PoliticsYahoo NewsJohn Kerry returns as Biden's climate czar
Former senator, presidential nominee and Secretary of State John Kerry is set to begin his latest government job after being selected by President-elect Joe Biden as the first-ever special envoy on climate. With man-made global carbon emissions pushing temperatures to levels that threaten life on earth, Biden laid out the need for the new position to help address what he called an “existential threat” for humanity. For the first time ever, the United States will have a full-time climate leader to participate in ministerial level meetings, and that's a fancy way of saying he'll have a seat at every table around the world.
- WorldReuters
Russia chases off U.S. warship in row over waters in Sea of Japan
Russia said on Tuesday one of its warships caught and chased off a U.S. destroyer operating illegally in its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, but the U.S. Navy denied wrongdoing by its vessel and accused Moscow of making excessive maritime claims. The Admiral Vinogradov, a Russian destroyer, verbally warned USS John S. McCain, a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, and threatened to ram it in order to force it to leave the area, prompting it to return to neutral waters, Moscow said.
U.S.Associated PressIsraeli leader tells convicted spy: 'We're waiting for you'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday phoned Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, telling him: “We're waiting for you.” The U.S. Justice Department announced last Friday that Pollard had completed his parole, clearing the way for him to move to Israel 35 years after he was arrested. “You should have now a comfortable life where you can pursue, both of you can pursue your interests,” Netanyahu said in a conversation with Pollard and his wife Esther.
PoliticsThe Daily BeastRush Limbaugh Does Full 180, Blasts Sidney Powell After Team Trump Disavowed Her
Rush Limbaugh fully reversed course on Monday, trashing the Trump legal team's unhinged press conference detailing baseless election-fraud conspiracies just days after praising attorney Sidney Powell—whom the Trump team has since disavowed—for dropping “bombs all over the place.” Over the weekend, after Powell claimed millions of votes were stolen from President Donald Trump by corrupted software, Powell gave an off-the-rails interview to Newsmax TV in which she expanded her bonkers conspiracy to include Georgia's Republican governor and secretary of state being bribed.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden team is reportedly pushing congressional Democrats to strike an immediate stimulus deal with Republicans to stave off a renewed recession
President-elect Joe Biden's economic advisors fear another recession is looming, The New York Times reported. The impasse over another stimulus package and the prospect of millions of people losing unemployment benefits are leading them to press congressional Democrats to pass another aid package very quickly, The Times said. President-elect Joe Biden's economic advisors are reportedly pressing congressional Democrats to quickly strike a stimulus deal with Republicans, fearing the US is on course for a recession as virus cases surge and a new aid package remains elusive.
WorldAssociated PressIndonesia's confirmed coronavirus cases exceed half million
Indonesia's confirmed COVID-19 cases breached half a million on Monday as the government of the world's fourth most populous nation scrambled to procure vaccines to help it win the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Indonesia's Health Ministry announced that new daily infections rose by 4,442 to bring the country's total to 502,110, the most in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to India's 9.1 million confirmed cases. President Joko Widodo said at a Cabinet meeting that his administration is preparing mass vaccinations.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump says he ‘will never concede’ and transition process has nothing to do with election result
Having come closer than ever to accepting the 2020 election results on Monday night, by officially launching the transition process, Donald Trump again took to Twitter in the small hours of Tuesday to insist that he “will never concede”. The president reiterated his unsubstantiated claims that the 3 November vote had been “the most corrupt election”, saying he will keep challenging the result in court and hitting out at “fake ballots and 'Dominion'” - a reference to a brand of voting machines. Twitter once again flagged the post almost immediately as “disputed”, hiding it with a warning from people's feeds.
PoliticsAssociated PressPresidential race official recount gets underway in Georgia
County election workers across Georgia on Tuesday began a machine recount of the roughly 5 million votes cast in the presidential race in the state, just days after completing a hand tally that confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's lead. The recount was requested by President Donald Trump after certified results showed him losing the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 12,670 votes, or 0.25%. Under state law, the losing candidate can request a recount when the margin is less than 0.5%.
