Wilmington 1898: When white supremacists overthrew a US government

They destroyed black-owned businesses, murdered black residents, and forced the elected local government - a coalition of white and black politicians - to resign en masse. Historians have described it as the only coup in US history. Its ringleaders took power the same day as the insurrection and swiftly brought in laws to strip voting and civil rights from the state's black population.

Congresswoman's spokesman quits less than 2 weeks into term

The spokesman for Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has quit less than two weeks after she was sworn into office, saying he was prompted to by the insurrection at the nation's Capitol. Ben Goldey confirmed his departure to The Colorado Sun after it was first reported on Saturday by Axios. The Sun reported that Goldey did not respond to additional questions, but he told Axios he was leaving in the wake of a deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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  Communications director for gun-toting congresswoman quits

  Axios
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  Aide to Lauren Boebert resigns following Capitol riots

  The Independent

GitHub apologizes for firing Jewish employee who warned of Nazis in U.S. Capitol: TechCrunch

Technology company GitHub has apologized for firing a Jewish employee who cautioned his colleagues about the presence of Nazis in Washington on the day of the assault of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, TechCrunch reported. After a probe found "significant errors of judgment and procedure" in the termination of the employee, GitHub's head of human resources resigned, GitHub Chief Operating Officer Erica Brescia said on Sunday. "In light of these findings, we immediately reversed the decision to separate with the employee and are in communication with his representative," Brescia said in a blog https://bit.ly/2KnkVhI, adding that the company apologized to that employee.

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  GitHub reverses course, cites 'significant errors of judgment' in firing of Jewish employee

  Business Insider
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  Microsoft-owned GitHub apologizes for controversial firing, offers employee job back

  Axios

Kremlin critic Navalny detained after landing in Moscow

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested Sunday at a Moscow airport as he tried to enter the country from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Navalny's detention at passport control in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was widely expected because Russia's prisons service said he had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction. The prisons service said he would be held in custody until a court rules on his case.

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  Kremlin critic Navalny arrested upon landing in Moscow

  Associated Press Videos
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  Russia detains Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

  Reuters Videos

Trump's presidency not just a blip in US foreign policy

President-elect Joe Biden's plan to scrap President Donald Trump's vision of “America First” in favor of “diplomacy first” will depend on whether he's able to regain the trust of allies and convince them that Trumpism is just a blip in the annals of U.S. foreign policy. From Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Trump's brand of transactional diplomacy has alienated friends and foes alike, leaving Biden with a particularly contentious set of national security issues. Biden, who said last month that “America's back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” might strive to be the antithesis of Trump on the world stage and reverse some, if not many, of his predecessor's actions.

Distrust, division and doubt cloud Palestinian election call

Beset by political infighting, split between three territories and distrustful of their institutions, many Palestinians are sceptical that their first national elections in 15 years will bring change - or even happen at all. President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that parliamentary and presidential elections would be held later this year in a bid to heal long-standing divisions. The announcement is widely seen as a gesture aimed at pleasing U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, with whom the Palestinians want to reset relations after they reached a low under Donald Trump.

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  Divisions and doubt cloud Palestinian election

  Reuters Videos
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  Explainer: Road to Palestinian vote full of obstacles

  Associated Press

China builds hospital in 5 days after surge in virus cases

China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in infections the government said are harder to contain and that it blamed on infected people or goods from abroad. The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms being built in Nangong, south of Beijing in Hebei province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. China had largely contained the coronavirus that first was detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 but has suffered a surge of cases since December.

Diary shows how quest for love landed Navy vet in Iran jail

He writes tenderly of the woman he visited even while likening himself to a mouse lured into a trap. And he brands himself a “political hostage,” held on pretextual charges to secure concessions from the U.S. Seven months after his release, White is trying to reassemble his life in Mexico, unsure what comes next but eager to share his story. I don't want the government of Iran to think that, 'Oh, Mike White's out of here, he's going away, he's going to be quiet,'" he said in a recent interview.

