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.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden administration looks to 'speed up' effort to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill
President Biden's administration is hoping to "speed up" efforts to get Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during a briefing Monday said the Treasury Department is "taking steps to resume efforts" to put Tubman on the $20 bill, a plan that was originally announced under former President Barack Obama, and is "exploring ways to speed up that effort." Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previously announced in 2019 that the planned $20 bill redesign with Tubman replacing former President Andrew Jackson on the front had been delayed until 2028.
WorldReutersIndonesia set to pass one million coronavirus cases as vaccinations roll out
Indonesia is set to officially surpass one million coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a grim milestone for the Southeast Asian nation that has struggled since last March to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control. The world's fourth-most-populous country had recorded 999,256 coronavirus infections as of Monday, with the average daily increase running above 11,000 for more than a week, according to official data. Deaths from the respiratory disease have totalled 28,132.
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Female student athletes speak out against Biden executive order on transgender competition
Three Connecticut female student athletes who filed a discrimination complaint over transgender competition argue that the president's new executive order is not fair.
WorldAssociated PressChina pushes conspiracy theories on COVID origin, vaccines
Chinese state media have stoked concerns about Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, despite rigorous trials indicating it is safe. A government spokesperson has raised the unsubstantiated theory that the coronavirus could have emerged from a U.S. military lab, giving it more credence in China. As the ruling Communist Party faces growing questioning about China's vaccines and renewed criticism of its early COVID-19 response, it is hitting back by encouraging conspiracy theories that some experts say could cause harm.
WorldThe TelegraphIndian and Chinese troops involved in new border clash in eastern Himalayas
Indian and Chinese soldiers armed with sticks and stones have brawled again along their disputed frontier, Delhi said, as the neighbours' months-long border stand-off continued. Indian security officials said there were clashes after at least 18 Chinese soldiers tried to cross into Indian-claimed territory at Naku La in Sikkim on January 20. A senior Indian Army official told the Telegraph that four Indian soldiers were wounded after they challenged the Chinese PLA soldiers.
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.
PoliticsThe WeekThe Senate is effectively deadlocked over McConnell's filibuster demand
Senate Democrats are drawing a line at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) demand that a power-sharing agreement in the 50-50 Senate include a pledge to retain the legislative filibuster. "If we gave him that, then the filibuster would be on everything, every day," Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's Meet the Press.
WorldReutersThousands expected to protest Australia Day despite COVID-19 concerns
Thousands of people were expected to defy public health concerns and protest against the mistreatment of Australia's Indigenous people as the country marked its national day on Tuesday on the anniversary of the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788. For many Indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years, the Australia Day holiday is known as Invasion Day symbolising the destruction of their cultures by European settlers. In Sydney, Indigenous groups have called for protests to demand the national day be changed, although state health officials have refused to make an exemption to social distancing rules to allow for crowds of more than 500 people.
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.
WorldReutersEU states no longer recognise Guaido as Venezuela's interim president
Venezuela's Juan Guaido is a "privileged interlocutor" but no longer considered interim president, European Union states said in a statement on Monday, sticking by their decision to downgrade his status. The EU's 27 states had said on Jan. 6 they could no longer legally recognise Guaido as after he lost his position as head of parliament following legislative elections in Venezuela in December, despite the EU not recognising that vote. Following the disputed re-election of President Nicolas Maduro in 2018, Guaido, as head of parliament, became interim president.
WorldAssociated PressFourth Zimbabwean Cabinet member dies of COVID-19 in surge
Four Zimbabwean Cabinet ministers have died of COVID-19, three within the past two weeks, highlighting a resurgence of the disease that is sweeping through this southern African country. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the coronavirus is reaping a “grim harvest” in the country. Then came the death of the transport minister.
U.S.Associated PressCalifornia reveals data used to lift stay-at-home order
California's health department on Monday released to the public previously secret data points used to determine future hospital intensive care unit capacity, the key metric for lifting the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order. Last week, state health officials told The Associated Press they were keeping all the data secret because it is complicated and might mislead the public. The release of the data points came after coronavirus experts, joined by a public access organization and a business group, said the information should be public, and as Gov. Gavin Newsom's political opponents decried the secrecy.
PoliticsBBCSarah Huckabee Sanders: The Trump defender enters political race
Known to millions around the world for her staunch defence of Trump from the press briefing room, now it's her turn to speak for herself. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is back in the political game, announcing on Monday that she's running for the Republican nomination to be the governor of Arkansas in the 2022 election. In true Trumpian fashion, his former White House press secretary broke the news in a video posted on Twitter.
HealthReutersModerna says it believes vaccine will work against new variants
Moderna Inc said on Monday it believes its COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants found in Britain and South Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South African variant after concluding the antibody response could be diminished. The company said in a news release it found no reduction in the antibody response against the variant found in Britain. Against the South African variant, it found a reduced response but still believed its two-dose regimen would provide protection.
