PoliticsAssociated PressWhat Biden can and can't get from an evenly divided Senate
Republicans remain poised to block most of Biden's proposals, just as they thwarted much of President Barack Obama's efforts on Capitol Hill. But 50/50 control permits action on special legislation that can't be filibustered, and momentum for the popular parts of COVID-19 relief could easily propel an early aid bill into law. What 50-50 really gets — and doesn't get — Biden as he takes office: WHAT BIDEN DOES GET NOMINATIONS With Democrats chairing committees in the Senate and only needing a majority to win floor votes on nominations, Biden is now assured of sealing confirmation of his Cabinet and judicial picks — including potentially for the Supreme Court.
U.S.The IndependentMan arrested at inauguration checkpoint with gun and ammo says he was lost and did not mean to bring weapon to DC
A Virginia man arrested by law enforcement in Washington DC after trying to pass through an inauguration security checkpoint carrying an unregistered pistol and ammunition said he had gotten lost and did not mean to be in the capital. Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, drove into the heavily locked down portion of Washington DC surrounding the White House and the US Capitol. When he was intercepted by the Capitol Police, Me Beeler was arrested for possessing an unregistered firearm, unregistered ammunition and for carrying a pistol without a license, according to The Washington Post.
WorldReutersRussian prosecutors want Kremlin foe Navalny jailed for 30 days, Moscow tells West to butt out
State prosecutors in Russia asked a judge on Monday to jail Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for 30 days, after he was detained the previous evening at a Moscow airport when flying home for the first time since he was poisoned last summer. The United Nations and Western nations told Russia to immediately free the opposition politician and some countries called for new sanctions. Moscow told them to mind their own business.
PoliticsAssociated PressCongresswoman's spokesman quits less than 2 weeks into term
The spokesman for Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has quit less than two weeks after she was sworn into office, saying he was prompted to by the insurrection at the nation's Capitol. Ben Goldey confirmed his departure to The Colorado Sun after it was first reported on Saturday by Axios. The Sun reported that Goldey did not respond to additional questions, but he told Axios he was leaving in the wake of a deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
PoliticsNational ReviewKamala Harris to Resign Senate Seat on Monday Ahead of Inauguration
Vice President–elect Kamala Harris will reportedly resign her Senate seat on Monday, two days before she is set to be sworn in as vice president alongside President-elect Joe Biden. Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to appoint California secretary of state Alex Padilla, another Democrat, to serve out the last two years of Harris's Senate term. The California Democrat will become the Senate's presiding officer once she is sworn in as vice president and is expected to be the deciding Democratic vote in a 50-50 split Senate, provided Democratic Senators-elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia are certified in their election victories.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump news - live: President to host ceremony for himself on inauguration day as he plans to pardon ‘100’
Donald Trump is reportedly planning to host a farewell ceremony for himself at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland early on Wednesday morning before jetting out to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to return to life as a private citizen as Joe Biden is sworn in as his successor. The president is also being tipped to issue 100 pardons and commutations to allies before he leaves the White House, with The New York Times reporting that his allies have accepted tens of thousands of dollars from clients lobbying for a reprieve.
WorldReutersVenezuela dispatches oxygen for Brazil's Amazonas, reeling from COVID-19
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday that a convoy of trucks carrying emergency oxygen supplies for Brazil's northern Amazonas state, where a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has hit hard, has departed and is set to arrive at the border by Monday morning. Reading from a message sent by Justo Noguera, governor of Venezuela's southern Bolivar state, Maduro said during a state television appearance that the six trucks would arrive at the Santa Elena de Uairen border crossing by morning, where they would be handed over to Brazilian health authorities.
