PoliticsYahoo NewsBiden signs executive orders reversing Trump decisions on COVID, climate change
Fresh off his inauguration Wednesday, President Biden began his term with executive orders on measures ranging from curbing the coronavirus pandemic to addressing racial inequality, many of which roll back measures enacted by former President Donald Trump's administration. Biden signed an executive order requiring masks and social distancing in all federal buildings, on all federal lands and by all federal employees and contractors, according to his transition team. Another executive order will create a new position, the COVID-19 response coordinator, who will be tasked with coordinating the government's response to the pandemic, including the vaccine rollout, and who will report directly to Biden.
PoliticsAssociated PressChina hits Trump officials with sanctions on their way out
China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former Trump administration officials moments after they left office on Wednesday. In a statement released just minutes after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, Beijing slapped travel bans and business restrictions on Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and U.N. ambassador, Kelly Craft. Others covered by the sanctions include Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro; his top diplomat for Asia, David Stilwell; health and human services secretary, Alex Azar; along with former national security adviser John Bolton and strategist Stephen Bannon.
PoliticsThe WeekFox News' Chris Wallace calls Biden's speech the 'best inaugural address I ever heard'
President Biden's inaugural address has won some high praise on Fox News. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Wednesday praised Biden's "great" inaugural address, going as far as to deem it the best he's ever watched in his life. "I thought it was a great speech," Wallace said.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump news: Romney attacks former president as children get secret service protection
Senator Romney is calling for reform after Donald Trump gave clemency to 143 people before leaving office. Donald Trump arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, on Air Force One shortly to resume civilian life at Mar-a-Lago after departing the White House for the final time on Wednesday morning. "It was a privelege to be your president," he told the small his farewell event at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One with wife Melania for the last time.
WorldBBCCapitol riots: Are US militia groups becoming more active?
Far-right groups like those that took part in the Capitol riots are an increasing and serious threat across the US, experts say. Since Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election in November, the involvement of armed groups in demonstrations has increased significantly, according to a group that tracks political violence. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) says far-right groups have taken an increasing part in demonstrations against the election result.
PoliticsThe IndependentWhat happened to Joe Biden’s father? President references his dad’s unemployment in inaugural address
During his inaugural address after he became the 46th US president, Joe Biden referenced his father, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr, as he spoke about the fears many Americans have about unemployment amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. I understand that many view future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs,” President Biden said during his address on Wednesday.
U.S.USA TODAYHero Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman escorts Kamala Harris for inauguration
Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Police officer who led rioters away from the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, escorted Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at the inauguration Wednesday. Goodman is the acting deputy Senate sergeant-at-arms, which is why he was escorting Harris. Goodman went viral this month after a video showed him leading a pro-Trump mob away from the Senate floor during the deadly Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, potentially saving lives.
EntertainmentThe New York TimesFox News Fires a Key Player in Its Election Night Coverage
Two senior leaders of Fox News' reporting division are exiting the network as the cable channel replaces some news programming with right-wing opinion shows and tries to lure back viewers who balked at its coverage of the 2020 election and its aftermath. On Tuesday morning, Fox News fired Chris Stirewalt, the veteran politics editor who was an on-screen face of the network's election night projection that Joe Biden had defeated President Donald Trump in Arizona, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Fox News was the first news outlet to call Arizona for Biden, a move that infuriated many of its regular viewers — including Trump, who denounced the network as insufficiently loyal and urged fans to watch Newsmax and One America News instead.
PoliticsThe IndependentJen Psaki: Who is Joe Biden’s White House press secretary?
In November, Joe Biden named veteran Democratic spokesperson Jen Psaki as his White House press secretary, rounding out an all-woman senior communications team for his administration. Ms Psaki will be one of seven women to fill the upper ranks of Mr Biden's communications team, and currently oversees the confirmations team for the Biden-Harris Transition. The 42-year-old graduate of the College of William and Mary previously held a number of senior roles in the Obama administration when Mr Biden was Vice-President.
