PoliticsThe IndependentAlabama congressman plots to overturn Electoral College certifying Biden’s election win
A Congressman from Alabama plans to challenge the Electoral College votes when Congress moves to certify Joe Biden's victory on 6 January. Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican, is searching for a senator to join his challenge, though he said he might object to the election alone if he does not find a partner. Mr Brooks said he has had contact with some senators, but did not provide names.
WorldAssociated PressOAS head urges international prosecutor to act on Venezuela
The leadership of a broad coalition of Western Hemisphere nations on Wednesday accused the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor of failing to take swift action on allegations that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government committed crimes against humanity. The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States said in a report that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's failure to open a formal investigation into Venezuela is “stunning” and “inexplicable.” The leadership of the 35-member body said the slow pace of the ICC's review of Venezuela's situation has emboldened Maduro's government to commit more crimes believing that it can act with total impunity.
WorldReutersEU's Barnier says UK trade deal still hangs in balance: source
The European Union's Brexit negotiator told the 27 national envoys to Brussels on Wednesday that differences in UK trade talks persisted, according to a senior EU diplomat who was present at the closed-door briefing. "Differences still persist on the three main issues," the diplomat said, when asked for the overall thrust of Barnier's update to EU member states on the latest in Brexit trade talks. "A deal still hangs in the balance."
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HK activist Joshua Wong arrives for sentencing
Wong, who was just 17 years old when he became the face of the 2014 student-led Umbrella Movement democracy protests, faces a maximum three-year jail term. The sentence will be delivered at 2.30 p.m. GMT).
PoliticsThe Daily BeastProject Veritas’ CNN Sting Uncovers Explosive News That Tucker Carlson Is Racist
All day, Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe has been hyping the huge revelations the group would be releasing from their latest stunt. In a dramatic video posted Tuesday morning, the conservative activist could be seen unmuting himself and informing CNN chief Jeff Zucker, “We've been listening to your CNN calls for basically two months and recording everything. Just wanted to ask you some questions, if you have a minute.
PoliticsThe WeekTrump will sign McConnell's coronavirus stimulus bill, Mnuchin says
President Trump will sign Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky. coronavirus stimulus proposal, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Wednesday. McConnell announced what appears to be a tweaked version of his previous $500 billion deal on Tuesday, just hours after a group of bipartisan senators put forward a $908 billion proposal.
WorldAssociated PressIran's president opposes bill that would boost enrichment
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday expressed his opposition to a bill approved by parliament the previous day to suspend U.N. inspections and boost uranium enrichment, saying it would be “harmful” to diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal and easing U.S. sanctions. The tug-of-war over the bill, which gained momentum after the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist last month, reflects the rivalry between Rouhani, a relative moderate, and hard-line lawmakers who dominate parliament and favor a more confrontational approach to the West. The bill would suspend U.N. inspections and require the government to resume enriching uranium to 20% if European nations fail to provide relief from crippling U.S. sanctions on the country's oil and banking sectors.
WorldReutersStorms, coronavirus and drought spread hunger to millions in Central America
With measures to contain the coronavirus cutting off supplementary income for many, the number of people who suffer from severe food shortages has sharply increased across rural areas of Guatemala and Honduras. In Guatemala, the problem is particularly severe. Even before the storms hit, some 3.7 million people - or more than a fifth of the population - were already suffering high levels of acute food insecurity, according to a report prepared for a United Nations hunger tracking body by the government's Food and Nutritional Security Secretariat.
PoliticsThe WeekTrump might pardon Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr., though it's not clear how that would work
Fox News host Sean Hannity said Monday night that if President-elect Joe Biden "ever became president, I'd tell President Trump to pardon yourself and pardon your family." Trump is seriously considering the suggestion, ABC News and The New York Times reported Tuesday. "Trump has told others that he is concerned that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against the president by targeting the oldest three of his five children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump" — plus his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the Times reports.
WorldAssociated PressTurkish Cypriot leader wants new direction for Cyprus talks
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said Tuesday efforts to resolve Cyprus' ethnic division should start fresh and aim to achieve a two-state deal, because decades of negotiations for a federation-based agreement have got nowhere. Tatar said a regional “new state of affairs” that takes into account the discovery of significant gas deposits off Cyprus creates the need for a two-state accord, under which equally sovereign Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can live “side by side.” The Greek Cypriots reject the two-state idea.
WorldReutersPutin says opposing forces in Belarus need to resolve crisis via talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged political forces in Belarus on Wednesday to try to resolve their differences through dialogue, and also said the ex-Soviet republic, a close Moscow ally, was facing unprecedented meddling by external forces. Belarus has been rocked by mass protests since an Aug. 9 presidential election which veteran incumbent Alexander Lukashenko said he won - an assertion contested by his opponents, who say the vote was rigged and want him to quit. Russia's backing is seen as vital for Lukashenko's chances of staying in power and its statements are closely scrutinised for changes in tone or any sign that Moscow could be pushing for some kind of managed power transition.
ScienceBBCA68a: World's biggest iceberg is fraying at the edges
But on Sunday, Planet finally got a beautiful acquisition right over the tip of A68a's "ice finger" (the berg has the shape of a hand with its index finger outstretched, as if pointing). This movie from the high-orbiting American weather satellite Goes-16 was processed by Dr Simon Proud from Oxford University and the UK's National Centre for Earth Observation (Credit: NOAA/Simon Proud/NCEO) "The detail of some of the cracks running across the berg are really clear and will be the main controls of the larger bits that break off," explained the British Antarctic Survey's Dr Andrew Fleming, who's examined the new picture.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden told this immigrant rights activist 'vote for Trump' in a blunt exchange. He voted for Biden but is ready to push him hard on immigration reform.
