The day after he single-handedly delayed the U.S. Senate's debate on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill for 11 hours, Republican Senator Ron Johnson said on Friday that he could retire from office when his term expires. The two-term Republican told Wisconsin media outlets that he has not decided whether to run for reelection in 2022 but added that not seeking another term is "probably my preference now." Johnson, a Trump ally, recently drew widespread criticism by peddling a debunked conspiracy theory that leftists posing as Trump supporters played a role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A third stimulus bill will be debated today, but a last-minute change to the relief package means that about 7 million families may not receive a $1,400 check. Initially, the $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which is known as the American Rescue Plan, included $1,400 checks for people who make an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less, or couples who earn up to $150,000. The checks would have phased out as income increased, and individuals earning more than $100,000 a year and couples earning over $200,000 a year would not receive a check at all.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has long been on a crusade to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. After being blocked by the Senate parliamentarian on the question of whether the minimum wage increase could be included in the pandemic relief package working its way through the chamber, Sanders filed it on Friday as an individual item to get all senators on the record. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) were already assumed to not support the $15 mark.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, leaving the Nasdaq down nearly 10% from its February record high, after remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointed investors worried about rising longer-term U.S. bond yields. A decline of 10% from its February record high would confirm the Nasdaq is in a correction. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield spiked to 1.533% after Powell's comments, which did not point to changes in the Fed's asset purchases to tackle the recent jump in yields.
The Senate voted on Thursday to take up President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill, but put off the start of a contentious debate until the full text of the 628-page bill was read aloud.
A missing Kentucky man was found dead after a 465-foot fall from the Grand Canyon, according to the National Park Service. A motorcycle was also found beside the body of John Pennington, a 40-year-old man from Walton, officials say. He was believed to have entered the Grand Canyon around Feb. 23 and abandoned his vehicle at Yaki Point, a scenic overlook, officials say.
Quality food preservation, storage space, and good-looking design are priorities among kitchen designers when it comes to refrigerators Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
In another video recorded last July, a tech CEO taunted an Asian American family at an upscale Northern California restaurant, calling them an โAsian piece of s---.โ Fueled by former President Donald Trump's anti-China rhetoric, the Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed an onslaught of hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islanders. In 2020, the group Stop AAPI Hate received more than 2,800 self-reports of coronavirus discrimination nationwide, from verbal harassment to physical assault.
The Biden administration secretly put temporary limits on the use of drone strikes and commando raids outside of traditional battlefield settings like Afghanistan or Syria, part of a larger national security review of whether to alter use of force rules from the Trump administration. The changes, which the administration put in place on Mr Biden's first day in office, were first reported on Wednesday by the New York Times, and come as the Biden administration recalibrates the sprawling US footprint across the Middle East, and Congress pushes to rein in the president's war-fighting powers and scrutinises a recent strike in Syria.
Experts feared the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's slightly lower efficacy rate would lead to an impression of a two-tiered system. That has been exactly the case in Detroit, where the mayor just rejected a shipment of the company's vaccine. CNN reports that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (D) declined an allocation of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this week, saying the other available vaccines are better.
The Mail On Sunday has been ordered by a High Court judge to publish a front-page statement about the Duchess of Sussex's legal victory over its publication of a letter to her father. Meghan's lawyers sought an order requiring Associated Newspapers to publish a statement about her win on the front page of The Mail On Sunday and the home page of MailOnline โto act as a deterrent to future infringersโ. Lord Justice Warby agreed that the newspaper needed to carry a story about the legal victory that was in line with the prominence it afforded its original story about the letter.
Britain's decision to make unilateral changes to Northern Irish Brexit arrangements is "not the appropriate behaviour of a respectable country" and will erode trust with the European Union, senior Irish ministers said on Thursday. The EU promised legal action on Wednesday after the British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, a move Brussels said violated terms of Britain's divorce deal. "For the second time in the course of a few months, the British government has threatened to breach international law," Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told Virgin Media television, referring to a similar unilateral move last year that London even...
More than 260 refugees who were vetted, approved and booked to come to the United States have had their flights canceled by the State Department over the past two weeks because they do not qualify under restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump, refugee resettlement agencies say. The restrictions came when Trump capped refugee admissions at a record low of 15,000. President Joe Biden proposed quadrupling refugee admissions and eliminating Trump's restrictions in a plan that was communicated to Congress three weeks ago.
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday found that community requirements that support mask use during the pandemic play a large role in county-level COVID-19 case and death growth rates, particularly when it comes to restaurant dining. An analysis of mask mandates and restaurant reopenings in all U.S. counties from March to December 2020 found that significant drops in daily coronavirus cases and death growth rates occurred within 20 days of implementing mask use. Meanwhile, jumps in daily COVID-19 case growth rates were observed starting 40 days after restaurant dining reopened โ in which people do not wear masks โ while daily death growth rates spiked 60 days after allowing on-site dining.
