PoliticsYahoo NewsProgressives fume as White House backs down on minimum wage increase
President Biden and Senate Democrats drew fire from progressives after opting to not fight a ruling that would strip a $15 minimum wage increase from the Senate's COVID-19 relief legislation. To pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan with just 50 votes, Democrats in the Senate are using a process called budget reconciliation, which requires the approval of the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. On Wednesday, MacDonough ruled that the provision increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2025 violated the Senate's “Byrd rule,” which prohibits “extraneous” provisions from being included in budget legislation passed through reconciliation.
PoliticsAssociated PressDemocrats launch sweeping bid to overhaul US election laws
Stacey Abrams, whose voting rights work helped make Georgia into a swing state, exhorted Congress on Thursday to reject “outright lies" that have historically restricted access to the ballot as Democrats began their push for a sweeping overhaul of election and ethics laws. “A lie cloaked in the seductive appeal of election integrity has weakened access to democracy for millions,” Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race, said during a committee hearing for the bill, which was introduced as H.R. 1 to signal its importance to the party's agenda. Democrats feel a sense of urgency to enact the legislation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when their narrow majorities in the House and Senate will be at risk.
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The only path for India, Pakistan
In the digital universe, the young netizens in India and Pakistan have no problem sharing across a tense and often violent border between the two rival states. The latest example is an Instagram video of a Pakistani teenage influencer suggesting people need to party (“pawri”). It went viral in India, sparking joyous spinoffs.
PoliticsThe WeekBernie Sanders unveils his Plan B for a $15 minimum wage after Senate parliamentarian setback
Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Thursday effectively killed a Democratic push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, ruling that the measure doesn't pass muster under the budget reconciliation rules Democrats are using to pass the package with a simple majority in the Senate. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), have already said they would vote against including the $15 minimum wage provision in the relief package, dealing it a near-fatal blow in the 50-50 Senate. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among them, but he also had a Plan B.
WorldAssociated PressEXPLAINER: How US airstrike in Syria sends message to Iran
A U.S. airstrike targeting facilities used by Iran-backed militias in Syria appears to be a message to Tehran delivered by a new American administration still figuring out its approach to the Middle East. The strike was seemingly a response to stepped-up rocket attacks by such militias that have targeted U.S. interests in Iraq, where the armed groups are based. It comes even as Washington and Tehran consider a return to the 2015 accord meant to rein in Iran's nuclear program.
HealthReutersAstraZeneca, Sputnik vaccines face hurdles if COVID shots become annual affair
Vaccines from AstraZeneca, Russia's Gamaleya Institute and Johnson & Johnson fight the coronavirus with another virus, leaving scientists concerned the shots may lose potency if annual inoculations become necessary to fight new variants. So-called viral vector shots - also used by several Chinese COVID-19 vaccine developers - use harmless modified viruses as vehicles, or vectors, to carry genetic information that helps the body build immunity against future infections. However, there is a risk that the body also develops immunity to the vector itself, recognising it as an intruder and trying to destroy it.
PoliticsThe IndependentWho’s John Boehner’: Ted Cruz reacts to former Speaker telling him to ‘f*** himself’
Addressing the annual CPAC conference of American conservatives, Texas Senator Ted Cruz mocked a former Republican speaker for reportedly telling him to “go f*** himself” during an audiobook recording. During a high-energy roving-microphone speech in which he repeatedly referenced the Star Wars movies and implored Americans to “have fun” rather than fall prey to “cancel culture”, Mr Cruz complained that many in the right-wing establishment “act like they've got a stick inserted somewhere it doesn't belong. He then referred to Mr Boehner's reported comments.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestNo Need to Call an Architect—These 9 Room Dividers Elegantly Get the Job Done
From ornate to subtle, these beautiful screens double as functional art Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsThe TelegraphAnalysis: Window is already narrowing for Republican to challenge Donald Trump for 2024
It is looking ever more probable that Donald Trump will run for the White House again in 2024. All eyes are on his speech this Sunday at CPAC, the annual conservative conference, which like Mr Trump has relocated from Washington to Florida. An adviser told The Telegraph that Mr Trump has spent the last weeks taking a break, and practising his golf swing, but is keen to re-engage in the fight.
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UK top court says IS schoolgirl can't return
The UK's top court has unanimously ruled that a British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State should not be allowed to return. The Supreme Court said on Friday (February 26) Shamima Begum cannot come back to Britain to challenge the government taking away her citizenship because she poses a security risk. She left London in 2015 when she was 15 years old and went to Syria via Turkey with two school friends, where she married an IS fighter.
WorldAssociated PressBrazil death toll tops 250,000, virus still running rampant
Brazil's COVID-19 death toll, which surpassed 250,000 on Thursday, is the world's second-highest for the same reason its second wave has yet to fade: Prevention was never made a priority, experts say. Since the pandemic's start, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro scoffed at the “little flu” and lambasted local leaders for imposing restrictions on activity; he said the economy must keep humming along to prevent worse hardship.
WorldReutersPhilippine police to look into government admission of drug war failures
Philippine police said on Thursday they were looking into a government review of thousands of killings in the country's "war on drugs", after the justice minister made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures. Human Rights Watch described Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra's video statement on Wednesday as an "astounding disclosure". Guevarra said police had in many cases failed to examine weapons and crime scenes after officers had shot dead suspected drug dealers.
