PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden told this immigrant rights activist 'vote for Trump' in a blunt exchange. He voted for Biden but is ready to push him hard on immigration reform.
In November 2019, on the campaign trail in South Carolina, then-candidate Joe Biden was asked a question by immigrant rights activist Carlos Rojas Rodriguez and an immigrant community member. A tense back-and-forth ensued, with Rodriguez and Silvia criticizing the Obama administration's record on deportations and calling for a moratorium on deportations if Biden was elected. Biden disagreed and told Rodriguez, "You should go vote for Trump."
WorldReutersCanada review of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate should be done soon, minister says
Canadian health authorities should soon complete their regulatory review of Pfizer Inc's coronavirus vaccine candidate, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said on Wednesday. Hajdu posted her comment on Twitter shortly after Britain approved the candidate. Pfizer developed the vaccine with its German partner BioNTech SE.
PoliticsThe TelegraphBill Barr's rejection of Trump's election fraud claims suggests Republican support is weakening
Back in July, the US attorney general Bill Bar was dutifully echoing Donald Trump's warnings that mass mail-in voting was vulnerable to election fraud. Mr Barr's forceful repetition of the unfounded claims were met with heavy criticism from opponents, who accused the country's top law enforcement official of using his position to boost Mr Trump's chances of re-election. After the vote, Mr Barr attracted criticism once more when he authorised prosecutors to pursue allegations of vote counting "irregularities" before election officials had certified the results - a significant reversal from long-standing Justice Department policy.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden facing growing pressure over secretary of defense pick
President-elect Joe Biden is facing escalating pressure from competing factions within his own party as he finalizes his choice for secretary of defense. Black leaders have encouraged the incoming president to select an African American to diversify what has so far been a largely white prospective Cabinet, while others are pushing him to appoint a woman to lead the Department of Defense for the first time. At the same time, a growing collection of progressive groups is opposing the leading female contender, Michèle Flournoy, citing concerns about her record and private-sector associations.
LifestyleThe Daily BeastTrump 'Fraud' Witness Also Believes Ghosts Are Haunting His Family
Truck driver Jesse Morgan thrust himself into the middle of the post-2020 election drama on Tuesday when he claimed at a press conference that he had unwittingly driven a truck full of suspicious mail-in ballots from New York to Pennsylvania ahead of Election Day. The appearance at a voter fraud event hosted by the right-wing Thomas More Center turned Morgan into the latest viral star on the Trumpist right.
WorldReutersSpecial Report: Iran expands shrines and influence in Iraq
Pelarak and other Guards commanders overseeing the project freely drop in, workers say, and are given quick tours by the exclusively Iranian companies and engineers they have contracted to carry out the work. Qassem Soleimani, the late Quds Force commander who spearheaded Iran's military and political strategy across the region, was filmed touring the project in 2018, 18 months before he was killed by a U.S. drone strike. His successor, Esmail Ghaani, made an unannounced visit to the shrine two weeks after Pelarak, said an Iranian source in Kerbala.
- NewsReuters Videos
Mother accused of holding son captive for decades
A grim discovery has been made in Stockholm, Sweden: A man in his forties found wounded in an apartment -- and may have been held captive there by his own mother for nearly 30 years. The mother -- a 70-year-old woman whom neighbors thought lived alone -- has been arrested. The man was reportedly found by a relative on Sunday (November 29).
PoliticsThe Week6 Republican heavyweights told Politico they're pumped for Trump 2024. 6 were less effusive.
Several Republican lawmakers are showing enthusiasm for a potential 2024 run from President Trump, Politico reports. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) went so far as to say he would support Trump's candidacy if he chooses to run, while Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he "should run and would have the support" of the Republican Party. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), both of whom have had their names floated as potential presidential candidates, also indicated to Politico that they'd back Trump's effort to return to the White House, as did Sens.
