PoliticsThe IndependentJill Biden spent her first week as First Lady reshaping the role. Melania Trump spent hers isolated in a tower
Dr Biden tapped former US Ambassador to Uruguay Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon to serve as her chief of staff before Inauguration Day could even arrive. The political strategist and prominent attorney who previously worked under former President Barack Obama would help the new first lady roll out her agenda, which included the relaunch of Joining Forces, an initiative she co-founded with former First Lady Michelle Obama providing support for military families. Whereas the national gaze is typically cast on the new president during their first days in office, the first lady's presence could be felt in a recently unfamiliar way.
U.S.Associated PressFeds withheld info on virus cases following executions
At least two journalists tested positive for coronavirus after witnessing the Trump administration's final three federal executions, but the Bureau of Prisons knowingly withheld the diagnoses from other media witnesses and did not perform any contact tracing, The Associated Press has learned. The AP is not identifying the journalists, but has confirmed they both received positive coronavirus tests following the executions earlier this month at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Bureau of Prisons just completed a record number of executions under former President Donald Trump, more than any previous administration.
WorldReutersMadrid halting COVID-19 vaccinations due to supply delays
Delays to COVID-19 vaccine shipments have forced authorities in Madrid to halt inoculations and are threatening supplies in Catalonia, Spanish officials said on Wednesday. The Madrid region has ceased first vaccinations for at least this week and next and was using the few doses it has to administer second shots to those who have had the first one, said deputy regional government chief Ignacio Aguado. U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said last week there would be a temporary slow down in shipments to the European Union in late January caused by changes to manufacturing processes to ultimately boost output.
U.S.Architectural DigestJoe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’s Real Estate Portfolios Revealed
While President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are getting adjusted to their new digs in Washington, D.C.—Biden at the White House, and Harris temporarily at Blair House just down the street—both politicians still maintain other dwellings. Despite a meme that circulated last spring claiming that Biden owns one of the largest mansions in Delaware, he currently owns just two properties, neither of which is close to being the largest in the state. To clarify: Biden sold his longtime DuPont mansion (one of several historic chateau-like homes in the area) in Wilmington, Delaware, back in 1996.
PoliticsMilitary.comLet's Answer Dr. Jill Biden's Call to 'Join Forces'
Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole is founder and chair of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. The military community rightly heralded first lady Jill Biden's recent announcement that she will re-launch Joining Forces -- the initiative she co-founded in 2011 with then-first lady Michelle Obama to unite the nation behind those who serve. The return of Joining Forces will not only strengthen a military community strained by the demands of maintaining national security during a global pandemic, it will serve as a reminder of what we can accomplish as a nation if we rediscover our ability to work together.
WorldAssociated PressIndonesian volcano unleashes river of lava in new eruption
Indonesia's most active volcano erupted Wednesday with a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) down its slopes. It was Mount Merapi's biggest lava flow since authorities raised its danger level in November, said Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.
WorldReutersUK PM Johnson heads to Scotland amid fears of break up of UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic underlined the benefits of being part of the United Kingdom as he prepares to visit Scotland on Thursday to confront growing support for another independence referendum. The bonds holding together the United Kingdom have been severely strained over the last five years by Brexit, the government's handling of the pandemic, and repeated calls by the Scottish National Party for a new referendum on independence. Ahead of his visit, Johnson said that Scotland as a part of the United Kingdom gained access to a coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and they are being administered by their shared armed forces, who are creating 80 new vaccine centres in Scotland.
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Video resurfaces of Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing Parkland survivor
In a video that was recorded before she was a member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene can be seen harassing David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting.
PoliticsReutersAnalysis: A 'transitory way to govern' - Biden reverses Trump's orders with the stroke of a pen
In his first week in office, U.S. President Joe Biden has rolled out a wave of executive orders to fulfill a roster of campaign promises, underscoring just how easy it is to reverse some of the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump. As of Wednesday morning, Biden had cranked out some 40 executive orders, nearly half of them overturning Trump mandates. With one stroke of the pen, the United States rejoined the Paris climate accord and with another, Biden blocked funds for a border wall with Mexico.
