PoliticsThe WeekThe Trump administration reportedly quietly funded Operation Warp Speed with money set aside for hospitals
Congress granted the HHS permission to move pandemic-related money between accounts, though the agreement stipulated the agency had to give lawmakers a heads up. Former Office of Management and Director Russ Vought defended the decision and said "we would do it again," telling Stat that not only did the administration have the authority, it was also "the right thing to do in order to move as quickly as possible because lives were on the line." Other Trump officials seemed to agree, per Stat, arguing that successful vaccines would reduce hospitalizations, making Warp Speed the more consequential outlet.
WorldAssociated PressIntense preparations before pontiff meets Iraqi ayatollah
In Iraq's holiest city, a pontiff will meet a revered ayatollah and make history with a message of coexistence in a place plagued by bitter divisions. One is the chief pastor of the world-wide Catholic Church, the other a pre-eminent figure in Shiite Islam whose opinion holds powerful sway on the Iraqi street and beyond. Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani are to meet on Saturday for at most 40 minutes, part of the time alone except for interpreters, in the Shiite cleric's modest home in the city of Najaf.
WorldReutersBeijing dismisses alleged Chinese hacking of Indian vaccine makers
China on Tuesday rejected an allegation by a cyber intelligence firm that a state-backed hacking group targeted the IT systems of two Indian coronavirus vaccine makers. Cyfirma told Reuters that hacking group APT10, known as Stone Panda, had identified gaps and vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure and supply chain software of Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine maker. "Without showing any evidence, the relevant party made baseless speculation, distorted and concocted facts, to malign a specific party," China's foreign ministry told Reuters.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden administration takes 1st major action against Russia over Navalny case
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced sanctions against seven senior Russian officials and added 14 parties to the entities list in response to the poisoning and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was recently transferred to a penal colony east of Moscow that's known for abusive treatment of inmates. While perhaps symbolic, the sanctions represent President Biden's first major action against Russia, and they're the first real response by the United States in relation to Navalny since the Trump administration never followed through on the matter. “The tone and substance of our conversations with Russia and our conversations about Russia will be very different from what you saw in the previous administration,” one senior admin official said.
PoliticsAssociated PressMyanmar coup crisis grows after years of US neglect
After years of robust diplomacy with Myanmar under President Barack Obama focused mainly on then-opposition leader and now jailed State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Trump administration adopted a largely hands-off policy. It focused primarily on Myanmar's strategic importance in the competition between the United States and China for influence in the region. Myanmar has become a reminder that, for all the hopefulness and anticipation of Obama administration officials – many of whom now serve in the Biden administration – there are limits to America's ability to shape developments in another nation, particularly one so reclusive and far away.
WorldReutersU.S. failure to sanction prince for Khashoggi killing 'dangerous': U.N. expert
A U.N. human rights investigator said on Monday that it was "extremely dangerous" for the United States to have named Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler as having approved an operation to capture or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi but not to have taken action against him. Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on summary executions who led a U.N. investigation into Khashoggi's 2018 murder, reiterated her call for sanctions targeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's assets and his international engagements. He approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, according to a declassified U.S. intelligence released on Friday as the United States imposed sanctions on some of those involved but spared the crown prince himself in an effort to preserve relations with the kingdom.
WorldReuters'Crying and moving': Nigerian schoolgirls recount forced march kidnap ordeal
Gunmen who kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week beat them and threatened to shoot them during a forced march into captivity, victims said on Tuesday after they were set free. The pupils from Jangebe, a town in Zamfara state, were seized in a raid just after midnight on Friday. All 279 had now been released by the gunmen, Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle said.
PoliticsArchitectural DigestHouse Call: Cue the Waterworks and Welcome to March
Zoë's newsletter comes to a web page near you, and the theme of the day is damp Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAssociated PressPhilippine president fires ambassador seen assaulting staff
Duterte, whose six-year term ends next year, has been reading the names of government employees and officers implicated in graft and corruption in his TV appearances to highlight his campaign against abuses and irregularities. But Duterte, a former government prosecutor who has threatened drug suspects with death and is known for his expletives-laden outbursts, has faced criticisms for abusive behavior himself. In his televised remarks Monday night, Duterte lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo for criticizing the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and vaccination campaign.
PoliticsReutersExclusive: U.S. sanctions for Navalny poisoning may come on Tuesday - sources
The United States is expected to impose sanctions to punish Russia for the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as early as Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter said. President Joe Biden's decision to impose sanctions for Navalny's poisoning reflects a harder stance than taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump, who let the incident last August pass without punitive U.S. action. The sources said on Monday on condition of anonymity that the United States was expected to act under two executive orders: 13661, which was issued after Russia's invasion of Crimea but provides broad authority to target Russian officials, and 13382, issued in 2005 to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
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Senate confirms Miguel Cardona as education secretary
The Senate voted Monday to confirm Miguel Cardona as education secretary, clearing his way to lead President Joe Biden's effort to reopen the nation's schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
WorldAssociated PressPolish court acquits activists who put LGBT rainbow on icon
A Polish court on Tuesday acquitted three activists who had been accused of desecration and offending religious feelings for producing and distributing images of a revered Roman Catholic icon altered to include the LGBT rainbow. The posters, which they distributed in the city of Plock in 2019, used rainbows as halos in an image of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. Their aim was to protest what they considered the hostility of Poland's influential Catholic Church toward LGBT people.
