PoliticsThe IndependentRepublican senator defends pro-Trump protesters who stormed Capitol, falsely blaming insurrection on ‘fake supporters’
At a high-profile hearing on the insurrection at the US Capitol earlier this year, Senator Ron Johnson on Tuesday claimed the mood of pro-Trump protesters who eventually stormed the Capitol had been “festive” before police fired a tear gas canister at them. The Wisconsin Republican has been one of the chief promoters in Congress of discredited conspiracy theories that it was not supporters of the former president who perpetrated the attack on the legislature, but rather a small set of imposters. On Tuesday Mr Johnson, citing the first-hand account of right-wing think tank scholar J Michael Waller published in the far-right publication The Federalist, blamed a cadre of “fake Trump supporters” for provoking police at the Capitol, who then provoked the larger crowd into riotous behaviour when they responded in kind.
- WorldAssociated Press
Pakistani couple's appeal of blasphemy sentence postponed
A Pakistani court Wednesday adjourned without hearing a much-awaited appeal from a Christian couple facing the death penalty for the last seven years after being convicted of blasphemy, a defense lawyer said. Lawyer Saiful Malook said the couple's appeal wasn't heard before the court's session ended. He is seeking the release and overturning of death penalty sentences for Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel.
U.S.National ReviewFederal Judge Indefinitely Blocks Biden Administration’s 100-Day Deportation Moratorium
A federal judge on Tuesday indefinitely banned the Biden administration from enforcing a 100-day pause on deportations of most illegal immigrants in response to a lawsuit from Texas, which argued that the moratorium violated federal law and could saddle the state with additional costs. U.S. district judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday, dealing a blow to President Biden's efforts to follow through on his campaign promise to pause most deportations. Tipton first ruled on January 26 that the pause violated federal law on administrative procedure and that the U.S. failed to show why a deportation pause was justified.
WorldNextSharkInstagram Influencer Sparks Outrage After Posing Naked on Top of Endangered Elephant in Bali
A 22-year-old Russian social media influencer is facing heavy criticism online for posing naked on top of an endangered elephant in Bali, Indonesia for her 553,000 Instagram followers. Alesya Kafelnikova received backlash for the short video she posted on Feb. 13, where she was filmed lying naked on top of a “critically endangered” Sumatran elephant, according to The Sun. In a follow-up post, Kafelnikova shared an image presumably with the same elephant and said in the caption, “To love nature is human nature.”
PoliticsThe Independent‘Zero respect’: Ted Cruz pictured scrolling through phone during harrowing opening testimony into Capitol riot
Texas senator Ted Cruz has been filmed scrolling through his phone during the harrowing opening testimony at the Senate hearing into the Capitol riots, less than a week after his controversial trip to Mexico. The US Capitol's three former top security officials have been testifying on Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees about how Congress was breached during the riots on 6 January. Steven Sund, who was serving as the chief of the Capitol Police at the time of the insurrection, gave a harrowing account of the actions of that day in front of the committees on Tuesday.
WorldAssociated PressImran Khan invites Sri Lankan Buddhists to visit Pakistan
Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has proclaimed his Muslim-majority nation a choice destination for religious tourism by Sri Lankans, most of whom are Buddhists. In talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Khan highlighted Buddhist heritage sites in Pakistan and stressed the building of cultural ties, the Pakistan Embassy said in a statement. “Pakistan probably has one of the greatest Buddhist heritages in the world and we invite people from Sri Lanka to visit them,” Khan said a day earlier after meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
PoliticsThe WeekRepublican leaders want to avoid a party civil war. Trump might have other ideas.
In a two-page memo addressed to GOP donors, voters, leaders, and activists, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) declared: "The Republican Civil War is now canceled." It isn't clear if his fellow Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, are listening. Scott is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and in the memo, first obtained by Fox News, he writes that Democrats control the White House, Senate, and House, but Republicans have a path to victory in 2022.
