S.Associated PressCharging the 'Beatles': Inside the case against IS militants
As two Islamic State militants faced a judge in Virginia last month, Diane Foley listened from home through a muffled phone connection and strained to make out the voices of the men prosecutors say kidnapped her son before he was murdered. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh stand accused of belonging to an IS cell dubbed “the Beatles,” an incongruously lighthearted nickname for British citizens blamed for the jailing, torture and murder of Western hostages in Syria. After geopolitical breakthroughs and stalemates, military actions in Syria and court fights in London, the Justice Department's most significant terrorism prosecution in years was finally underway.
WorldReutersHK's top leader piles up cash at home after U.S. sanctions
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she has to pile up cash at home as she has been unable to open a bank account in the global financial centre since Washington sanctioned her shortly after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city. Beijing circumvented Hong Kong's legislature and imposed a national security law on the former British colony on June 30, a move condemned by some foreign governments, business groups and rights groups. Hong Kong and authorities in Beijing said the law was necessary to restore stability after more than a year of anti-government protests.
WorldThe TelegraphAustralian PM blasts China over 'repugnant' doctored image of soldier shared by foreign ministry
Scott Morrison, Australia's Prime Minister, has demanded an apology from Beijing after China's Foreign Ministry shared a doctored image depicting an Australian soldier cutting the throat of an Afghan child. Describing the image shared on social media as “truly offensive” and "repugnant”, Mr Morrison urged China to delete the tweet. "Australia is seeking an apology from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we are seeking it be removed from Twitter.”
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump legal team will ‘get their clock cleaned’ by Supreme Court in challenging Pennsylvania election results, official says
Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, a Democrat, has warned that Donald Trump's lawyers would “get their clock cleaned” in the Supreme Court if they attempt to overturn the commonwealth's electoral results. "I hope they do [appeal to the Supreme Court]," Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman told CNN on Saturday. President-elect Joe Biden was projected to win Pennsylvania and its 20 Electoral College votes after garnering more than 80,000 votes over Donald Trump.
WorldAssociated PressHungarian official retracts comparing George Soros to Hitler
After facing strong condemnation, a Hungarian commissioner on Sunday begrudgingly retracted an article comparing American-Hungarian billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, a staunch critic of Hungary's government, to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Europe is George Soros' gas chamber,” Szilard Demeter, ministerial commissioner and head of the Petofi Literary Museum in Budapest, wrote in an opinion Saturday in the pro-government Origo media outlet. Poison gas flows from the capsule of a multicultural open society, which is deadly to the European way of life.
HealthReutersSingaporean gives birth to baby with COVID-19 antibodies: report
A Singaporean woman, who was infected with the novel coronavirus in March when she was pregnant, has given birth to a baby with antibodies against the virus, offering a new clue as to whether the infection can be transferred from mother to child. The baby was born this month without COVID-19 but with the virus antibodies, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the mother. https://bit.ly/33I0liL "My doctor suspects I have transferred my COVID-19 antibodies to him during my pregnancy," Celine Ng-Chan told the paper.
PoliticsThe WeekMBS reportedly backed out of Saudi-Israel agreement because he wants to wait for Biden
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia last week for a secret meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in the hopes of striking a deal that would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Although the Trump administration was a factor in the recent so-called Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Prince Mohammed reportedly wants to build ties with Biden and was reluctant about following suit while Trump is still in office, although the chances of that happening reportedly aren't impossible.
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Thousands flee erupting Indonesian volcano
Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country, and while many show high levels of activity it can be weeks or even months before an eruption. Raditya Jati, a spokesman for the agency, said in a statement that the eruption from the Mt. Ile Lewotolok volcano had caused panic among those living nearby.
U.S.Associated PressKey question in Cosby appeal: Does defendant's past matter?
