
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Friday criticized the Texas GOP for floating the idea of secession after the Supreme Court rejected a bid to overturn the results of the presidential election. In a statement, the Texas GOP chairman suggested that "law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution." Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said the statement should be immediately retracted and the people involved fired.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) played a big advocacy role in President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 bid, no doubt helping him lock up the typically red state of Georgia. Bottoms was expected to be offered a White House role in return, perhaps as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or the head of the Small Business Administration, or even Biden's vice president. After the naming of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as Biden's running mate over the summer, and after Biden slotted Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) into the HUD spot, Bottoms' choices seemed to be slimming.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) -A Canadian border official on Thursday admitted to giving "incomplete" testimony in court the previous day and having breached a judge's instruction not to discuss the case as witness cross examination in Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou's U.S. extradition hearing resumed. Testimony was delayed for more than an hour on Thursday morning after prosecutors representing the Canadian government revealed that Nicole Goodman, a chief with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) at Vancouver's airport, had reached out to a Canadian Department of Justice employee with a question about attorney-client privilege.

TALLAHASSEE โ Gov. Ron DeSantis lashed out Friday at a former Florida data scientist turned whistleblower whose home was raided by a state law enforcement team wielding a sledgehammer earlier this week. Just because you're a darling of some corners of the fever swamps, that does not exempt you from following the law,โ DeSantis said during an appearance in Tampa. The video of law enforcement's arrival at the Tallahassee home of Rebekah Jones has gone viral and the former health department data scientist has denied allegations that she accessed a state emergency alert system to urge former co-workers to speak out about the DeSantis administration's handling of the coronavirus.
A female television journalist and women's rights activist has been shot and killed in Afghanistan by gunmen. Malalai Maiwand, a reporter in Nangarhar, was killed along with her driver in an attack on their vehicle in Jalalabad on Thursday (December 10). The incident underscores an increasing trend of violence against journalists in the country.

A Lebanese prosecutor on Thursday placedย the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers under investigationย in connection with Beirut's devastating port explosion, the country's official news agency reported. Hassan Diab, former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and former ministers of public works Ghazi Zeiter and Youssef Fenianos, are accused of negligence leading to the death of over 200 people in the August blast that damaged much of the Lebanese capital. Causing death due to negligence carries a penalty of six months to three years imprisonment under the Lebanese criminal code but the defendants could argue for immunity for actions carried out under official duties.

I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,โ Hunter Biden said in a statement Wednesday. I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors. Barr did not budge under pressure from Congressional Republicans who pressed him for more information into the investigations.

An investigation into President Trump being conducted by Manhattan prosecutors is reportedly "significantly escalating." The office of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has "stepped up its efforts" to investigate Trump's business conduct, in recent weeks "significantly escalating" the probe by interviewing employees of lender Deutsche Bank and insurance broker Aon, The New York Times reported on Friday. The prosecutors have reportedly issued new subpoenas and questioned witnesses before a grand jury for investigative purposes.

Tasked with a California family's historic getaway on Patmos, John Stefanidis gives the once-neutral house a vibrant polychrome presence Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Sen. Mike Lee blocked two proposals that would establish new Smithsonian museums for American Latino and women's history. Both bipartisan bills passed the House of Representatives earlier this year, but the Republican senator said Americans didn't need "separate but equal" museums. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and GOP Sen. Susan Collins both pushed back against Lee during a dramatic Senate session on Thursday.

A tip from a concerned citizen provided a pivotal break Friday in the Dec. 3 slaying of 26-year-old nurseย Caitlyn Kaufman, who worked in the intensive care unit at Saint Thomas West Hospital. Atย dawn,ย members of Metro Nashville Police Department's SWAT team descended on an East Nashville apartment complex and made anย arrest in the fatal shooting of a Nashville nurse who was driving to work when police say someoneย opened fire on her SUV. Devaunte Lewis Hill, 21, was taken into custody at 6:15 a.m. in Kaufman's death.

An independent probe into the travel of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's wife has concluded that the trips with her husband on official business did not violate federal ethics rules. But, in a report released Thursday, the department's acting inspector general, Matthew Klimow, also determined that the State Department did not secure proper written approval or documentation for six of Susan Pompeo's eight trips covered by the investigation. In addition, the inspector general angrily rebutted accusations by Secretary Pompeo's aides that the investigation was a โwaste of time.

Los Angeles county last week passed the disturbing milestone of 10,000 new Covid-19 cases a day, and officials there fear a spike in infections resulting from the Thanksgiving holiday could send hospitalizations surging further. LA officials said that one person is now dying of Covid every 20 minutes, and the county's public health director, Barbara Ferrer, broke down crying at a briefing while talking about the โincalculable lossโ of more than 8,000 deaths. San Francisco has seen its average case rate soar from 15 to 30 per 100,000 residents since the holiday.