HealthReutersPfizer vaccine appears effective against coronavirus variant found in Britain - study
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is likely to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus discovered in Britain which has spread around the world, according to results of further lab tests released on Wednesday. Last week, Pfizer said a similar laboratory study showed the vaccine was effective against one key mutation, called N501Y, found in two highly transmissible new variants spreading in Britain and South Africa. The latest study, posted on bioRxiv.org but not yet peer reviewed, was conducted on a synthetic virus with 10 mutations that are characteristic of the variant known as B117 identified in Britain.
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Rep. Crenshaw: 'I'd be frustrated if I were' Trump, watching the press 'go right back to the Obama-era'
Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw argues Republicans need to unify and show voters that Democrats 'mean what they say' and 'will change your life fundamentally.
WorldAssociated PressMexico's leader takes new shot at Twitter in continuing spat
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continued his spat with Twitter on Wednesday, accusing one of the companies' representatives in Mexico of having previously worked for politicians of the conservative opposition National Action Party. López Obrador suggested the social media company might be biased, and he displayed a resume that he said showed the executive's previous work for National Action senators and ex-President Felipe Calderon. While López Obrador didn't name the executive, it was a clear reference to Twitter's public affairs director for Mexico and Latin America, Hugo Rodriguez.
PoliticsLA TimesPresident Biden's inauguration according to Newsmax, home to TV's most ardent Trump defenders
Since then-President Trump's election defeat Nov. 3, the mantra for Newsmax opinion host Greg Kelly on his nightly program has been, "It's not over." Kelly became TV's most unabashed Trump supporter as he defended the ousted president's unfounded claims of voter fraud that fueled a mob assault on the Capitol. “Sometimes the bank robber gets away with it,” Kelly said in a recent opening on his program.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTrump-ally media outlet OAN quietly deleted articles about Dominion despite publicly doubling down on election conspiracy theories
The media outlet One America News Network has removed articles about Dominion without telling anyone. The election-technology company is pursuing litigation against figures who spread conspiracy theories about it. One America News Network has quietly scrubbed its website of references to election conspiracy theories, which could be an attempt to fend off a lawsuit from the election-technology companies it had targeted in its stories.
HealthReutersSouth African virus variant may resist antibody drugs; Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine seems to work vs UK variant
The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. South African variant may resist current antibody treatments The variant of the new coronavirus identified in South Africa can resist, or "escape," antibodies that neutralize earlier versions of the virus, scientists have found. It "exhibits complete escape" from three classes of monoclonal antibodies manufactured for treating COVID-19 patients, and it shows "substantial or complete" resistance to neutralizing antibodies in blood donated by COVID-19 survivors, the scientists reported on Tuesday on bioRxiv ahead...
PoliticsLA TimesTrump, breaking a final norm, skips Biden's swearing-in and decamps to Florida
Donald John Trump, after more than two months of his desperate attempts to retain power tested America's democracy and provoked his second impeachment, by Wednesday morning couldn't change the final scene as if it were one of his old reality-TV shows. Less than four hours before his successor was to be sworn in at the Capitol, the 45th president of the United States and First Lady Melania Trump emerged from the White House and briefly bid a reluctant farewell to a small group of reporters and aides gathered nearby. Trump said that it had been the “honor of a lifetime” to serve as president, adding, “Hopefully it's not a long-term goodbye.”
PoliticsUSA TODAY OpinionWarnock, Ossoff make history. What their Senate wins say about the 'defund police' slogan
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are not the only politicians in Washington making history on Wednesday. Raphael Warnock (the first Black senator from Georgia) and Jon Ossoff (the first Jewish one) is proof positive that the Republican Party does not have a stranglehold on the South, and it's a triumph for the Black women organizers who worked to elect them. The wins end Sen. Mitch McConnell's majority stranglehold on the Senate and give the Biden administration an opportunity to address America's most pressing crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, record joblessness, looming climate change and police violence.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestThe Coolest New Automotive Technology at CES 2021
Mercedes-Benz's Hyperscreen, General Motors' Bright Drop, and Jeep's Electric Wrangler were among the unveils that turned heads Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
BusinessBusiness InsiderRoyal Caribbean to sell its Azamara brand including 3 ships for $201 million as the company continues to push back 2021 sail dates
Royal Caribbean is selling its Azamara cruise line for $201 million while cruises in the US remain docked during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced Tuesday. Sycamore Partners, the private equity firm purchasing Azamara in cash, will own the cruising brand and its fleet of three ships after the purchase is completed by the end of the quarter. Carol Cabezas, Azamara's COO, will serve as president of the cruise line.