WorldReutersPhilippines to probe use of illegal COVID-19 vaccines
The Philippines health ministry said on Wednesday it will investigate the illegal use of unauthorised COVID-19 vaccines, after a presidential advisor admitted to receiving shots of a Sinopharm vaccine smuggled into the country. Ramon Tulfo, a celebrity radio and television host and special envoy to China, revealed in his newspaper column on Feb. 20 and again in an interview with One News that he received a dose in October from a batch that was also used by President Rodrigo Duterte's security detail. "I got hold of vaccines from a friend who smuggled it into the country," Tulfo told One News.
BusinessAssociated PressNissan ex-CEO tells Japanese court Ghosn's pay was too low
Former Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa told a Japanese court Wednesday he believed the compensation for his predecessor Carlos Ghosn was too low “by international standards,” and so he supported Ghosn's retirement packages to prevent him from leaving. “Mr. Ghosn had outstanding abilities and achievements,” Saikawa said, testifying in Tokyo District Court in the criminal trial of Greg Kelly, a former senior executive at Nissan Motor Co. “We needed to prepare for Mr. Ghosn's eventual retirement to keep him motivated and to have him continue to work for Nissan,” he said in answer to a prosecutor's questioning.
- WorldAssociated Press
China says Iran nuclear issue at 'critical point'
Developments surrounding Iran's nuclear program are at a “critical point” and lifting sanctions on the country is key to breaking the deadlock, China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's comments came a day after Iran officially began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities in a bid to pressure European countries and the U.S. into lifting crippling economic sanctions and restoring the 2015 nuclear deal. As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China is a party to the agreement known as the JCPOA, while also maintaining friendly relations and close economic ties with Tehran.
StyleArchitectural DigestThe Best Dishwasher Models, According to Interior Designers
The designer-approved dishwashers look good—and perform even better Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldReutersVietnam's first batch of COVID-19 vaccine arrives from South Korea
Vietnam received the first batch of 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday ahead of the planned rollout of the Southeast Asian country's immunisation programme from next month. The vaccines, which arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a flight from South Korea, will be used to inoculate more than 50,000 people who are seen as high risk, the government said in a statement. Deputy health minister, Truong Quoc Cuong, was at the airport to meet the consignment of vaccines flown in from Seoul, according to media.
U.S.The IndependentTexas Attorney General left the state on the same day as Ted Cruz amid historic winter storm
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton left the state while a brutal winter storm caused millions of residents to be without power and clean water, on the same day senator Ted Cruz travelled from the state on a controversial trip to Mexico. Mr Paxton's spokesman Ian Prior told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that the attorney general and his wife, Texas state senator Angela Paxton, travelled to Utah last Wednesday. The spokesperson said that Mr Paxton left Texas to speak with Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, for a “previously planned” meeting to discuss a myriad of topics, including an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden moves to reengage with Palestinians after Israel focus
The Biden administration is moving slowly but surely toward reengaging with the Palestinians after a near total absence of official contact during former President Donald Trump's four years in office. As American officials plan steps to restore direct ties with the Palestinian leadership, Biden's national security team is taking steps to restore relations that had been severed while Trump pursued a Mideast policy focused largely around Israel, America's closest partner in the region. On Tuesday, for the second time in two days, Biden's administration categorically embraced a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something that Trump had been purposefully vague about while slashing aid to the Palestinians and taking steps to support Israel's claims to land that the Palestinians want for an independent state.
PoliticsReutersU.S. Postal Service on 'death spiral' without urgent reform: chief
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that U.S. mail system is losing $10 billion a year and urgently needs reform and legislative relief from Congress. "I would suggest that we are on a death spiral," DeJoy told the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform committee at a hearing Wednesday, who did not rule out changing first-class deliver standards or other significant changes. DeJoy, a supporter of former President Donald Trump appointed to head the Postal Service last year, suspended operational changes in August after heavy criticism over postal delays.
WorldAssociated PressUN: Thousands flee Ethiopia violence, seek asylum in Sudan
At least 7,000 people who fled escalating ethnic violence in western Ethiopia have sought asylum in neighboring Sudan, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday, amid heightened tensions between the two Eastern African nations. Violence in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region is separate from the deadly conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. That's where Ethiopian and allied regional forces began fighting Tigray regional forces in November.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Trump could face woman who accuses him of raping her in court
During a December visit to New York City, writer E. Jean Carroll says she went shopping with a fashion consultant to find the “best outfit” for one of the most important days of her life —when she'll sit face-to-face with the man she has accused of raping her decades ago, former President Donald Trump.