WorldReutersU.S., Canada hail Taiwan's 'freedom pineapples' after Chinese ban
The de facto U.S. and Canadian embassies in Taiwan on Tuesday praised the quality of pineapples grown on the island, depicting photographs of their top diplomats in Taipei with the fruit after an import ban by China. China last week stopped the import of Taiwanese pineapples, citing "harmful creatures" it said could come with the fruit. Infuriated Taiwanese authorities called the ban a political move to further pressure the island, a charge that China denied.
PoliticsTheGrioMarcus Flowers to run for Congress against Marjorie Taylor Greene
The military veteran announced his campaign on social media as Georgia Democrats aim to oust the freshman representative. Sgt. Marcus Flowers has announced his official campaign against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her seat in Georgia's 14th Congressional district. In his newly released campaign video shared on social media, the military veteran laid out his case as a Democratic candidate.
WorldAssociated PressIS claims killing of 3 female media workers in Afghanistan
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the killing of three women working for a local radio and TV station in eastern Afghanistan, the latest in a spike in targeted killings across the war-tor country. Dozens of people gathered Wednesday for the funerals of the three media workers. The women were gunned down on Tuesday in separate attacks, according to the news editor of the privately owned station and officials in Nangarhar province.
U.S.Associated PressAttorneys say Joe Exotic of 'Tiger King' wants new trial
Joe Exotic of “Tiger King" fame has found new attorneys who say they plan to file a motion for a new trial in a matter of months. Joe Exotic, whose real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in federal prison for violating federal wildlife laws and for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his chief rival, Carole Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida. Baskin was not harmed.
WorldReutersExclusive: Six-week sprint got Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccine approved in Canada
Problems at AstraZeneca Plc's European production site in January kicked off a six-week push to get a version of its COVID-19 vaccine made at an Indian facility approved by Canada's drug regulator, according to the Canadian pharmaceutical company that filed the application. Last week, when Health Canada approved AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, it also cleared a version of the shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII). SII filed the application with a Canadian partner, Verity Pharmaceuticals.
PoliticsAssociated Press75 ex-top prosecutors endorse Biden’s pick for associate AG
More than 75 former U.S. attorneys are throwing their support behind President Joe Biden's nominee for associate attorney general and urging congressional leaders to quickly confirm her to the post. Vanita Gupta has been nominated for the No. 3 position in the Justice Department, a position in which she would be responsible for overseeing the department's civil, antitrust and civil rights litigation, but also for helping to implement policy decisions on a host of nationwide issues. The Senate has scheduled the confirmation hearing for Gupta and Lisa Monaco, Biden's nominee for deputy attorney general, for March 9.
PoliticsAssociated PressSupreme Court likely to uphold Arizona voting restrictions
The Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to uphold voting restrictions in Arizona in a key case that could make it harder to challenge a raft of other voting measures Republicans have proposed following last year's elections. All six conservative justices, appointed by Republican presidents, suggested they would throw out an appellate ruling that struck down the restrictions as racially discriminatory under the landmark Voting Rights Act. Less clear is what standard the court might set for how to prove discrimination under the law, first enacted in 1965.
WorldReutersTurkey plans to shut down pro-Kurdish opposition party: ruling party official
Turkey's government plans to shut down the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the ruling AK Party's deputy parliament chairman was quoted as saying on Tuesday, the most senior official to endorse nationalist demands for its closure. President Tayyip Erdogan's government and its nationalist MHP allies accuse the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), accusations that escalated after Ankara said Turkish captives were killed by the PKK in Iraq last month. The MHP have repeatedly called for the HDP's closure over links to the PKK, which Turkey, the European Union, and United States designate a terrorist organisation.
WorldAssociated PressChinese vaccines sweep much of the world, despite concerns
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago's airport in late January, and Chile's president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China's vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden's Cabinet half-empty after slow start in confirmations
President Joe Biden's Cabinet is taking shape at the slowest pace of any in modern history, with just over a dozen nominees for top posts confirmed more than a month into his tenure. Among Biden's 23 nominees with Cabinet rank, just 13 have been confirmed by the Senate, or a little over half. On Tuesday, Biden's Cabinet was thrown into further uncertainty when his nominee to lead the White House budget office, Neera Tanden, withdrew from consideration after her nomination faced opposition from key senators on both sides of the aisle.
WorldReutersEuropeans push IAEA Iran resolution despite warnings by Russia, Tehran
Britain, France and Germany are pressing ahead with a U.S.-backed plan for a resolution by the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board criticising Iran for curbing cooperation with the agency, despite Russian and Iranian warnings of serious consequences. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors is holding a quarterly meeting this week against the backdrop of faltering efforts to revive Iran's nuclear deal with major powers now that U.S. President Joe Biden is in office. Iran has recently accelerated its violations of the 2015 deal in an apparent bid to raise pressure on Biden, as each side insists the other must move first.
WorldReutersVenezuela to weigh oil law reform to allow 'new models,' Maduro says
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that the National Assembly would consider reforms to oil legislation that he said would allow for "new business models" in the crisis-stricken South American country's crucial oil industry. Maduro did not provide details about what changes might be made by the congress, controlled by allies of his ruling socialist party after a December vote widely boycotted by the opposition. Venezuela's crude output has plunged in recent years due to under-investment and mismanagement, and more recently due to U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting Maduro, labeled a dictator by Washington.
WorldAssociated PressChina says it aims to vaccinate 40% of population by June
Health experts in China say their country is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination rollout because it has the disease largely under control, but plans to inoculate 40% of its population by June. Zhong Nanshan, the leader of a group of experts attached to the National Health Commission, said the country has delivered 52.52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Feb. 28. He was speaking Monday at an online forum between U.S and Chinese medical experts hosted by the Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”