Some Republican senators are using their unfounded election fraud claims as an excuse to muddy President-elect Joe Biden's transition. Biden has spent the past few weeks since the election filling out his Cabinet, hoping quick confirmations will help him get a quick start on reversing President Trump's policies. But "as long as there's litigation ongoing, and the election result is disputed, I do not think you will see the Senate act to confirm any nominee," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Axios.

Former members of the celebrity megachurch Hillsong recently came forward to Insider with multiple accusations of racism, anti-LGBTQ behavior, and exploitation after pastor Carl Lentz was fired for infidelity last month. After celebrity pastor of Hillsong NYC Carl Lentz was fired for cheating on his wife in November, sources told Insider that the issues at Hillsong run much deeper than one affair. Several former volunteers said top pastors regularly took advantage of free and underpaid labor, and in some cases paid little or no money for volunteers to babysit their children.

It took 51 years and a team of experts from three countries to crack the code to a cipher left by the still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who haunted northern California communities in the 1960s and 70s. โI hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me,โ the message, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in November 1969 in a series of symbols, reads. The FBI confirmed that the news of the cracked code is the real deal, but said it does little to help investigators in the decades-long search for the serial killer.

Republicans are signaling that they won't support the $908 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief plan. The plan was intended to be a compromise between Democrats and Republicans after months of deadlock over how much should be spent and on what. Democrats have dismissed the White House's alternative proposal in favor of working on the bipartisan one, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that negotiations could continue after Christmas.

As holiday gifts and packages pile up, some might be looking for ways to show appreciation for the people who delivered them. You might want to think twice before you pull out a cash tip, however. The U.S. Postal Service prohibits all employees โ including mail carriers โ from accepting cash or cash equivalents of any kind.

"But most of us don't even know who the electors of our state are unless we've done our research." Experts: Facing Electoral College vote, Trump continues election attack, but without risks to him The state parties appoint electors to cast the electoral ballots on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December of the presidential election โ about a month after the Americans cast their ballots in the popular vote. How are the votes divided?

Gordon Ramsay and Gigi Hadid share a mutual love of cooking. In a live cooking event on Saturday, December 12, at 12 p.m. EST, Ramsay will pay homage to a spicy pasta and shrimp dish he said Hadid sent him recently. The "MasterChef" judge will also make a "glamorous" banana bread pancake cereal with warm, vanilla-infused milk.

A couple wearing protective masks take a selfie with the Rockefeller Christmas Tree in the background on Dec. 6, 2020 in New York City. With the U.S. setting a new, devastating record of more than 3,000 people dead from COVID-19 in a single day this week, American women say they're planning on social distancing this holiday season. One in four Americans has plans to travel for Christmas, and one in five is traveling for New Year'sโchoices that in this horrific year have the potential to exacerbate an outbreak already spreading out of control in much of the country.

The "former military intelligence official" who is cited under the anonymous name "Spider" in Sidney Powell's election lawsuits reportedly has no intelligence expertise and is an IT consultant, according to aย Washington Post report. Joshua Merritt, a 43-year-old information technology consultant, confirmed his identity as "Spider" to the Post. The anonymous source named "Spider" or "Spyder" who was cited as a former military intelligence official in several of Sidney Powell's election lawsuit is actually an IT consultant without expertise in military intelligence, according to a Washington Post report.

A viral TikTok video with over 1 million likes has resurfaced the story of Elisa Lam's mysterious 2013 death. Lam, 21 at the time of her death, was found dead in a water tank on top of the Cecil Hotel, which is now known as the Stay at Home hotel. A TikTok with nearly 6 million views has resurfaced the questions around Canadian student Elisa Lam's still-mysterious 2013 death at Los Angeles' Cecil Hotel (now known as the Stay on Main hotel), and Google trends data appears to show that interest in the case has risen amid other references of the case in pop culture.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Republicans of effectively defunding the police by opposing sending federal aid to states and cities as part of Congress' COVID-19 relief package. "Because Republicans are trying to block state and local funding so that those budgets dry up." By turning "defund the police" back on Republicans, Ocasio-Cortez, who has embraced the left-wing calls, appeared to concede that the slogan is unpopular and controversial, even among Democrats.

With the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine seemingly days away, President Donald Trump has been stewing over what he perceives to be a lack of credit that he is getting for the breakthrough. The outgoing president recently ranted to several advisers and associates about how vaccine manufacturers were possibly working to deny him the chance to declare victory in the pandemic, according to three people familiar with his private grumblings. One adviser told The Daily Beast that this month, the president asked if the heads of Pfizer, one of the main vaccine manufacturers, were โDemocrats.โ


โThe prospect of a 2024 run is politically significant. Itโs also a complete fiction.โ
โHis flirtation with a 2024 bid ensures heโll remain the dominant force in the Republican Party.โ
โHe shouldnโt run for president again. Thereโs a better job and life for him on the horizon.โ
โTrump is in for years of scandals and humiliationsโฆHeโll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison.โ
โIf Trump himself passes on the opportunity, his two very political children could also potentially pick up the mantle.โ