PoliticsYahoo News Photo StaffPHOTOS: Presidential turkey pardons — a look back
The presidential pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey has become an annual event, but the peace pact between the fowl and the White House is a relatively new thing. And in fact, a few presidents actually ate their guests! The first president to unofficially pardon a turkey was Abraham Lincoln, who instructed the White House to save a bird given to the president.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden's team has made contact with Dr. Fauci, and the president-elect said he has been 'very, very helpful' in briefings with staff
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has reached out to President-elect Joe Biden's transition staff, Bloomberg reported. "I haven't had a chance to speak to Dr. Fauci," Biden said Tuesday, but Fauci himself confirmed to CNN that he has been talking to the president-elect's staff. The news comes a day after the General Services Administration recognized Biden as the apparent president-elect.
PoliticsYahoo NewsDemocratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock bet big on 'record-shattering turnout' in Georgia
But Democrats say they've figured out how to win in Georgia, a state that had voted Republican in six straight presidential elections between 1996 and 2016 and hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years. And Republicans have won all but one of the statewide general election runoffs in Georgia since 1988. What we are focusing on when we go and talk to voters in these communities, something that we learned from Stacey Abrams, is we go and ask them what they need, and when they answer … we let them know Rev.
WorldAssociated PressMine explodes, damaging oil tanker off Saudi Arabia
A mine in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia's coast near Yemen exploded and damaged an oil tanker Wednesday, authorities said, the latest incident targeting the kingdom amid its long war against Yemen's Houthi rebels. The blast happened before dawn and struck the MT Agrari, a Maltese-flagged, Greek-managed oil tanker near Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia. “Their vessel was attacked by an unknown source,” a statement from the Agrari's operator, TMS Tankers Ltd., said.
U.S.USA TODAYComputer repairman who claimed he gave Hunter Biden data to Giuliani closes shop as laptop saga gets stranger
Weeks before the Nov. 3 presidential election, the world's political intrigue turned to a Wilmington computer repair shop after the New York Post revealed that its owner gave a copy of a laptop hard drive he believed belonged to Hunter Biden to a lawyer representing Rudy Giuliani. A slew of new information has surfaced in the weeks since, including details about the laptop's journey from the repair shop to Giuliani's office. The story claimed that President-elect Joe Biden, while vice president in 2015, held a meeting with an executive from Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that employed his son, Hunter Biden.
WorldReutersExplainer: How will Canada's COVID-19 vaccine program work?
Canada has ordered more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than any other country - at least 194 million and up to 414 million doses for its population of 38 million. With limited manufacturing capacity, six of the vaccines the country has ordered will have to be imported and the first are unlikely to arrive before early 2021, while a candidate from Quebec's Medicago is likely at least six months from approval. The following outlines what to expect for COVID-19 vaccines in Canada: WHICH VACCINES COULD BE AVAILABLE IN CANADA?
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump loyalist pushed out of White House now leading a shake-up at the Pentagon
A retired Special Forces colonel, Miller had worked to revamp civilian oversight over special operations forces in a previous Pentagon job. A driving force behind the current initiative is Ezra Cohen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who has held several national security positions during the Trump administration and is now the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, or SO/LIC. The appointment of Cohen as the acting assistant secretary was a major factor behind the decision to implement the congressional legislation.
WorldAssociated PressIran says British-Australian academic freed for 3 Iranians
Iran on Wednesday freed a British-Australian academic who had been detained in the country for over two years, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad, state TV announced. The television report was scant on detail, saying only that the three Iranians freed in the swap had been imprisoned for trying to bypass sanctions on Iran. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was picked up at the Tehran airport while trying to leave the country after attending an academic conference in 2018.
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Biden certified as winner of Pennsylvania vote
President-elect Joe Biden was certified on Tuesday as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, culminating three weeks of vote counting and multiple failed legal challenges by President Trump.
U.S.Associated PressIsraeli leader tells convicted spy: 'We're waiting for you'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday phoned Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, telling him: “We're waiting for you.” The U.S. Justice Department announced last Friday that Pollard had completed his parole, clearing the way for him to move to Israel 35 years after he was arrested. “You should have now a comfortable life where you can pursue, both of you can pursue your interests,” Netanyahu said in a conversation with Pollard and his wife Esther.
TechnologyArchitectural DigestA Few of Our Favorite Small Businesses Running Early Black Friday Sales
You don't have to wait until #smallbusinesssaturday to shop small Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldReutersJailed Saudi women's rights activists given rare court appearance
Four jailed Saudi women's rights activists were given a rare appearance in court on Wednesday, the family of one of them said, as the kingdom's human rights record faces new scrutiny following the election defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump. Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, looked weak, her body shaking uncontrollably and her voice faint, her sister Lina told Reuters, adding that her parents had sat next to her in court. It was her first appearance since March last year.
U.S.Associated PressEnbridge sues Michigan over oil pipeline shutdown order
Enbridge filed a legal challenge Tuesday to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's recent demand that the company shut down its oil pipeline that crosses the waterway connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The Canadian company accused the state of overstepping its bounds, arguing that Enbridge's Line 5 was under the sole regulatory jurisdiction of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. “This is the latest attempt by the state of Michigan to interfere with the operation of this critical infrastructure by assuming authority it does not possess,” the company said in a statement.
