They destroyed black-owned businesses, murdered black residents, and forced the elected local government - a coalition of white and black politicians - to resign en masse. Historians have described it as the only coup in US history. Its ringleaders took power the same day as the insurrection and swiftly brought in laws to strip voting and civil rights from the state's black population.
All federal prisons in the United States have been placed on lockdown, with officials aiming to quell any potential violence that could arise behind bars as law enforcement prepares for potentially violent protests across the country in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday. The lockdown at more than 120 federal Bureau of Prisons facilities took effect at 12 a.m. Saturday, according to an email to employees from the president of the union representing federal correctional officers. “In light of current events occurring around the country, and out of an abundance of caution, the decision has been made to secure all institutions,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
Britain reported its lowest number of daily new coronavirus infections since the start of the year on Saturday, adding to signs that a national lockdown is slowing the spread of a more infectious variant of the disease. However the effect of the recent surge in cases remains clear in the death toll, which was the third-highest on record. Britain has Europe's highest death toll - though more have died in Italy and Belgium on a per capita basis.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and more than a dozen have been killed in recent days in flooding on Indonesia's Borneo island, officials said Sunday. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati said floods brought by intense rains caused floodwaters as high as 3 meters (10 feet). As of Sunday, 39,549 people had been evacuated and at least 15 had been killed due to floods that affected 10 districts and cities in South Kalimantan province on Borneo island.
Early Saturday afternoon on a partially cordoned-off street in Washington, D.C., Peter Baca pushed a big stack of boxes containing thousands of cookies toward the doors of Jaleo, a Spanish-inspired tapas restaurant that famed chef and humanitarian José Andrés opened in 1993. Inside, workers with World Central Kitchen — Andrés' emergency response nonprofit — were busy assembling meals for thousands of troops guarding the city in anticipation of President-elect Biden's inauguration Wednesday and in reaction to the pro-Trump mob that on Jan. 6 stormed the U.S. Capitol. Baca, of the veteran-focused Dog Tag Bakery in Georgetown, said his cookie gift was "a small token to say how much we appreciate their service to our country."
Luke Mogelson, a veteran war correspondent and contributing writer for The New Yorker, captured what appears to be the "clearest" footage yet of the deadly riot at the United States Capitol earlier this month. Mogelson attended (in a journalistic capacity) President Trump's rally on Jan. 6, which preceded the pro-Trump mob's march to and breach of the capitol. He followed the rioters into the building and filmed a group that entered the empty Senate chamber.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has resigned, CNN reported on Friday. Citing last week's deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, Azar joins a wave of Cabinet members and other government officials who have stepped down after the attack. In his resignation letter to President Donald Trump dated January 12, Azar lauded what he cited as the administration's successes, such as the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will resign her Senate seat on Monday, two days before she and President-elect Joe Biden are inaugurated. Aides to the California Democrat confirmed the timing and said Gov. Gavin Newsom was aware of her decision, clearing the way for him to appoint fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, now California's secretary of state, to serve the final two years of Harris' term. Padilla will be the first Latino senator from California, where about 40% of residents are Hispanic.
The mother of the man who was pictured with plastic zip-tie restraints during the Capitol riots was arrested and charged by the FBI. Lis Eisenhart was arrested in Nashville on Saturday. According to an affidavit, footage from the riot revealed that both Eisenhart and Munchel appeared to be "holding flex cuffs in each of their hands" while following a violent mob who were chasing two Capitol police officers during the siege.
Iran urged the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to avoid publishing “unnecessary” details on Tehran's nuclear program, state TV reported Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal. The report quoted a statement from Iran's nuclear department that asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to avoid publishing details on Iran's nuclear program that may cause confusion. It is expected the international atomic energy agency avoid providing unnecessary details and prevent paving ground for misunderstanding” in the international community, the statement said.
A Virginia man arrested at a DC checkpoint and accused of having guns and a cache of ammunition says it was an "honest mistake," and he was simply a private security guard who got lost. Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, was released by a judge on Saturday and told The Washington Post he was licensed to carry the gun, and had an inauguration badge as he'd been working security gigs all week. Washington, DC, has dramatically ramped up security measures ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, just two weeks after Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol.
Georgia and Arizona were two of the most crucial states in this election cycle, and it looks like they'll remain at the forefront of the coming battle within the Republican Party, The New York Times reports. Things have grown tense in the Sun Belt states, where mainstream Republicans are hoping to fend off President Trump's allies. In Arizona, for instance, the state GOP is trying to censure Republican Gov. Doug Ducey — as well as former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Cindy McCain — in part because he has been "deemed insufficiently beholden to Trump," Politico reports.
Egypt's former antiquities minister and noted archaeologist Zahi Hawass on Sunday revealed details of an ancient funerary temple in a vast necropolis south of Cairo. Hawass told reporters at the Saqqara necropolis that archaeologists unearthed the temple of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt from 2323 B.C. till 2150 B.C. Archaeologists also found a 4-meter (13-foot) long papyrus that includes texts of the Book of the Dead, which is a collection of spells aimed at directing the dead through the underworld in ancient Egypt, he said.
