PoliticsReutersWhite House: Biden believes U.S. authorizations for military force need updating
U.S. President Joe Biden believes that authorizations for the use of military force that have been used to justify U.S. attacks on overseas targets should be re-examined, the White House said on Friday. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Senator Todd Young introduced legislation this week to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq, citing the “strong partnership” between Washington and the government in Baghdad. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Biden wanted to work with Kaine on the issue.
WorldAssociated Press3 Venezuelans plead guilty for aiding anti-Maduro plot
Three Venezuelan men pleaded guilty to helping organize an ill-conceived invasion last year to remove President Nicolás Maduro. In Friday's hearing before a Colombian court, the men acknowledged their role alongside Jordan Goudreau, a former American Green Beret and Iraq war veteran, in organizing a rag tag army of a few dozen Venezuelan military deserters intent on overthrowing Venezuela's socialist leadership. “I apologize to the Colombian government,” one of the men, National Guard Maj. Juvenal Sequea, told a judge in Bogota on Friday as he and two other accepted lighter charges of providing advice and logistical support to illegal armed groups.
U.S.The IndependentMother of ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Chansley defends her son and repeats election conspiracy theories
The mother of the so-called “QAnon Shaman” has defended her son's actions during the Capitol insurrection and repeated false claims that Donald Trump only lost the election due to voter fraud. Martha Chansley, the mother of Jacob Chansley, appeared on 60 Minutes+ to discuss her son's role in the 6 January riots. In one clip, Laurie Segall, a 60 Minutes correspondent, asks Ms Chansley if she thought her son did anything wrong.
PoliticsReutersU.S. blacklists Ukraine's Kolomoisky over alleged corruption
The U.S. State Department on Friday said it designated former Ukrainian public official Igor Kolomoisky as ineligible to enter the United States, accusing him of involvement in significant corruption during his time in office. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement accused Kolomoisky, once the governor of the province of Dnipropetrovsk, close to the border with Russia, of using his office as a governor for personal benefit. "While this designation is based on acts during his time in office, I also want to express concern about Kolomoyskyy's current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine's democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future," Blinken said, using another spelling of the Ukrainian's name.
U.S.Associated PressBlack women persevere to lead in Vermont despite harassment
Mia Schultz has watched three other Black women in Vermont leave leadership posts in the mostly white state because of harassment and threats. Now, the former insurance professional is carrying on a broader fight for her community in her new leadership role as president of one of Vermont's two NAACP branches. “I really don't feel like I have a choice,” said Schultz, who replaced another Black woman, Tabitha Moore, who decided not to run for reelection citing harassment. “We're talking about our children.”
WorldThe IndependentTrial date set for British ISIS militants the ‘Beatles’, accused of murdering journalists and aid workers
A trial date has been set for two British ISIS militants known as the "Beatles", who are accused of torturing and beheading Americans and Europeans in Syria. A federal judge in Virginia set a tentative date in January 2022 for the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey. The men, along with other ISIS militants from Britain, made up a group of fighters who came to be known as "The Beatles" because of their English accents.
WorldThe TelegraphLord Patten : China is 'obliterating' Hong Kong freedom with new election rules
Lord Patten of Barnes last night warned that China's Communist Party had taken its most significant step yet towards tearing up the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong after Beijing announced an overhaul of the city's electoral system. China on Friday moved to bar pro-democracy candidates from standing for election in Hong Kong and hinted at expanding the legislative to include more Beijing-appointed members. China's communist parliament has taken the biggest step so far to obliterate Hong Kong's freedoms and aspirations for greater democracy under the rule of law," said Lord Patten, the last colonial governor of Hong Kong.
WorldReutersSniper sought, no experience needed: Russian riot police launch recruitment ad blitz
Russia's feared riot police have launched an online recruitment advertising blitz in the weeks since nationwide protests erupted over the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Police forcefully dispersed tens of thousands of people who took part in three protests across Russia that spanned January and early February, when Navalny returned to the country from Germany and was later jailed for 2-1/2 years. Since then, riot police have advertised hundreds of times for jobs on recruitment websites such as HH.ru, run by Headhunter Group, Avito and Superjob.ru.
