HealthYahoo NewsWhy Black Americans aren't being vaccinated for COVID-19 at the same rate as whites
Early data on the rollout of the vaccines for COVID-19 shows that minority populations in the United States already disproportionately affected by the pandemic are not being immunized at the same rate as white Americans. Yahoo News Medical Contributor Dr. Uché Blackstock believes there are multiple factors contributing to this disparity. “One of the problems that I saw very early on is that if you're going to have mostly hospitals and pharmacies dispensing the vaccine, we're going to miss a lot of people,” Blackstock said.
PoliticsBBCJoe Biden: America's second Catholic president
Joe Biden has been back in Washington for six days, and already he has attended Catholic Mass twice. Then, on the first Sunday of his presidency, he took in morning services at Holy Trinity Church, in the Georgetown neighbourhood of northwest DC. The Jesuit-affiliated Holy Trinity is the same church to which John F Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president, belonged.
PoliticsThe WeekThe Senate is effectively deadlocked over McConnell's filibuster demand
Senate Democrats are drawing a line at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) demand that a power-sharing agreement in the 50-50 Senate include a pledge to retain the legislative filibuster. "If we gave him that, then the filibuster would be on everything, every day," Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's Meet the Press.
WorldReutersEU states no longer recognise Guaido as Venezuela's interim president
Venezuela's Juan Guaido is a "privileged interlocutor" but no longer considered interim president, European Union states said in a statement on Monday, sticking by their decision to downgrade his status. The EU's 27 states had said on Jan. 6 they could no longer legally recognise Guaido as after he lost his position as head of parliament following legislative elections in Venezuela in December, despite the EU not recognising that vote. Following the disputed re-election of President Nicolas Maduro in 2018, Guaido, as head of parliament, became interim president.
U.S.Associated PressCalifornia reverses stay-at-home order as conditions improve
Business owners hailed Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to lift stay-at-home orders across California in response to improving coronavirus conditions, but local health officials expressed concern that it may cause residents to let down their guard. California is experiencing a “flattening of the curve,” Newsom said during a virtual news conference on Monday. The metrics are markedly improved since last month, when some Southern California hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients were crafting emergency plans for rationing care.
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Female student athletes speak out against Biden executive order on transgender competition
Three Connecticut female student athletes who filed a discrimination complaint over transgender competition argue that the president's new executive order is not fair.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden replaces White House doctor with longtime physician
President Joe Biden has brought back Dr. Kevin O'Connor as his physician, replacing President Donald Trump's doctor with the one who oversaw his care when he was vice president. The White House confirmed that Dr. Sean Conley, the Navy commander who served as the head of the White House Medical Unit under Trump and oversaw his treatment when he was hospitalized with COVID-19, will assume a teaching role at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. O'Connor, a retired Army colonel, was Biden's doctor during his entire tenure as vice president, having remained in the role at Biden's request.
WorldThe TelegraphIndian and Chinese troops involved in new border clash in eastern Himalayas
Indian and Chinese soldiers armed with sticks and stones have brawled again along their disputed frontier, Delhi said, as the neighbours' months-long border stand-off continued. Indian security officials said there were clashes after at least 18 Chinese soldiers tried to cross into Indian-claimed territory at Naku La in Sikkim on January 20. A senior Indian Army official told the Telegraph that four Indian soldiers were wounded after they challenged the Chinese PLA soldiers.
HealthReutersWhat you need to know about the coronavirus right now
Indonesia has been criticised for having among the lowest testing and contact-tracing rates globally, and for focusing on securing vaccines at the expense of trying to enforce health protocols. Scarce niche syringes thwart U.S. plan to maximise vaccine shots The U.S. government's effort to squeeze more doses from Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine vials is spurring unanticipated demand for specialized syringes that the world's largest syringe supplier Becton Dickinson says exceeds existing capacity. The vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, one of two authorized for U.S. emergency use, is shipped in vials initially indicated to hold five doses.