WorldAssociated PressBrazil to end military-led program against Amazon logging
Brazil's ongoing military-led operation to curb illegal deforestation and fires in the Amazon rainforest will end April 30, Vice President Hamilton Mourão said at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. Mourão defended the success of Operation Green Brazil 2, which was launched last May and saw deployment of thousands of soldiers across the Amazon. The vice president leads the government's Amazon Council to fight deforestation in the region.
WorldBBCCoronavirus: Why South Africa has yet to roll out vaccines
South Africa has been seeking to source vaccines in three ways: via the World Health Organization-backed Covax scheme via arrangements made by the African Union through bilateral contracts with vaccine manufacturers Covax is a global initiative in which countries pool their resources to support the development of vaccines with a view to ensure that all countries receive a fair supply of effective vaccines. South Africa expects to acquire doses for around 10% of the population through Covax and has been told it will receive them from April through to June. The African Union established the African vaccine acquisition task team last year to source vaccine doses for the continent.
PoliticsReutersU.S. reviewing China genocide ruling to make sure it sticks
The U.S. State Department is reviewing a Trump administration determination that China has committed genocide by repressing Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region to make sure that it sticks, President Joe Biden's pick for U.N. ambassador said on Wednesday. "The State Department is reviewing that now because all of the procedures were not followed," Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the move last week, one day before Biden took office, "after careful examination of the available facts," accusing the Chinese Communist Party of crimes against humanity targeting the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
WorldAssociated PressPolish ombudsman: Abortion ruling condemns women to torture
Poland's top human rights official on Thursday denounced a top court ruling that amounts to a near total ban on abortion, saying it imposes a severe limitation of women's rights and “condemns them to torture. The constitutional court on Wednesday issued a justification of a controversial October ruling that bans abortions in cases of fetuses with congenital defects, even when they are so severe that there is no chance of survival upon birth. That October ruling sparked weeks of mass protests, but until now it had not taken legal effect — though women's reproductive rights activists said hospitals were already canceling procedures, fearing recriminations from the authorities.
WorldAssociated PressAuschwitz survivors mark anniversary online amid pandemic
A Jewish prayer for the souls of the people murdered in the Holocaust echoed Wednesday over where the Warsaw ghetto stood during World War II as a world paused by the coronavirus pandemic observed the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Most International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations were being held online this year due to the virus, including the annual ceremony at the site of the former Auschwitz death camp, where Nazi German forces killed 1.1 million people in occupied Poland. The memorial site is closed to visitors because of the pandemic.
WorldReutersChina sharpens language, warns Taiwan that independence 'means war'
China toughened its language towards Taiwan on Thursday, warning after recent stepped up military activities near the island that "independence means war" and that its armed forces were acting in response to provocation and foreign interference. Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported multiple Chinese fighter jets and bombers entering its southwestern air defence identification zone last weekend, prompting Washington to urge Beijing to stop pressuring Taiwan. China believes that Taiwan's democratically-elected government is moving the island towards a declaration of formal independence, though Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly said it is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.
PoliticsThe IndependentAfter the fall of Trump, Matt Gaetz matters more than ever
Speaking when the House returned to vote on the Electoral College results, Mr Gaetz spoke up to challenge the results from Arizona. Citing unsubstantiated allegations of electoral meddling on the left, he also condemned the violence of that day – explicitly denying Mr Trump played any role in inciting it while also raising the notion that it was at least in part a false flag attack by radical leftists. I don't know if the reports are true,” he said on the floor, “but the Washington Times has just reported some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, they were masquerading as Trump s...