BusinessAssociated PressPowell: Higher inflation temporary, no rate hikes in sight
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested Thursday that inflation will pick up in the coming months but that it would likely prove temporary and not enough for the Fed to alter its record-low interest rate policies. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note had jumped from below 1% at the end of last year to roughly 1.4% Wednesday — and then surged above 1.5% during Powell's remarks. Stock investors, too, dumped shares in the midst of Powell's remarks, in which he suggested that the Fed would need to see both a near-full recovery in the job market and a sustained rise in inflation above its target level before considering a rate hike.
U.S.The Daily BeastTrump State Dept. Aide Accused of Beating Cops During Riot Is Already Hating Prison
A Trump appointee, who was still employed at the State Department when he allegedly bashed police at the U.S. Capitol with a riot shield and egged on a crowd of insurrectionists, has been arrested for his role on Jan. 6. Federico Klein, a 42-year-old State Department staff assistant with top security clearance, is facing a slew of charges, including unlawful entry and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The New York Times. Prosecutors allege Klein, who also worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, “physically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the line” before assaulting one officer with a riot shield—and using that stolen police equipment to wedge open a door into the Capitol to allow insurrectionists inside.
WorldReutersIran's Zarif to offer 'constructive' plan amid hopes of informal nuclear talks
Iran will soon present a "constructive" plan of action, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday, after European sources said Tehran gave positive signs about opening informal talks about its nuclear programme. "As Iran's FM (foreign minister) & chief nuclear negotiator, I will shortly present our constructive concrete plan of action - through proper diplomatic channels," Zarif said on Twitter. A French diplomatic source and another European source said on Thursday that Iran had given encouraging signs in recent days about opening the informal talks after European powers scrapped plans to criticise Tehran at the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael, Denmark and Austria join forces against COVID-19
Israel, Denmark and Austria agreed on Thursday to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and roll-out of vaccines to protect people against new surges and mutations of the coronavirus. The leaders of the three countries said their alliance will set up a foundation and vaccine distribution plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel's world-leading inoculation drive. “We think that by joining the resources of three small but very able and gifted countries, we can better meet these challenges,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Civil war within the GOP continues as Trump fires back at strategist Karl Rove
Former President Donald Trump intensified his war with the Republican establishment on Thursday by attacking Karl Rove, a longtime Republican strategist who criticized Trump's first speech since leaving office for being long on grievances but short on vision.
BusinessReutersNasdaq ends sharply lower after Powell comments
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, leaving the Nasdaq down nearly 10% from its February record high, after remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointed investors worried about rising longer-term U.S. bond yields. A decline of 10% from its February record high would confirm the Nasdaq is in a correction. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield spiked to 1.533% after Powell's comments, which did not point to changes in the Fed's asset purchases to tackle the recent jump in yields.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestThe 7 Best Refrigerators on the Market, According to Kitchen Designers
Quality food preservation, storage space, and good-looking design are priorities among kitchen designers when it comes to refrigerators Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden news: White House defends ‘Neanderthal’ slur of GOP states, as Trump shifts blame for Senate loss
The White House defended Joe Biden accusing Texas and Mississippi of having "Neanderthal thinking", saying he was talking about their "behaviour" and not calling them actual Neanderthals. It comes as Donald Trump tried to shift the blame for the Senate race defeats in Georgia, saying Mitch McConnell only offering $600 stimulus checks led to the defeats of Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. On the US Mexico border, child migrants detained by authorities have increased 583 per cent under Joe Biden, according to internal documents from the Department of Health and Human services reported by Axios.
WorldAssociated PressMyanmar cracked down brutally on protests. It may get worse.
Myanmar's security forces have killed scores of demonstrators protesting a coup. The slide from a nascent democracy to yet another coup, as rapid as it has been brutal, opens up a grim possibility: As bad as it looks in Myanmar now, if the country's long history of violent military rule is any guide, things could get worse.
