PoliticsYahoo NewsAt CPAC, Cruz and Hawley remain defiant about Capitol riot
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri took to the stage today at the Conservative Political Action Conference and gave what amounted to their most extensive public remarks since Jan. 6, when both were seen by critics as having helped incite a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Cruz spoke on Friday morning, while Hawley addressed the audience in a less enviable afternoon spot. As they have in appearances on Fox News and other outlets in recent weeks, they cast themselves as victims of Democratic “cancel culture” — an ill-defined concept that encompasses social and corporate disapproval — while taking no responsibility for inciting the white supremacists and other supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol in hopes of keeping Joe Biden from assuming the Oval Office.
WorldBBCNodeep Kaur: Jailed Dalit activist, 25, granted bail by India court
A court in India has granted bail to Nodeep Kaur, a 25-year-old labour rights activist who has been in prison for more than a month. Nodeep was arrested on 12 January when she was protesting outside a factory on the outskirts of the capital, Delhi. Her arrest lead to global outrage given the circumstances in which she was picked up amid accusations of sexual assault and torture.
U.S.National ReviewAOC Calls for Investigation into ‘Extraordinarily Serious’ Cuomo Sexual-Harassment Allegations
The progressive congresswoman told reporters that survivors “deserve to be heard” and noted that the “process for hearing this allegation falls squarely in the state legislature. Meanwhile, New York attorney general Letitia James is reportedly reviewing a letter from state Republicans who have also called for an investigation into the allegations against the governor, according to Fox News. Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, on Wednesday published an essay detailing alleged sexual harassment she endured while working for the governor, including unwanted kissing and touching.
WorldAssociated PressIS bride loses bid to return to UK to fight for citizenship
A woman who ran away from London as a teenager to join the Islamic State group lost her bid Friday to return to the U.K. to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds. Shamima Begum was one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria in 2015. She resurfaced at a refugee camp in Syria and told reporters she wanted to come home, but was denied the chance after former Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramLongtime radio host Russ Martin found dead in Frisco home, police say; cause unclear
Longtime Dallas-Fort Worth radio host Russ Martin was found dead inside of his Frisco home a little after midnight Saturday, the Frisco police department announced. The cause of his death wasn't known as of Saturday, but police said no foul play is suspected. Officers responded to an unresponsive person call in the 6300 block of Douglas Avenue in Frisco around 12:30 a.m.
PoliticsReutersBiden brings empathy to storm-battered Texas, security official lays out state's mistakes
U.S. President Joe Biden met with volunteers at a food bank, toured a health center and visited an emergency operations facility on Friday to assess recovery efforts from a severe Texas winter storm while an aide blamed state government for being unprepared. Biden and his wife Jill Biden landed in Houston where he met Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to discuss the recovery from last week's storm, which caused serious damage to homes and businesses, left millions without power or clean water for days, and killed at least two dozen. At the Houston Food Bank, the largest in the country serving more than 1.1 million people, Biden saw rows of packaged food, from pasta to applesauce, stacked in a large warehouse and watched conveyors move slowly as volunteers pulled food out of boxes and put them in containers for delivery.
U.S.Associated Press10 death row inmates in Oklahoma could get new trials
As many as 10 death row inmates in Oklahoma, more than one-fifth of the state's prisoners condemned to die, could escape execution because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country. The inmates have challenged their convictions in state court following the high court's ruling last year, dubbed the McGirt decision, that determined a large swath of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation. The decision means that Oklahoma prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal charges in cases in which the defendants, or the victims, are tribal citizens.
U.S.Architectural DigestMore Inside A New Safari Lodge Treehouse Tucked Away in Botswana’s Okavango Delta
Only reachable by canoe, this Xigera hideaway is centered along lush riverbeds and a rich concentration of wildlife. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTed Cruz engages in an online spat over Biden's HHS secretary nominee who sued the Trump administration more than 100 times
Ted Cruz opposes the nomination of Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Cruz insists that the role should be filled by a scientist and not an attorney. Kevin M. Kruse called out Cruz for dismissing Becerra's tenure as a former congressman and current attorney general.
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Syria condemns 'cowardly' U.S. air strikes
PENTAGON CHIEF SPOKESMAN JOHN KIRBY: "The United States will act to protect American and coalition personnel and our security interests in the region." Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that the U.S. air strike carried out in Syria totally destroyed nine facilities used by Iranian-backed militias in the country, in Joe Biden's first known military action as president. KIRBY: "When we referred to the justification for the strikes, we talked about recent attacks.
BusinessReutersEight U.S. auto state governors urge Biden to press semiconductor firms on chip shortage
A bipartisan group of eight governors from U.S. auto states on Friday urged Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden to do more to press semiconductor firms to address a global shortage of automotive chips that has cut some vehicle production. The governors of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, South Carolina, Alabama and Missouri asked Biden in a letter to join foreign governments in urging semiconductor and wafer companies to expand production and "temporarily reallocate a modest portion of their current production to auto-grade wafer production." Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who led the effort to get other governors to sign, said she was urging Biden "to do everything in his power and to leave no stone unturned to protect auto jobs throughout the supply chain at risk because of this shortage."
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.
U.S.The TelegraphLady Gaga poised to hand over $500,000 reward to mystery woman after safe return of Bulldogs
Lady Gaga is poised to hand over a $500,000 reward to a mystery woman who returned her beloved French bulldogs kidnapped in a violent street robbery near her home in Hollywood. Koji and Gustav, thought to be worth up to $10,000 dollars each, were given in at a downtown LAPD Police Station by an unnamed woman late on Friday night. Authorities believe the woman who handed the dogs in was "uninvolved and unassociated" with the attack - but she is still eligible for the "unconditional" $500,000 and is said to be in contact with Gaga's representatives.
