The acrimonious split within Republican ranks widened over the weekend as Donald Trump made his foray back into politics, backing the re-election of a hard-line supporter as chair of the party in Arizona. Underlining Mr Trump's grip on the Republican grassroots, the Arizona party also voted to censure John McCain's widow, Cindy, former senator Jeff Flake and governor Doug Ducey, who refused to back the former president's claims of election fraud. Mr Trump's intervention came amid reports that he is considering setting up a “Patriot Party” which would spearhead primary challenges to his opponents in the 2022 mid-term elections.
A 34-year-old grizzly bear captured in southwestern Wyoming has been confirmed as the oldest on record in the Yellowstone region, Wyoming wildlife officials said. Grizzly bear 168 was captured last summer after it preyed on calves in the Upper Green River Basin area. The male had just a few teeth left and weighed 170 pounds (77 kilograms), just a fraction of the 450 pounds (204 kilograms) the bear weighed as a 5-year-old when he was captured in the Shoshone National Forest in August 1991.
In response to Biden re-entering the US into the Paris climate agreement, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has launched a "Pittsburgh over Paris" campaign. Cruz says that Biden rejoining the Paris agreement will cost the citizens of Pittsburgh jobs, but the idea makes no sense and is just another bad faith attempt at scoring political points. This is the norm for Republicans, and a sign of what's to come.
A prominent U.S. Senate Republican warned on Saturday that former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial could lead to the prosecution of former Democratic presidents if Republicans retake the chamber in two years. "If it is a good idea to impeach and try former Presidents, what about former Democratic Presidents when Republicans get the majority in 2022? Think about it and let's do what is best for the country," Senator John Cornyn, a 19-year veteran of the Senate, said in a Twitter post directed at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
New Zealand's first case of coronavirus in the community for more than two months has been identified as the South African variant and was likely contracted in hotel quarantine, health minister Chris Hipkins said on Monday. Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure from ministers to toughen border controls to prevent new variants of coronavirus from reaching the UK. New Zealand has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic, with just 25 deaths from 1,927 confirmed virus cases in a population of five million.
A New York woman said she felt like she was being attacked by animals after a group of men accosted her in Harlem, biting her face and breaking the skin, according to NBC New York. The woman, 31, who has not been publicly identified, was also beaten, spit on and robbed during the attack, which happened near a liquor store in the Manhattan neighborhood, NBC New York reported. Video shared by the New York Police Department shows the men surrounding her outside the store, which is where she said they attacked her.
Nilda Pedrosa, a top-ranking federal official from Miami-Dade County who led multiple Florida Republicans to victory, died Saturday night after battling cancer. Pedrosa, who served visible roles on U.S. Senate campaigns and congressional offices alike, is consistently described by friends and former colleagues as a kind and stubbornly optimistic companion. Throughout her work in politics, colleagues say Pedrosa was charismatic and worked well with Democrats and Republicans alike.
Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen said that the ex-president might have issued secret pardons to himself and his children during his tenure, which he will reveal if he is indicted. Talking to MSNBC, Mr Cohen said he believes Mr Trump has already pardoned himself, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and his children in what he termed as “pocket pardons” to save themselves from criminal conviction if needed. The former president had issued a slew of pardons in his final days of office.
I look terrible when it comes off,” she jokes as she takes a break during her ninth straight day of 12-hour shifts inside a temporary field hospital in Lenoir, North Carolina. Rutledge, a 60-year-old retired nurse from Lisbon, Iowa, is one of dozens of health care workers who have been treating coronavirus patients inside 11 massive white medical tents set up in the parking lot of Caldwell Memorial Hospital. The tents became necessary in December when the virus began surging through this rural community in the Carolina foothills, overwhelming the hospital's capacity.
Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and other top Justice Department officials spent New Year's Eve berating Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the DOJ's civil division, for repeatedly pushing them to help former President Donald Trump overturn his clear electoral loss and secretly meeting with Trump, The New York Times reports, citing six people with knowledge of the meeting. Rosen thought the matter was settled that night, the Times reports, but Clark continued secretly planning with Trump to intervene in Georgia, including a plot where Trump would fire Rosen and put Clark in his place.
Six days after Daytona Beach area man Bobby Scott was last seen, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office arrested DeLand man Michael Harris Saturday night for Scott's murder. Harris, 20, remains in Volusia County jail without bond on a charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon. VCSO said they still haven't found the 63-year-old Scott's body.