WorldReutersChina rejects growing Western criticism at U.N. rights forum
China hit back on Wednesday at growing criticism by Western powers of its treatment of ethnic minorities in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet and of citizens in the former British colony of Hong Kong. Hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a wide-ranging speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, said that the Biden administration would denounce atrocities in Xinjiang. "At this high-level segment, the U.K., EU, Germany, USA, Canada, and some other countries abused this forum of the Council to make groundless charges against China, to interfere in internal affairs of our country.
WorldAssociated PressThousands celebrate reinstatement of Nepal's Parliament
Thousands of anti-government protesters threw confetti and chanted slogans in Nepal's capital on Wednesday to celebrate Parliament's reinstatement by the Supreme Court. The court order was major blow to troubled Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who dissolved the legislature in December because of a feud within the governing Nepal Communist Party. The jubilant demonstrators applauded the court's decision and demanded Oli's immediate dismissal.
BusinessReutersGoldman-backed ReNew plugs into U.S. public market with $8 billion blank check deal
ReNew Power will go public through an $8 billion merger with a blank-check firm in the biggest deal in the fast-growing clean energy sector in India, allowing the country's largest renewable energy firm to grow capacity over the next few years. The deal will be financed with cash proceeds of $1.2 billion, including $855 million in investments from serial blank-check dealmaker Chamath Palihapitiya, funds managed by BlackRock and Sylebra Capital, ReNew Power said on Wednesday. Founded in 2011, ReNew Power counts Goldman Sachs and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board among its prominent investors.
PoliticsThe Independent‘MyPillow Guy’ complains loyalty to Trump is costing him millions while facing $1.3 billion lawsuit
Mike Lindell, a loyal ally to former President Donald Trump who has continued to promote flagrantly false and debunked claims of rampant voter fraud, lamented over his financial predicament in a new interview after he was sued on Monday for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems. “I lost 20 retailers, and it's cost me $65 million this year that I won't get back, OK?” Mr Lindell told Insider after it was reported the voting technology company sued him for repeatedly making false claims about its work in the 2020 US elections. The seemingly frustrated CEO of MyPillow.com became close to Mr Trump towards the end of his presidency, bringing notes that mentioned martial law to his meetings in the White House in the final weeks of the previous administration.
WorldAssociated PressLawmakers, rights groups ask Malaysia to explain deportation
Malaysian lawmakers and rights groups on Wednesday demanded that the government explain why it violated a court stay order and deported 1,086 Myanmar migrants, saying it put their lives in danger following Myanmar's military coup. A high court on Tuesday ordered a stay of the repatriation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals pending an appeal by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia, which said there were refugees, asylum-seekers and minors among the group. But hours later, the immigration department said it had sent 1,086 of them back on three Myanmar military ships.
WorldThe Daily BeastOfficials Probe ‘Foul Play’ After Crash of Military Plane Close to Finding Abducted Nigerian Schoolboys
ABUJA, Nigeria—The seven personnel of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) who died in a fatal plane crash in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, on Sunday were close to discovering the location of dozens of students abducted by gunmen from their school in north-central Nigeria last week, two senior military sources told The Daily Beast. The crew—led by Flight Lieutenant Haruna Gadzama, the aircraft captain, and Flight Lieutenant Henry Piyo, the co-pilot—had been in Minna, the capital of Nigeria's north-central Niger state, for days conducting intelligence-gathering missions in connection with concerted efforts to secure the release of 42 people, including 27 students.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestThe Best Beds for Kids
Thirteen twin beds that are as inspired as they are practical Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsThe IndependentPerdue ditches Senate run after Trump Mar-a-Lago meeting
Former GOP senator David Perdue has decided against running for the Senate in 2022, in an apparent about-face that followed a meeting with former president Donald Trump in recent days. A source close to Mr Perude denied that the meeting between the pair was related to his decision not to run again, but said the meeting at Mar-a-Lago “did not go well”, according to the New York Times. Maggie Haberman, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, wrote on Tuesday that “Perdue had dinner with and played a long round of golf with Trump last week.
“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.”