
Pete Buttigieg has emerged as a leading candidate to become President-elect Joe Biden's secretary of transportation, according to a CNN report. Buttigieg's nomination would elevate the profile of the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful. Buttigieg is widely expected to run for president again.

A COVID-19 vaccine is officially being administered in the United States, and Dr. Anthony Fauci is predicting the "vast majority" of Americans could receive theirs by early summer. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, spoke to MSNBC on Monday after the first American health-care workers began to receive Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will first be available to those at the highest risk, including health-care workers and then those with underlying health conditions, but Fauci told MSNBC that "the normal, healthy man and woman in the street, who has no underlying conditions" will "likely" be able to get it by "the end of March, the beginning of April."

Christmas Eve will be considered a federal holiday in the United States this year, according to a new executive order signed by President Trump. Under the executive order, signed Friday, โall executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, 24 December 2020, ย the day before Christmas Dayโ. The executive order does make an exception, however, for the heads of executive departments and agencies, who may determine that โcertain offices and installations of their organisations, or parts thereof, must remain open,โ as well as for employees who may be needed to work for โreasons of national security, defense, or other public needโ.

It felt like all the possibilities that I was working on all those years were coming to fruition,โ Forbes said. I didn't think it would take that long, but patience paid off. COVID-19 gave this Ohio family a 'sucker punch': Powerful family emails show how tragedy unfolded Witness comes forward Key evidence used to implicate Forbes was witness testimony from a woman, Annice Kennebrew, who said she saw three men, including Forbes, burn down the century-old, two-story house-turned-apartment in Jackson.
An effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is gaining momentum, partly fueled by outrage over the Democrat dining with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling residents to stay home.

The head of the White House security office, Crede Bailey, had a part of his lower right leg and the big toe of his left foot amputated because of COVID-19, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Bailey has been hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19 for three months but is said to be recovering. Friends of Bailey's have raised over $35,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his rehabilitation and "staggering" healthcare costs.

A sweeping investigation into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny pins the non-fatal act on Russia's FSB spy agency, and suggests a very poor tasting cocktail may have been the source. Per the report โ which was conducted by the investigative website Bellingcat in partnership with CNN, Der Spiegel, and The Insider โ Navalny, a major thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was in the Russian city of Tomsk on Aug. 19 when he met his traveling team at a hotel bar for a drink around 11:15 p.m. He ordered a late-night Bloody Mary, but was told by the bartender the ingredients weren't on hand and that he should have a Negroni instead.

All the states President-elect Joe Biden tightly won in the 2020 election have cast their electoral votes for him โ but not without Republicans trying to disrupt the process. Electoral College voters in every state cast their ballots on Monday to certify Biden's win, putting an end to GOP-stoked doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 results. But in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, all of which Biden won, Republicans claiming to be electors cast their own votes for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence anyway.

Supermarkets are poised to implement rationing within 24 hours of a run on essential goods being detected, amid growing fears panic buying will erupt if the UK confirms a no-deal Brexit, The Telegraph has learnt. One major chain is preparing to intervene at high speed to implement a three-item limit on specific products, and could even impose a one-item limit on certain baby goods, in order to ensure all customers have access to essentials, according to a senior industry source. Moves to start rationing are expected to be expedited this winter after many stores took a week or more to levy item limits when coronavirus sparked a spate of customer stockpiling in the spring.

Two inmates who escaped from a prison in Tennessee were arrested in Pompano Beach Sunday night, officials said. According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Robert Lee Brown and Christopher Osteen were arrested by the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service after the two absconded from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville on Friday. Brown, 36, was serving an 18-year sentence for aggravated rape, and Osteen, 34, was serving an eight-year sentence for burglary.

The Trump administration once again rejected an offer from Pfizer for more COVID-19 vaccines "as recently as November," according to former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb. "There were multiple conversations with the U.S. government about taking more supply in the second quarter," Gottlieb, who is a Pfizer board member, told CNBC on Monday. This comes on the heels of the Trump administration reportedly rejecting 100 million doses of Pfizer's recently approved COVID-19 vaccine over the summer, according to The New York Times.

Police have arrested a man who managed to climb the wing ofย a departing Alaska Airlines plane at Las Vegas'sย McCarran International Airport on Saturday. Passengers watched in shock โย and filmed โย inside Alaska Airlines flight 1367 from Las Vegas to Portland when they saw the man climbing onboard the wing,ย sitting down and eventually taking off his shoes and socks during his estimated 45-minute stint. "WTH did I just witness?" passenger Erin Evans asked on Twitter, postingย video of the incident.

