President Biden and Senate Democrats drew fire from progressives after opting to not fight a ruling that would strip a $15 minimum wage increase from the Senate's COVID-19 relief legislation. To pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan with just 50 votes, Democrats in the Senate are using a process called budget reconciliation, which requires the approval of the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. On Wednesday, MacDonough ruled that the provision increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2025 violated the Senate's “Byrd rule,” which prohibits “extraneous” provisions from being included in budget legislation passed through reconciliation.
JISR AL-ZARQA, Israel (AP) — After weathering a year of the coronavirus pandemic, the fishermen of an Arab village in central Israel have been dealt another blow by a mysterious oil spill in the Mediterranean. Grappling with its worst ecological disaster in years, the government this week ordered a precautionary ban on selling seafood. Despite the ban, Jisr al-Zarqa's fishermen went to sea Thursday to bring in their catch.
A group of Russian diplomats and their families made an unusual exit out of North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley due to strict Covid measures. The Russian diplomats were thus left with little choice. "Since the borders have been closed for more than a year and passenger traffic has been stopped, it took a long and difficult journey to get home," Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Facebook post.
At the start of January, Sweden rushed through a new pandemic law which gave the government extended powers to shut down private businesses like cafés, restaurants and gyms, fine people who hold private parties, and even impose exclusion zones. On Tuesday, when state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell announced that new restrictions would come the next day, it looked like these new powers might finally be put to use. If you were going to do it, it wouldn't be a bad time: the number of new infections in Sweden has shot up for two weeks in a row, its per capita rate leaping past Portugal, France and Spain to lead Western Europe once again.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said the United States would stand with Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its aggression against Crimea, according to a statement released by the White House on the anniversary of Moscow's 2014 annexation of the peninsula. "The United States does not and will never recognize Russia's purported annexation of the peninsula, and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia's aggressive acts. We will continue to work to hold Russia accountable for its abuses and aggression in Ukraine," Biden said.
Stacey Abrams, whose voting rights work helped make Georgia into a swing state, exhorted Congress on Thursday to reject “outright lies" that have historically restricted access to the ballot as Democrats began their push for a sweeping overhaul of election and ethics laws. “A lie cloaked in the seductive appeal of election integrity has weakened access to democracy for millions,” Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race, said during a committee hearing for the bill, which was introduced as H.R. 1 to signal its importance to the party's agenda. Democrats feel a sense of urgency to enact the legislation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when their narrow majorities in the House and Senate will be at risk.
Sri Lanka has reversed a controversial mandatory order to cremate the bodies of all those who died of Covid-19. Critics had said the order was intended to target minorities and did not respect religions. The cremation of bodies is forbidden in Islam.
From ornate to subtle, these beautiful screens double as functional art Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
In the digital universe, the young netizens in India and Pakistan have no problem sharing across a tense and often violent border between the two rival states. The latest example is an Instagram video of a Pakistani teenage influencer suggesting people need to party (“pawri”). It went viral in India, sparking joyous spinoffs.
President Joe Biden headed for Texas on Friday as the state works to recover from a severe winter storm that caused serious damage to homes and businesses, left millions without power or clean water for days, and killed at least two dozen. Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, were traveling to Houston where he will meet with Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to discuss the recovery from last week's storm. Biden will bring empathy and pledges of financial help from Washington, but no lectures about the dangers of underregulation or calls for the federal government to monitor the state's power grid.
Josh Venable, a longtime Michigan GOP operative and chief of staff to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, can trace the arc of the state's Republican Party clearly. “This was the state where to be Republican was defined by Gerald Ford and George Romney,” Venable said, referring to the moderate former president and former governor. Now, he said, it's defined by Mike Shirkey, the state Senate majority leader who was overheard calling the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot a “hoax"; Meshawn Maddock, the new co-chair of the state party who backed former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud; and the Proud Boys.
The UK's top court has unanimously ruled that a British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State should not be allowed to return. The Supreme Court said on Friday (February 26) Shamima Begum cannot come back to Britain to challenge the government taking away her citizenship because she poses a security risk. She left London in 2015 when she was 15 years old and went to Syria via Turkey with two school friends, where she married an IS fighter.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday announced it will hold a confirmation hearing on March 9 for President Joe Biden's nominees to serve in the No. 2 and No. 3 top jobs at the U.S. Justice Department. Lisa Monaco, a former federal prosecutor who also previously advised former FBI Director Robert Mueller and former President Barack Obama, is nominated to serve as Deputy Attorney General. Vanita Gupta, a long-time civil rights attorney who previously led the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, is nominated to serve as Associate Attorney General.