Gunmen fired on a car in northern Kabul on Sunday, killing two women judges who worked for Afghanistan's high court and wounding the driver, a court official said. It was the latest attack in the Afghan capital during peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government officials in Qatar. Supreme Court of Afghanistan spokesman Ahmad Fahim Qawim, said the women were judges who worked for the high court but he did not identify them by name.
Israeli authorities on Sunday advanced plans to build nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements, in a last-minute surge of approvals before the friendly Trump administration leaves office later this week. COGAT, the Israeli defense body that authorizes settlement construction, confirmed the approvals, which drew swift condemnations from the Palestinians. The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said that over 90% of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state, and over 200 homes were located in unauthorized outposts that the government had decided to legalize.
President-elect Joe Biden is planning to spend his first 10 days in the Oval Office issuing dozens of executive orders, a memo circulated by incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Saturday and obtained by The New York Times revealed. The memo appears to back up earlier reporting about how Biden envisioned the early stages of his presidency. On his first day alone, Biden will reportedly rescind President Trump's travel ban on several majority Muslim countries, rejoin the Paris climate change accord, extend pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments, issue a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel, and reunite children who were separated from their families while crossing the United States-Mexico border.
On Jan. 6, hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attack that forced lawmakers to flee their chambers and left five dead. Since the riot, users on Facebook and Twitter have leveled accusations that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., provided assistance to the insurrectionists. One Facebook user posted on Jan. 13 a photo of Boebert and about dozen other people, at least four of whom appear to be making a white supremacist hand gesture.
Indian-administered Kashmir—On the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2021, a narrow lane covered with a huge layer of snow—and the muddy foot imprints of Kashmiri mourners—formed a track leading to the door of Mushtaq Ahmad Wani's house. Two Kashmiri men in their early 20s who wore long dull-colored pheran, a traditional Kashmiri dress, served the tea to the mourners, who had come to express their condolences to Mushtaq over the killing of his only son, 16-year-old Athar Ashraf Wani. The teen was killed two weeks earlier on the highway that connects Srinagar, the capital city of Indian-administered Kashmir, to the northern and southern parts of the region.
In taking charge of a Pentagon battered by leadership churn, the Biden administration will look to one holdover as a source of military continuity: Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President-elect Joe Biden will inherit Milley as his senior military adviser, and although Biden could replace Milley, he likely won't. A Princeton-educated history buff with the gift of gab, Milley has been a staunch defender of the military's apolitical tradition even as President Donald Trump packed the Pentagon with political loyalists.
Parler CEO John Matze Jr. and his family have fled their homes after receiving death threats, a new court filing says. Parler was recently removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and Amazon Web Services stopped hosting the platform after it deemed Parler a "risk to public safety." Trump supporters flocked to the platform after the president was banned from Twitter following the siege at the Capitol on January 6.
Last week TCPalm detailed how Piper's Landing Yacht & Country Club managed to get ahold of some 270 Moderna vaccines, courtesy of Mobile Medical Associates, which provides "concierge" in-home medical services. Mobile Medical is approved by the state to distribute the vaccine, and owner Laurie McCuen told TCPalm the firm already provides health care services to about 70 country club members/homeowners; 20 were home-bound patients, and 50 have mobility issues. The other 200 vaccines went to other club members age 65 and up.
At least six of Sen. Ted Cruz's former aides have expressed their disgust at the recent actions of their former boss, according to New York Magazine's Intelligencer. Ted Cruz is under fire for spreading election misinformation, objecting to the results of the 2020 election being certified, and having fundraised during the US Capitol insurrection. Democratic lawmakers have called for Cruz to resign or to be removed from office.
Officials had fortified statehouses with extra police, National Guard troops and fencing after the FBI had warned about the possibility of armed demonstrations at all 50 state capitols. In Richmond, Virginia, police vehicles, dump trucks and orange barrels blocked streets around the Capitol, but there was no sign of demonstrations.
The US Postal Service will remove some mailboxes and halt collection in several major cities as a safety measure ahead of next week's presidential inauguration. States and cities across the country are expecting unrest in the days leading up to January 20. The US Postal Services said it will remove mailboxes in several major cities as a security measure ahead of Joe Biden's Inauguration next week.
Donald Trump will get to take the nuclear football with him when he leaves Washington DC on his final day in office – but the codes will be deactivated at the stroke of noon. Mr Trump will be accompanied by the 45-pound briefcase when he flies to Florida on the morning of Joe Biden's inauguration, as he is reportedly expected to do. Military officials will have a nuclear football ready and waiting to accompany Mr Biden after he becomes the commander-in-chief, officials told CNN.
“If you’re looking to win elections, it is probably best not to urge your supporters not to vote.”
“Warnock’s portrayal of himself as a dog lover, a means of overcoming white suspicions of Black men, smacked of pure genius.”
“Trump has done damage to the Republican brand among suburban voters that goes well beyond just races where he is on the ballot.”
“Once more, Democrats must profusely thank activist Stacey Abrams.”
“Overall, demographic trends show that the state’s electorate is becoming younger and more diverse each year.”