PoliticsThe IndependentGiuliani slams ‘hate-filled left-wing’ as he responds to $1.3bn defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems
Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has described a $1.3bn (£1.15bn) defamation lawsuit filed against him by Dominion Voting Systems as “intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing”. Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr Giuliani on Monday, following months of baseless claims from the former mayor of New York City that the company's systems were rigged in favour of the Democrats in 3 November's presidential election. The 107-page lawsuit, which was filed by the company in the Federal District Court in Washington, DC, on Monday, accused Mr Giuliani of carrying out “a viral disinformation campaign about Dominion” that was made up of “demonstrably false” allegations, according to The New York Times.
WorldThe TelegraphChinese fighter jets buzz Taiwan for second day as tensions rise days into Biden term
China ramped up its pressure on democratic Taiwan over the weekend, with an unusually large number of fighter jets approaching the island in a "test" for the new administration of US President Joe Biden. On Sunday, 12 Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone, along with a reconnaissance aircraft and two anti-submarine aircraft, Taiwan's defence ministry said. A day earlier, China sent eight bomber planes capable of carrying nuclear weapons and four fighter jets to the same area to the southwest of the island, as well as one reconnaissance aircraft.
WorldAssociated PressChina pushes conspiracy theories on COVID origin, vaccines
Chinese state media have stoked concerns about Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, despite rigorous trials indicating it is safe. A government spokesperson has raised the unsubstantiated theory that the coronavirus could have emerged from a U.S. military lab, giving it more credence in China. As the ruling Communist Party faces growing questioning about China's vaccines and renewed criticism of its early COVID-19 response, it is hitting back by encouraging conspiracy theories that some experts say could cause harm.
WorldReutersFactbox: Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was looking at toughening border quarantine rules because of the risk of "vaccine-busting" new variants. * China reported a fall in new COVID-19 infections as the number of cases in two of the provinces particularly hard hit by the latest coronavirus wave fell to single digits. * Indonesia is set to officially surpass one million coronavirus cases on Tuesday.
PoliticsThe TelegraphRepublican split widens as Donald Trump intervenes in party elections in Arizona
The acrimonious split within Republican ranks widened over the weekend as Donald Trump made his foray back into politics, backing the re-election of a hard-line supporter as chair of the party in Arizona. Underlining Mr Trump's grip on the Republican grassroots, the Arizona party also voted to censure John McCain's widow, Cindy, former senator Jeff Flake and governor Doug Ducey, who refused to back the former president's claims of election fraud. Mr Trump's intervention came amid reports that he is considering setting up a “Patriot Party” which would spearhead primary challenges to his opponents in the 2022 mid-term elections.
PoliticsThe IndependentWhite House hits back at Florida governor’s criticism of building mass vaccination sites
The White House has responded to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' criticism of President Joe Biden's plan to have the federal government open mass vaccination sites across the country. "I would use all that energy and I would put that towards more supply of the vaccine," Mr DeSantis said at a news conference over the weekend. His answer was in response to reports that Mr Biden directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to open 100 government vaccination sides nationwide.
HealthAssociated PressAsia Today: Taiwan quarantines 5,000 after hospital cluster
Health authorities in Taiwan are quarantining 5,000 people while looking for the source of two new coronavirus cases linked to a hospital. Officials said on Monday that they have not been able to identify how the husband and wife became infected after a brief hospital stay in the Taoyuan General Hospital, located in the city of Taoyuan just outside Taiwan's capital city. The man had stayed at the hospital for three days for health problems unrelated to COVID-19, while his wife looked after him.
PoliticsThe TelegraphDonald Trump sets up office to push his former administration's agenda
Donald Trump opened an office in Florida on Monday that will handle his duties as a former US president and seek to further his administration's agenda. "The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump's correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organising, and public activism," a statement said. The announcement came on the same day the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate an impeachment article charging MR Trump with inciting insurrection in a speech to supporters before the deadly attack on the Capitol on Ja.