WorldAssociated PressTrudeau: Canadians won't be among the first to get vaccine
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday Canada will have to wait for a vaccine because the very first ones that roll off assembly lines are likely to be given to citizens of the country they are made in. Trudeau noted Canada does not have vaccine-production facilities. Trudeau said it is understandable that an American pharmaceutical company will distribute first in the U.S. before they distribute internationally.
U.S.Business InsiderDOJ has agreed to temporarily halt deportations for some migrant detainees and whistleblowers who alleged medical and sexual abuse at a Georgia detention center — until at least a Biden-Harris administration
A new court motion in Georgia temporarily suspends deportation proceedings for at least four of the women who alleged suffering medical and sexual abuse at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, according to VICE News. Today's court order follows months of scrutiny and investigations surrounding the Irwin County Detention Center and Dr. Mahendra Amin, who former and current detainees accuse of forced hysterectomies, as well as other incidents of medical and sexual abuse. Prior to Tuesday's motion of consent, DHS had initiated deportation proceedings against several of the women, according to the Los Angeles Times.
PoliticsReutersLame-duck president pardons turkey; Trump breaks post-election isolation for tradition
President Donald Trump emerged from self-imposed isolation on Tuesday to show that at least one thing in Washington would run according to tradition: the pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey. In the Rose Garden, Trump stuck to the script in pardoning a 42-pound turkey named Corn as part of an annual presidential ritual, the sparing of a turkey from American dinner tables on the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. "Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon,” Trump said, raising a hand over the white bird with long wattle.
WorldAssociated PressAzerbaijani leader vows to revive region ceded by Armenia
Azerbaijan's president vowed Wednesday to rebuild and revive the Kalbajar region, the latest territory that Armenian forces have ceded in a truce that ended six weeks of intense fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. “We will restore Kalbajar, let no one have doubts about that, and life will return there,” President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation soon after Azerbaijani troops entered the region. “I gave an order to prepare a general layout of the reconstruction of the town, and not just the town of Kalbajar, but of all of the towns" in the region, also known as Kalbajar.
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UN agency: Israel's Gaza blockade has devastated economy
Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and sent poverty and unemployment skyrocketing, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the closure. The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development echoed calls by numerous international bodies over the years criticizing the blockade. Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel's existence, violently seized control of Gaza from the forces of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
WorldReutersChina foreign minister to meet Japan's Suga; Beijing's first high-level contact with new PM
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday, marking Beijing's first high-level contact with Japan's new leader. Wang met his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday where they agreed to cooperate on trade and fighting the coronavirus, but maintained their stances on territorial disputes, leaving a security concern unresolved. Japan and China agreed to resume coronavirus-hit business travel this month and to continue talks on disputed isles in the East China Sea.
U.S.LA TimesArchbishop Gregory stood up to Trump. Now he's about to be the first Black cardinal in U.S.
On Saturday, Pope Francis will elevate Gregory to cardinal, the first Black American to reach that position, the highest rank in the Roman Catholic Church and part of an elite that chooses popes and is the final word on doctrine. In selecting Gregory, 72, Francis is rewarding a man who over the decades took courageous stands to end sexual abuse by clergy. They were positions that at times seemed to sideline his career, but that put him, his supporters say, on the right side of history and on a firm moral footing.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestMore Inside Photographer Jason Schmidt's New Quarantine Project: His Own Home
Amid the pandemic, photographer Jason Schmidt finds a new muse: his unique Brooklyn house—and its inhabitants. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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Locals want Syrians evicted from Lebanese town after killing
Locals in a northern Lebanese town called on authorities Tuesday to evict all Syrians from the area a day after a Syrian citizen allegedly shot dead a local man in a personal dispute. The announcement in the Christian mountain resort town of Bcharre came after a night of riots against Syrians in the town during which some homes of Syrians were reportedly torched and individuals were attacked in the streets. The Lebanese army said that as of Monday night, troops had begun conducting patrols in the town, adding the accused killer surrendered to security forces and an investigation had begun.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastBiden Weighs Mike Morell as His CIA Chief. A Key Dem Senator Says Don’t Bother.
President-elect Joe Biden is strongly considering Mike Morell, the former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to run the CIA, according to four individuals familiar with the matter. Morell served as deputy CIA director for three years under President Barack Obama and also worked as acting director of the agency twice. According to three of the four sources familiar with the matter, the president-elect was considering both Morell and Avril Haines, another former deputy CIA director, for the position.
HealthAssociated PressEXPLAINER: China's claims of coronavirus on frozen foods
China has stirred controversy with claims it has detected the coronavirus on packages of imported frozen food. Frozen shrimp imported from an Ecuadorian company was banned for one week on Tuesday in a continuing series of such temporary bans. While experts say the virus can survive for a time on cardboard and plastic containers, it remains unclear how serious a risk that poses.
WorldAssociated PressIndian state outlaws religious conversion by marriage
India's ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in the country's most populous state that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree for the state of Uttar Pradesh was passed Tuesday and follows a campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against interfaith marriages. The party describes such marriages as “love jihad,” an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
“Donald Trump defeated Donald Trump.”
“The victory was a vindication of a style of American politics that many feared was gone forever.”
“Mr. Biden’s victory — and Mr. Trump’s defeat — is a testament to the resilience of American democracy.”
“Trump’s 2020 reelection bid was doomed by his boorish behavior. Time and again, he refused to act like a president.”
“Biden took the opportunity to unite the Democratic Party.”