The mother of the so-called โQAnon Shamanโ has defended her son's actions during the Capitol insurrection and repeated false claims that Donald Trump only lost the election due to voter fraud. Martha Chansley, the mother of Jacob Chansley, appeared on 60 Minutes+ to discuss her son's role in the 6 January riots. In one clip, Laurie Segall, a 60 Minutes correspondent, asks Ms Chansley if she thought her son did anything wrong.
On the campaign trail, Joe Biden made sweeping promises to reform US immigration, vowing to "take urgent action" and undo the policies of Donald Trump. "We're not saying 'don't come,'" Mr Biden's top homeland security official Alejandro Mayorkas said this week. Here's a look at what Mr Biden has - and hasn't - done so far, and how it differs from Mr Trump.
A Trump appointee, who was still employed at the State Department when he allegedly bashed police at the U.S. Capitol with a riot shield and egged on a crowd of insurrectionists, has been arrested for his role on Jan. 6. Federico Klein, a 42-year-old State Department staff assistant with top security clearance, is facing a slew of charges, including unlawful entry and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The New York Times. Prosecutors allege Klein, who also worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, โphysically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the lineโ before assaulting one officer with a riot shieldโand using that stolen police equipment to wedge open a door into the Capitol to allow insurrectionists inside.
At its Friday meeting, the Public Utility Commission of Texas declined to adjust prices that resulted in $16 billion in overcharges to the electricity market during the February winter storm. The governor-appointed regulatory commission, which oversees the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, met with just two members after the resignation of chairperson DeAnn Walker. Commissioners Arthur D'Andrea and Shelly Botkin addressed the Potomac report, which found that ERCOT kept electricity prices too high for at least 33 hours after most outages ended on late Feb. 17.
The group took aim at Mr Cruz after he voted against the congressional certification of the electoral college votes despite the ransacking of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on 6 January. In a 17 January statement, the group said that โTed Cruz and Josh Hawley deserve the most blame for firing up the violent mob of Trump supporters that attacked the U.S Capitol and killed five peopleโ. On the fundraising page for the billboard campaign, the group adds that โrioters who broke into the Senate were quoted as saying Cruz 'would want us to do this.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, who served as a House manager in Donald Trump's last impeachment trial, filed a lawsuit Friday against the former president, his son, lawyer and a Republican congressman whose actions he charges led to January's insurrection. The California Democrat's suit, filed in federal court in Washington, alleges a conspiracy to violate civil rights, along with negligence, inciting a riot and inflicting emotional distress. It follows a similar suit filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson last month in an attempt to hold the former president accountable in some way for his actions Jan. 6, following his Senate acquittal.
Former President Donald Trump intensified his war with the Republican establishment on Thursday by attacking Karl Rove, a longtime Republican strategist who criticized Trump's first speech since leaving office for being long on grievances but short on vision.
She was reportedly concerned about the woman causing problems with her relationship with her kids. Bauman was recorded discussing the scheme, according to a press release from the Camden County prosecutor's office. She was given multiple opportunities to change her mind when asked by a witness-turned-informant if she was sure she wanted to carry out the killing, prosecutors said, but she moved ahead with it, at one point acknowledging that she was a Christian but noting she could always ask for forgiveness later.
A California man said he managed to survive an avalanche when he was skiing last month by jumping off a 100-foot cliff. Kyle Johnston was skiing with his cousin John Daiek on Feb. 12 in South Lake Tahoe near Blue Lakes, Tahoe Daily Tribune reported. The pair had come up with an escape route in case of trouble but when the avalanche was triggered, Johnston was forced to go off a cliff, according to the publication.
President Jair Bolsonaro has told Brazilians to โstop whiningโ about Covid-19, and criticised measures to curb the virus as cities impose their own restrictions in the face of record new cases. The comments come as Brazil faces its worst phase of the pandemic yet while the country's health system is on the โverge of collapse.โ On Thursday, Brazil saw its second-highest daily raise in cases on record, with a further 75,102 cases of coronavirus recorded.
Senate Democrats clinched a deal on Friday night over unemployment benefits that will smooth the upper chamber's passage of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill this weekend. After about a nine-hour delay following Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) resistance to an earlier agreement on jobless payments, party leaders announced a new accord with Manchin. The latest deal would provide $300 a week in extra unemployment benefits through Sept. 6, and up to $10,200 in tax relief for unemployed workers.
โTaking humans to Mars would require an investment astronomically out of kilter with the possible benefits.โ
โCan a Mars settlement be a freer society than we enjoy on Earth? Maybe.โ
โWhat we learn...may spark the next revolution that will make life in 2071 beyond anything we can imagine right now.โ
โOur presence on Mars could jeopardize one of our main reasons for being there โ the search for life.โ
โThe future of geologic investigation of other worlds lies with highly improved versions of our Mars rovers.โ