WorldAssociated PressChina tackles pandemic with mass construction once again
A sprawling quarantine center with more than 4,000 rooms is being thrown up in northern China in response to a COVID-19 outbreak in Shijiazhuang, a city of more than 10 million people in Hebei province. Satellite images from the European Space Agency show dramatic changes over 10 days in an area where there had been only flat land before construction started on Jan. 13. It's common practice for China to mobilize resources nationwide to tackle natural disasters and other crises.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden news: Trump impeachment article delivered, as Brazil Covid variant reaches US
The Senate has received Donald Trump's impeachment article from the House, triggering a February trial. The Democratic House impeachment managers delivered their ratified article against Donald Trump to the Senate, automatically triggering a process that will culminate with a dramatic trial for the ex-president on 8 February. Joe Biden says the country should be on its way to achieving Covid herd immunity by the summer and that most Americans should get the vaccine by the spring.
WorldAssociated PressWitnesses: Eritrean soldiers loot, kill in Ethiopia's Tigray
Warily, Zenebu watched them try on dresses and other clothing looted from homes in a town in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region. “They were focused on trying to take everything of value,” even diapers, said Zenebu, who arrived home in Colorado this month after weeks trapped in Tigray, where she had gone to visit her mother. On the road, she said, trucks were full of boxes addressed to places in Eritrea for the looted goods to be delivered.
PoliticsReutersFormer White House spokeswoman Sanders running for Arkansas governor
Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, backed by her former boss Donald Trump, announced on Monday she will seek the Republican Party's nomination for governor of Arkansas in the 2022 election. It is rare for a former White House press secretary to launch into a political career, and Sanders' campaign will amount to a test of the pull Trump still has within the Republican party after the tumultuous end of his presidency. In a video released on social media announcing her decision, Sanders, 38, tied herself closely to Trump and his agenda, using flag-waving video of him and herself on a presidential trip to Iraq.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: National Guard members didn't turn away from Biden's Inauguration Day motorcade in dissent
The claim: Video shows National Guard members turned away from Biden's motorcade History will remember President Joe Biden's inauguration for its many irregularities, including the 26,000 National Guard members who descended upon Washington to provide additional security after pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol two weeks earlier. While tensions were high on Inauguration Day, a viral video does not show guard members insulting Biden, as online opponents claim. A 21-second video titled “Troops Turn Backs on Biden as Motorcade Drives By” shows guard members standing along a road, with some backs turned from the presidential motorcade.
WorldAssociated PressAsia Today: Taiwan quarantines 5,000 after hospital cluster
Health authorities in Taiwan are quarantining 5,000 people while looking for the source of two new coronavirus cases linked to a hospital. Officials said on Monday that they have not been able to identify how the husband and wife became infected after a brief hospital stay in the Taoyuan General Hospital, located in the city of Taoyuan just outside Taiwan's capital city. The man had stayed at the hospital for three days for health problems unrelated to COVID-19, while his wife looked after him.
PoliticsReutersWith Trump gone, U.S. Supreme Court pulls plug on anti-corruption cases
Five days after the end of Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday halted lawsuits accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution's anti-corruption provisions by maintaining ownership of his business empire including a hotel near the White House while in office. The action means that after four years of litigation the top U.S. judicial body will not rule on the meaning and scope of the Constitution's so-called emoluments provisions, a largely untested area of constitutional law. The justices threw out lower court rulings that had allowed the lawsuits to proceed and ordered the two cases dismissed because they became moot with Trump leaving office.
U.S.Business InsiderA New York Times editor lost her job after she tweeted about having 'chills' about Biden's inauguration
New York Times editor Lauren Wolfe tweeted about having "chills" seeing Biden arrive for his inauguration. Many criticized her for appearing to show political bias, and The Times later fired Wolfe. A New York Times editor lost her job after receiving criticism for tweeting about her excitement for President Joe Biden's inauguration.