Chinese and Indian troops have reportedly clashed again in a disputed border area, with injuries on both sides, Indian media say. The incident took place in north Sikkim last Wednesday. India's army said there had been a "minor" incident that had been "resolved".
Joe Biden's new chief of staff has accused Donald Trump of failing to have implemented a vaccine plan during his time in office, as criticism grows over the former president's last-minute pardons - which some legal experts have noted may feature “gaps” leaving recipients open to future prosecutions. Ron Klain told NBC's Meet the Press: “The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House.
The Judge highlights the agenda of the new Biden presidency
A woman called Disney World on January 9 pretending to buy tickets to the theme park. The Disney employee helping her suspected she was being physically abused and alerted the police. A 38-year-old man was later arrested and charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, and more.
A son alerted the FBI about his father weeks before he was a part of the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol, The New York Times reported. Guy Reffitt was arrested on January 16 on charges of obstruction of justice and knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. Reffitt allegedly threatened his son and daughter if they turned him in after telling them he stormed the Capitol.
This could be seen on Wednesday when President Joe Biden was sworn in at noon during the inaugural ceremonies, then just hours later signed 17 executive orders focusing on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and undoing his predecessor's legacy on issues like immigration and foreign relations. As work quietly continued behind the scenes, Mr Biden spent the weekend meeting with advisers in the Oval Office, receiving briefings and mapping out his first 100 days. It was quite the difference from Donald Trump's first weekend in office: sworn in on a Friday afternoon, the former president spent his first days as commander-in-chief lying about his Inauguration Day crowd sizes, attacking members of the media as being “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” and, of course, posting his stream of consciousness to social media in the form of endless tweets.
A Tennesse man was arrested by authorities after being accused of making a fake photo that shows two people desecrating a deceased officer's grave and posting it on social media, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release. The grave was of Dickson County Sheriff's Office's Sgt. Daniel Baker who died in 2018, the Tennessean reported. The suspect, Joshua Andrew Garton, was charged with a count of harassment, the bureau said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said he last year opened a letter that was filled with a "puff of powder." While the substance turned out to be benign, he said he feared it was either anthrax or ricin. In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Fauci detailed his experience under Trump.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the White House coronavirus response coordinator while former President Donald Trump was still in office, opened up about her time working with the Trump administration during an exclusive interview with CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday. Birx was often criticized for not pushing back enough on Trump's comments about the pandemic, and while she suggested her reactions could be misinterpreted — like the time Trump asked her about whether COVID-19 could be treated with a bleach injection — she did anticipate the gig would likely be the end of her federal career. "You can't go into something that's that polarized and not believe you won't be tainted by that experience," she told Brennan, adding that she'll "need to retire" within the next few weeks.
The group also expressed support for increasing funding for vaccine distribution. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Some senators are pushing back on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion economic rescue package over concerns that it provides too much money to wealthy Americans, according to a report from Politico.
Chinese state media is spreading a conspiracy theory that a US Army base created the novel coronavirus. It's also pushing the idea that Pfizer's vaccine is unsafe for the elderly, a claim disproven by researchers. The misinformation push comes as a team of WHO scientists arrive in Wuhan to study the virus origins.
Sir Kenneth Branagh will play Prime Minister Boris Johnson in an upcoming Sky drama based on the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been announced. The BAFTA and Emmy award-winning actor, who has starred in Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Dunkirk will portray Mr Johnson in This Sceptred Isle, a five-part drama will chart the events surrounding the Prime Minister, the government, and the country in the face of the first wave of the global pandemic. This Sceptred Isle will tell the tale of some of the most devastating events to ever befall the United Kingdom, and of a Prime Minister leading in these unprecedented times, Sky said.
The last time Marco Rubio looked this uncomfortable in the national spotlight, he was stuck on robotic repeat in a Republican debate, being pummelled by Chris Christie. “How seriously do you take Ivanka Trump as a potential opponent?” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked, citing speculation over the former “first daughter's” personal political ambitions following her purchase of property in Miami with her husband, Jared Kushner. “Well, I, I, I don't really get into the parlour games of Washington,” Rubio replied, clearly wishing his potential challenger was called anything other than Trump.
Son of police officer who punched cop during Capitol riots has brother in the Secret Service. Scott Kevin Fairlamb, 43, of Stockholm, New Jersey, was arrested on five charges on January 22. Preston Fairlamb III led Michelle Obama's service detail while she was First Lady.
“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.”