WorldNextSharkKamala Harris’ Ancestral Indian Village Celebrates Her Historic Inauguration
Residents of Kamala Harris' ancestral village are celebrating with firecrackers and food as she is sworn into office as vice president of the United States. The story: According to the Associated Press, Thulasendrapuram, a village in Tamil Nadu, India, beamed with a festive atmosphere during Harris' inauguration as U.S. vice president on Wednesday. Harris visited the village when she was five and recalled walks with her grandfather on the beach at Chennai, according to Reuters. The center of attention: Since Joe Biden and Harris' win in the U.S. election in November, Thulasendrapuram has been buzzing with attention and adoration for the vice president-elect.
WorldAssociated PressIran, pressured by blackouts and pollution, targets Bitcoin
Within days, as frustration spread among residents, the government launched a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin processing centers, which require immense amounts of electricity to power their specialized computers and to keep them cool — a burden on Iran's power grid. Authorities shuttered 1,600 centers across the country, including, for the first time, those legally authorized to operate. As the latest in a series of conflicting government moves, the clampdown stirred confusion in the crypto industry — and suspicion that Bitcoin had become a useful scapegoat for the nation's deeper-rooted problems.
PoliticsThe TelegraphTrump spends first night as a private citizen 'looking for lawyers for his impeachment trial'
Donald Trump spent his first hours as a private citizen scrambling to find lawyers to represent him in his upcoming impeachment trial, as he settled into his new home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. One of Mr Trump's first calls after leaving office was to Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator and staunch ally, telling him he was now “looking for some lawyers” for the imminent Senate hearing. Mr Trump will not be drawing on his usual litigators: Rudy Giuliani, his longtime personal lawyer, is likely to step aside as he could be called as a witness, while attorneys who represented him at the first impeachment hearing have declined.
WorldAssociated PressIndonesia ends search for crashed plane's victims, debris
Indonesian authorities on Thursday ended the search for remaining victims and debris from a Sriwijaya Air jet that nosedived into the Java Sea, killing all 62 people on board. Transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi said retrieval operations have ended after nearly two weeks, but that a limited search for the missing memory unit from the cockpit voice recorder will continue. Divers retrieved its battered casing and cover last week near the location where the flight data recorder was recovered three days after the accident.
PoliticsMilitary.comUniformed Man Seen Kneeling at Iraq Vet Beau Biden's Grave During Inauguration
As President Joe Biden was addressing the nation Wednesday after swearing in as the 46th U.S. president, a quiet moment was captured 110 miles away from the nation's capital. A journalist with The News Journal in Delaware saw a lone person in a blue uniform kneeling over the grave of the president's late son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015 at the age of 46. "No one else was around on this cold, windy afternoon except for a few people doing outside work at the cemetery," Patricia Talorico, the News Journal reporter, wrote about the moment.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestAD100 Designer Monique Gibson Designs a Tribeca Aerie with High-Impact Views
800 feet up in the sky, the Dreamy 6,000 square foot space offers panoramic views from the East River to the Hudson Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsThe WeekDemocrats request investigation into Hawley and Cruz's role in Capitol riot
Seven Senate Democrats filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Thursday, asking the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether they coordinated with leaders of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rally that took place immediately before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) — said the committee "should also offer recommendations for strong disciplinary action, including up to expulsion or censure, if warranted by the facts uncovered."
WorldAssociated PressEXPLAINER: Why Navalny is a thorn in the Kremlin's side
The return to Russia from Germany by opposition leader Alexei Navalny was marked by chaos and popular outrage, and it ended, almost predictably, with his arrest. The Jan. 17 flight from Berlin, where Navalny spent nearly five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning, carried him and his wife, along with a group of journalists documenting the journey. Navalny had prepared his own surprise for his return: A video expose alleging that a lavish “palace” was built for President Vladimir Putin on the Black Sea through an elaborate corruption scheme.