In 2016, as Bill Cosby's legal team prepared for trial in his stunning sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court quietly heard a death row inmate's appeal. Lawyers for Charles Hicks questioned whether three women who said he had beaten and choked them in Texas should have testified at his trial in a fourth woman's death in the Pocono Mountains. The seven Supreme Court justices issued five separate opinions on the use of the "prior bad act” testimony.
U.S.The Daily BeastThe South’s Deadly Revenge for the Emancipation Proclamation
More than half were Black, most of them former slaves—a fighting force most rebel soldiers had never seen before. Though Black soldiers had fought in a handful of engagements in 1862 and 1863, their presence in combat was still relatively new. The fight did not last long.
WorldAssociated PressIran newspaper: Strike Haifa if Israel killed scientist
An opinion piece published Sunday by a hard-line Iranian newspaper urged Iran to attack the Israeli port city of Haifa if Israel carried out the killing of the scientist who founded the Islamic Republic's military nuclear program in the early 2000s. Though the hard-line Kayhan newspaper has long argued for aggressive retaliation for operations targeting Iran, Sunday's opinion piece went further, suggesting any assault be carried out in a way that destroys facilities and "also causes heavy human casualties. Israel, suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade, has not commented on the brazen slaying of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
WorldBBCIn pictures: Hurricanes leave Hondurans homeless and destitute
Honduras is one of the countries in Central America to be hit not by one but two hurricanes this month. Eta arrived in Nicaragua on 3 November as a category four hurricane and ripped through Honduras and Guatemala on its path north. Less than two weeks later, Iota - also a category four hurricane - made landfall just 15 miles (24km) south of where Eta had hit.
WorldAssociated PressTurkey's new virus figures confirm experts' worst fears
When Turkey changed the way it reports daily COVID-19 infections, it confirmed what medical groups and opposition parties have long suspected — that the country is faced with an alarming surge of cases that is fast exhausting the Turkish health system. In an about-face, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government this week resumed reporting all positive coronavirus tests — not just the number of patients being treated for symptoms — pushing the number of daily cases to above 30,000. The group maintains, however, that the ministry's figures are still low compared with its estimate of at least 50,000 new infections per day.
WorldThe Daily BeastZimbabweans Can Hardly Believe This But They Regret Replacing Mugabe with Brutal New Leader
In recent months, scores of people have been arrested, some brutalised or killed as Mnangagwa's regime mounts an unprecedented clampdown on pro-democracy campaigners, opposition political party members, journalists, and ordinary citizens daring to voice disquiet over rising corruption, the failing economy and a human rights crisis. In 2018, six people were brutally killed when soldiers opened fire on opposition supporters who were protesting against attempts by the ruling ZANU-PF party to steal a tightly contested general election. And last year, 17 more people were killed when soldiers openly fired shots at citizens protesting over massive fuel price hikes.
U.S.INSIDERThe strange, metal monolith recently found in the remote Utah desert has mysteriously vanished
The metal monolith that was recently discovered by Utah state employees during a bighorn sheep survey in the red-rock Utah desert has vanished, local officials said. There was no indication of where the object came from, but Insider reported it seemed to have appeared between 2015 and 2016, according to images obtained on Google Earth. The monolith that was recently discovered in a remote area of the red-rock Utah desert has vanished, local officials said.
PoliticsReutersU.S. Supreme Court weighs Trump bid to bar illegal immigrants from census totals
The Supreme Court on Monday is set to take up President Donald Trump's unprecedented and contentious effort to exclude illegal immigrants from the population totals used to allocate U.S. House of Representatives districts to states. The challengers to Trump's July directive include various states led by New York, cities, counties and immigrant rights groups. They have argued that the Republican president's move could leave several million people uncounted and cause California, Texas and New Jersey to lose House seats, which are based on a state's population count in the decennial census.
U.S.BBCBlack Lives Matter founders: We fought to change history and we won
The year 2020 will be remembered for a lot of things - not least the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world. The organisation has led huge street rallies and high-profile campaigns against racism and police brutality. "Black people alongside our allies stood up to change the course of history and we won," said Alicia Garza.