Covid: Brazil approves and rolls out AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines

A nurse has received the first vaccine dose of Brazil's Covid-19 immunisation programme after health regulators gave emergency approval to two jabs. Regulator Anvisa gave the green light to vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac, doses of which will be distributed among all 27 states. Brazil's vaccine programme has started later than many of its regional peers.

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  Brazil’s health agency approves the use of two vaccines

  Associated Press
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  Pakistan approves AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

  Reuters

Trump will take nuclear football out of DC on his final day in office - and the codes will be deactivated at the stroke of noon

Donald Trump will get to take the nuclear football with him when he leaves Washington DC on his final day in office – but the codes will be deactivated at the stroke of noon. Mr Trump will be accompanied by the 45-pound briefcase when he flies to Florida on the morning of Joe Biden's inauguration, as he is reportedly expected to do. Military officials will have a nuclear football ready and waiting to accompany Mr Biden after he becomes the commander-in-chief, officials told CNN.

Israel OKs hundreds of settlement homes in last-minute push

Israeli authorities on Sunday advanced plans to build nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements, in a last-minute surge of approvals before the friendly Trump administration leaves office later this week. COGAT, the Israeli defense body that authorizes settlement construction, confirmed the approvals, which drew swift condemnations from the Palestinians. The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said that over 90% of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state, and over 200 homes were located in unauthorized outposts that the government had decided to legalize.

Egypt unveils ancient funerary temple south of Cairo

Egypt's former antiquities minister and noted archaeologist Zahi Hawass on Sunday revealed details of an ancient funerary temple in a vast necropolis south of Cairo. Hawass told reporters at the Saqqara necropolis that archaeologists unearthed the temple of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt from 2323 B.C. till 2150 B.C. Archaeologists also found a 4-meter (13-foot) long papyrus that includes texts of the Book of the Dead, which is a collection of spells aimed at directing the dead through the underworld in ancient Egypt, he said.

Iran fires long-range missiles into Indian Ocean in military drill: media

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday fired long-range ballistic missiles into the Indian Ocean on the second day of a military exercise, state media reported. The drill, which comes in the waning days of high tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, was conducted in the country's central desert region. "One of our most important defence policy goals is to use long-range ballistic missiles against enemy warships, including aircraft carriers and warships," state media quoted Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami as saying.

Federal authorities arrest the mother of Tennessee man who was pictured holding plastic restraints during Capitol riots

The mother of the man who was pictured with plastic zip-tie restraints during the Capitol riots was arrested and charged by the FBI. Lis Eisenhart was arrested in Nashville on Saturday. According to an affidavit, footage from the riot revealed that both Eisenhart and Munchel appeared to be "holding flex cuffs in each of their hands" while following a violent mob who were chasing two Capitol police officers during the siege.

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  Mom Of 'Zip Tie Guy' In Capitol Mob Arrested In Nashville

  HuffPost
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  Mom of ‘zip tie guy’ arrested for her role in US Capitol insurrection, feds say

  Miami Herald

A couple of Capitol rioters told the FBI an officer shook their hands and said 'it's your house now' as insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol

Two Capitol rioters claim an officer told them "It's your house now" as hundreds stormed the Capitol on January 6. Bobby Bauer and a relative were identified as among those who breached the US Capitol after an unknown caller tipped the FBI's National Threat Operations Center. Bauer told authorities an officer "grabbed his hand, shook it, and said, 'It's your house now."

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  FBI Shares Photos Of Suspects Who Surrounded And Beat DC Officer During Capitol Riot

  HuffPost
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  Capitol rioters taking selfies leave digital trail of 140,000 images under FBI investigation

  The Independent

Twitter suspends US congresswoman over election fraud claims

Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online. Greene's account was suspended “without explanation," she said in a statement, while also condemning big tech companies for “silencing” conservative views. Before noon Sunday, Greene posted a clip from an interview with a local news outlet in which she condemned Georgia election officials and expressed support for debunked theories claiming that voting machines, absentee ballots and other issues led to widespread fraud in the state during the presidential election.