WorldReutersPoland raises upper age limit for AstraZeneca shot, taking in Slovak patients
Poland will raise the upper age limit for people being given the AstraZeneca vaccine to 69, and will take COVID-19 patients from neighbouring Slovakia, a health ministry spokesman said on Friday. COVID-19 cases have been surging in central and eastern Europe, but in common with the rest of the European Union the region has faced problems with vaccine deliveries. "Today the health minister's vaccination team recommended extending (the age limit)...Within an hour there will be a announcement from the health minister," spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz told a news conference.
U.S.Associated PressBiden surveys Texas weather damage, encourages virus shots
President Joe Biden heard firsthand from Texans clobbered by this month's brutal winter weather on Friday and pledged to stick with them “for the long haul” as he made his first trip to a major disaster area since he took office. Biden was briefed by emergency officials and thanked workers for doing “God's work.” “When a crisis hits our states, like the one that hit Texas, it's not a Republican or Democrat that's hurting," Biden said.
U.S.Associated PressGrowing tension in Minneapolis as trial looms in Floyd death
Barbed wire and concrete barriers surround the courthouse where the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd will soon go on trial, a sign of the deep uneasiness hanging over a city literally set ablaze almost a year ago in the anger over his death. Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, both Democrats, were sharply criticized for failing to move faster to stop last summer's looting and destruction, which included the torching of a police station. Anything less than a murder conviction for Derek Chauvin is likely to test them — and the city — once again.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump supporters and right-wing reporters wouldn't stop heckling CNN's Jim Acosta during second day of CPAC
CNN's Jim Acosta was heckled by Trump supporters and right-wing reporters during CPAC on Friday. Videos of the event show Acosta being taunted on multiple occasions. CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was filmed being heckled by Trump supporters and right-wing reporters while he was trying to cover the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida on Friday.
PoliticsBBCCoronavirus: Biden's $1.9tn Covid relief bill passes House vote
President Joe Biden's $1.9tn (£1.4tn) relief plan to help Americans during the Covid pandemic has been approved in the House of Representatives. Two Democrats joined Republicans - who see it as too expensive - in opposing it. The bill must now go to the evenly-divided Senate, which has already blocked a key element - doubling the US minimum wage to $15 an hour.
WorldAssociated PressExperts notice pandemic's mental health toll on German youth
Pollina Dinner returned to school in Berlin for the first time this week after two months of lockdown. The 9-year-old third-grader was thrilled to see her classmates and teachers again but frets about the coronavirus pandemic's effect on her life. Psychiatrists, psychologists and pediatricians in Germany have voiced growing alarm that school closings, social restrictions and other precautions are magnifying the fear, disruption and stress of the pandemic among Germany's 13.7 million children and teenagers, raising the prospect of a future mental health crisis.
U.S.USA TODAY'We're done with that lifestyle': Jessica Watkins, Ohio woman charged in Capitol riot, renounces Oath Keepers
An Ohio woman ordered held in jail pending trial on charges in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol told a federal judge late Friday that she has disbanded her armed group in Ohio and plans to cancel her membership in the Oath Keepers. Jessica Watkins, 38, of Champaign County, told U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in the District of Columbus that she was appalled and humiliated by the events of Jan. 6. "As soon as I'm out, whether acquittal or release, I'm canceling my Oath Keepers membership," she said.
PoliticsReutersDonald Trump's niece blasts his 'chutzpah' toward her fraud lawsuit
Donald Trump's niece accused him on Friday of trying to dodge accountability for defrauding her out of a multimillion dollar inheritance by claiming she took too long to sue. Lawyers for Mary Trump made the accusation in a New York state court in Manhattan, where the 55-year-old psychologist is suing the former president, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and his late brother Robert's estate. "The offensiveness of defendants' past conduct — stealing tens of millions of dollars from their own niece — is perhaps surpassed only by the chutzpah of their current arguments for dismissal," the lawyers wrote.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestMore Inside an Art Adviser’s Eclectic Minneapolis Pad
The owner Kathy Ganley, who also views her home as an informal gallery, fills the 6,500-square-foot space with an array of artworks, including a still life in the laundry room to make sure no wall is left behind Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated PressOfficials: Attack targets Afghan reporter's family, kills 3
Three family members of an assassinated journalist in western Afghanistan have been killed by gunmen, local officials said Friday, amid a rising wave of attacks targeting journalists and civil society actors. Ghor provincial council member Hamidullah Mutahid said that at least five others were wounded in the attack late Thursday. The gunmen stormed the family home of Afghan journalist and activist Bismillah Adil Aimaq, who was shot dead in an unclaimed attack nearby Ghor on Jan. 1.
U.S.Business InsiderAmerican Airlines flight diverted to Phoenix after passengers fight over racial slur
Flight 776 between Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles had to be diverted to Phoenix. Kelly Pichardo, 30, and Leeza Rodriguez, 29, were asked to stop using a slur by another passenger. Both women were charged with disorderly conduct and Pichardo also faced an additional assault charge.
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Stephen Miller: Biden administration 'adopted anti-science position, illegal immigrants privileged over Americans'
Former Trump senior adviser addresses the Biden administration's immigration policy and the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.
“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.”