PoliticsYahoo NewsRepublicans built up QAnon backer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but now are they afraid of what they created?
On the eve of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the combative Georgia Republican known for her association with the fantastical, cultlike QAnon conspiracy theory, was back on Twitter after a 12-hour suspension, and back to making waves and rocking the precarious boat that Republicans find themselves in, having lost the White House and both chambers of Congress. I've said this all along, it's people over politicians, not the other way around,” Greene tweeted Monday night, just hours after her Twitter account was reinstated after it was suspended for violating the social media giant's policies. It's the people of this country that matter.
PoliticsYahoo NewsCIA's Gina Haspel, who quietly resisted some Trump moves, outlasted many in administration
CIA Director Gina Haspel announced her retirement from the agency Tuesday afternoon on the eve of Joe Biden's inauguration, marking the end of a tenure that was often publicly quiet, but often included behind-the-scenes resistance to some of President Trump's controversial moves. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to lead this remarkable organization,” Haspel said in a statement from the CIA Twitter account. Haspel, the first woman to serve as CIA director, came out from the shadows of a life undercover as an operations officer to serve as deputy director under Mike Pompeo in February 2017.
WorldReutersChinese media criticise Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, tout local shots
Chinese state media outlets have run a series of articles criticising Western COVID-19 vaccines in the past week, including Pfizer's, while touting China-made vaccines as safer and more accessible. The reports have come as China's vaccines, which are being rolled out to countries including Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey, have faced criticism in the West for insufficient data disclosure. The Global Times, a tabloid published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, has published more than ten reports in the past week critical of vaccines and inoculation schemes in the West.
WorldAssociated PressIndia starts supplying COVID-19 shots to neighboring nations
India began supplying coronavirus vaccines to its neighboring countries on Wednesday, as the world's largest vaccine making nation strikes a balance between maintaining enough doses to inoculate its own people and helping developing countries without the capacity to produce their own shots. India's Foreign Ministry said the country would send 150,000 shots of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, manufactured locally by Serum Institute of India, to Bhutan and 100,000 shots to the Maldives on Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said India would ensure that domestic vaccine makers have adequate stocks to meet India's domestic needs as it supplies partner countries in the coming months.
PoliticsYahoo NewsDonald Trump gracelessly leaves the stage
Richard Nixon's best speech came at his worst moment. Having resigned the presidency to avoid impeachment in the aftermath of Watergate, he delivered a farewell address to his White House staff that served as a reflection on duty and humility. Nixon, although prone to bouts of self-pity, understood and was able to acknowledge that he had destroyed himself, or at least his career and his place in history.
PoliticsThe WeekBiden honors late son Beau in emotional pre-inauguration speech: 'We should be introducing him as president'
President-elect Joe Biden delivered an emotional farewell to Delaware on Tuesday one day before his swearing-in, choking up while paying tribute to the state and to his late son, Beau Biden. Biden spoke from Delaware before departing for Washington, D.C., and he became emotional from the top of the remarks as he thanked Delawareans who have been with him "through the good times and the bad" and said it's "deeply personal that our next journey to Washington starts here." The president-elect went on to say he'll "always be a proud son of the state of Delaware," emotionally adding that "when I die, Delaware will be written on my heart."
WorldReutersIndia, 'pharmacy of the world', starts COVID vaccine shipments to neighbours
India started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India's list apart from China, is regional rival Pakistan, which had not requested assistance, according to an Indian government official.
WorldAssociated PressUK: 'Genocide' clause to China trade deals narrowly defeated
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson narrowly avoided a defeat in Parliament on Tuesday after lawmakers voted against a controversial proposal seeking to bar trade deals with any country deemed by the U.K. High Court to be committing genocide. The amendment to the government's post-Brexit trade bill was largely designed to force international action in addressing China's alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur minority in the far western Xinjiang region. Campaigners had said that if the proposal passed, Britain would become the first country in the world to allow genocide cases to be considered in domestic courts.
WorldBBCThe Hong Kong migrants fleeing to start new lives in the UK
The UK will introduce a new visa at the end of January that will give 5.4 million Hong Kong residents - a staggering 70% of the territory's population - the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens. It is making this "generous" offer to residents of its former colony because it believes China is undermining Hong Kong's rights and freedoms. In the end, Britain estimates that about 300,000 will take up the visa offer over the next five years.
PoliticsThe Independent‘It’s unfortunate’: Ashley Biden confirms first lady snubbed her mother on traditional White House handover
In her first ever TV interview, incoming first daughter Ashley Biden said it was “unfortunate” that first lady Melania Trump had not honoured “traditional protocol” and invited her mother to the White House. The daughter of President-elect Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden confirmed that no invitation had been sent from the White House inviting the new first lady for tea and a tour of the executive mansion, with introductions to the residence staff. Ms Biden said that her mother had not heard at all from Ms Trump in what is one of the strangest handovers of power in US history.
WorldAssociated PressChina labels Pompeo 'doomsday clown' over genocide claims
China's Foreign Ministry described outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday as a “doomsday clown” and said his designation of China as a perpetrator of genocide and crimes against humanity was merely “a piece of wastepaper.” The allegations of abuses against Muslim minority groups in China's Xinjiang region are “outright sensational pseudo-propositions and a malicious farce concocted by individual anti-China and anti-Communist forces represented by Pompeo,” spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing.