WorldAssociated PressVietnam's Communist Party leaders warn of challenges ahead
Senior members of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party cautioned Tuesday that their country faced opportunities and challenges ahead, as they began a key meeting to set the nation's path for the next five years. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc cited climate change, natural disasters and diseases as among the challenges ahead in his speech before the 13th National Party Congress and aired on state television. “Globalization and global integration are on the right track, but they are met with the rise of extreme nationalism, strategic competition and trade wars," declared Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the nation's most powerful leader.
WorldINSIDERChina is spreading conspiracy theories that the coronavirus was created in an American lab and that a US-created vaccine is killing the elderly
Chinese state media is spreading a conspiracy theory that a US Army base created the coronavirus. The disinformation push comes as WHO scientists arrive in Wuhan to study the virus' origins. Chinese state media is playing up a conspiracy theory about the novel coronavirus' origins while also questioning the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's safety in older people.
BusinessBusiness InsiderElon Musk says he's 'super fired up' for fighting climate change with Joe Biden
Elon Musk is 'fired up' to help the Biden administration on climate change. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO told Fortune he's hopeful that they can make progress on the environment. Musk is currently running a competition to give a $100 million prize to the best carbon capture technology.
PoliticsThe Independent‘Don’t let him off the hook’: Beto O’Rourke says Ted Cruz is guilty of sedition
Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke accused Sen. Ted Cruz - who he challenged in a Senate race in 2018 - of being "guilty of sedition." Mr O'Rourke made the statement on Twitter while imploring citizens not to "let him off the hook" for his involvement in the US Capitol riots. "Don't let him off the hook.
PoliticsThe IndependentIvanka Trump would face ‘tough race’ for Florida Senate, says Republican incumbent Marco Rubio
Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio has shrugged off rumours that Ivanka Trump could challenge him to a primary in the 2022 midterm elections. The daughter of recently deposed president, Donald Trump, has made no secret of her own political ambitions after serving as a senior adviser in her father's White House and recently relocated her family to a luxury condominium in Miami. Ms Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, likewise an adviser to the 45th president, have also recently acquired a $30m (£22m) lot on nearby Indian Creek Island with a view to building a new home for themselves there, indicating their intention to stay on in the Sunshine State, where Mr Trump himself now resides at his Mar-a-Lago mansion.
U.S.USA TODAYCoronavirus live updates: California investigates death hours after vaccination; Chicago teachers refuse to return to classrooms
COVID-19 has killed more than 418,000 Americans in less than a year, and infections have continued to mount despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines late in 2020. The United States on Sunday surpassed 25 million cases of COVID-19, but an influential coronavirus model says the true number is likely much higher. About 17% of people in the U.S., or upward of 50 million people, have been infected with the coronavirus, researchers at the University of Washington estimate.
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Dutch police arrest "most wanted" drug kingpin
Dutch police said on Saturday (January 23) they had arrested the alleged kingpin of an Asian drug syndicate, one of the world's most-wanted fugitives who has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national nicknamed Brother Number Three, was detained at the request of Australian police, whose investigations found his cartel - known to its members as "The Company" - dominates the $70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade. These drugs were seized back in 2013, in a swoop on a syndicate linked to Tse.
U.S.The Daily BeastFormer Marine Charged in Riots Hurled ‘Sharpened Pole’ at Capitol Police: Feds
A former Marine charged with assaulting police officers during the Capitol riots with a hockey stick also launched a massive, “sharpened pole” at cops during his attack, authorities revealed. Michael Joseph Foy, a 30-year-old from Westland, Michigan, was charged Friday with several crimes, including obstruction of law enforcement and forcibly assaulting an officer, after striking cops with a hockey stick “at least 10 times” during the Jan. 6 riots. In a detention memo filed Sunday evening, federal prosecutors also revealed that at one point during the melee, Foy “threw what appears to be a sharpened pole at the officers.”
“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.”