PoliticsBusiness InsiderPete Buttigieg has emerged as the frontrunner to become Biden's secretary of transportation, new report says
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.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump signs executive order making Christmas Eve a federal holiday in 2020
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, “all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Thursday, 24 December 2020, the day before Christmas Day”. The executive order does make an exception, however, for the heads of executive departments and agencies, who may determine that “certain offices and installations of their organisations, or parts thereof, must remain open,” as well as for employees who may be needed to work for “reasons of national security, defense, or other public need”.
WorldThe Telegraph'We have no oxygen': First journalist to access Yemen after Covid discovers major cover up in country of her birth
Like many others in March I was spending my days locked down in my London flat, listening to reports about how overwhelmed the NHS was and the struggle to get essential supplies. If the UK was struggling to cope, I thought to myself, just how would the authorities in Yemen fare? From London I set about trying to find out what was truly happening, but it was near impossible.
U.S.Associated Press5 years and counting: Ex-treasure hunter still stuck in jail
A former deep-sea treasure hunter is about to mark his fifth year in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 missing coins made from gold found in an historic shipwreck. Research scientist Tommy Thompson isn't incarcerated for breaking the law. Despite an investors lawsuit and a federal court order, Thompson still won't cooperate with authorities trying to find those coins, according to court records, federal prosecutors and the judge who found Thompson in contempt.
PoliticsThe WeekJerry Falwell Jr. spent heavily on Trump, GOP causes with funds from nonprofit Liberty University
Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University in August after a series of scandals involving sexual indiscretions and questionable use of university funds on friends and family, but Liberty's board is still split on the partisan direction Falwell steered the private evangelical Christian school founded by his father, Jerry Falwell Sr. Especially divisive, Politico reports, is the question of whether Liberty should continue funding the Falkirk Center, a conservative "think tank" named after Falwell and GOP activist Charlie Kirk that "has produced no peer-reviewed academic work and bears little relation to study centers at other universities," but did run "pro-Trump ads, hired Trump allies including former adviser Sebastian Gorka and current Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to serve as fellows, and, in recent weeks, has aggressively promoted [President] Trump's baseless claims of election fraud."
BusinessBusiness InsiderThe Trump administration turned down more vaccine doses 'as recently as November,' former FDA commissioner says
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.
HealthMiami HeraldWhat are your chances of dying from COVID? This calculator gives you a hint
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.
WorldThe TelegraphExplosive-laden boat caused tanker blast in ‘terrorist attack’ off Saudi: state media
An “terrorist attack” on an oil tanker off the Saudi port city of Jeddah yesterday was caused by an explosive-laden boat, the kingdom's energy ministry said, after the fourth assault on Saudi energy infrastructure in a month. The Singapore-flagged BW Rhine was hit “by an external source” while discharging refined oil products at Jeddah about 0400 on Monday local time, shipowner Hafnia said in a statement. A Saudi energy ministry spokesman did not identify who was behind the attack but the kingdom has blamed other recent attacks on Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
WorldThe WeekRussian opposition leader Alexey Navalny may have been poisoned by a very bad Negroni, investigation suggests
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 — which was conducted by the investigative website Bellingcat in partnership with CNN, Der Spiegel, and The Insider — 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.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderGeorgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler posed for a photo with a former KKK chief - but says she didn't know who he was
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.
PoliticsThe IndependentAlex Jones faces calls for arrest after apparent Biden threat
Alex Jones is facing calls for his arrest after the conspiracy theorist told a Donald Trump rally that president-elect Joe Biden will be removed "one way or the other". The InfoWars host has been accused of attempting to incite violence during his speech at the “Million MAGA march” which was held to drum up support for Mr Trump's baseless claims of election fraud. "So I don't know who's going to the White House in 38 days but I sure know this - Joe Biden is a globalist and Joe Biden will be removed one way or another,” Mr Jones said during his appearance at the event.
U.S.USA TODAYMichigan man imprisoned for nearly 4 decades exonerated after witness admits to lying
Coronavirus live updates: Nurse gets first dose of vaccine in NY; nearly 300K dead; NYC may have 'full shutdown' “Merely being arrested and charged suggests to the jury that something happened even though they should be scrutinizing the evidence and presuming innocence,” Forbes' attorney, Imran Syed of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. "No jury wants to believe that a prosecutor went through the trouble of bringing someone to trial if they're truly innocent. Kennebrew admitted in 2017 that she had lied – that she never saw Forbes at the scene of the fire, according to court documents.
PoliticsThe WeekU.S. cybersecurity agency issues rare advisory to 'power down' all servers compromised in massive hack
U.S. officials are scrambling to learn the extent of a potentially massive cyberespionage campaign that infiltrated at least the Treasury and Commerce departments, but they believe they know how the suspected Russian government hackers broke in. The cybersecurity firm FireEye, which disclosed last week that it has been hacked, said late Sunday it has determined the monthlong "global campaign" had been perpetrated via malware inserted in the security update of SolarWinds' popular Orion server management software. FireEye said the infected security update appears to have been released in the spring.