WorldReutersUK helps Kenya prepare to roll-out COVID-19 vaccine
Britain said on Wednesday it was helping Kenya prepare to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University, as African nations race to ensure their populations are inoculated. Later on Wednesday, Kenya said it had confirmed two cases of the new COVID-19 variant first seen in South Africa, which health authorities there have said might be responsible for a recent jump in infections there. "It is for us not just our moral duty, but in the British national interest to see Kenyans vaccinated just as soon as we physically, logistically can," British foreign minister Dominic Raab told a news conference during a visit to Nairobi.
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
PoliticsThe WeekBiden's Inauguration Day begins at church and ends at the White House
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th U.S. president outside the U.S. Capitol at noon on Wednesday, amid heavy security and hours after President Trump leaves Washington, D.C., for Florida. Biden will start the day with a mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, their spouses, and the top congressional leaders: Sens. The inauguration ceremony will begin at 11:15, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath of office at noon, with Biden's hand on his family Bible.
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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.
WorldReutersChina's capital steps up COVID-19 measures as outbreak persists
China's capital Beijing said it will investigate all individuals who entered the city from abroad from Dec. 10 and it shut down a subway station after reporting the biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks. The measures come amid what has become China's most serious coronavirus outbreak since March 2020 ahead of Lunar New Year holiday season, when hundreds of millions of people travel, raising fears of another major COVID-19 wave that could bring the country back into a debilitating standstill. The National Health Commission said on Wednesday a total of 103 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Jan. 19, down from 118 a day earlier.
ScienceBBCSLS: Nasa finds cause of 'megarocket' test shutdown
On Saturday, engineers from Nasa and Boeing - the rocket's prime contractor - conducted a "hotfire" test of the rocket's four powerful RS-25 engines at Stennis Space Center, near Bay St Louis in Mississippi. The core stage was anchored to a massive steel structure called the B-2 test stand on the grounds of the Stennis facility. After filling the rocket segment with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellant, they had hoped the RS-25 units would fire for eight minutes - roughly the amount of time it takes for the SLS to get to space.
HealthReutersPortugul in 'tough marathon', says PM, as COVID-19 deaths hit new daily record
Portugal is living "one of the saddest moments", the prime minister said on Tuesday, as doctors warned of a healthcare system nearing collapse and the daily death toll from COVID-19 reached a new record high. The country of 10 million people recorded 218 new COVID-19 fatalities, up from 167 on Monday and pushing the total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 9,246, health authority DGS said. "We are certainly living one of the saddest moments, of greatest pain and suffering," Prime Minister Antonio Costa told parliament.
WorldAssociated PressLarge migrant caravan dissolves in Guatemala
A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. Small groups pressed on toward the Mexican border, while others accepted rides from authorities back to Honduras. Many of the migrants were driven by an increasingly desperate situation in Honduras, where the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes in November have piled atop chronic poverty and gang violence.
PoliticsUSA TODAYFact check: Chatham County, Georgia, stopped counting votes when staff ran out of ballots
The claim: A dump of ballots happened after election officials in Georgia stopped counting The Georgia Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections became the target of a false claim of fraud that echoed the November general election. Shortly after Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were projected the winners of the Georgia Senate runoff races, some took to social media to cast doubt on the election's legitimacy. One viral post on Facebook claims election officials stopped counting votes at 11:05 p.m.
U.S.INSIDERIvanka Trump and Jared Kushner are reportedly renting out a Miami condo just a 5-minute drive from their new 'Billionaire Bunker' property
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have signed a lease for a Miami Beach condo, per The Wall Street Journal. Last month, the couple paid $32 million for a lot on Indian Creek, a high-security private island known as Miami's "Billionaire Bunker" that's a 5-minute drive from their reported new condo. Several members of the Trump family, including the President and First Lady, Tiffany Trump, and Donald Trump Jr., have been scoping out property in Florida in recent weeks, per multiple reports.
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'The best is yet to come' -Trump in farewell address
"I go from this majestic place with a loyal and joyful heart and optimistic spirit and a supreme confidence that for our country and for our children, the best is yet to come," Trump said. Trump has refused to offer a full concession to Biden, who won the Nov. 3 election with 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232. The outgoing president is not meeting with Biden before the Democrat's inauguration at 12:00 p.m.
PoliticsThe IndependentInauguration Day schedule: Full list of timings by hour
The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) has announced a flurry of events set to be broadcast on Inauguration Day that Americans can watch virtually after urging people to refrain from attending in person. Check out an hour by hour schedule of all the events that have been announced so far for Inauguration Day this Wednesday below and check back for updated timings. am ET (3pm GMT) Our White House: An Inaugural Celebration for Young Americans "Our White House" will mark the first-ever curated livestream for young Americans before and during the Inaugural Ceremonies, ending at 12.30pm.
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.
SportsAssociated PressRahane was always thinking of win in 4th test vs Australia
Against all odds, interim captain Ajinkya Rahane managed to lead an injury-affected India to victory in the fourth cricket test and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India was forced to make four changes for the series finale after salvaging a draw in Sydney, and a draw in Brisbane would have been good enough to retain the trophy. Turns out Rahane had a plan for victory all along.
“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.”