PoliticsYahoo NewsIf it takes a miracle for Trump to stay in office, evangelicals like Michele Bachmann are fine with that
As the inevitability of President Trump's loss became apparent even to his acolyte Kellyanne Conway in recent days, his supporters increasingly pinned their hopes for a second term on a last-ditch appeal, not to the Supreme Court, but to the one power that can outvote it: God. It has long been an article of faith among right-wing evangelicals that Republicans were the party of God, while Democrats were on, well, the other side, succinctly identified by Franklin Graham as “almost a demonic power.” The inescapable conclusion of televangelist Pat Robertson followed: “Without question” — and also without polling — “Trump is going to win the election.” “So God said to me, in November, there is going to be an overwhelming number of white liberals who talk like they hate the president publicly, but in the secrecy of the ballot box, God says, I'm gonna work a miracle,” predicted Francis Myles, senior pastor of the Lovefest Church in Tempe, Ariz. “I'm gonna cause the eunuchs to throw off the spirit of Jezebel and they are going to vote massively for the president.”
WorldReuters'We lost everything:' Central Americans flee north after back-to-back hurricanes
It took Luis Salgado years of manual labor to save enough money to open a small fresh produce store, so when torrential floods swept away $1,500 worth of apples, bananas and other fruits, he decided there was no longer a future for him in Honduras. Salgado had already been struggling to eke out a profit after measures to curb the novel coronavirus such as additional cleaning cut into his meager revenues. Back-to-back hurricanes Eta and Iota internally displaced more than half a million people in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, according to International Organization for Migration data.
WorldThe TelegraphCaving to Brussels on fish and level playing field risks leaving UK a 'permanent client state', Boris Johnson warned
Caving to Brussels on fish and the level playing field to secure a post-Brexit trade deal risks turning Britain into a permanent “client state”, senior Conservative MPs have warned Boris Johnson. With the UK on the cusp of reaching an agreement with the European Union, a group of “die-hard” backbenches have urged the Prime Minister not break his promises to Leave voters in last year's election. It comes amid fears that Mr Johnson could be forced to grant a flurry of last-minute concessions after intensive lobbying from French president Emmanual Macron to secure more preferable terms on fishing, state subsidies and non-regression clauses.
ScienceBusiness InsiderNASA took a photo of China's moon rock-collecting robot on the lunar surface before it rocketed back toward Earth
NASA images have confirmed the landing of China's Chang'e 5 moon robot. China's space agency said the lander collected more than 4 pounds of moon rocks. If successful, it will be the first time a country has brought home moon rocks in more than 40 years.
PoliticsThe WeekPelosi says she supports a smaller coronavirus stimulus now because Biden won the election
After six months spent pushing for a more-than $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fine with something smaller. It's smaller than the $1.5 trillion deal the House's bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus drew up in September, and yet this time around, President-elect Joe Biden's win and forthcoming coronavirus vaccines have Pelosi ready to accept it. Pelosi went on to explain that she had held out for a bigger bill with longer-lasting provisions before she knew who would be the next president — essentially, she thought she wouldn't get a second chance at a stimulus package if President Trump was re-elected.
WorldReutersJerusalem church suffers damage in arson near Garden of Gethsemane
Israeli police on Friday arrested a man for trying to set fire to an east Jerusalem church by the Garden of Gethsemane, the site revered by Christians as the place where Jesus prayed before he was crucified. The 49-year-old Israeli suspect poured flammable liquid inside the Church of All Nations, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The man then set it alight, a separate police statement said, before the church guard detained him.
WorldThe TelegraphChina creating 'biologically enhanced soldiers', claims US intelligence chief
China is conducting "human testing" to create "biologically enhanced soldiers," the head of US intelligence has claimed as he warned that Beijing poses the biggest threat to America's national security. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, warned that the US must be prepared for an "open-ended" confrontation with China which he likened to the Cold War. Mr Ratcliffe, who oversees America's intelligence agencies, said he believed China's intention was to "dominate" the planet in every sense: economically, militarily and technologically.
U.S.Associated PressCalifornia on the brink: Virus rages and closures imminent
Much of California is on the brink of sweeping new restrictions on businesses and activities, a desperate attempt to slow the frighteningly rapid escalation of coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm hospitals. Five San Francisco Bay Area counties imposed a new stay-at-home order for their residents that will take effect Sunday. Southern California and a large swath of the central portion of the state could join this weekend.
