
The conservative TV network Newsmax has attempted to poach several Fox News staffers with offers of higher salaries, according to Axios. The news comes soon after Newsmax briefly eclipsed Fox News in a key ratings metric for the first time on Monday, according to Reuters. It continues the intense competition between Fox โ still the leading cable news network โ and Newsmax's brand of upstart, hyperpartisan pro-Trumpism.
The joint U.N.-African Union envoy for Darfur cautioned on Wednesday that mistrust still runs deep in Sudan's troubled region and urged the transitional government in Khartoum to embark on the โhuge taskโ of gaining the trust of the local people. Jeremiah Mamabolo's remarks came as U.N. Security Council members remained divided on the timing to end the mandate of the joint mission, known as UNAMID. The people of Darfur โhave been betrayed ... A lot of crimes and injustice have been committed against them, so they feel insecure,โ Mamabolo told The Associated Press.

Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky could use a bit of work on his poker face โ though learning you've raised a few billion more dollars than expected is a reasonable excuse for breaking it. The home rental app, which Chesky launched along with Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia, first started selling shares at $68 per piece when they began being traded Wednesday. Essentially, Chesky and the other co-founders' net worth was about to double as well, from about $3 billion to more than $6 billion, seeing as they all planned to retain around 10 percent of the company.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been one of America's most trusted medical leaders during the coronavirus pandemic, recently confirmed that the virus has impacted his own family. The nation's leading disease expert said the brother of his youngest daughter's boyfriend died from COVID-19 at only 32, despite being previously healthy. Fauci made the revelation during a livestream interview hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN.

Guillermo Maldonado, the founding pastor of Miami's King Jesus International Ministry, made false claims about COVID-19 during a sermon on Sunday. A pastor at a Florida megachurch has encouraged his parishioners not to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, and instead told them to "believe in divine immunity." Guillermo Maldonado, the founding pastor of Miami's King Jesus International Ministry, made the scientifically inaccurate comment during a sermon that was streamed on Facebook Live on Sunday.

On Fox News on Thursday,ย liberal guest host Marie Harf questioned why her fellow panelists weren't focusing more on the record COVID-19 daily deaths in the US. "We're 43 minutes into this show, and we haven't mentioned yet that 3,000 Americans died yesterday, more than on 9/11," Harf said, adding, "We cannot lose sight of the tragedy that is unfolding every single day in this country, largely because people want to go about life as normal." In response, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner berated Harf: "Please, keep your judgment someplace where you know you can fact check it, because you can't see my heart."
An Associated Press investigation has identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years, including two new claims brought this week by women who say they were sexually assaulted by ranking agents.

The Lebanese prosecutor probing last summer's port explosion in Beirut filed charges on Thursday against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people, Lebanon's official news agency said. The four are the most senior individuals to be indicted so far in the investigation, which is being conducted in secrecy. Judge Fadi Sawwan, the prosecutor responsible for the investigation, filed the charges against Hassan Diab and former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Zeiter and Youssef Fenianos, both former ministers of public works.

Onย a highwayย rideย to celebrate a cyclist'sย retirement, five bicyclistsย were killed and four others were injured in a crash involving a truck, according to authorities. Around 9:40 a.m., aย box truck struck aย group of about 20 bicyclists. The box truck remained at the scene for several hours after the collision, as authorities investigated what caused the crash.

According to a new report, Dr. James Phillips will no longer be employed at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center beginning next year. CBS News reported Phillips has been removed from the schedule beginning in January 2021, according to sources close to the situation. The news outlet stated the emergency room doctor is chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and works on a contract basis for Walter Reed.

Not your average stocking stuffers Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Sen. Dianne Feinstein forgets conversations and gets upset with her staff for not briefing her on a topic moments after they do, according to a new report from the New Yorker. The US Senator from California is said to be struggling with her short-term memory, even forgetting things she herself has said, sources familiar with the situation told the New Yorker's Jane Mayer.



The US saw 291,557 battle deaths during World War II, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The United States has now recorded more COVID-19 deaths than the total number of Americans killed in combat during World War II, the bloodiest war in human history. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the US saw 291,557 battle deaths during WWII.