Apathy in your 40s could be an early warning sign of dementia which appears decades before other symptoms, Cambridge University scientists have found. The study raises hopes of early treatment for the condition which affects almost a million people in the UK. Researchers found that apathy, such as a lack of interest or motivation, is an important symptom of dementia and one which can accelerate someone's decline in later life.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler has been photographed with Chester Doles, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan and member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Doles posted a selfie of them at a rally for Loeffler in Dawsonville, Georgia, on Friday, on the Russian social-media site VKontakte. The image was reshared on Twitter by a Jewish advocacy group, which criticized Loeffler.

Police in Mississippi police say a 2-year-old boy left abandoned at a Goodwill donation outlet on Mondayย has been identifiedย and is in the custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services. "Southaven Police received numerous tips, and with the assistance of F.B.I. offices in both Mississippi, and Tennessee, along with the Shelby County Sheriff's Department a suspect related to this case was taken into custody in Memphis," the department said. Officers responded to the Goodwill outlet around 9:30 a.m., where they learned the boy was left with a plastic bag that contained a noteย and a change of clothes.

Former Democratic lawmaker and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams presided over Georgia's electoral college and ย announced that Joe Biden would receive the state's 16 electoral votes. The announcement was met with applause by the slate of electors present. Republicans - including two of the states own senators and Donald Trump - have alleged, without clear evidence, that the state's elections were rife with voter fraud.

Studies and statistics alike have shown that people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions face the highest risks of dying from COVID-19 compared to the rest of the population. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health developed an online calculator that can answer these questions. The tool, which is updated on a weekly basis, incorporates information on mortality risks and statistics from several data sets on the community and state level.

Eliz Orban says she and her family were kicked off a United Airlines flight after being unable to get her 2-year-old daughter to keep her mask on. United Airlines has a policy that states all passengers over the age of 2 must wear a "face covering" during flights. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children over the age of 2 should wear a mask, the World Health Organization says that children under the age of 5 should be exempt.

Attorney General William Barr went to great lengths to prevent prosecutors and senior Justice Department officials from revealing the existence of federal tax investigations into Hunter Biden before the election, The Wall Street Journal reported. The report includes new details of Barr's efforts to keep the investigations under wraps. Monday's report adds to a growing list of frustrations President Donald Trump has with Barr and may catalyze the president's efforts to fire the attorney general weeks before he leaves office.

Northwestern University has distanced itself from its former lecturer Joseph Epstein who, in an article published by the Wall Street Journal, criticised the incoming first lady for using the title Dr when she is not a medical professional. Epstein's article has met with a backlash after he said the use of the title by Dr Jill Biden, who has a doctorate in education, โsounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comicโ. Northwestern has now scrubbed Epstein's page from its website, where he was previously listed as an emeritus lecturer of English.

On December 8, 1941, the US garrison on Wake Island awoke to news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan's destruction of the US Pacific Fleet meant Wake Island was on its own against Japan's advance across the Pacific. The garrison surrendered after a 16-day battle, but their resistance gave the US Navy breathing room and became a rallying cry for Americans.

WASHINGTON โ President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other top federal officeholders will be offered COVID-19 vaccines over the next week-and-a-half to guard against an outbreak that could cripple the functions of government, officials said Sunday. The shots will be offered to officials across all three branches of government, including leaders at the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, officials said. White House staff members who work in close proximity to Trump are also likely to get early vaccines.

Stacey Robinault, the mother of Alexis Sharkey, the Houston-based influencer found dead on November, 28, told Fox News that she wasn't aware of any marital problems between Sharkey and her husband. Several of Sharkey's friends, some speaking anonymously, previously told The Daily Beast that Sharkey's relationship with her husband Tom was troubled. Tom Sharkey told ABC 13 that he and Alexis had a happy marriage and denied that they were filing for divorce.

Sanders is urging Democratic congressional leaders to reject the "totally inadequate" bipartisan stimulus bill, which excludes direct payments. Sanders has been increasingly vocal in urging Congress to approve another round of $1,200 direct payments. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is hitting back against the new $908 billion bipartisan stimulus plan - and he wants Democrats to reject the relief bill because it omits a fresh round of $1,200 stimulus checks for Americans and carries a far smaller price tag.

Rep. Paul Mitchell is leaving the Republican Party, the Michigan congressman announced Monday, citing his dismay with President Donald Trump and the party's efforts to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election. Mitchell revealed his decision during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, in which he said he'd asked the clerk of the House to change his party affiliation to โIndependent.โ In a letter to GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, he called the election process this year โtraumatic,โ and expressed concern for โthe stability and strength of our democracy.โ


โThe prospect of a 2024 run is politically significant. Itโs also a complete fiction.โ
โHis flirtation with a 2024 bid ensures heโll remain the dominant force in the Republican Party.โ
โHe shouldnโt run for president again. Thereโs a better job and life for him on the horizon.โ
โTrump is in for years of scandals and humiliationsโฆHeโll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison.โ
โIf Trump himself passes on the opportunity, his two very political children could also potentially pick up the mantle.โ