PoliticsThe WeekTrump ousts nonpartisan Pentagon advisory board, installs Corey Lewandowski and other loyalists
President Trump's Pentagon purge isn't over yet. Since losing the 2020 election, Trump has systematically ousted top Defense Department officials and replaced them with people more favorable to him. That removal operation even extended to the typically nonpartisan Pentagon Defense Business Board on Friday, where the White House fired nine members and installed Trump allies in their place.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Biden got record number of popular votes despite small campaign events
Following an unconventional campaign season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris won the election after capturing enough states to receive more than the necessary number of electoral votes. Since Biden and Harris were projected as the winners on Nov. 7, Trump and his campaign have filed — and lost — dozens of lawsuits in various states and amplified debunked conspiracy theories about mass voter fraud. The bipartisan acknowledgment of Biden's win from elected officials in local, state and federal governments has not stopped the spread of false claims about the election on social media, however.
WorldThe TelegraphTop Hong Kong politician announces he is living in exile in Denmark and pledges to move to UK
Former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui has announced he has chosen to go into exile as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on high-profile figures of the former British colony's pro-democracy movement. Mr Hui, 38, initially fled to Denmark this week where he was joined by his family, but he said he would make his way to the UK to continue his pro-democratic activities. He joins Nathan Law, a prominent Hong Kong human rights activist now based in London, and a growing diaspora of dissidents who are continuing to advocate for more international pressure on China to allow greater rights and freedoms in the Asian financial hub.
PoliticsAssociated PressUS ends 5 cultural programs with China in further escalation
The departing Trump administration has ended five cultural-exchange programs with China that it says were being used for Chinese propaganda and had no benefit to the United States. The terminations follow new visa restrictions announced by Washington limiting stays in the U.S. by members of China's Communist Party and signal further erosion in relations with Beijing in the final weeks of President Donald Trump's time in office. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the exchange programs he ended were fully paid for and operated by the Chinese government “as soft power propaganda tools.”
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRepublicans' latest Georgia legal filing featured Facebook comments and stories of people following trucks on highways to try to overturn the election results
Republican lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood cited a Facebook comment thread in their latest legal effort to prove unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 race was plagued with widespread voter fraud and election-rigging. One affidavit in Powell and Wood's Georgia filing featured a self-described "Patriot" and their associate staking out a loading dock in Atlanta, Georgia, and suggesting Georgia's secretary of state used it to tamper with absentee ballots. Other affidavits described how people in Georgia who were convinced the election was rigged began tailing unspecified trucks on highways looking to uncover a fraud scheme.
WorldThe TelegraphLabour will be 'putting two fingers up' to voters if it fails to back Brexit deal, Sir Keir Starmer warned
Labour will be putting "two fingers up to voters" if it refuses to back a Brexit trade deal, Sir Keir Starmer has been warned, as a prominent Remainer MP said they would vote for it. Amid splits at the top of the party on whether to withhold support for an agreement, shadow business minister Lucy Powell suggested Labour would struggle to win back voters in “Red Wall” seats if it attempted to abstain. Arguing that a “skinny deal” could be “built on” in future, Ms Powell added that it was better than no deal - which she said would be a “catastrophe” - and was therefore “quite hard for us to oppose”.
WorldReutersAnalysis: U.S. efforts on Huawei executive case may save Canada's stalled China policy
Canada could see the end of a nasty diplomatic dispute with China if the United States reaches a deal to release a Huawei executive from house arrest in Vancouver, but the affair shows that without the heft of its southern neighbor, Canada has no bargaining power with Beijing. Shortly after Meng was picked up on a U.S. arrest warrant in December 2018, China detained two Canadian men - Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor - who now face spying charges.Having failed to secure their immediate release, Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has talked for months about a formal "reset" of relations with China.
WorldAssociated PressKuwait votes for parliament amid economic, virus challenges
Kuwait voted Saturday for its National Assembly, the first election since the death of its longtime ruling emir and as the oil-rich nation faces serious economic problems under the coronavirus pandemic. This tiny country's hundreds of thousands of voters selected lawmakers for 50 seats in the parliament, the freest and most-rambunctious assembly in the Gulf Arab countries. However, Kuwait's parliament has tamped down on opposition to its ruling Al Sabah family since the 2011 Arab Spring protests that saw demonstrators storm the chamber.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Georgia GOP Lt. Gov. is ‘embarrassed’ by misinformation surrounding election integrity in his state
As a pair of critical Senate runoff races approach on Jan. 5, Georgia Republican leaders find themselves in a conundrum, trying to balance indulging President Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud with supporting state GOP election officials. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, is frustrated with the misinformation about the election process in his state. I'm actually embarrassed at the amount of misinformation that continues to show up on Twitter feeds and Facebook posts and blogs that takes literally 10 seconds to debunk,” Duncan told Yahoo News.