PoliticsUSA TODAY OpinionGeorgia secretary of state: My family voted for Trump. He threw us under the bus anyway.
A record 1.3 million voters cast ballots absentee by mail here. Another 2.7 million cast ballots in-person during Georgia's gold-standard three weeks of early voting. Around 1 million waited on lines averaging a minuscule 3 minutes on Election Day.
U.S.Business InsiderKamala Harris calls nurse on Thanksgiving to thank her for her work fighting on the COVID-19 frontline
Kamala Harris called a nurse on Thanksgiving to thank her for work fighting on the COVID-19 frontline. Harris spoke to Talisa Hardin, a registered nurse at the University of Chicago Medical Center and posted a video of the call. She told her: "I know it's personal for you and I know that it requires mental and emotional and physical and spiritual energy and power that you give to it, so thank you."
PoliticsAssociated Press'America the Beautiful' is White House theme for Christmas
WASHINGTON (AP) — “America the Beautiful” is this year's Christmas theme at the White House. Melania Trump says it pays tribute to and showcases the “majesty" of the United States. Ornaments on the official Christmas tree in the Blue Room — a towering Fraser fir from Shepherdstown, West Virginia — were designed by students from across the country who were asked by the National Park Service to highlight the people, places and things that make their states beautiful.
WorldBusiness Insider10 people in Sweden told us their trust in the government is dwindling as it pivots away from its no-lockdown coronavirus policy
Ten people living there told Business Insider how they felt about the new changes. Most people said they were happy that rules had been tightened — but some viewed it as too little, too late. Others said they were surprised to see a second wave in Sweden after health officials reassured the country in the Spring that cases would be "quite low" at this time of the year.
PoliticsReutersBiden identifies more administration officials, Trump vows continued election fight
President-elect Joe Biden chose more senior aides to lead his administration's efforts to defeat the coronavirus and rebuild the U.S. economy, and his office confirmed on Sunday he would begin receiving classified briefings that are an essential step toward taking control of national security. As the Democratic former vice president prepared for his move to the White House, Republican President Donald Trump pledged to maintain his legal fight to overturn the result of the Nov. 3 vote even while indicating in comments to Fox News that he was growing resigned to leaving office on Jan. 20. On Monday, Biden will begin receiving the classified presidential daily briefing, after weeks of the Trump administration refusing to provide it.
WorldThe Daily BeastInside the World’s COVID Anti-Vaxxer Epicenter
PARIS—The nation that gave us Louis Pasteur—whose scientific discoveries paved the way for human vaccination—has become a global hotspot for anti-vaxxer conspiracies and scientific distrust that experts say could allow COVID-19 to remain in France for years to come. Almost half the country said in a recent poll it will shun the coronavirus vaccine, meaning France may not reach the herd immunity levels required to control the virus, which has already killed almost 1.5 million people around the world. Among them is Dany d'Hulster, 56, an accountant from Aubusson, a picturesque town along the Creuse river in central France, who explained to The Daily Beast that he had grown up with vaccines that did him no harm and yet now he is “completely opposed” to the idea of a COVID-19 vaccination.
SportsAssociated PressAP source: Phillies lost $145 million during pandemic season
A person familiar with the Philadelphia Phillies' finances says the team lost $145 million during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season played without fans. The person spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday on condition of anonymity because the team hasn't officially released the figures. The Phillies are searching for a general manager to replace Matt Klentak and face important decisions regarding catcher J.T. Realmuto and shortstop Didi Gregorius.
“This metastasizing debt crisis has had tremendous social costs. An entire generation has been set back.”
“It is not the government’s job to step in and rescue those who took on more debt than their future incomes would support.”
“Many student-borrowers need relief, but well-off borrowers who are thriving — thanks to their college degrees — do not.”
“It will stimulate the lagging economy. And though not everyone will directly benefit, the country as a whole will improve.”
“Canceling student debt would cost billions of dollars each year and would exacerbate, not lessen, economic inequalities.”