CelebrityINSIDERPrincess Diana's former chef says he made the 'cardinal sin' of serving her favorite breakfast - a can of baked beans - to Americans
Princess Diana's chef once served her favorite breakfast to an American family who refused to eat it. Darren McGrady, who worked at Kensington Palace, said Diana favored a can of baked beans and a grapefruit on gym days. Diana particularly loved baked beans and would even write McGrady notes requesting them.
SportsAssociated PressDu Plessis preparing for unexpected test series in Pakistan
Faf du Plessis was not expecting to play test cricket in Pakistan so soon despite two visits for limited-overs formats over the last four years. “That is one thing I did not see happening in my time,” the veteran South Africa batsman told the Pakistan Cricket Board's digital channel on Thursday. The 36-year-old du Plessis is expected to form the nucleus of the Proteas batting in the upcoming two-test series which will be first for South Africa in Pakistan in over 13 years.
PoliticsUSA TODAYDonald Trump spends final minutes in office at Mar-a-Lago, is first president to skip inauguration in more than 150 years
Outgoing President Donald Trump spent his final minutes as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, becoming the first president in more than 150 years to skip his successor's inauguration. "We will be back in some form," Trump told supporters at an early farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews that featured a 21-gun salute and a military band playing "Hail to the Chief." In a nine-minute speech on "an incredible four years," Trump recounted highlights that included the creation of the Space Force, deregulation and tax cuts.
U.S.The Daily BeastTucker Carlson Is Very Worried About Biden’s ‘War on White Supremacists’
On the night that Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, Tucker Carlson opened his primetime show on Fox News by spending about 30 seconds acknowledging what he generally described as a “peaceful transfer of power” before mocking his CNN and MSNBC competitors for what he viewed as their overly solicitous coverage of the momentous day. But what Carlson really wanted to talk about what was the portion of Biden's inaugural address in which he denounced “political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat. Those are America's enemies, we must wage war against them,” Carlson replied.
StyleTheGrioKamala Harris’s niece reveals special meaning behind daughters’ inauguration coats
The girls wore adorable faux leopard coats to the inauguration ceremony where they were pictured being attended to by their father Nikolas Ajagu who struck his own fashionable note in Air Jordan Dior 1's, surely a first for a presidential inauguration ceremony. Meena Harris, 36, the girls' mother is the daughter of Maya Harris, Kamala Harris' younger sister. Harris is a lawyer and children's book author who published “Kamala and Maya's Big Idea” and “Ambitious Girl” last year.
WorldBusiness InsiderArchaeologists unearthed 210 sarcophagi in an Egyptian city of the dead. They'd remained undisturbed for at least 2,500 years.
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY Decorated wooden sarcophagi from Saqqara on display during the official announcement of the discovery on January 17, 2021. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY The underside of a wooden sarcophagus discovered at Saqqara. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY Colored coffins from Saqqara on display October 3, 2020.
“If you’re looking to win elections, it is probably best not to urge your supporters not to vote.”
“Warnock’s portrayal of himself as a dog lover, a means of overcoming white suspicions of Black men, smacked of pure genius.”
“Trump has done damage to the Republican brand among suburban voters that goes well beyond just races where he is on the ballot.”
“Once more, Democrats must profusely thank activist Stacey Abrams.”
“Overall, demographic trends show that the state’s electorate is becoming younger and more diverse each year.”