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.
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.
WorldAssociated PressIran sentences brother of senior vice president to 2 years
Iran has sentenced the brother of the country's senior vice president to two years in prison on corruption charges, the website of the Iranian judiciary reported Tuesday. According to the judiciary's spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, the verdict for Mahdi Jahangiri, the brother of Eshaq Jahangiri, is final and cannot be appealed. Mahdi Jahangiri was on the board of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce and was also the founder of the private Gardeshgari Bank.
PoliticsThe IndependentJosh Hawley issues counter-complaint against Democrats who called for investigation into him over Capitol insurrection
Republican Senator Josh Hawley filed an ethics counter-complaint against seven Democratic senators who called for an investigation into him and Ted Cruz. Both senators have faced widespread criticism and calls for them to resign for their role in trying to challenge Joe Biden's election victory. Five people were killed when Pro-Trump rioters attacked the Congress as lawmakers gathered to certify the electoral college results earlier this month.
WorldReuters'Wear a mask': Mexicans urge president to follow rules after COVID-19 setback
Mexicans hope President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador makes a speedy recovery from COVID-19, though many believe he could have avoided infection if he had more strictly followed the government's own health advice - and worn a face mask. Lopez Obrador's diagnosis on Sunday capped the deadliest week of the coronavirus pandemic in the country with the world's fourth-highest death toll https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi. "He wasn't looking after himself, always walking around without a mask, and not respecting social distancing," said Mexico City rubbish collector Luis Enrique Flores, wheeling his cart past a wall plastered with government posters urging people to wear masks.
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 projections for future hospital intensive care unit capacity throughout the state, the key metric for lifting the coronavirus stay-at-home order. However, state officials did not explain how regional per capita virus cases and transmission rates that also were released might influence how much ICU space will be available in four weeks. 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.
PoliticsArchitectural DigestAll About Kamala Harris’s Temporary D.C. Home
Kamala Harris is starting her term as vice president in an impressive, though temporary, residence. After Harris was sworn in, she and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, relocated from California to Blair House, otherwise known as the president's guest house. Typically, the vice president resides in the U.S. Naval Observatory, but CBS News reports that the historic structure is currently undergoing renovations, and that “repairs to the residence … are more easily conducted with the home unoccupied.”
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.
U.S.Associated PressCalifornia reverses stay-at-home order as conditions improve
Business owners hailed Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to lift stay-at-home orders across California in response to improving coronavirus conditions, but local health officials expressed concern that it may cause residents to let down their guard. California is experiencing a “flattening of the curve,” Newsom said during a virtual news conference on Monday. The metrics are markedly improved since last month, when some Southern California hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients were crafting emergency plans for rationing care.
WorldReutersChina ambassador says export delays for Brazil vaccine supplies not political
The issues holding up vaccine supply exports from China to Brazil are due to technical, rather than political obstacles, China's ambassador said on Tuesday, as delays to Brazil's vaccine rollout began to grow. Some have speculated that China, which for years has been the butt of attacks by Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, may have stalled approving the exports as some form of political vengeance. Brazil is waiting for ingredients from China needed to produce two vaccines locally - one from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd and another from AstraZeneca Plc .
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden to order end of federally run private prisons
President Joe Biden on Tuesday will order on the Department of Justice to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role the government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies, White House officials say. The moves come as Biden is set to sign a series of orders and memorandums Tuesday as the new administration says it will make combating racial injustice a central focus of his presidency. “America has never lived up to its founding promise of equality for all, but we've never stopped trying," Biden tweeted on Tuesday morning.
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.
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.
WorldReutersZimbabwe, beset by soaring COVID-19 cases, gets vaccine offers from Russia, China
Russia and China have approached Zimbabwe about supplying vaccines to tackle its escalating COVID-19 outbreak amid concern about Harare's ability to afford the shots, with plans for meetings with business leaders who have offered to pay for them. Infections have doubled in just the past few weeks and three government ministers have died in the last 10 days. Zimbabwe doctors' groups say that hospitals are quickly filling up with COVID-19 patients and cite an increase in the number of infected people dying at home, unable to afford the steep fees charged by hospitals.