In November 2019, on the campaign trail in South Carolina, then-candidate Joe Biden was asked a question by immigrant rights activist Carlos Rojas Rodriguez and an immigrant community member. A tense back-and-forth ensued, with Rodriguez and Silvia criticizing the Obama administration's record on deportations and calling for a moratorium on deportations if Biden was elected. Biden disagreed and told Rodriguez, "You should go vote for Trump."
LifestyleArchitectural Digest10 Remote Airbnbs As Stunning As They Are Secluded
From a private island to a tiny Vermont tree house Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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Thousands flee as activity in Indonesian volcanoes increases
Indonesian authorities are closely monitoring several volcanoes after sensors picked up increased activity in recent weeks, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people. Hot ash tumbled as far as 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) down the slopes of Mount Semeru early Tuesday, triggering panic among villagers, said Raditya Jati, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman. The 3,676-meter (12,060-feet) mountain in Lumajang district is the highest volcano on Indonesia's most densely island of Java.
PoliticsReutersU.S. Republicans balk as Trump uses defense bill for leverage on Big Tech
President Donald Trump's threat to veto a defense bill if it does not repeal legal protections for social media companies faced stiff bipartisan opposition on Wednesday, setting the stage for a confrontation with lawmakers scrambling to pass the massive bill by year-end. Unusually, members of his Republican Party broke from Trump to join Democrats in objecting to his threat to veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a $740 billion annual bill setting policy for the Pentagon, if it does not include a measure eliminating a federal law - known as Section 230 - protecting tech companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc.
U.S.The IndependentOklahoma governor orders day of prayer for Covid but no mask mandate
As the spread of Covid-19 continues to accelerate across the United States, residents in Oklahoma have been asked to take part in a prayer day by the state's Republican governor, Kevin Stitt. In an announcement, Mr Stitt said Oklahomans should pray to God amid the pandemic, which has seen some 200,000 people in the state contract the coronavirus, and almost 2,000 lose their lives. The day of prayer has been planned for Thursday, with churches and other places of worship due to host those who take part.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump lawyer Joe diGenova says election security chief fired by the president should be 'taken out at dawn and shot'
Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova said former top US cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs should be "taken out at dawn and shot" and "drawn and quartered". Krebs was fired by Trump last month after saying that the November 3 election was "the most secure in American history" and dismissed the outgoing president's baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. DiGenova's comments come after Rudy said Giuliani in a recent interview with Fox News that someone should "cut the head off" the Democratic Party while making a throat-slashing gesture.
ScienceAssociated PressChina spacecraft lands on moon to bring rocks back to Earth
A Chinese spacecraft sent to return lunar rocks to Earth collected its first samples Wednesday after landing on the moon, the government announced, adding to a string of successes for Beijing's increasingly ambitious space program. The Chang'e 5 probe touched down shortly after 11 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Tuesday after descending from an orbiter, the China National Space Administration said. The probe, launched Nov. 24 from the tropical southern island of Hainan, is the latest venture by a Chinese space program that sent its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, has a spacecraft en route to Mars and aims eventually to land a human on the moon.
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Mother accused of holding son captive for decades
A grim discovery has been made in Stockholm, Sweden: A man in his forties found wounded in an apartment -- and may have been held captive there by his own mother for nearly 30 years. The mother -- a 70-year-old woman whom neighbors thought lived alone -- has been arrested. The man was reportedly found by a relative on Sunday (November 29).
PoliticsReutersBiden says he hopes Supreme Court rejects Trump bid on 2020 census count
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday said he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court rejects a plan by President Donald Trump's administration to exclude immigrants living illegally in the United States from population counts used to allocate congressional districts to states. "We can't keep rewriting history, scrambling norms, and ignoring the Constitution and the precedents we abide by. It is my hope the Supreme Court does the right thing" and rules that "everyone in America" be counted, Biden said in a statement.
U.S.Associated PressUS lawmakers unveil anti-slavery constitutional amendment
National lawmakers introduced a joint resolution Wednesday aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in America's foundational documents. The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House and Senate, would amend the 13th Amendment's ban on chattel enslavement to expressly prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. As ratified, the original amendment has permitted exploitation of labor by convicted felons for over 155 years since the abolition of slavery.
WorldAssociated PressNew Zealand joins Australia in denouncing China's tweet
New Zealand has joined Australia in denouncing a graphic tweet posted by a Chinese official that shows a fake image of a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to a child's throat. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday that New Zealand has voiced its concerns directly with Chinese authorities. This is an image that wasn't factual.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRepublicans know Trump's attempt to overturn the election is dangerous, but they're too cowardly to fight it
President Donald Trump's fake voter-fraud allegations continue to get laughed out of court, and his administration's own attorney general, Bill Barr, acknowledged Tuesday that the Justice Department had found no meaningful evidence to support them. Republican lawmakers are torn. Given Trump's cult of personality, it could take a generation for millions of conservatives to believe a Republican electoral defeat is legitimate.
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Pakistan's former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali dies
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a veteran Pakistani politician who served as the country's prime minister from 2002 to 2004 died on Wednesday at a hospital in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, days after he suffered a heart attack at the age of 76. Jamali served as prime minister during the tenure of ex-dictator Pervez Musharraf. He resigned over differences on several political issues with Musharraf, who is currently living in self-imposed exiled in Dubai.
“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.”