WorldBusiness InsiderPutin installed a replica of his Moscow office at his beachside retreat so he could pretend to be in the thick of things while shielding from COVID-19, report says
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a replica of his Moscow office secretly installed at his beachfront retreat, according to the Proekt investigative news outlet. The Kremlin says Putin is working from the Novo-Ogaryovo palace near Moscow, but Proekt said that he secretly fled to the Black Sea palace of Bocharov Ruchey this summer. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov denied the report, calling it an "informational attack," while opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it was "absolutely Putin's style to lie."
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused of sexual harassment by former aide
A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for Manhattan borough president accused him of sexual harassment in a series of tweets on Sunday, saying he made inappropriate comments about her appearance.
U.S.The Independent‘Major winter storm’ to cause power outages in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this week, says National Weather Service
A "major winter storm" is forecast to blast swathes of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) has said. Heavy snow is expected west and north of the I-95 corridor in the Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, further south, "freezing rain and ice accumulations" are likely in northwest North Carolina and across much of southwest and central Virginia.
U.S.USA TODAY'I see bodies flying': Woman charged for driving car into NYC protesters, injuring 6, police say
A woman has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment after driving her car into protesters Friday in New York City, injuring six of them, police said. Kathleen Casillo, 52, was released from custody after being given a notice to appear in court at a later date, police said. The New York City Police Department said the incident happened Friday around 4 p.m. at the intersection of Third Avenue and E. 39th Street.
PoliticsLA TimesMcManus: Trump has changed tactics in his election fight. His new approach is more dangerous
President Trump's initial challenge to the outcome of the presidential election annoyed supporters of Joe Biden, who won the vote. But Trump's early actions weren't outrageous. A candidate — any candidate — has the right to challenge results, ask for recounts and investigate charges of wrongdoing.
BusinessBusiness InsiderGoogle will let all its staff work 2 days from home as part of a 'flexible work week' starting September 2021, Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees
Google is delaying sending employees back to the office until September 2021, pushing back its previous return date by three months. It will also experiment with a "flexible work week" once employees return, CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to staff. Google told employees in an email on Sunday night that they won't be back in the office until September 2021 - and even then they probably won't be in every day.
PoliticsThe IndependentJoseph Epstein wiped from university website after backlash over ‘sexist drivel’ Jill Biden column
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, “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic”. Northwestern has now scrubbed Epstein's page from its website, where he was previously listed as an emeritus lecturer of English.
U.S.Miami HeraldTwo inmates who escaped a Tennessee prison arrested in South Florida
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.
PoliticsUSA TODAYMichigan House punishes Republican state Rep. Gary Eisen for hinting at Electoral College disruption
Michigan Republican legislative leaders pulled a GOP lawmaker from his committee assignments Monday after the lawmaker hinted he was part of a group that sought to disrupt or otherwise undermine the Electoral College vote slated to happen at the Michigan state Capitol on Monday. Rep. Gary Eisen, R-St. Clair Township, made the comments Monday morning during an interview with Port Huron-area radio station WPHM. He was asked about the Electoral College, set to meet Monday in the state Senate chamber to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Eisen made the comments in the context of he and others in Lansing having some sort of event, either at the Capitol or somewhere else.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderAlan Dershowitz says Texas lawsuit tossed by Supreme Court should tell Trump's allies they 'can't count on the judiciary' to invalidate the election results
Alan Dershowitz on Sunday said the Supreme Court's decision to toss the Texas election lawsuit signaled to President Donald Trump's camp that they "can't count on the judiciary" to invalidate the election results, according to The Hill. Dershowitz said Trump's campaign would need a "perfect storm" to invalidate the election results, with courts, governors, and state election officials aiding his cause. "I suspect on Monday we will see the electors ... elect Joe Biden," he said.
WorldThe IndependentBill Gates says next four to six months of Covid-19 pandemic could be the worst yet
Bill Gates has an ominous prediction for 2021. Mr Gates, who is also the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said he was disappointed at America's handling of the pandemic as cases and the death toll continued to mount. The Microsoft co-founder had predicted during a TED talk in 2015 that a pandemic was likely to hit the world and over 10 million people would be killed with “microbes, not missiles.”
U.S.INSIDER2 Ohio girls who ran away from home together were located states apart - but only one was found safe and alive
The Ohio police are investigating a case involving the death of a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing last month, Fox News reported. Kathryn McGuire, 15, and Haylie Vance, 15, are thought to have run away from their homes with a 19-year-old named Aaron Larkin, according to a news release from the Painesville Police Department. McGuire died in a hospital in Nevada four days later, according to the police.
“The prospect of a 2024 run is politically significant. It’s also a complete fiction.”
“His flirtation with a 2024 bid ensures he’ll remain the dominant force in the Republican Party.”
“He shouldn’t run for president again. There’s a better job and life for him on the horizon.”
“Trump is in for years of scandals and humiliations…He’ll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison.”
“If Trump himself passes on the opportunity, his two very political children could also potentially pick up the mantle.”