PoliticsAssociated PressOnce the mainstream model, Michigan GOP embraces right wing
Josh Venable, a longtime Michigan GOP operative and chief of staff to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, can trace the arc of the state's Republican Party clearly. “This was the state where to be Republican was defined by Gerald Ford and George Romney,” Venable said, referring to the moderate former president and former governor. Now, he said, it's defined by Mike Shirkey, the state Senate majority leader who was overheard calling the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot a “hoax"; Meshawn Maddock, the new co-chair of the state party who backed former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud; and the Proud Boys.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderWhile Biden visits storm-torn Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz will be giving a speech on 'cancel culture' in Florida
President Joe Biden heads to Texas on Friday to tour some of the areas hit hardest by the winter storm last week. While he's there, he won't be meeting with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz has a speaking engagement that day at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
WorldINSIDERIranian journalist, who won the International Press Freedom Award, was detained in Turkey after fleeing a nearly 5-year prison sentence
Mohammad Mosaed is an Iranian reporter who has twice been arrested by the government. The Committee to Protect Journalists awarded him its 2020 International Press Freedom Award. Mohammad Mosaed, an Iranian freelance journalist who has twice been arrested by the government for his investigative reporting and criticism of Iranian officials, was detained by Turkish border officials earlier this year after fleeing Iran following a prison summons.
HealthAxiosNew data reignites the debate over coronavirus vaccine strategy
Driving the news: An analysis of the real-world outcomes of the Pfizer vaccine in Israel, released earlier this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the vaccine was 60% effective at preventing documented coronavirus infection 21 to 27 days after the first dose, and 92% effective 7 or more days after the second dose. But one shot was much more effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization during the same time period, with respective efficacies of 80% and 78%. Two doses were 92% effective at preventing severe disease and 87% effective at preventing hospitalization.
WorldReutersChina expected to unveil hike in military budget as tensions rise
China is expected to reveal a robust increase in defence spending at the March 5 annual opening of parliament, as its economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic and military tensions rise, Chinese and Western security experts said. With the coronavirus hammering its economy, China last year announced a 6.6 per cent boost in defence spending to $178 billion, the lowest rate of increase in three decades. The new administration of President Joe Biden has moved quickly to remind Beijing that the United States intends to compete with China's growing influence and military strength in the Asia-Pacific.
WorldAssociated PressMyanmar's UN envoy dramatically opposes coup in his country
Myanmar's U.N. ambassador strongly opposed the military coup in his country and appealed for “the strongest possible action from the international community” to restore democracy in a dramatic speech to the U.N. General Assembly Friday that drew loud applause from diplomats from the world body's 193 nations. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun urged all countries to issue public statements strongly condemning the military coup and refuse to recognize the military regime and ask its leaders to respect the free and fair elections in November won by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party. Tun's surprise statement not only drew applause but commendations from speaker after speaker at the assembly meeting including ambassadors representing the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the new U.S. ambassador, Linda Thomas Greenfield, who joined others in calling it “courageous.”
WorldBBCDrought hits Taiwan chip supply as Biden asks for more
Plans to ramp up production of chips in Taiwan have been hampered by droughts, affecting factories' water supplies. US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order calling for a 100-day review to increase domestic production of chips in the long term. The island nation, one of the world's biggest producers of chips, had promised to help the US, Germany and Japan by speeding up manufacture.
WorldReuters'I have only bad news' PM warns Hungary, as hospitals face worst weeks yet
Hungary is entering its toughest period since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and over the next two weeks hospitals will come under strain like never before, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday. "I have only bad news," Orban said in a Facebook video. On Thursday, Hungary reported 4,385 new infections, the highest number this year.
WorldAssociated PressDefense head Austin weighs warship needs in Pacific, Mideast
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told sailors on the USS Nimitz Thursday that he hopes to avoid long ship deployments like the more than 10 months they just spent at sea. But as he made his first aircraft carrier visit as Pentagon chief, he acknowledged the demand for American warships around the globe as he wrestles with security threats from China in the Pacific and Iran in the Middle East. Standing in the ship's hangar bay, Austin said he will make a decision soon on whether to send a carrier back to the Middle East, where the Nimitz had been.
PoliticsReutersMcConnell to support Trump if party picks him as its 2024 nominee
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who excoriated former President Donald Trump over the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot less than two weeks ago, said on Thursday that he would "absolutely" vote for Trump if he became the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. McConnell, who Trump blasted last week as "a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack," said he expects to see an open contest for the Republican White House nomination in 2024 but showed no hesitation in backing Trump when asked whether he would vote for him as nominee. Trump is expected to talk about the possibility of a 2024 run when he speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, nearly two months after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his defeat in November's election by Democrat Joe Biden.
WorldAssociated PressTies with Saudis at stake as US releases findings on killing
The United States has pledged to tell the world its conclusions on what role Saudi Arabia's crown prince played in the brutal killing and dismembering of a U.S.-based journalist, but as important is what comes next — what the Biden administration plans to do about it. Ahead of the release of the declassified U.S. intelligence report, and announcement of any U.S. punitive measures, President Joe Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman on Thursday for the first time since taking office more than a month ago. It was a later-than-usual courtesy call to the Middle East ally, timing seen as reflecting Biden's displeasure.
WorldBusiness InsiderMerkel says she won't take AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine because she's too old, as 1.4 million jabs are left unused
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she won't take AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine has been approved for only people under 65 in Germany, and Merkel is 66. Recent trials have linked AstraZeneca's vaccine with a dramatic drop in hospitalization risk.
WorldReutersFrom the hinterland to Hollywood: how Indian farmers galvanised a protest movement
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is struggling to beat back his biggest political challenge in years from a protest movement which began with disgruntled farmers travelling to New Delhi on tractors and is now gaining wider support at home and abroad. Simmering in makeshift camps housing tens of thousands of farmers since last year, the movement has seen a dramatic growth in recent weeks, getting backing from environmental activists, opposition parties and even A-list Western celebrities. At its heart are three new farm laws passed by the government last September, thanks to the majority Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys in the lower house of parliament.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”