PoliticsThe Independent‘In Wyoming men don’t wear make-up’: Cheney spokesperson hits out at Matt Gaetz amid GOP civil war
The spokesperson was most likely referring to a clip from the HBO documentary The Swamp in which Mr Gaetz puts on makeup before TV interviews at the capitol. The spat comes after Rep Cheney, the House Republican Conference Chair and number 3 in the House Republican leadership, voted to impeach former President Donald Trump along with nine other Republicans and all 222 House Democrats.
LifestyleMiami HeraldYou want a COVID vaccine appointment today or tomorrow? Here’s where and when to check
Jackson Health System doesn't know how many COVID-19 vaccine appointment slots it will have available each day. And it's common sense that Jackson's online sign-up system or any online sign-up system can be a well of vexation for some senior citizens. But if you're a Miami-Dade resident 65 or over and want to make a COVID vaccine appointment that's not a week or two in the future (and seems even longer), circling like a hawk on Jackson's appointments offers two advantages: You have a general idea of when the slots will open up and, if you get one, it will be for the same day or the next day.
U.S.ReutersTrump lawyer Giuliani faces $1.3 billion lawsuit over 'big lie' election fraud claims
A U.S. voting machine company filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against former President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of defamation in what it called his "big lie" campaign about widespread fraud in the presidential election, court documents on Monday showed. The Denver-based company, Dominion Voting Systems Inc, filed an earlier lawsuit against pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, whom the company also accused of spreading false conspiracy theories about the election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. A senior Dominion employee, Eric Coomer, also filed a defamation lawsuit against the Trump campaign, saying he had been driven into hiding because of death threats from Trump supporters.
- WorldYahoo News Video
Woman wanted on 74 charges of child sex abuse extradited to Australia
Israeli authorities on Monday extradited a former teacher accused of sexually abusing her former students in Australia, capping a six-year legal battle that had strained relations between the two governments and antagonized Australia's Jewish community.
WorldAssociated PressGroup: Pakistani Baloch dissident buried amid high security
A Pakistani dissident and civil rights activist who died in exile in Canada last month was returned to Pakistan and laid to rest in her home village in southwestern Baluchistan province under tight security, activists said Monday. Only immediate family members of 37-year-old Karima Baloch were allowed to attend her funeral Sunday in the village of Tump in Baluchistan. Her supporters claim that Pakistani troops had sealed off the village and prevented them from attending her burial.
WorldBBCWhat's the best way to prevent flooding?
The Environment Agency uses a range of temporary or "demountable" flood barriers to provide protection in flood-prone areas. Temporary barriers can also be added to permanent flood defences, such as raised embankments, increasing the level of protection. Natural flood management consists of small measures to reduce the flow of water before it reaches larger rivers.
U.S.The IndependentCapitol rioter apologises to AOC for assassination threat, says he attacked Congress on Trump’s orders
A Capitol rioter has apologised for threatening Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and says he was following ex-president Donald Trump's instructions when he stormed Congress. Garret Miller said he was “ashamed of his comments” after writing “Assassinate AOC” on Twitter and for also threatening to hang the Capitol Police officer who shot a female rioter Miller, 34, spoke as a federal judge in Dallas, Texas, detained him without bail after the US attorney for the Northern District of Texas labelled him a danger to the community and a flight risk.
PoliticsPoliticoMcConnell agrees to allow Senate power-sharing to move forward
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backed down from his demand that any Senate power-sharing agreement include protections for the legislative filibuster, after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema reaffirmed their opposition Monday to scrapping the procedural tool. “Today, two Democratic Senators publicly confirmed they will not vote to end the legislative filibuster,” McConnell said in a statement.
PoliticsAssociated PressWatchdog probes if DOJ officials tried to overturn election
The Justice Department's inspector general is launching an investigation to examine whether any former or current department officials “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Monday that the investigation will investigate allegations concerning the conduct of former and current Justice Department officials but will not extend to other government officials. The Justice Department watchdog investigation follows a report in The New York Times that a former assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, had been discussing a plan with then-President Donald Trump to oust the acting attorney general and try to challenge the results of the 2020 race by falsely saying there had been widespread election fraud.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderSome senators oppose the direct-payment part of Biden's stimulus plan because they think it gives too much money to the wealthy, report says
President Joe Biden's stimulus plan is facing criticism that it'd give too much to the wealthy. A bipartisan group of 16 senators spoke with the Biden administration during a call Sunday. The group also expressed support for increasing funding for vaccine distribution.