In the Southern California oceanside city of Manhattan Beach, one arm of government is urging residents to stay home except for essential needs while another is encouraging them to get out and shop and even providing places where they can sit down to relax, eat takeout and watch the sun set on the Pacific. It's one example of confusing messages from governments as most of California is under a broad shutdown order that includes an overnight curfew to try to stem record-breaking coronavirus cases that threaten to overwhelm the hospital system. While state and county health officials are pleading with residents to stay home and only mingle with those in their household, the order allows all retailers to remain open with 20% capacity and encourages people to get outside to exercise.

WASHINGTON โ Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, blocked two proposals on Thursday to create Smithsonian museums for Latino and women's history from unanimously passing the Senate, saying there's been too much "balkanization" in the country. Claiming "the last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation," Lee blocked proposals to establish the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum. "Within the walls of a Smithsonian museum just like at the National Gallery of Art or the great memorials that dot this city, there is no us and them.

Amid continuing Republican attacks on the legitimacy of Joe Biden's presidential victory in Georgia, the state House speaker is proposing to take the selection of the state's chief election official from the voters and put it in the hands of legislators. Republican House Speaker David Ralston said Thursday that he will seek a state constitutional amendment to change how Georgia's secretary of state is chosen. With two-thirds approval needed by both the House and Senate, such a move is unlikely, particularly with Democrats signaling immediate opposition.

Golden Ray cargo ship in St. Simons Island, Georgia. Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images Source: NPR ... and the ship listed a full 90 degrees, according to CBS News.

Wildlife photographer Shellie Gilliam saw a king of the swamp swallowed whole on Saturday afternoon โ by a bird โ at Lake Apopka, outside Orlando. OK, so the scaly little guy wasn't fully grown, but color us impressed, anyway. In a video posted to her Facebook page on Monday, Gilliam shows the great blue heron consuming its reptilian snack whole.

A scientist has testified that CDC officials directed her to destroy records that showed political interference by President Donald Trump over their handling of the coronavirus. Charlotte Kent, chief of the scientific publications branch and editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality weekly report, told congressional investigators on Monday that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield attempted to interfere on Trump's behalf, NBC reported. Kent claimed that Redfield told his staff to delete an email that showed a Trump appointee seeking control of the agency's scientific reports on the COVID-19 crisis.

NASA has named the 18 astronauts โ half of them women โ who will train for its Artemis moon-landing program. The first woman and next man on the moon will come from this elite group. Vice President Mike Pence introduced the astronauts Wednesday at the close of his final meeting as chairman of the National Space Council.

On Tuesday, Axios reported that a suspected Chinese spy got close to Rep. Eric Swalwell of California early in his political career and, separately, slept with two unnamed US mayors as part of a yearslong intelligence campaign. Swalwell has not been accused of wrongdoing, and Axios also did not report on or suggest any sexual relationship between Swalwell and the woman. But on Tuesday night, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that US intelligence officials believed Swalwell and the woman had a sexual relationship and that Swalwell's office declined to comment on the matter.

Attorney General William Barr knew about two criminal investigations into Hunter Biden's financial dealings for months before the general election but kept them from the public, The Wall Street Journal reported. The news is a remarkable twist in Barr's tenure as President Donald Trump's attorney general, during which he repeatedly took steps to benefit the president and feed into his conspiracy theories. According to The Journal, Barr knew about the Biden tax investigations since at least the spring but tried to keep them under wraps in accordance with Justice Department rules that prevent prosecutors from taking overt investigative steps that could affect the outcome of an election.
Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, announced her resignation on Wednesday, saying the Palestinian political system needs โrenewal and reinvigoration. Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's decision-making executive committee, said she had informed President Mahmoud Abbas last month of her intention to leave at the end of the year. But after word of her resignation leaked out, she said Wednesday was stepping down immediately.

Kristen Choi, a nurse who participated in a trial of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, reported a high fever, nausea, and fatigue after her second shot. Choi said getting the shot was worth it despite the unpleasant reaction. A couple of hours after getting her second shot in a trial of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine in September, Kristen Choi felt chilled, nauseous, and light-headed.

Disney World is seemingly editing digital masks onto parkgoers who remove their face coverings for ride photos, WDW News Today reported. In the past, Disney deleted photos that showed people without masks, meaning that they and others on the ride could not purchase them. While some people think Disney's new idea is "brilliant," others argued that this could encourage people to not wear masks on rides.


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