LifestyleArchitectural DigestHere Are The Brightest Decor Buys of the Season
Let's get loud Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated PressEXPLAINER: Why India's farmers are revolting against PM Modi
Most of the protesters are farmers from northern Punjab and Haryana states, the two biggest agricultural producers. They are demanding the repeal of laws passed by Parliament in September that they say will favor large corporate farms, devastate the earnings of many farmers and leave those who hold small plots behind as big corporations win out. Modi has billed the laws as necessary to modernize Indian farming.
U.S.ReutersBiden's immigration changes too late for grandfather deported on Inauguration Day
As U.S. President Joe Biden took the oath of office last Wednesday, Felipe Ortega sat in a van handcuffed and chained at the waist and feet, headed toward Mexico and the end of his 30-year life in the United States. A day earlier, the 58-year-old grandfather of eight U.S. citizens was on his way to work when immigration agents surrounded his car in Midland, Texas, just blocks from his home. After one sleepless night in jail and a long ride to the border, Ortega, a Mexican national, was sent across the international bridge at El Paso in Texas around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
WorldAssociated PressZimbabwe holds burial for 3 top leaders who died of COVID-19
Zimbabwe on Wednesday buried three top officials, including two cabinet ministers, in a single ceremony at a shrine reserved almost exclusively for the ruling elite as a virulent wave of the coronavirus takes a devastating toll on the country. “COVID-19 has taught us an important lesson that we are all mortal,” said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, presiding at what he described as a “unique triple burial” at the hilltop, picturesque shrine called National Heroes Acre. Pallbearers in full COVID-19 protective gear wheeled the coffins of the two Cabinet ministers and a former head of Zimbabwe's prisons on a red carpet for burial with military honors.
PoliticsThe IndependentGiuliani election witness who went viral after testimony says she’s running for office
A conservative activist who was widely mocked after she was called to testify by Rudy Giuliani during a hearing on election fraud in December says she is running for office. Melissa Carone, who was an IT contractor for Dominion Voting Systems on election day, testified before a Michigan House panel in December 2020 that she had witnessed electoral fraud take place in favour of the Democrats on 3 November's presidential election. In testimony that went viral, Ms Carone claimed that tens of thousands of votes had been counted twice, but offered no proof to back up her claims.
U.S.USA TODAYReturn letter from Biden again shows Texas kindergarten students 'their voice matters,' teacher says
EL PASO, Texas – An El Paso teacher received a letter from President Joe Biden after her kindergarten class wrote to congratulate him for winning the 2020 election. Barron Elementary teacher Martha Tavarez and her class wrote to the then president-elect and Jill Biden after she gave a lesson to her students about the presidential election, including hosting a mock election, according to a news release on the El Paso Independent School District's website. The letter her class received in response bore the official seal of the Office of the President-Elect and some words of appreciation from the man elected as America's 46th president.
PoliticsAssociated PressUS puts hold on foreign arms sales, including F-35s to UAE
The Biden administration has put a temporary hold on several major foreign arms sales initiated by former President Donald Trump. Officials say that among the deals being paused is a massive $23 billion transfer of stealth F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates. The new administration is reviewing the sales but has not made any determination about whether they will actually go through, the State Department said.
U.S.BBCCapitol riots: Who has the FBI arrested so far?
The suspects in the Capitol riot are a varied group: they include a West Virginia lawmaker, a Florida firefighter and a left-wing activist from Utah. It's been over two weeks since the Capitol Hill riot - how much progress has law enforcement made bringing the perpetrators to justice? Michael Sherwin, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, says they have identified 400 suspects and arrested 135 to date in connection with the Capitol siege.
HealthLA TimesDo pregnancy and COVID-19 vaccines mix? Here's what the experts say
To vaccinate or not to vaccinate — that is the question pregnant women are asking themselves as COVID-19 shots roll out across the country. The two vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration were not tested for safety or efficacy in pregnant women, so there's no hard data to go on. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the vaccines “should not be withheld from pregnant individuals who meet criteria for vaccination,” such as the healthcare workers who received priority access.
“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.”