It is looking ever more probable that Donald Trump will run for the White House again in 2024. All eyes are on his speech this Sunday at CPAC, the annual conservative conference, which like Mr Trump has relocated from Washington to Florida. An adviser told The Telegraph that Mr Trump has spent the last weeks taking a break, and practising his golf swing, but is keen to re-engage in the fight.
Mohammad Mosaed is an Iranian reporter who has twice been arrested by the government. The Committee to Protect Journalists awarded him its 2020 International Press Freedom Award. Mohammad Mosaed, an Iranian freelance journalist who has twice been arrested by the government for his investigative reporting and criticism of Iranian officials, was detained by Turkish border officials earlier this year after fleeing Iran following a prison summons.
The United Nations' human rights chief on Friday cited the need for an “independent and comprehensive assessment” of the rights situation in China's Xinjiang region, while emphasizing that activists, lawyers and rights defenders face unfair charges, detention and trials in China. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said her office is working to find “mutually agreeable parameters” for her to visit China, including Xinjiang. Efforts to arrange such a visit for the human rights commissioner date to before she took office in September 2018.
Philippine police said on Thursday they were looking into a government review of thousands of killings in the country's "war on drugs", after the justice minister made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures. Human Rights Watch described Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra's video statement on Wednesday as an "astounding disclosure". Guevarra said police had in many cases failed to examine weapons and crime scenes after officers had shot dead suspected drug dealers.
Vaccines from AstraZeneca, Russia's Gamaleya Institute and Johnson & Johnson fight the coronavirus with another virus, leaving scientists concerned the shots may lose potency if annual inoculations become necessary to fight new variants. So-called viral vector shots - also used by several Chinese COVID-19 vaccine developers - use harmless modified viruses as vehicles, or vectors, to carry genetic information that helps the body build immunity against future infections. However, there is a risk that the body also develops immunity to the vector itself, recognising it as an intruder and trying to destroy it.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told sailors on the USS Nimitz Thursday that he hopes to avoid long ship deployments like the more than 10 months they just spent at sea. But as he made his first aircraft carrier visit as Pentagon chief, he acknowledged the demand for American warships around the globe as he wrestles with security threats from China in the Pacific and Iran in the Middle East. Standing in the ship's hangar bay, Austin said he will make a decision soon on whether to send a carrier back to the Middle East, where the Nimitz had been.
President Joe Biden heads to Texas on Friday to tour some of the areas hit hardest by the winter storm last week. While he's there, he won't be meeting with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz has a speaking engagement that day at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
China is expected to reveal a robust increase in defence spending at the March 5 annual opening of parliament, as its economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic and military tensions rise, Chinese and Western security experts said. With the coronavirus hammering its economy, China last year announced a 6.6 per cent boost in defence spending to $178 billion, the lowest rate of increase in three decades. The new administration of President Joe Biden has moved quickly to remind Beijing that the United States intends to compete with China's growing influence and military strength in the Asia-Pacific.
Freshman representative Lauren Boebert on Thursday hinted that she still brings a firearm “to work” at Congress, even though members are forbidden from carrying guns inside the House floor under new rules following the Capitol insurrection on 6 January. In an interview with TMZ on Thursday, Ms Boebert, who was on her way to the Congress when she spoke to a reporter, was asked if at some point she feels she'd be able to carry a gun to work. This is not the first time that Ms Boebert made such a suggestion.
The United States has pledged to tell the world its conclusions on what role Saudi Arabia's crown prince played in the brutal killing and dismembering of a U.S.-based journalist, but as important is what comes next — what the Biden administration plans to do about it. Ahead of the release of the declassified U.S. intelligence report, and announcement of any U.S. punitive measures, President Joe Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman on Thursday for the first time since taking office more than a month ago. It was a later-than-usual courtesy call to the Middle East ally, timing seen as reflecting Biden's displeasure.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is struggling to beat back his biggest political challenge in years from a protest movement which began with disgruntled farmers travelling to New Delhi on tractors and is now gaining wider support at home and abroad. Simmering in makeshift camps housing tens of thousands of farmers since last year, the movement has seen a dramatic growth in recent weeks, getting backing from environmental activists, opposition parties and even A-list Western celebrities. At its heart are three new farm laws passed by the government last September, thanks to the majority Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys in the lower house of parliament.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki is facing criticism for an old tweet about Syria. Psaki in 2017 questioned the legality of airstrikes launched by the Trump administration. On Thursday the Biden administration launched attacks on Iran-backed militia groups in Syria.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”