Republicans regroup around attacks on Biden administration —including Kamala Harris

Republicans are planning to make Vice President Kamala Harris a focal point of their political attacks in the lead-up to midterm elections, casting the Democrat as a champion of policies they disagree with from the Biden administration. Harris has been at President Joe Biden's side throughout much of their first month in office and the new president has made clear that Harris will be fully involved when weighty issues are discussed in the Oval Office. That access and influence, praised by liberals, is seen by Republican groups, including the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, as a reason to direct criticism of the administration at the vice pre...

Iran threatens to end deal with IAEA over U.S.-led push to criticise it

Iran is threatening to end a deal struck with the U.N. nuclear watchdog last weekend temporarily salvaging much monitoring of its activities if the agency's board endorses a U.S.-led push to criticise Tehran next week, an Iranian position paper shows. Tehran this week scaled back cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending extra inspection measures introduced by its 2015 nuclear accord with major powers. Iran and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration are now locked in a standoff over who should move first to save the unravelling 2015 deal.

Bernie Sanders unveils his Plan B for a $15 minimum wage after Senate parliamentarian setback

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Thursday effectively killed a Democratic push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, ruling that the measure doesn't pass muster under the budget reconciliation rules Democrats are using to pass the package with a simple majority in the Senate. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), have already said they would vote against including the $15 minimum wage provision in the relief package, dealing it a near-fatal blow in the 50-50 Senate. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among them, but he also had a Plan B.

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  $15 minimum wage not allowed in Covid relief bill, Senate official rules

  Yahoo Finance
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  Senate Parliamentarian Rules Against $15 Minimum Wage In COVID-19 Bill

  HuffPost

US implicates Saudi crown prince in journalist's killing

Saudi Arabia's crown prince likely approved an operation to kill or capture a U.S.-based journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday that could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew bipartisan and international outrage. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal Oct. 2, 2018, murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's authoritarian consolidation of power.

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  U.S. Finally Admits It: Saudi Crown Prince Responsible For Jamal Khashoggi's Murder

  HuffPost
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  Biden Speaks With Saudi King Amid Expected Report On Killing Of Jamal Khashoggi

  HuffPost

Police chief says militia groups ‘want to blow up’ Capitol building at Biden State of the Union

US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman argued to maintain increased law enforcement presence at the Capitol ahead of Joe Biden's first address to Congress, following warnings from militia groups that she says want to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” in connection with the president's upcoming State of the Union. She told members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday that her agency is aware of far-right militia groups that participated in the Capitol insurrection on 6 January that have “stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, which we know that da...

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  Capitol Police Chief: Extremists Plotting State Of The Union Violence

  HuffPost
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  Trump supporters want to 'blow up' Capitol, police chief warns

  Reuters

Philippine police to look into government admission of drug war failures

Philippine police said on Thursday they were looking into a government review of thousands of killings in the country's "war on drugs", after the justice minister made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures. Human Rights Watch described Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra's video statement on Wednesday as an "astounding disclosure". Guevarra said police had in many cases failed to examine weapons and crime scenes after officers had shot dead suspected drug dealers.

Analysis: Window is already narrowing for Republican to challenge Donald Trump for 2024

It is looking ever more probable that Donald Trump will run for the White House again in 2024. All eyes are on his speech this Sunday at CPAC, the annual conservative conference, which like Mr Trump has relocated from Washington to Florida. An adviser told The Telegraph that Mr Trump has spent the last weeks taking a break, and practising his golf swing, but is keen to re-engage in the fight.

Defense head Austin weighs warship needs in Pacific, Mideast

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told sailors on the USS Nimitz Thursday that he hopes to avoid long ship deployments like the more than 10 months they just spent at sea. But as he made his first aircraft carrier visit as Pentagon chief, he acknowledged the demand for American warships around the globe as he wrestles with security threats from China in the Pacific and Iran in the Middle East. Standing in the ship's hangar bay, Austin said he will make a decision soon on whether to send a carrier back to the Middle East, where the Nimitz had been.

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  U.S. Navy warship in the Middle East has COVID-19 cases, another ship to run tests

  Reuters
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  Covid hits U.S. Navy warship in Mideast; possible cases on 2nd ship

  NBC News

Hungary may have to tighten lockdown as COVID cases jump, PM says

Hungary may have to tighten lockdown curbs as coronavirus infections are expected to rise "drastically" in the next two weeks, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, as the daily tally of new infections jumped to 4,668, the highest this year. Orban also said all the 2.5 million to 2.6 million Hungarians who have registered for COVID-19 vaccinations so far would receive at least one dose by Easter, in early April. Orban, speaking on state radio, said he hoped to get vaccinated with a shot developed by China's Sinopharm early next week.

Democrats launch sweeping bid to overhaul US election laws

Stacey Abrams, whose voting rights work helped make Georgia into a swing state, exhorted Congress on Thursday to reject “outright lies" that have historically restricted access to the ballot as Democrats began their push for a sweeping overhaul of election and ethics laws. “A lie cloaked in the seductive appeal of election integrity has weakened access to democracy for millions,” Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race, said during a committee hearing for the bill, which was introduced as H.R. 1 to signal its importance to the party's agenda. Democrats feel a sense of urgency to enact the legislation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when their narrow majorities in the House and Senate will be at risk.

While Biden visits storm-torn Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz will be giving a speech on 'cancel culture' in Florida

President Joe Biden heads to Texas on Friday to tour some of the areas hit hardest by the winter storm last week. While he's there, he won't be meeting with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz has a speaking engagement that day at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.

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  Ted Cruz tries joke at CPAC: 'Orlando is awesome. It's not as nice as Cancún.'

