PoliticsYahoo NewsBiden suffers first Cabinet defeat as Neera Tanden withdraws nomination
President Biden said Tuesday that he had accepted a request from Neera Tanden to withdraw her nomination for a Cabient position, the first such defeat of his administration. "I have accepted Neera Tanden's request to withdraw her name from nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget," Biden said in a written statement. "I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my Administration.
U.S.The StateSecond SC man arrested in Jan. 6 Capitol riot said he posed as ‘Antifa,’ FBI alleges
The FBI has arrested a second South Carolina man in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. William Robert Norwood III of Greer has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstruction of justice and theft of government property. Norwood, arrested Feb. 25 by the FBI, has been detained in jail.
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.
WorldReutersTaiwan opposition chief in no rush for China meeting
The leader of Taiwan's main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) said on Tuesday he is in no rush to travel to China to meet President Xi Jinping, and that Beijing's proposals to get Taiwan to accept Communist rule had "no market" on the island. The KMT ruled China before retreating to Taiwan at the end of a civil war with the Communists in 1949. While ties across the Taiwan Strait have improved dramatically in the last three decades, Beijing continues to claim Taiwan as its own territory.
PoliticsThe IndependentQAnon believers apparently think Joe Biden is a robot with a malfunctioning mouth
QAnon adherents apparently believe that Joe Biden is actually a malfunctioning robot wearing human-like skin. One former QAnon adherent, Ashley Vanderbilt, said when she left the movement she knew of several members who believed that Mr Biden is actually a robot. "The person that I started talking to ... that had initially got me into QAnon, he was like, 'You know, Joe Biden's not even real'," she said.
WorldAssociated PressIsraeli attorney general slams Netanyahu's vaccine diplomacy
Israel's attorney general has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that he cannot single-handedly share the country's surplus vaccines with far-flung allies in Africa, Europe and Latin America, and that such an important decision cannot be made by the prime minister alone. In an official letter, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit argues that Netanyahu should have consulted the Cabinet for such a plan. The justice ministry released the letter, addressed to the national security adviser, Meir Ben Shabbat, on Monday.
WorldReutersFour plead not guilty in case of toppled slave trader's statue in England
Three men and a woman pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a charge of criminal damage over their alleged role in the toppling of a statue of 17th century slave trade magnate Edward Colston in Bristol in southwest England last year. The statue was pulled down and tossed into Bristol harbour during an anti-racism demonstration on June 7 that was part of a global wave of Black Lives Matter protests. The toppling of the statue led to other memorials of figures linked to the slave trade being taken down or their future being debated, triggering a backlash from government ministers who said this amounted to censoring history.
PoliticsThe WeekGeorgia House passes GOP voting restrictions bill
With a vote of 97-72, the Georgia state House on Monday passed a bill supported by Republicans that would roll back voting access. House Bill 531 requires a photo ID for absentee voting, limits weekend early voting days, restricts ballot drop box locations, and sets an earlier deadline to request an absentee ballot. State Rep. Barry Fleming (R), the bill's chief sponsor, said it is "designed to begin to bring back the confidence of our voters back into our election system."
U.S.The IndependentFBI investigating if Capitol officer Brian Sicknick was sprayed with chemical irritant
Investigators are scrutinising new video evidence that appears to show chemical irritants sprayed at officer Brian Sicknick during the US Capitol riot as they work to determine his cause of death. Quoting law enforcement sources and people familiar with the matter, multiple outlets report that investigators are looking at whether there are any connections between a possible chemical assault on Officer Sicknick during the riot and the medical distress that led to his death. It comes as anonymous sources told The Washington Post that Officer Sicknick's death was not believed to be from blunt force trauma, despite early reports he was struck in the head by a fire extinguisher.
WorldAssociated PressFirst COVAX vaccines arrive in Cambodia from India
Cambodia on Tuesday received its first batch of 324,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from India that are part of the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative, as the country expands its immunization program with the goal of inoculating a majority of its population this year. Health Minister Mam Bunheng was at the airport to receive the shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine. Prime Minister Hun Sen will be given the first dose on Thursday.
WorldReutersSaudi U.N. envoy: U.S. report on Khashoggi does not prove accusations
Saudi Arabia's U.N. ambassador said on Monday a U.S. intelligence report that implicated the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi had presented no firm evidence. Prince Mohammed has denied any involvement in Khashoggi's killing, for which eight people were jailed in Saudi Arabia last year, but has said he bears ultimate responsibility because it happened on his watch.
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
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.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Report: U.S. wasted billions in war-torn Afghanistan
The United States wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, according to a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog.
WorldAssociated PressHuawei daughter back in Canada court in US extradition case
Lawyers for a senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies were in court Monday arguing evidence should be introduced which would undermine the case to have their client extradited to the U.S. Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder and the company's chief financial officer, at Vancouver's airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China's rise.
PoliticsThe IndependentWhat happened to the NRA, and what will become of it now?
Since the late 20th century, only abortion and immigration have been as consistently contentious, divisive and difficult to legislate around – but neither has been as influenced by a single institution as the gun issue has by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Whether framed as gun rights, or gun safety, or gun control, Democratic efforts to keep America safe while staying within the bounds of the Constitution's second amendment have foundered time and again in the face of intense campaigning by the NRA, a lobby group of astonishing power that has long mastered multi-million-dollar politics, and which has exerted remarkable power over the Republican Party platform in particular. With millions of paying members, the association has been led since the early 1990s by Wayne LaPierre, a reliable presence at national Republican Party events and a true hardliner when it comes to firearms-related rhetoric.
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.
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.
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.
PoliticsThe IndependentFormer CIA chief says he is ‘increasingly embarrassed’ to be a white man
Former CIA boss John Brennan said on MSNBC that he's "increasingly embarrassed" to be a white man considering the actions he saw during CPAC. The topic being discussed on Monday was last weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference, its focus on "cancel culture" and the conspiratorial lens through which the Capitol riot on 6 January was handled. MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace said that the Republican Party was hypocritical when claiming that they are the party of law enforcement after the events of 6 January, considering how some Republicans have been speaking about the event in its aftermath.
WorldReutersChina's electoral reform 'earthquake' set to upend Hong Kong politics
China's plan to dramatically reform Hong Kong's electoral system, expected to be unveiled in a parliamentary session in Beijing starting this week, will upend the territory's political scene, according to more than a dozen politicians from across the spectrum. The proposed reform will put further pressure on pro-democracy activists, who are already the subject of a crackdown on dissent, and has ruffled the feathers of some pro-Beijing loyalists, some of whom may find themselves swept aside by a new and ambitious crop of loyalists, the people said. The measures will be introduced at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, which starts on Friday, according to media reports.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”