HealthBBCCovid: 'Entire families in hospital after coronavirus surge'
On 14 October, Farah Husain, a critical care specialist in Delhi's largest Covid-19 hospital, heaved a sigh of relief. Doctors fear that Delhi may well become the epicentre of India's first wave of winter infections. Delhi is now recording more cases a day than any state.
U.S.Associated PressUS agrees for now to stop deporting women who alleged abuse
The U.S. government has agreed temporarily not to deport detained immigrant women who have alleged being abused by a rural Georgia gynecologist, according to court papers filed Tuesday. In a motion that must still be approved by a federal judge, the Justice Department and lawyers for several of the women agreed that immigration authorities would not carry out any deportations until mid-January. Dozens of women have alleged that they were mistreated by Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist who was seeing patients from the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump worried Giuliani and legal team are ‘fools making him look bad’, report says
President Donald Trump is reportedly worried that he is being embarrassed by his campaign legal team, led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who have been unsuccessful in a string of cases challenging the results of the US election. Three weeks after the vote on 3 November, Mr Trump continues to complain about widespread irregularities without providing evidence, and his campaign has brought cases across several key swing states. Now, according to NBC News, the president is worried that his campaign's legal team is made up of “fools” whose failures and outlandish press appearances are “making him look bad”, a source said.
HealthBusiness InsiderThe creator of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine is a mom to triplets. Her children participated in the trial.
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced Monday that their COVID-19 vaccine was 70% effective on average. Sarah Gilbert, the vaccine's creator, had faith in its efficacy from the start; her triplets participated in the UK trial. The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca received some long-awaited good news on Monday: The company's coronavirus vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, was found to be 70% effective on average in late-stage clinical trials with more than 20,000 volunteers in the UK and Brazil.
EntertainmentArchitectural DigestClever’s 2020 Gift Guide Is Here and It Just Wants You to Have a Nice Time
We rounded up a mix of gifts that help others, keep folks healthy, and add a little something-something to the home Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- PoliticsFOX News Videos
Sen. Paul: We must have in-person voting to limit potential for fraud
Kentucky Republican joins 'The Story' to discuss the integrity of the 2020 presidential election
U.S.Associated PressCoastal harm from invading saltwater ‘happening right now’
Four Native American tribes on Louisiana's Gulf Coast requested United Nations assistance this year to force action by the U.S. government on invading salt. “That strips us of not only being able to generate an income to provide for ourselves, it also strips us of our ability to feed ourselves healthy,” Shirell Parfait-Dardar, chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, said in an interview. The tribes' plight offers an extreme example of a lesser-known but fast-growing impact in the climate crisis: saltwater intrusion.
PoliticsReutersInterior Department contender says Biden would target Trump Arctic drilling push on first day
President Donald Trump's last-minute push to allow drilling in a pristine part of Alaska's Arctic will be an early target for the next administration, according to Senator Tom Udall, a contender to lead the Interior Department under Joe Biden. The New Mexico Democrat was speaking of the Trump administration's plan to pull off a sale of oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden, who wants to ban new drilling on all federal lands and waters as part of a strategy to fight climate change, becomes president on Jan. 20.
WorldBBCPakistan opposition seeks end to Imran Khan's 'puppet' rule
Opposition parties in Pakistan are keeping up the pressure on Imran Khan, holding a series of mass protests against his government. The PM, who came to power on an anti-corruption platform, has said the campaign is aimed at blackmailing him to drop corruption cases against opposition leaders. Pakistan's powerful military denies interfering in politics and Mr Khan rejects claims it helped him win.