CelebrityBBCShyamala Gopalan: The woman who inspired Kamala Harris
What Kamala Harris did on her first day Howard students' joy as Kamala Harris makes history The oldest of the four children of a civil servant father and a homemaker mother, Ms Gopalan wanted to study biochemistry. But hard sciences were not on offer at Delhi's Lady Irwin College for women, founded by India's British colonial rulers, and she had to settle for an undergraduate degree in home science, where she would have studied subjects like nutrition and homemaking skills. "My father and I would tease her about it," Gopalan Balachandran, her brother, told the BBC.
PoliticsThe IndependentIvanka Trump stays silent on social media as Rubio warns she’ll have ‘tough’ fight if she goes for his seat
Over the weekend Republican senator for Florida Marco Rubio shrugged off rumours that Ms Trump could challenge him to a primary in the 2022 midterm elections. Ms Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who was also an adviser to the 45th president, recently acquired a $30m (£22m) lot of land on Indian Creek Island in Miami. They are planning to build a new home for themselves there, indicating their intention to stay on in the Sunshine State, where Mr Trump himself now resides at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderJoe Biden says he is willing to adjust income thresholds for a fresh wave of stimulus payments in new relief package
Biden said he is willing to adjust the income thresholds for stimulus checks as part of negotiations over the latest coronavirus relief package. President Joe Biden said on Monday he is open to altering the income thresholds for a fresh wave of stimulus checks for Americans, a key demand among some moderate senators reluctant to back his rescue package.
U.S.USA TODAYCoronavirus live updates: California investigates death hours after vaccination; Chicago teachers refuse to return to classrooms
COVID-19 has killed more than 418,000 Americans in less than a year, and infections have continued to mount despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines late in 2020. The United States on Sunday surpassed 25 million cases of COVID-19, but an influential coronavirus model says the true number is likely much higher. About 17% of people in the U.S., or upward of 50 million people, have been infected with the coronavirus, researchers at the University of Washington estimate.
U.S.INSIDERA former TSA agent who forced a passenger to show her breasts has been convicted of false imprisonment
Johnathon Lomeli told the woman traveling in June 2019 he had to look in her bra and down her pants. A former Transportation Security Administration agent who convinced a female traveler to show him her breasts at the Los Angeles International Airport has been convicted of false imprisonment, the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced. In June 2019, Johnathon Lomeli was arrested and accused of carrying out the scheme outside the primary security screening area at LAX, according to a statement from the office.
CelebrityBBCAsia Argento accuses Fast and Furious director Rob Cohen of sexual assault
Actress and director Asia Argento has accused The Fast and the Furious and xXx director Rob Cohen of sexual assault. She told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera that Cohen abused her and made her drink GHB, a drug associated with sex attacks. A spokesperson for Cohen called Argento's claim "categorically false" and "bewildering".
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump reportedly furious he can't lash out at Dr Fauci on Twitter
Donald Trump, no longer in power and muzzled online, is reportedly furious that he can't use social media to lash out at Dr Anthony Fauci. Dr Fauci, the Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the face of the White House health response to the coronavirus pandemic, has been appearing on cable news shows and holding press briefings during which he is not exactly shy about his time working for Mr Trump. On Friday, Dr Fauci said the former president "very likely" cost American lives by spreading lies and misinformation about the pandemic.
“By encouraging this act of terror on our capital, Trump’s legacy is destroyed.”
“Both backers and critics of Trump agreed that he remade the federal judiciary — a change that will impact America for decades.”
“He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die.”
“I do know what the future should hold for this country. That is to say, a policy of Trumpism without Trump.”
“It will be decades before the consequences of his tenure are fully known.”