PoliticsYahoo NewsProbe begins into thwarted Justice Department 'coup' to keep Trump in power
The Justice Department's inspector general announced Monday that he had started an investigation into whether current or former officials in the department had engaged in an “improper attempt” to overturn the 2020 presidential election to keep Donald Trump in power. Michael Horowitz, the DOJ inspector general, released a statement announcing the decision. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election.
WorldAssociated PressUN group says Sri Lanka virus cremation rule violates rights
A group of U.N experts has criticized Sri Lanka's requirement that those who die of COVID-19 be cremated, even it goes against a family's religious beliefs, and warned that decisions based on “discrimination and aggressive nationalism” could incite hatred and violence. The experts, who are part of the Special Procedures of the U.N Human Rights Council, said in a statement Monday that rule amounts to a human rights violation. “We deplore the implementation of such public health decisions based on discrimination, aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism amounting to persecution of Muslims and other minorities in the country,” the experts said.
WorldReutersBoycott 'wildcat' Scottish independence vote, says Scottish Conservative leader
Backers of the union of the United Kingdom's four nations should boycott any "wildcat" independence referendum for Scotland, the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party said on Monday, after the nation's first minister pressed ahead with plans for a vote. Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said on Sunday she was hoping a strong performance by her Scottish National Party (SNP) in an election in May would give her the mandate to hold a second referendum. To get a legal referendum, any such vote must be approved by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has ruled out doing so.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden replaces White House doctor with longtime physician
President Joe Biden has brought back Dr. Kevin O'Connor as his physician, replacing President Donald Trump's doctor with the one who oversaw his care when he was vice president. The White House confirmed that Dr. Sean Conley, the Navy commander who served as the head of the White House Medical Unit under Trump and oversaw his treatment when he was hospitalized with COVID-19, will assume a teaching role at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. O'Connor, a retired Army colonel, was Biden's doctor during his entire tenure as vice president, having remained in the role at Biden's request.
ScienceThe WeekSurging global ice melt suggests sea level rise predictions are far too conservative
The world's ice is melting so fast that sea level rise predictions can't keep up. Climate change is largely responsible for the huge ice melt surge, the Cryosphere study reports. In fact, about three percent of all the energy trapped within the Earth's systems because of climate change has gone toward that ice melt, the study estimates.
WorldReutersFive arrested as Australia Day protests draw thousands
Five people were arrested in Sydney in largely peaceful Australia Day protests on Tuesday with thousands defying public health concerns and rallying across the nation against the mistreatment of the Indigenous people. The Jan. 26 public holiday marks the date the British fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour in 1788 to start a penal colony, viewing the land as unoccupied despite encountering settlements. But for many Indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years, it is "Invasion Day".
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Iran sentences Iranian-American to prison on spying charges
An Iranian-American has been sentenced by Iran to 10 years in prison on spying charges, despite his family alleging he never had a trial or an opportunity to defend himself. A family spokesman Tuesday confirmed the sentencing of Emad Shargi, the latest dual national to be held in Iran amid tensions with the West. Iran's judiciary acknowledged the sentence without naming him or saying how many years in prison he'd face.
BusinessThe ConversationYes, customers do like it when waiters and hairdressers wear a mask – especially if it's black
The big idea Customers perceive a better quality of service, feel less anxious and exhibit more trust in businesses when waiters and other service workers wear a mask, according to a new study we just submitted for peer review. And we found this to be especially true when the mask was black. We surveyed about 4,500 Americans through Amazon's Mechanical Turk, showing each of them a random picture of a service employee, with or without a mask, in either a grocery store, bank, hair salon, hotel or restaurant.
WorldReutersThai health minister urges understanding over vaccine plan
Thailand's health minister called for understanding on Tuesday and sought to explain the country's coronavirus vaccine procurement plan, following criticism that the government has lacked transparency and been too slow in securing supplies. The strategy came under scrutiny last week when banned opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit said the government had been too reliant on a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn to produce vaccines for Thais while failing to negotiate multiple deals, as other countries have. Thanathorn faces a royal insult lawsuit for mentioning the king in questions he had raised regarding royal-owned Siam Bioscience, which will manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine locally for regional distribution.
WorldAssociated PressUK eyes tougher quarantine as virus toll passes 100,000
Britain's official death toll in the coronavirus pandemic passed 100,000 on Tuesday, a dreaded milestone reached as the government considered requiring hotel quarantines for international travelers to stop new virus variants reaching the country. The government said 100,162 people have died in the pandemic after testing positive for the virus, including 1,631 new deaths reported Tuesday. Britain is the fifth country in the world to record 100,000 virus-related deaths, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, and by far the smallest.
WorldAssociated PressBiden administration suspends some sanctions on Yemen rebels
The Biden administration on Monday suspended some of the terrorism sanctions that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo imposed on Yemen's Houthi rebels in his waning days in office. The Treasury Department said it would exempt certain transactions involving the Houthis from sanctions resulting from Pompeo's designation of the group as a “foreign terrorist organization” on Jan. 10. The exemption will expire Feb. 26, according to a statement from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announcing a general license for transactions that involve entities owned by the Iran-backed Houthis.
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There should be more than one reporter asking tough questions to Biden administration: Media critic
Steve Krakauer, editor at Fourth Watch, says 'it shouldn't be contingent' on one reporter to ask Biden tough questions.
BusinessBBCSatellites beat balloons in race for flying internet
Satellites - once the poor relation of broadband providers, considered the slowest, most expensive option and a real last resort - have become the hot favourite in the race to connect the world in places land-based internet does not reach. Last week, Google scrapped its Loon company, set up nine years ago to beam the internet down to rural areas via a network of large balloons but unable to "build a long-term, sustainable business". Large, relatively low-flying satellite networks have the potential to bring the internet to rural areas and "notspots" anywhere in the world.
