During the campaign for the two Georgia Senate races, Joe Biden repeatedly promised to pass $2,000 stimulus checks if the Democrats won. After they did, the administration argued that $2,000 really meant $1,400 in addition to the $600 that had already gone out in the December rescue package. Whether that is true or not, now Biden is inarguably breaking his promise.
The United States has shown it won't "shy away" from responding to attacks against its personnel when necessary, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, after a rocket attack against Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces. "Let's do this the right way. Let's let our Iraqi partners investigate this, see what they learned," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing, calling the attack a "troubling development."
The arrest of Paul Nicholas Miller by FBI agents at his Fort Lauderdale home Tuesday morning on a pedestrian charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon seems a minor thing for the feds to make a point of announcing. Until, that is, it's noted that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force was part of the arresting team, along with FBI agents and Fort Lauderdale police officers. Also, the Anti-Defamation League considers Paul Miller โa volatile white supremacist-accelerationist.โ
Nicola Sturgeon today choked back tears and insisted "I would never have wanted to 'get' Alex Salmond" as she rejected as "absurd" his claims of a plot among senior SNP figures to destroy him. The First Minister told a Holyrood inquiry the "simple" truth was that several women made complaints about Mr Salmond's behaviour and "I refused to follow the usual pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wants." In an appearance spanning more than eight hours, against the backdrop of calls for her resignation, Ms Sturgeon insisted she had seen "nothing that comes within a million miles" of backing Mr Salmond's conspiracy claims.
In some of his most extensive remarks since Jan. 6, former Vice President Mike Pence wrote an op-ed Wednesday condemning House Democrats' sweeping election and anti-corruption proposal as an "unconstitutional power grab" by "leftists." Why it matters: Pence has largely stayed quiet since the Capitol insurrection, during which rioters were heard chanting "hang Mike Pence" after former President Trump promoted the claim that the vice president could block the certification of the Electoral College. The big picture: Writing in The Daily Signal, Pence repeated dubious claims that the 2020 election was "marked by significant voting irregularities."
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.
The U.S. has issued an emergency warning after Microsoft said it caught China hacking into its mail and calendar server program, called Exchange. The perpetrator, Microsoft said in a blog post, is a hacker group that the company has "high confidence" is working for the Chinese government and spies primarily on American targets. The latest software update for Exchange blocks the hackers, prompting the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, to issue a rare emergency directive that requires all government networks do so.
A North Carolina man who was pictured wearing a โKeep America Greatโ hoodie during the Capitol riots, has been arrested after being turned in by his own family members. Grayson Sherrill, of Cherryville in northwestern North Carolina, was captured in several photographs inside the US Capitol on 6 January, alongside a mob of pro-Trump supporters who had breached the building. Following the insurrection, the FBI released images of hundreds of suspects, including Mr Sherrill, as they asked the public for help in identifying those who took part in the siege.
High-traffic areas are about to meet their match Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said that all frontline essential workers can have their vaccine now while giving three weeks' notice for those who are obese, in jail, pregnant, homeless - or who have smoked just five packets of cigarettes in their life. The cohort including smokers will be called forwards on March 24, and is designed to include adults at higher risk of virus exposure or who are at an increased risk of having a severe illness Smokers are defined as โcurrent or formerโ having โsmoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.โ Victor Ricchezza, a Geology Professor at Georgia State University added: โI haven't smoked in years but was just joking with my wife that I could almost certainly smoke 100 cigarettes by the time we hit North Carolina in the car.โ
The 13 people killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the U.S. had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials said Wednesday. Surveillance video showed a Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban drive through the opening early Tuesday, said Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol's El Centro sector chief. The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the U.S. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
The U.S. Justice Department declined to investigate or prosecute then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao after the inspector general's office referred allegations of potential misuse of office for review, a report made public on Wednesday said. The report included allegations that Chao directed staff to research or purchase personal items for her online using her personal credit card or performed other personal errands for her or her father. The report focused largely on Chao's actions related to her family's shipping business, the Foremost Group, which was founded by her father and whose current chief executive is her sister.