WorldAssociated PressStrong earthquake shakes southern Philippines; no tsunami
A powerful earthquake shook parts of the southern Philippines on Thursday night, but authorities said it was too deep to cause major damage and no tsunami warning was issued. The quake measured magnitude 7.0 and was located 95.8 kilometers (60 miles) below the sea and about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Pondaguitan in Davao Occidental province, the U.S. Geological Survey said. In Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, some residents ran out of their houses as the ground shook and power cables and business signs swayed, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.
PoliticsLos Angeles Times OpinionOp-Ed: Why the mob thought attacking the Capitol was their '1776 moment'
Shortly before thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Donald Trump gave a rousing speech to that crowd, calling them “amazing patriots.” While it remains to be seen whether Trump's words that day rise to the level of criminal incitement, it is beyond dispute that by casting doubt on the outcome of the election months before it occurred, he emboldened his supporters to take up arms in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's clear victory. By wrapping his lies in the cloak of patriotism, Trump fueled the view that a violent assault on the Capitol, which resulted in five people dead, was a legitimate action — similar to the actions of the American founders in 1776.
PoliticsAssociated PressChina hits Trump officials with sanctions on their way out
China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former Trump administration officials moments after they left office on Wednesday. In a statement released just minutes after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, Beijing slapped travel bans and business restrictions on Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and U.N. ambassador, Kelly Craft. Others covered by the sanctions include Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro; his top diplomat for Asia, David Stilwell; health and human services secretary, Alex Azar; along with former national security adviser John Bolton and strategist Stephen Bannon.
PoliticsAssociated PressOutging US ambassador says world must end Taiwan's exclusion
In a final swipe at China, the Trump administration's outgoing U.N. ambassador tweeted that it's time for the world to oppose China's efforts to exclude and isolate Taiwan, drawing sharp criticism from Beijing. To make the point even more graphic, Ambassador Kelly Craft accompanied the tweet with a photo of herself in the U.N. General Assembly Hall where the island is banned. And she carried a handbag with a stuffed Taiwan bear sticking out of the top, a gift from Taiwan's representative in New York, Ambassador James Lee.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden's team reportedly realized after inauguration that Trump really had no vaccine distribution plan
It's been more than a month since the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved for distribution, and nearly a year since it became clear the coronavirus pandemic would require a vaccine to fully end. But former President Donald Trump's administration still failed to arrange a usable plan for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to Americans, as President Biden's incoming administration reportedly just discovered. Biden's team expected to find major flaws in Trump's distribution plans when they arrived at the White House on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the administration's COVID-19 work tell CNN.
WorldAssociated PressTens of thousands protest against Nepal's prime minister
Tens of thousands of people protested in Nepal's capital on Friday against the prime minister for dissolving Parliament and ordering new elections in an escalating feud within the governing party. The supporters of a splinter group in the Nepal Communist Party marched peacefully in the center of Kathmandu as they demanded that Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli reinstate Parliament. Security was tight in the capital, with barbed wire barriers and police in riot gear blocking the area around the main government offices.
WorldAssociated PressBrazil awaits vaccine cargo from India amid supply concerns
The 2 million doses from India only scratch the surface of the shortfall, Brazilian public health experts told The Associated Press, as far more doses will be needed to cover priority groups in the nation of 210 million people, and shipments of raw materials from Asia have been delayed. Counting doses from Butantan (a Sao Paulo state research institutue) and those from India, there isn't enough vaccine and there is no certainty about when Brazil will have more, or how much,” said Mário Scheffer, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. That shortage “will interfere with our capacity in the near-term to reach collective immunity.
PoliticsReutersTaiwan-Biden ties off to strong start with invite for top diplomat
Taiwan's ties with its most important global backer the United States are off to a strong start under President Joe Biden's government, after the island's de facto ambassador attended an inauguration for the first time with an official invitation. That had made Trump a popular figure in democratic Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, to be taken by force if needed, and raised concern in its government that Biden may not be as helpful. Emily Horne, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said the U.S. commitment to Taiwan was "rock-solid" after the island's de facto ambassador in Washington, Hsiao Bi-khim, attended Biden's swearing in on Wednesday.
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Pelosi, McCarthy respond to questions about House members’ role in the Capitol assault
At separate press conferences on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded to reporters' questions about the role members of Congress may have played in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.