  Yahoo News
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  Cruz at CPAC: 'Orlando is awesome. It's not as nice as Cancún.'

  Yahoo News Video

China expected to unveil hike in military budget as tensions rise

China is expected to reveal a robust increase in defence spending at the March 5 annual opening of parliament, as its economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic and military tensions rise, Chinese and Western security experts said. With the coronavirus hammering its economy, China last year announced a 6.6 per cent boost in defence spending to $178 billion, the lowest rate of increase in three decades. The new administration of President Joe Biden has moved quickly to remind Beijing that the United States intends to compete with China's growing influence and military strength in the Asia-Pacific.

Once the mainstream model, Michigan GOP embraces right wing

Josh Venable, a longtime Michigan GOP operative and chief of staff to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, can trace the arc of the state's Republican Party clearly. “This was the state where to be Republican was defined by Gerald Ford and George Romney,” Venable said, referring to the moderate former president and former governor. Now, he said, it's defined by Mike Shirkey, the state Senate majority leader who was overheard calling the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot a “hoax"; Meshawn Maddock, the new co-chair of the state party who backed former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud; and the Proud Boys.

U.S. Senate panel sets hearing for Biden's No. 2 and No. 3 Justice Department picks

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday announced it will hold a confirmation hearing on March 9 for President Joe Biden's nominees to serve in the No. 2 and No. 3 top jobs at the U.S. Justice Department. Lisa Monaco, a former federal prosecutor who also previously advised former FBI Director Robert Mueller and former President Barack Obama, is nominated to serve as Deputy Attorney General. Vanita Gupta, a long-time civil rights attorney who previously led the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, is nominated to serve as Associate Attorney General.

No Need to Call an Architect—These 9 Room Dividers Elegantly Get the Job Done

From ornate to subtle, these beautiful screens double as functional art Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Officials: Attack targets Afghan reporter's family, kills 3

Three family members of an assassinated journalist in western Afghanistan have been killed by gunmen, local officials said Friday, amid a rising wave of attacks targeting journalists and civil society actors. Ghor provincial council member Hamidullah Mutahid said that at least five others were wounded in the attack late Thursday. The gunmen stormed the family home of Afghan journalist and activist Bismillah Adil Aimaq, who was shot dead in an unclaimed attack nearby Ghor on Jan. 1.

Ties with Saudis at stake as US releases findings on killing

The United States has pledged to tell the world its conclusions on what role Saudi Arabia's crown prince played in the brutal killing and dismembering of a U.S.-based journalist, but as important is what comes next — what the Biden administration plans to do about it. Ahead of the release of the declassified U.S. intelligence report, and announcement of any U.S. punitive measures, President Joe Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman on Thursday for the first time since taking office more than a month ago. It was a later-than-usual courtesy call to the Middle East ally, timing seen as reflecting Biden's displeasure.

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  Biden Speaks With Saudi King Amid Expected Report On Killing Of Jamal Khashoggi

  HuffPost
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  U.S. Finally Admits It: Saudi Crown Prince Responsible For Jamal Khashoggi's Murder

  HuffPost

Who’s John Boehner’: Ted Cruz reacts to former Speaker telling him to ‘f*** himself’

Addressing the annual CPAC conference of American conservatives, Texas Senator Ted Cruz mocked a former Republican speaker for reportedly telling him to “go f*** himself” during an audiobook recording. During a high-energy roving-microphone speech in which he repeatedly referenced the Star Wars movies and implored Americans to “have fun” rather than fall prey to “cancel culture”, Mr Cruz complained that many in the right-wing establishment “act like they've got a stick inserted somewhere it doesn't belong. He then referred to Mr Boehner's reported comments.

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  John Boehner Tells Ted Cruz To 'Go F**k Yourself' In Rogue Audiobook Aside: Report

  HuffPost
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  John Boehner tells Ted Cruz to go ‘f*** himself’ in unscripted audiobook recording, report says

  The Independent

A 2017 Jen Psaki tweet questioning the legality of bombing Syria is reemerging after Biden launched an airstrike

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is facing criticism for an old tweet about Syria. Psaki in 2017 questioned the legality of airstrikes launched by the Trump administration. On Thursday the Biden administration launched attacks on Iran-backed militia groups in Syria.

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  U.S. bombs facilities in Syria used by Iran-backed militia

  Associated Press
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  EXPLAINER: How US airstrike in Syria sends message to Iran

  Associated Press

More Inside A New Safari Lodge Treehouse Tucked Away in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

Only reachable by canoe, this Xigera hideaway is centered along lush riverbeds and a rich concentration of wildlife. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Putin May Have Triggered an Attempted Coup in Armenia After PM Insulted His Missiles

MOSCOW—Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that his nation's military had attempted a coup on Thursday, the latest development in a country still recovering from last year's lost war with Azerbaijan. Now, politicians and political analysts are speaking of Russia's hand in the attempted coup, pointing to President Vladimir Putin's strained relationship with Pashinyan. On Tuesday, Pushinyan had insulted Moscow by complaining about Russian missiles, an indirect criticism of the Kremlin's strategy of waiting to intervene until Armenia was weakened in the conflict, despite its official status as a military ally.

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  Thousands rally in Armenia after PM warns of coup attempt

  Reuters
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  Armenian PM slams 'coup attempt' as political tensions rise

  Associated Press

Georgia prosecutor investigating Trump call urges patience

The Georgia prosecutor investigating potential efforts by Donald Trump and others to influence last year's general election has a message for people who are eager to see whether the former president will be charged: Be patient. “I'm in no rush,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said this week in an interview with The Associated Press. Willis, a Democrat elected in November, sent letters to state officials on Feb. 10 instructing them to preserve records related to the election, particularly those that may contain evidence of attempts to influence elections officials.