WorldAssociated PressBangladesh begins relocating Rohingya refugees to island
Authorities in Bangladesh have begun relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process, officials said Thursday. The United Nations has also voiced concern that refugees be allowed to make a “free and informed decision” about whether to relocate to the island in the Bay of Bengal. The island's facilities are built to accommodate 100,000 people, just a fraction of the million Rohingya Muslims who have fled waves of violent persecution in their native Myanmar and are currently living in crowded, squalid refugee camps.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastThis Trump Crony Is Trying to Overturn the Election. His Own Group Has Thrown in the Towel.
Adam Laxalt, the co-chair of the Trump campaign in Nevada, is fighting ferociously against his state's decision to reward its six electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden, alleging widespread voter fraud and hyping litigation to overturn Biden's victory. But a nonprofit ethics and transparency group affiliated with Laxalt, Nevada's former attorney general, has already conceded Biden's victory and is looking ahead to the new administration. It's become clear that we're going to be having a Biden team and a Biden administration in 2021,” said Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of Americans for Public Trust, in an interview on Tuesday.
WorldReutersU.S. military to keep two larger Afghan bases after drawdown to 2,500
The Pentagon has approved drawdown plans in Afghanistan that will still keep two larger bases in the country as officials carry out President Donald Trump's orders to slash troop levels to 2,500 by Jan. 15, the top U.S. general said on Wednesday. Trump's post-election decision last month to cut nearly half of the roughly 4,500 troops currently in Afghanistan came before military leaders could devise plans to execute a drawdown, leaving many questions unanswered about the future U.S. military mission after Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.
ScienceAssociated PressNASA: Mystery object is 54-year-old rocket, not asteroid
A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September.
WorldThe TelegraphVaccine roll-out in Scotland starts on Tuesday next week, Nicola Sturgeon discloses
The roll-out of the first coronavirus vaccine is to start in Scotland on Tuesday next week, Nicola Sturgeon has disclosed as she hailed the drug's approval as "the beginning of the end" of the pandemic. The UK Government has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, with about 10 million doses expected to be available for use shortly for priority groups, including healthcare workers. About 800,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to be available in the UK next week, with a population share being made available for Scotland, enough to vaccinate around 40,000 people north of the Border.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastOssoff Goes for Perdue’s Jugular in GA Senate Race
For months, Jon Ossoff has focused his campaign for U.S. Senate in Georgia on the Democratic Party's standard slate of 2020 issues, like health care, climate change, and the COVID-19 response. But as the runoff campaign to decide control of the Senate heats up, Ossoff is increasingly leaning on another issue: his Republican opponent's stock portfolio. So far, Ossoff and fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock have been essentially running as a team in Georgia's two runoffs.
U.S.Associated Press'Very dark couple of weeks': Morgues and hospitals overflow
Nearly 37,000 Americans died of COVID-19 in November, the most in any month since the dark early days of the pandemic, engulfing families in grief, filling newspaper obituary pages and testing the capacity of morgues, funeral homes and hospitals. Amid the resurgence, states have begun reopening field hospitals to handle an influx of patients that is pushing health care systems — and their workers — to the breaking point. Health officials fear the crisis will be even worse in coming weeks, after many Americans ignored pleas to stay home over Thanksgiving and avoid people who don't live with them.
CelebrityINSIDERLawsuit alleges a 'Real Housewives' star's divorce is a 'sham' to hide money meant for plane crash victims represented by her lawyer husband
A new lawsuit viewed by Insider says that Erika Jayne's divorce from lawyer husband Tom Girardi is a "sham" to hide embezzled money. In November, Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi after 21 years of marriage, citing "irreconcilable differences." But a recently filed complaint accuses Girardi of embezzling money from clients, including the "widows and orphans" of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash.
LifestyleArchitectural Digest10 Remote Airbnbs As Stunning As They Are Secluded
From a private island to a tiny Vermont tree house Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
HealthAssociated PressChina testing blunders stemmed from secret deals with firms
In the early days in Wuhan, the first city struck by the virus, getting a COVID test was so difficult that residents compared it to winning the lottery. The widespread test shortages and problems at a time when the virus could have been slowed were caused largely by secrecy and cronyism at China's top disease control agency, an Associated Press investigation has found. The flawed testing system prevented scientists and officials from seeing how fast the virus was spreading — another way China fumbled its early response to the virus.