WorldAssociated PressTens of thousands evacuated amid Indonesia floods
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and more than a dozen have been killed in recent days in flooding on Indonesia's Borneo island, officials said Sunday. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati said floods brought by intense rains caused floodwaters as high as 3 meters (10 feet). As of Sunday, 39,549 people had been evacuated and at least 15 had been killed due to floods that affected 10 districts and cities in South Kalimantan province on Borneo island.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael OKs hundreds of settlement homes in last-minute push
Israeli authorities on Sunday advanced plans to build nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements, in a last-minute surge of approvals before the friendly Trump administration leaves office later this week. COGAT, the Israeli defense body that authorizes settlement construction, confirmed the approvals, which drew swift condemnations from the Palestinians. The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said that over 90% of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state, and over 200 homes were located in unauthorized outposts that the government had decided to legalize.
WorldBBCIndonesia earthquake: Heavy rain hampers search for survivors
Indonesian officials say heavy rain is hampering the search for survivors following a powerful earthquake on Sulawesi island on Friday. The death toll has now risen to 78, including five members of one family. Thousands of people left homeless are living in makeshift shelters, and there are fears of a Covid outbreak there.
WorldAssociated Press'Extreme urgent need': Starvation haunts Ethiopia's Tigray
From “emaciated” refugees to crops burned on the brink of harvest, starvation threatens the survivors of more than two months of fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region. The first humanitarian workers to arrive after pleading with the Ethiopian government for access describe weakened children dying from diarrhea after drinking from rivers. A local official told a Jan. 1 crisis meeting of government and aid workers that hungry people had asked for “a single biscuit.”
WorldReutersUK says vaccine manufacturing is 'lumpy' but still on course for targets
Britain's vaccine rollout is limited by a "lumpy" manufacturing process affecting supplies of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca, but is on track to hit its targets, Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday. The United Kingdom, which has the world's fifth worst official death toll from COVID-19, is racing to be among the first major countries to vaccinate its population - seen as the best way to exit the pandemic and get the economy going again. Britain has inoculated 3,857,266 people with a first dose and 449,736 with a second dose.
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Thousands of migrants traveling north to U.S.
Countries in Central America have ramped up their border controls. As thousands of migrants from Honduras and Guatemala are heading to the U.S. for a new life. The region is reeling from a growing hunger crisis after hurricanes hit, as well as violence and lockdown measures that disrupted the job markets.
PoliticsThe IndependentAdam Schiff says ‘massive intelligence and security failure’ at US Capitol being investigated by the House
Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, said a "massive intelligence and security failure" was being investigated in connection with the US Capitol insurrection by Donald Trump's supporters on 6 January. Mr Schiff made the comments while appearing on CBS's Face the Nation. "Along with my fellow chairs, we are beginning an investigation into what went wrong," Mr Schiff said.
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Israeli jets hit Hamas targets in Gaza after rockets fired
Israeli military aircraft struck targets in the Gaza Strip early on Monday in response to two rockets fired from the Palestinian territory, the military said. In a statement, the military said fighter jets hit Hamas military targets, including sites for digging underground tunnels, some of which stretch into Israel. There were also no reports of damage or injury from the rockets launched.
WorldReutersTennis causes tensions with Australians stranded by COVID-19
As top tennis stars descended on Melbourne for the upcoming grand slam, many Australians questioned the decision to host the tournament when thousands of citizens are stranded overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic. Australia has halved the number of people who can return to the country each week as positive coronavirus cases in hotel quarantine rise, prompting airline Emirates to indefinitely suspend flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Australians questioned how the government could make room for 1,200 tennis players and their entourages for next month's Australian Open, but not its own citizens.
ScienceBBCSLS: Nasa's 'megarocket' engine test ends early
A critical engine test for Nasa's new "megarocket" has ended early, but the agency denied it amounted to a failure. Shortly before 22:30 GMT (17:30 EST) on Saturday, the four engines ignited, burning for more than a minute before the event was aborted. The core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) was being evaluated at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.