If, in 1987, the editorial boards of the major newspapers learned that a fanatical cult of angry moral scolds, representing a small sliver of the population, was successfully campaigning to remove books from the public eye with the not-so-subtle encouragement of the president and his political allies, they would have been outraged. The Left used to be against banishing books, banning books, burning books. Just six years ago, when Barack Obama was publicly praising Dr. Seuss on March 2, Read Across America Day โ a day specifically chosen by the National Education Association to honor Theodor Geisel's birthday โ you would have called me a paranoid wingnut if I had told you that books such as On Beyond Zebra!
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that moves by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others to lift statewide Covid restrictions showed "Neanderthal thinking." The president's remark came after both Texas and Mississippi issued executive orders Tuesday to eliminate mask mandates and let all businesses open at 100 percent capacity, flying in the face of health officials who have urged continued Covid restrictions. Biden has signed an executive order requiring mask-wearing on federal property but has little authority to overrule governors and other state and local officials.
Over the weekend police officers were stunned to discover a four-year-old girl roaming the streets of New York City alone. Saturday, police noticed the child walking aloneย just after midnight at the corner of E. 156 St. and Prospect Ave. in the Bronx. Sunday, the NYPD shared surveillance video on its official Twitter page that showed a person who appears to be a woman walking ahead as the girl crosses the street alone.
A national panel of vaccine experts in Canada recommended Wednesday that provinces extend the interval between the two doses of a COVID-19 shot to four months to quickly inoculate more people amid a shortage of doses in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also expressed optimism that vaccination timelines could be sped up. The current protocol is an interval of three to four weeks between doses for the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
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.
FBI Director Chris Wray says the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol was not organized by people posing as Trump supporters. (March 2)
Some of Texas' top doctors warned Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott's sudden decision to ditch the mask mandate and lift coronavirus restrictions could result in a new surge of Covid-19 infections and deaths. And while they now have enough masks, ventilators and emergency room space to treat a new wave of patients, they say there is an acute shortage of staffers who aren't already stressed out and exhausted from battling the pandemic for more than a year. We have the capacity to take care of more patients,โ Dr. James McDeavitt of the Baylor College of Medicine told NBC News.
Part two of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's sit-down with Fox News' Harris Faulkner on 'The Faulkner Focus.
During a recent interview on Good Morning America with host Robin Roberts, former First Lady Michelle Obama opened up about how she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, have open communications with their two young-adult daughters. I always have wanted them to start practicing the power of their voices very early on,โ Mrs. Obama shared of Sasha, 19, and Malia, 22. If you sit around the dinner table, me and Barack, we can't get a word in edgewise and we like it like that.
A decade ago, Sakae Kato stayed behind to rescue cats abandoned by neighbours who fled the radiation clouds belching from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant. So far he has buried 23 cats in his garden, the most recent graves disturbed by wild boars that roam the depopulated community. Kato leaves food for feral cats in a storage shed he heats with a paraffin stove.
Nearly 5,000 National Guard troops are in Washington, DC this week for an inauguration that won't happen. According to Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, this has led to online chatter about storming the Capitol a second time. โSome of these people have figured out that apparently 75 years ago, the president used to be inaugurated on 4 March,โ Smith said during a hearing last month with Department of Defense officials.
There is a week before Gov. Greg Abbott's order ending the mask mandate and capacity limits at businesses goes into effect. Why did Abbott pick March 10 as the date to roll back his previous COVID-19 orders? Abbott told Hasty he intended to announce the lifting of the state's mask mandate and business capacity limits on the last Monday in February.
Vanessa Bryant, on the latest cover of PEOPLE Magazine, says that her pain is still โunimaginableโ after the loss of her husband Kobe Bryant and her daughter Gianna Bryant, but that they still โmotivate her.โ It's been over a year since Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, 13, tragically passed in a helicopter crash last Jan. 26. While the world publicly mourned the loss of an icon, Vanessa is opening up to the outlet about her terrible loss and how she has coped through the past year.
โTaking humans to Mars would require an investment astronomically out of kilter with the possible benefits.โ
โCan a Mars settlement be a freer society than we enjoy on Earth? Maybe.โ
โWhat we learn...may spark the next revolution that will make life in 2071 beyond anything we can imagine right now.โ
โOur presence on Mars could jeopardize one of our main reasons for being there โ the search for life.โ
โThe future of geologic investigation of other worlds lies with highly improved versions of our Mars rovers.โ