U.S.The IndependentNew threats of a second attack on the US Capitol loom over lawmakers ahead of Trump’s second impeachment trial
A surge in threats against lawmakers and the US Capitol have forced National Guard troops to remain in Washington ahead of former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. The troops will remain on Capitol Hill as the US Senate trial begins on 8 February, marking the first time in American history in which a former president has faced an impeachment trial after leaving office. The House voted to impeach Mr Trump for fomenting a deadly insurrection at the Capitol as Congress convened to certify his electoral defeat in the 2020 elections, citing his speech held just before the deadly attacks and conduct during the riots, which left at least five people dead, including United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.
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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.
BusinessAssociated PressDifferent types of gambling, media converging for growth
The many different types of gambling are quickly coming together with each other and with media outlets — and Wall Street is taking notice. Casino gambling, internet gambling, sports betting and daily fantasy sports are no longer separate silos with unique audiences: Gambling companies are increasingly combining them and partnering with media companies to expand the reach of gambling. This expansion is leading Wall Street analysts to predict fast-growing revenue in the U.S. over the next five to 10 years.
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 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.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderGoogle will stop donating to members of Congress who voted against certifying the US election result
Google says it will not donate to members of Congress this cycle who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 US election. Last week, Google and a host of other leading tech players, including Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, announced they would suspend donations to politicians who voted against certifying Joe Biden's presidential victory, citing the storming of the US Capitol, which left five people dead. "After the disturbing events at the Capitol, NetPAC paused all contributions while undertaking a review," a Google representative told Insider.
U.S.Associated PressMossimo Giannulli loses bid to finish prison term at home
Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli's request to serve the remaining three months of his prison term in the college admissions bribery scheme at home was denied Tuesday by a federal judge. Giannulli argued he should be released to home confinement for the rest of his five-month sentence because he spent eight weeks under “extreme” conditions in solitary confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic after reporting to prison in November. But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said Giannulli failed to demonstrate an "'extraordinary and compelling' reason warranting his release," though he noted that the quarantine was “longer than anticipated.
WorldINSIDERChina is spreading conspiracy theories that the coronavirus was created in an American lab and that a US-created vaccine is killing the elderly
Chinese state media is spreading a conspiracy theory that a US Army base created the coronavirus. The disinformation push comes as WHO scientists arrive in Wuhan to study the virus' origins. Chinese state media is playing up a conspiracy theory about the novel coronavirus' origins while also questioning the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's safety in older people.
PoliticsReutersWith Trump gone, U.S. Supreme Court pulls plug on anti-corruption cases
Five days after the end of Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday halted lawsuits accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution's anti-corruption provisions by maintaining ownership of his business empire including a hotel near the White House while in office. The action means that after four years of litigation the top U.S. judicial body will not rule on the meaning and scope of the Constitution's so-called emoluments provisions, a largely untested area of constitutional law. The justices threw out lower court rulings that had allowed the lawsuits to proceed and ordered the two cases dismissed because they became moot with Trump leaving office.
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Taiwan air force flexes muscles after latest Chinese incursion
Taiwan, claimed by China as its territory, has been on edge since the large-scale incursion by Chinese fighters and nuclear-capable bombers into the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone on Saturday (January 23) and Sunday (January 25), which coincided with a U.S. carrier group entering the South China Sea. The base in the southern city of Tainan, home to F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighters (IDF), frequently scrambles jets to intercept China's air force.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastKayleigh McEnany Likely to Join Fox News—Because of Course
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is apparently in talks to sign with Fox News, according to reports. McEnany's public financial disclosure report filed this month after she left the Trump administration shows she entered an “employment agreement with Fox News, starting work in January,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington first reported on Tuesday. McEnany did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but according to journalist Yashar Ali, the network claims McEnany is not yet employed there.
“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.”