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  Twitter Temporarily Suspends QAnon Rep. For Election Disinformation, Inciting Violence

  HuffPost
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  Twitter locks account of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican who promoted QAnon

  Reuters

Iran asks watchdog not to publish 'unnecessary' nuke details

Iran urged the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to avoid publishing “unnecessary” details on Tehran's nuclear program, state TV reported Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal. The report quoted a statement from Iran's nuclear department that asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to avoid publishing details on Iran's nuclear program that may cause confusion. It is expected the international atomic energy agency avoid providing unnecessary details and prevent paving ground for misunderstanding” in the international community, the statement said.

The EU could throw out its landmark trade deal with China over concerns about Beijing's human rights record

A leading member of the European Parliament has raised significant concerns about the EU's landmark investment deal with China over its alleged human rights abuses and fears that it could harm relations with the new Biden administration. The EU-China investment deal aims to liberalize trade between Beijing and Brussels and was struck in the last days of December after last-minute concessions from Chinese premier Xi Jinping. But there is mounting concern in the European Parliament, which still needs to approve the deal, about the deal given China's human rights record on issues including alleged forced labor camps and a crackdown in Hong Kong which began last year.

Norwegian health officials have adjusted their advice on who gets a COVID-19 vaccine as 29 frail elderly people die

Norwegian health officials have changed their advice on who gets a COVID-19 vaccine after more than 25 elderly people with underlying health conditions died. According to the agency, "all deaths" are linked to the Pfizer vaccine, which was the only one available in the country until Friday. However, Norwegian officials maintain they are not alarmed and have advised individual doctors to decide who should receive a vaccine.

Adam Schiff says ‘massive intelligence and security failure’ at US Capitol being investigated by the House

Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, said a "massive intelligence and security failure" was being investigated in connection with the US Capitol insurrection by Donald Trump's supporters on 6 January. Mr Schiff made the comments while appearing on CBS's Face the Nation. "Along with my fellow chairs, we are beginning an investigation into what went wrong," Mr Schiff said.

In Florida, are rich people jumping to the head of the COVID-19 vaccine line?

Last week TCPalm detailed how Piper's Landing Yacht & Country Club managed to get ahold of some 270 Moderna vaccines, courtesy of Mobile Medical Associates, which provides "concierge" in-home medical services. Mobile Medical is approved by the state to distribute the vaccine, and owner Laurie McCuen told TCPalm the firm already provides health care services to about 70 country club members/homeowners; 20 were home-bound patients, and 50 have mobility issues. The other 200 vaccines went to other club members age 65 and up.

Ted Cruz's former staffers say they are 'disgusted' by his role in the US Capitol insurrection and his unflinching support of Trump, report says

At least six of Sen. Ted Cruz's former aides have expressed their disgust at the recent actions of their former boss, according to New York Magazine's Intelligencer. Ted Cruz is under fire for spreading election misinformation, objecting to the results of the 2020 election being certified, and having fundraised during the US Capitol insurrection. Democratic lawmakers have called for Cruz to resign or to be removed from office.

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  Ted Cruz responds to DC rioter saying Cruz 'wants us to do this'

  KTRK – Houston
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  Group calls for Sen Ted Cruz's resignation at protest

  KTRK – Houston

She Only Has One Good Lung. She Can't Get the Vaccine.

But like many Americans who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 and under the age of 65, Laws-Lowell is not currently eligible for a vaccine. For these citizens, the hope that defined the earliest stage of the vaccine rollout has given way to something else: outrage. None of my doctors across two different hospital systems can tell me when or where I'd be able to get a vaccine,” Laws-Lowell told The Daily Beast on Thursday.