HealthUSA TODAYWill there be side effects from a COVID-19 vaccine? When can you get it? We answer your vaccine questions
Vaccines are on the horizon in the U.S., and distribution could potentially begin by mid-December. Two companies – Pfizer and Moderna – have already applied for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for their two-shot vaccine candidates, and more companies are expected to apply in the coming months. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom became the first Western country to approve the widespread use of Pfizer's vaccine, making it one of the first countries to begin vaccinating.
- WorldAssociated Press
Pakistan's former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali dies
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a veteran Pakistani politician who served as the country's prime minister from 2002 to 2004 died on Wednesday at a hospital in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, days after he suffered a heart attack at the age of 76. Jamali served as prime minister during the tenure of ex-dictator Pervez Musharraf. He resigned over differences on several political issues with Musharraf, who is currently living in self-imposed exiled in Dubai.
PoliticsReutersBiden's potential COVID-19 'czar' Zients would oversee daunting task of pandemic response
He and other Biden officials have emphasized stepping up deliveries of personal protective equipment and increasing testing, while expressing sympathy for the financial burden the massive vaccine rollout will impose on already strained state budgets, the sources said. "Zients has been impressive," said one state Democratic official who has participated in the calls. "If the people currently involved in the transition are involved come January, I think we are in good hands."
PoliticsUSA TODAYFor Trump supporters primed to disbelieve defeat, challenging the election was a civic duty
Alexandra Seely, a 27-year-old dental hygienist, had never been in court except to deal with a traffic ticket. In a handwritten affidavit, and during a subsequent interview with USA TODAY, Seely described what she saw the day after the election as she monitored vote counting in Detroit as a Republican challenger. Seely said she's convinced not just that there was vote fraud in Wayne County, but that an entire election was stolen — despite conclusions to the contrary by judges across the country, intelligence officials, Trump's attorney general, independent observers and election supervisors in states red and blue.
WorldAssociated PressAsia Today: S. Korean students take exams amid viral spike
Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 41 confirmed COVID-19 patients, took the highly competitive university entrance exam Thursday despite a viral resurgence that forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules. The Education Ministry said about 426,340 students were taking the one-day exam at about 1,380 sites across the nation. — Taiwanese carrier EVA Airways has fired three flight attendants for violating the island's quarantine rules.
WorldAssociated PressUS to block goods from Chinese company over rights abuses
The U.S. said Wednesday it would block imports from a major Chinese producer of cotton goods because of its reliance on workers detained as part of a crackdown on ethnic minorities in China's northwest. Customs and Border Protection issued an order halting shipments from the state-controlled Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Any U.S. company seeking to import goods from the company would have to prove they were not made with the forced labor of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities subjected to the crackdown.
PoliticsThe TelegraphIvanka Trump questioned under oath in lawsuit over misuse of inauguration funds
Ivanka Trump, the US president's daughter and adviser, was questioned under oath this week as part of a civil lawsuit alleging misuse of non-profit funds for Donald Trump's inauguration four years ago. District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine's office disclosed in a court filing that the deposition had taken place on Tuesday. In a January 2020 lawsuit, Mr Racine claimed Mr Trump's real estate business and other entities misused non-profit funds to enrich the Trump family.
“This metastasizing debt crisis has had tremendous social costs. An entire generation has been set back.”
“It is not the government’s job to step in and rescue those who took on more debt than their future incomes would support.”
“Many student-borrowers need relief, but well-off borrowers who are thriving — thanks to their college degrees — do not.”
“It will stimulate the lagging economy. And though not everyone will directly benefit, the country as a whole will improve.”
“Canceling student debt would cost billions of dollars each year and would exacerbate, not lessen, economic inequalities.”