- PoliticsReuters
Biden deputy budget nominee Young wins Republican plaudits; House Democrats want her in top job
Shalanda Young, President Joe Biden's nominee to be his deputy budget director who has emerged as the top contender for budget director after the nomination of Neera Tanden was withdrawn, won praise from Republican lawmakers on Thursday for her ability to work across the political aisle. "These days wide bipartisan support is rare, but when Senators Graham, Leahy, Sanders and Shelby agree, either we're in a some sort of weird space-time continuum or the nominee is exceptionally capable," said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, referring to fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham and Richard Shelby and Democrats Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sander. "Ms.
WorldAssociated PressSydney's LGBTQI Mardi Gras goes ahead _ with restrictions
Sydney's annual iconic Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras went ahead on Saturday, only in a different format due to coronavirus restrictions. It was being held at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where people can socially distance in their seats rather than on the traditional route down Oxford Street. Meanwhile, LGBTQI rights protesters have been given the green light to march down Oxford Street in a separate event before the parade.
PoliticsThe IndependentSenate rejects Bernie Sanders proposal for $15 minimum wage in coronavirus relief package
A proposal from Bernie Sanders to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $15 from its current $7.25 failed in the Senate after the senator sought to include the measure in a White House-backed coronavirus relief package. The House of Representatives included the wage hike in its version of its $1.9 trillion legislation, which includes unemployment relief, support for families with children, and funding for schools and vaccine distribution, among other initiatives critical to Joe Biden's plan to combat the pandemic and its economic fallout a year after the outbreak. After the Senate rules-advising parliamentarian shot down the inclusion of a wage increase in the bill, Senator Sanders vowed to introduce an amendment to put it into the legislation.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRudy Giuliani, who helped lead Trump's bogus election-fraud conspiracy theory, is being mocked after warning of the dangers of misinformation
Rudy Giuliani warned of "the dire consequences of misinformation on social media." Giuliani has long promoted right-wing misinformation on social media. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, was pilloried on Wednesday after he warned in a podcast of the dangers of online misinformation.
WorldReutersIreland says UK not behaving like a 'respectable country'
Britain's decision to make unilateral changes to Northern Irish Brexit arrangements is "not the appropriate behaviour of a respectable country" and will erode trust with the European Union, senior Irish ministers said on Thursday. The EU promised legal action on Wednesday after the British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, a move Brussels said violated terms of Britain's divorce deal. "For the second time in the course of a few months, the British government has threatened to breach international law," Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told Virgin Media television, referring to a similar unilateral move last year that London even...
ScienceBBCWhat is Elon Musk's Starship?
Starship is a rocket and spacecraft combination that could ferry more than 100 people a time to the Red Planet. The system is designed to be fully reusable, meaning the principal hardware elements are not discarded in the sea or allowed to burn up, as happens with some other launch systems, but are instead recovered from space. They can then be refurbished and flown again, reducing the cost of the whole enterprise.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestThe 29 Best Bar Carts Under $500
Guaranteed to look great in your Zoom happy hours Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsAssociated PressGeorgia GOP leaders who stood up to Trump back voting bills
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger won wide praise last fall for firmly rejecting then-President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud. Both men say they support Georgia Republicans' efforts to enact an ID requirement for absentee voting that would do away with the state's signature matching system, which Trump heavily attacked. While the bills being pushed in Georgia and several other states have the backing of a GOP base that embraces Trump, they also could stir up Democratic backlash, not to mention make it harder for GOP voters to cast ballots.
“Taking humans to Mars would require an investment astronomically out of kilter with the possible benefits.”
“Can a Mars settlement be a freer society than we enjoy on Earth? Maybe.”
“What we learn...may spark the next revolution that will make life in 2071 beyond anything we can imagine right now.”
“Our presence on Mars could jeopardize one of our main reasons for being there — the search for life.”
“The future of geologic investigation of other worlds lies with highly improved versions of our Mars rovers.”