WorldThe TelegraphPolitics latest news: Ease lockdown now R rate has fallen, senior Tory demands
Boris Johnson to give press conference at 5pm - watch live Ministers consider £500 payment for positive Covid test Boris Johnson suggests lockdown could last until summer Fraser Nelson: Vaccines may usher in Fortress Britain Coronavirus latest news: Quarantine hotels won't happen 'for now', says George Eustice Boris Johnson must “show some ankle” and set out when restrictions will be eased, senior Tories have said as the country's R-rate dropped below one. The UK's reproduction rate is now estimated to be 0.8-1.0, suggesting a decline in the number of new infections. Last week, it was between 1.2 and 1.3.
WorldAssociated PressGerman virus death toll tops 50,000 even as infections sink
The death toll from the coronavirus in Germany has passed 50,000, a number that has risen swiftly over recent weeks even as infection figures are finally declining. The country's disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that another 859 deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, taking the total so far to 50,642. Germany had a comparatively small number of deaths in the pandemic's first phase and was able to lift many restrictions quickly.
PoliticsReutersAppealing to 'kind angels' China strikes optimistic tone with Biden administration
China struck an optimistic tone toward President Joe Biden's new administration on Thursday, saying "kind angels can triumph over evil forces" and playing down early irritants as the result of an atmosphere poisoned by Donald Trump's term in office. Bilateral relations worsened dramatically during Trump's tenure. Biden, who took office on Wednesday, is expected to maintain pressure on Beijing but with a more traditional and multilateral approach.
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Israeli warplanes strike Syria, kill 4 - including children
Israeli warplanes fired several missiles toward central Syria early Friday, killing a family of four - including two children - and wounding four others, state media reported. State-news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying the attack took place shortly before dawn when Israeli warplanes flew over neighboring Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister's office on Friday declined to comment on the reports.
U.S.Business InsiderJon Ossoff was sworn in using a Hebrew Bible from a rabbi who was an ally to MLK and had his synagogue bombed by white supremacists
Newly elected Sen. Jon Ossoff was sworn in to Congress on Wednesday using a Hebrew Bible that was once owned by a Georgia rabbi whose synagogue was bombed by white supremacists, and who was an ally to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ossoff, Georgia's first Jewish senator, was sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside the Rev. Raphael Warnock, Georgia's first Black senator, and Alex Padilla, who's filling Harris' seat. As Ossoff was sworn in, he clutched the Hebrew Bible that once belonged to Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, the former leader of Atlanta's Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple.
BusinessBusiness InsiderA lifelong car collector will soon sell off 48 of his pristine Corvettes - see the 'Muscle Car City' auction
Then there's this red 1991 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Plus this yellow 1991 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Aaaand this 1990 red Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.
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Rep. Crenshaw: 'I'd be frustrated if I were' Trump, watching the press 'go right back to the Obama-era'
Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw argues Republicans need to unify and show voters that Democrats 'mean what they say' and 'will change your life fundamentally.
SportsAssociated PressTeam UK close to America's Cup challenger series final
British challenger INEOS Team UK stands one win away from a direct path to the final of the America's Cup challenger series, unsure whether that prize will be a blessing or a curse. Team UK and Italian challenger Luna Rossa will race each other once on Saturday and again on Sunday in the last round-robin stage of the Prada Cup challengers series at Auckland, New Zealand. If Team UK wins the first race Saturday or the second on Sunday it will qualify for the final; if Luna Rossa wins both races, the second will count as a tiebreak and the Italian team will progress to the final.
“If you’re looking to win elections, it is probably best not to urge your supporters not to vote.”
“Warnock’s portrayal of himself as a dog lover, a means of overcoming white suspicions of Black men, smacked of pure genius.”
“Trump has done damage to the Republican brand among suburban voters that goes well beyond just races where he is on the ballot.”
“Once more, Democrats must profusely thank activist Stacey Abrams.”
“Overall, demographic trends show that the state’s electorate is becoming younger and more diverse each year.”