WorldUSA TODAYFact check: Strict lockdowns, experimental vaccine helped China recover from COVID-19
China has used strict measures to succeed in controlling COVID-19 It's true that China appears to have succeeded in its efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 within its borders, per statistics from the World Health Organization. Though it has a population of 1.4 billion, China has reported fewer than 100,000 coronavirus cases and fewer than 5,000 deaths. In contrast, the United States — which has a population of 330 million — has had over 13.5 million cases and 271,000 deaths.
WorldReutersBahrain says it won't allow imports from Israeli settlements
Bahrain will not allow the import of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, state news agency BNA reported, disavowing comments made by the Gulf state's trade minister earlier this week. Bahrain's Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani had voiced openness to settlement imports, adding that Manama would make no distinction between products produced in Israel or in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights. "The minister's statement was misinterpreted and that the ministry is committed to the Bahraini government's unwavering stance regarding adherence to the resolutions of the United Nations," BNA said late on Friday, quoting an official source from the ministry of industry, commerce and tourism.
PoliticsThe IndependentGiuliani’s witness at voter fraud hearing just got off probation for computer crime, reports say
One of the Trump campaign's key witnesses at a hearing about alleged voter fraud before the Michigan legislature just got off probation for an unspecified digital crime, the Daily Mail reports. Mellissa Carone, a former contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, went before the Michigan House Oversight Committee on Wednesday and claimed in bizarre, oftentimes belligerent testimony that instantly went viral, that she witnessed a host of election misconduct at a Detroit counting center.
ScienceBusiness InsiderWhen the Arecibo telescope collapsed, the world lost a powerful asteroid tracker and alien seeker
The Arecibo Telescope collapsed on Tuesday: Its 900-ton hanging platform crashed into its main dish. In its 57 years of radio astronomy, Arecibo tracked potentially hazardous asteroids, discovered the first exoplanet, and broadcast a message for aliens. The telescope even starred in a James Bond film and the movie "Contact."
WorldAssociated PressThai king leads thousands to remember late father's birthday
Thousands of yellow-clad supporters greeted Thailand's king on Saturday as he led a birthday commemoration for his revered late father, the latest in a series of public appearances at a time of unprecedented challenge to the monarchy from student-led protesters. King Maha Vajiralongkorn, accompanied by Queen Suthida, waved as he arrived at Bangkok's Sanam Luang ceremonial ground. Supporters of the monarchy held Thai and yellow royal flags to welcome them, with some cheering “Long live the king.”
WorldBBCVenezuela election: 'There's no opposition here, just God'
"We've come here to show our faces, to tell the truth, to walk the streets with you so you can tell us your problems, and we can solve them," hollered candidate Nicolás Maduro Guerra, addressing a crowd of about 500 on the Caribbean coast of La Guaira. For Nicolasito is the president's son and under Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's once oil-rich economy has crumbled. Every day, millions of people in Venezuela struggle to access enough food, annual inflation is above 5,000% and about five million people have fled the country in search of jobs and more stability.
PoliticsReutersTrump unveils $207 million fundraising haul after election in effort to overturn result
President Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee have raised $207.5 million since Election Day, according to a statement on Thursday, gathering donations to pay for challenges to Democrat Joe Biden's win in the Nov. 3 poll. The post-election fundraising haul brought the combined fundraising of Trump committees between Oct. 15 and Nov. 23 to $495 million, the Trump campaign said. Biden's campaign raised $112 million during the same period, according to a filing with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday.
PoliticsThe IndependentJudge orders Trump to reinstate Obama’s ‘Dreamers’ programme
A federal judge on Friday ordered the outgoing Trump administration to fully reinstate the Obama-era 'Dreamers' programme. US district judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the government to begin advertising the scheme within days, a decision that is likely to rile the outgoing president as he heads for the White House exit door. The 'Dreamers' programme – or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – is a policy introduced by former president Barack Obama in 2012.
“This metastasizing debt crisis has had tremendous social costs. An entire generation has been set back.”
“It is not the government’s job to step in and rescue those who took on more debt than their future incomes would support.”
“Many student-borrowers need relief, but well-off borrowers who are thriving — thanks to their college degrees — do not.”
“It will stimulate the lagging economy. And though not everyone will directly benefit, the country as a whole will improve.”
“Canceling student debt would cost billions of dollars each year and would exacerbate, not lessen, economic inequalities.”