PoliticsAssociated PressTwitter suspends US congresswoman over election fraud claims
Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online. Greene's account was suspended “without explanation," she said in a statement, while also condemning big tech companies for “silencing” conservative views. Before noon Sunday, Greene posted a clip from an interview with a local news outlet in which she condemned Georgia election officials and expressed support for debunked theories claiming that voting machines, absentee ballots and other issues led to widespread fraud in the state during the presidential election.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael moves to rein in rights group over 'apartheid' use
Israel's education minister says he is banning groups that call Israel an “apartheid state” from lecturing at schools — a move that targets one of the country's leading human rights groups after it began describing both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single apartheid system. The explosive term, long seen as taboo and mostly used by the country's harshest critics, is vehemently rejected by Israel's leaders and many ordinary Israelis. Education Minister Yoav Galant tweeted late on Sunday that he had instructed the ministry's director general to “prevent the entry of organizations calling Israel 'an apartheid state' or demeaning Israeli soldiers from lecturing at schools.”
WorldAssociated PressEgypt unveils ancient funerary temple south of Cairo
Egypt's former antiquities minister and noted archaeologist Zahi Hawass on Sunday revealed details of an ancient funerary temple in a vast necropolis south of Cairo. Hawass told reporters at the Saqqara necropolis that archaeologists unearthed the temple of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt from 2323 B.C. till 2150 B.C. Archaeologists also found a 4-meter (13-foot) long papyrus that includes texts of the Book of the Dead, which is a collection of spells aimed at directing the dead through the underworld in ancient Egypt, he said.
PoliticsThe WeekHow 'bewildered' Trump campaign aides would reportedly discreetly escape election challenge meetings
In the immediate aftermath of President-elect Joe Biden's victory in November, the leaders of President Trump's re-election campaign told him he had about a five to 10 percent chance of picking up enough outstanding votes in Georgia and Arizona and win a legal challenge against election practices in Wisconsin, which would overturn the results, Axios' Jonathan Swan reports in part of his series on the final two months of Trump's presidency. Trump initially told his campaign aides — including campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior adviser Jason Miller, and deputy campaign manager Justin Clark — that it was worth a shot, but he was simultaneously listening to another plan presented by attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell that was steeped in conspiracy theories.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderTed Cruz's former staffers say they are 'disgusted' by his role in the US Capitol insurrection and his unflinching support of Trump, report says
At least six of Sen. Ted Cruz's former aides have expressed their disgust at the recent actions of their former boss, according to New York Magazine's Intelligencer. Ted Cruz is under fire for spreading election misinformation, objecting to the results of the 2020 election being certified, and having fundraised during the US Capitol insurrection. Democratic lawmakers have called for Cruz to resign or to be removed from office.
SportsAssociated PressU.S. team sure of continuing in America's Cup after capsize
U.S. challenger American Magic is assessing the extent of damage to its racing yacht Patriot, which capsized and came close to sinking during racing Sunday in the America's Cup challenger series. Skipper Terry Hutchinson said American Magic is confident of making repairs and being able to continue in the Prada Cup series, which resumes in Auckland on Friday. Patriot, which lost its first three races in the challengers series, was leading Italian challenger Luna Rossa when it capsized rounding the final mark.
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Biden to end Keystone XL pipeline early on
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden may end the Keystone XL pipeline project as one of his first acts in office, a source familiar with his thinking told Reuters it could happen as early as day one. Biden, who will be inaugurated on Wednesday, was vice president when Barack Obama rejected the $9 billion project in 2015. Then two years later, Donald Trump issued a presidential permit that allowed the line to move forward.
BusinessBusiness InsiderThe pandemic devastated airlines in 2020 and forced many out of business - here's the most notable that didn't make it to 2021
All 11 major US airlines remained intact but smaller regional carriers were forced to close or merge due to the drop in travel demand. A surprise announcement in February that the promising Qatar Airways-backed Air Italy would be liquidated set the stage for a year of losses even before lockdowns grounded the world's airlines. In the US, all 11 major airlines remained intact but smaller regional carriers folded amid an unprecedented drop in passengers that remains low even into the new year.
“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.”