U.S.Miami HeraldMiami Beach city manager will leave job two months early, a ‘surprise’ to some leaders
In a move that surprised some Miami Beach commissioners, City Manager Jimmy Morales said Monday that he will leave his role as the city's top administrator two months ahead of schedule. Morales, who submitted his resignation in October, will join the administration of newly elected Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava as the chief operations officer for the county. In his resignation letter, Morales told the mayor and City Commission his last day at work would be Feb. 1, 2021.
WorldAssociated PressUS charities raise millions in wake of Beirut port blast
When Manal Saab heard that a massive explosion had struck Beirut, she grabbed her phone, frantically trying to reach loved ones there. The news she received was good: Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, both of whom live not far from the Lebanese capital's port that was devastated by the Aug. 4 blast, were vacationing at the time. “Otherwise, they wouldn't have survived it,” said Saab, an American citizen who lives in Fenton, Michigan, near Flint, but was born in Lebanon.
PoliticsReutersTrump relents after steady drumbeat of fellow Republicans urge start of Biden transition
President Donald Trump gave some ground on Monday to allow Joe Biden's transition to the presidency after the ranks grew of prominent Republicans calling for Trump to end efforts to overturn his election defeat. Twenty days after Election Day, most members of Trump's party still refused on Monday to refer to Biden as president-elect, or question Trump's insistence - without evidence - that he only lost on Nov. 3 because of fraud. Trump gave the go-ahead for federal funds to start flowing to Biden so that he can carry out his transition duties before his Jan. 20 inauguration as the 46th U.S. president.
PoliticsAssociated PressTrump campaign legal team distances itself from Powell
Perhaps Sidney Powell has gone too far for even Rudy Giuliani this time. The Trump campaign's legal team moved to distance itself Sunday from the firebrand conservative attorney after a tumultuous several days in which Powell made multiple incorrect statements about the voting process, unspooled unsupported and complex conspiracy theories and vowed to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing. Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own.
PoliticsReutersFactbox: Trump suffers major defeat in legal battle to overturn the election, but presses on
On Saturday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania said Trump's challenge to mail-in ballots in the state had been "haphazardly stitched together" like "Frankenstein's monster." Several Trump campaign lawsuits have been dismissed, and legal experts said the remaining cases do not give Trump, a Republican, a viable path to overturning the election results. The Trump campaign sued on Nov. 9 to prevent Biden, a Democrat, from being certified by election officials as the winner in Pennsylvania.
PoliticsThe IndependentAntony Blinken: A smooth, old-school diplomat who will take on a harsh new world of wary allies and foes
Tony will be operating under a very different set of circumstances since he was deputy secretary of state,” says Matthew Bryza, a former US diplomat who has known and worked with Blinken since the late 1990s. Why would the world ever believe that the US is going to be on its old reliable path when it signed agreements and stuck to them? His main job is restoring a sense of credibility that the US will stick to its commitments and be ready to lead.
WorldAssociated PressChina tests millions after coronavirus flare-ups in 3 cities
Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week. As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are being enacted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries that are seeing new waves of infections. Many experts and government officials have warned that the chance of the virus spreading will be greater during the cold weather.
PoliticsLA TimesFeinstein won't seek top Judiciary Committee spot following complaints from progressives
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday she will not pursue leadership of the high-profile Senate Judiciary Committee or any other committee next year, taking a dramatic step back following pressure from progressives who questioned her willingness to use tough, partisan politics to confirm Biden administration Supreme Court picks and other judicial nominations. Feinstein, 87, is currently the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and was in line to become its first female chairman if Democrats take control of the Senate. Democrats will need to win both of those races to gain control of the Senate and with it, the power to confirm Biden's judicial appointments.
“Donald Trump defeated Donald Trump.”
“The victory was a vindication of a style of American politics that many feared was gone forever.”
“Mr. Biden’s victory — and Mr. Trump’s defeat — is a testament to the resilience of American democracy.”
“Trump’s 2020 reelection bid was doomed by his boorish behavior. Time and again, he refused to act like a president.”
“Biden took the opportunity to unite the Democratic Party.”