WorldReutersMexico passes 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus as pandemic deepens
Mexico's official death toll from the coronavirus passed 150,000 on Monday following a surge in infections in recent weeks that has stretched the health system in the capital to the limit and led to the president contracting COVID-19. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 659 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 150,273. The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
PoliticsThe IndependentOregon Republicans say Capitol riot was staged to harm Trump
The Oregon Republican Party has passed a resolution falsely claiming that the Capitol riot was a "false flag" operation that was undertaken to damage former President Donald Trump and strengthen the power of President Joe Biden. “The violence at the Capitol was a 'false flag' operation designed to discredit President Trump, his supporters, and all conservative Republicans; this provided the sham motivation to impeach President Trump in order to advance the Democratic goal of seizing total power, in a frightening parallel to the February 1933 burning of the German Reichstag," the resolution says, comparing the Capitol riot to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler using the burning of the Reichstag in Berlin to accumulate power and suspend freedom of speech, assembly and press.
WorldAssociated PressUS exploring new bases in Saudi Arabia amid Iran tensions
The U.S. military is exploring the possibility of using a Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia and an additional two airfields in the kingdom amid heightened tensions with Iran, the military said Tuesday. While describing the work as "contingency" planning, the U.S. military said it already has tested unloading and shipping cargo overland from Saudi Arabia's port at Yanbu, a crucial terminal for oil pipelines in the kingdom. Using Yanbu, as well as air bases at Tabuk and Taif along the Red Sea, would give the American military more options along a crucial waterway that has come under increased attack from suspected mine and drone boat attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
U.S.Business InsiderProsecutors say the woman accused of stealing Pelosi's laptop is attempting a cover-up by deleting her social-media activity during house arrest
Department of Justice prosecutors have accused Riley June Williams, the 22-year-old woman suspected of stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's laptop during the Capitol riot, of trying to cover up her tracks by deleting her social-media activity, according to Law & Crime and the NBC 4 reporter Scott MacFarlane. In a court hearing on Monday, prosecutors also said Williams had been telling others to delete messages she had sent them, WHTM reported. The judge hasn't decided on the matter, as Monday's hearing ended abruptly because of a scheduling conflict with Williams' new public defender, Law & Crime reported.
WorldReutersChina to conduct military drills in South China Sea amid tensions with U.S.
China said on Tuesday it will conduct military exercises in the South China Sea this week, just days after Beijing bristled at a U.S. aircraft carrier group's entry into the disputed waters. A notice issued by the country's Maritime Safety Administration prohibited entry into a portion of waters in the Gulf of Tonkin to the west of the Leizhou peninsula in southwestern China from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30, but it did not offer details on when the drills would take place or at what scale. A U.S. carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the South China Sea on Saturday to promote "freedom of the seas," the U.S. military said, days after Joe Biden began his term as president.
PoliticsBBCJoe Biden: America's second Catholic president
Joe Biden has been back in Washington for six days, and already he has attended Catholic Mass twice. Then, on the first Sunday of his presidency, he took in morning services at Holy Trinity Church, in the Georgetown neighbourhood of northwest DC. The Jesuit-affiliated Holy Trinity is the same church to which John F Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president, belonged.
WorldAssociated PressOfficials say Israeli minister visited Sudan to discuss ties
An Israeli delegation headed by the country's intelligence minister quietly visited Sudan and met with the African nation's leaders, officials from both countries said Tuesday. The visit Monday was the first by an Israeli minister to Sudan less than three weeks after Khartoum inked an agreement to normalize ties with Israel. Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen, head of the Israeli delegation, met with Sudanese Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim and other military and government officials.
WorldReutersIsraeli forces shoot dead suspected Palestinian attacker in West Bank
An Israeli military commander shot a Palestinian man who attempted to stab soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the military said, and Palestinian officials said the man had been killed. The incident occurred at a road junction south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, the military said in a statement. Israeli troops at a nearby military post "spotted an assailant who attempted to stab two IDF (Israeli military) soldiers" stationed at the road junction.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRudy Giuliani admits Biden is president hours after being sued for $1.3 billion by voting-machine company
Rudy Giuliani on Monday acknowledged Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. The statement came hours after Dominion Voting Systems sued Giuliani for $1.3 billion. Giuliani spent months peddling conspiracy theories about the company's role in the 2020 election.
WorldAssociated PressWitnesses: Eritrean soldiers loot, kill in Ethiopia's Tigray
Warily, Zenebu watched them try on dresses and other clothing looted from homes in a town in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region. “They were focused on trying to take everything of value,” even diapers, said Zenebu, who arrived home in Colorado this month after weeks trapped in Tigray, where she had gone to visit her mother. On the road, she said, trucks were full of boxes addressed to places in Eritrea for the looted goods to be delivered.
WorldReutersDoctors skeptical as Venezuela's Maduro touts coronavirus 'miracle' drug
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is promoting a "miracle" medication that he said neutralizes COVID-19 with no side effects, a claim doctors said was not backed by science. Maduro on Sunday presented the drug Carvativir, an oral solution he said was tested on patients in a Caracas hospital and a sports center used as an emergency medical facility. He described the liquid as "miracle drops of Jose Gregorio Hernandez," a 19th century Venezuelan doctor who was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church last year, without elaborating on the active ingredients.
WorldBBCVietnam's party congress picks new communist leaders
Vietnam's political elite is gathering to choose the country's leadership for the next five years amid a largely successful battle against Covid-19 and a booming economy. Think of the tightly choreographed political theatre one sees at China's or North Korea's party congresses, and you get the idea. Vietnam is a lot like that, albeit slightly more low-key.
“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.”