WorldAssociated PressChina tackles pandemic with mass construction once again
A sprawling quarantine center with more than 4,000 rooms is being thrown up in northern China in response to a COVID-19 outbreak in Shijiazhuang, a city of more than 10 million people in Hebei province. Satellite images from the European Space Agency show dramatic changes over 10 days in an area where there had been only flat land before construction started on Jan. 13. It's common practice for China to mobilize resources nationwide to tackle natural disasters and other crises.
WorldReutersEU to hold off on new Russia sanctions if Navalny released
The European Union will hold off from imposing fresh sanctions on Russian individuals if the Kremlin releases pro-democracy campaigner Alexei Navalny, EU foreign ministers said on Monday, sending the bloc's top diplomat to Moscow next week. Despite calls from Baltic countries, Italy and Romania for sanctions on Russian officials in response to Navalny's detention as he returned to Russia from Germany on Jan. 17, Germany pushed to give the Kremlin more time. "We have agreed today to wait for the court's decision, to wait to see ...
PoliticsThe IndependentIvanka Trump would face ‘tough race’ for Florida Senate, says Republican incumbent Marco Rubio
Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio has shrugged off rumours that Ivanka Trump could challenge him to a primary in the 2022 midterm elections. The daughter of recently deposed president, Donald Trump, has made no secret of her own political ambitions after serving as a senior adviser in her father's White House and recently relocated her family to a luxury condominium in Miami. Ms Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, likewise an adviser to the 45th president, have also recently acquired a $30m (£22m) lot on nearby Indian Creek Island with a view to building a new home for themselves there, indicating their intention to stay on in the Sunshine State, where Mr Trump himself now resides at his Mar-a-Lago mansion.
CelebrityBBCShyamala Gopalan: The woman who inspired Kamala Harris
What Kamala Harris did on her first day Howard students' joy as Kamala Harris makes history The oldest of the four children of a civil servant father and a homemaker mother, Ms Gopalan wanted to study biochemistry. But hard sciences were not on offer at Delhi's Lady Irwin College for women, founded by India's British colonial rulers, and she had to settle for an undergraduate degree in home science, where she would have studied subjects like nutrition and homemaking skills. "My father and I would tease her about it," Gopalan Balachandran, her brother, told the BBC.
WorldReutersRussian economy to regain pre-crisis level by autumn, VTB CEO says
Russia's economy may return to pre-crisis levels by autumn and overall gross domestic product growth this year could reach around 3.7%, Andrey Kostin, chief executive of the country's second biggest bank VTB, said on Monday. The International Monetary Fund has praised Moscow's efforts in tackling the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase in borrowing and spending coupled with a soft monetary policy resulting in a GDP fall of 4%. As commodities prices, the lifeblood of the Russian economy, are generally on the rise as a result of renewed demand, GDP growth is seen at around 3.7% this year, Kostin said during a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
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Sydney endures first heatwave of 2021
Sydneysiders sweltered through the first heatwave of 2021 on Sunday (January 24) as temperatures reached into the thirties. People cooled off at Sydney's beaches as the Bureau of Meteorology predicted there would be no relief until Tuesday (January 26) or Wednesday (January 27). Gabrielle Woodhouse, the Senior Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said to expect severe to extreme heatwave conditions in the next couple of days across parts of the state of New South Wales.
PoliticsAssociated PressGOP Ohio Sen. Portman not seeking reelection, cites gridlock
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said Monday that he won't seek reelection to a third term in 2022, expressing dismay with the deep partisanship and dysfunction in American politics. The career establishment Republican with a reputation for bipartisanship cited a political climate that has made it “harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress." “Our country is very polarized,” Portman said, adding that former President Donald Trump did not help with the polarization.
U.S.Business InsiderA New York Times editor lost her job after she tweeted about having 'chills' about Biden's inauguration
New York Times editor Lauren Wolfe tweeted about having "chills" seeing Biden arrive for his inauguration. Many criticized her for appearing to show political bias, and The Times later fired Wolfe. A New York Times editor lost her job after receiving criticism for tweeting about her excitement for President Joe Biden's inauguration.
PoliticsThe IndependentSeth Rogen says Ted Cruz ‘deserves ridicule’ after branding senator a ‘fascist’
Seth Rogen has said that Ted Cruz “deserves ridicule” amid calls for an investigation into the Republican senator over comments he made before the deadly Capitol Hill riots. Hollywood actor and producer Rogen has been embroiled in an exchange with Cruz over the past week, calling him a “fascist” on multiple occasions and telling him to “f*** off” during others. Cruz, meanwhile, has branded Rogen a “moron” and “an angry Hollywood celebrity”.
U.S.ReutersTrump lawyer Giuliani faces $1.3 billion lawsuit over 'big lie' election fraud claims
A U.S. voting machine company filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against former President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of defamation in what it called his "big lie" campaign about widespread fraud in the presidential election, court documents on Monday showed. The Denver-based company, Dominion Voting Systems Inc, filed an earlier lawsuit against pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, whom the company also accused of spreading false conspiracy theories about the election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. A senior Dominion employee, Eric Coomer, also filed a defamation lawsuit against the Trump campaign, saying he had been driven into hiding because of death threats from Trump supporters.
“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.”