PoliticsYahoo NewsJournalist who criticized FBI for handling of Russia probe says Trump's refusal to concede is 'dangerous BS'
A common defense of President Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election is that he's simply taking revenge on his liberal opponents, in particular those who doubted the legitimacy of the 2016 election because of Russian interference. The media gave Russia Collusion 3.5 years. We can give Team Trump three and a half weeks,” tweeted Jenna Ellis, a member of the Trump campaign's legal team that has failed to provide any evidence in court of cheating in the 2020 election.
WorldAssociated PressLeading Saudi women's activist referred to terrorism court
A leading Saudi women's rights activist who's been imprisoned for 2 1/2 years and drawn attention to the kingdom's hard limits on dissent will be tried by a court established to oversee terrorism cases, her family said Wednesday. The referral of Loujain al-Hathloul's case to the Specialized Criminal Court is a setback for efforts to push for her swift release and means she will face charges related to terrorism and national security. According to a 53-page report released earlier this year by Amnesty International, the court has been used as “a weapon of repression” to imprison peaceful critics, activists, journalists, clerics and others.
PoliticsThe IndependentAOC and Ilhan Omar sign petition calling on Biden not to give Bruce Reed administration role
Progressive lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have signed a petition calling on president-elect Joe Biden not to appoint Bruce Reed to his administration. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Rep. Omar, of Minnesota, are supporting efforts to have Mr Reed, Mr Biden's former chief of staff, frozen out of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Reports emerged earlier this week suggesting that Mr Reed, who also served in the Obama administration, was top of the president-elect's list to head up the OMB.
TechnologyArchitectural DigestA Few of Our Favorite Small Businesses Running Early Black Friday Sales
You don't have to wait until #smallbusinesssaturday to shop small Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump campaign sued for attempting to disenfranchise Black voters
The Trump campaign has repeatedly attempted to use the judicial system to overturn the president's defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, filing more than two dozen unsuccessful lawsuits since Election Day. “It's not even about the success of President Trump and the Trump campaign's attempts to overturn the election,” Monique Lin-Luse, assistant counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the lawsuit, told Yahoo News. “The very attempt ... to overturn it by disenfranchising and de-legitimizing Black voters is what we believe is unlawful, and it's also dangerous and corrosive to our democracy.”
PoliticsYahoo NewsDemocratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock bet big on 'record-shattering turnout' in Georgia
But Democrats say they've figured out how to win in Georgia, a state that had voted Republican in six straight presidential elections between 1996 and 2016 and hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years. And Republicans have won all but one of the statewide general election runoffs in Georgia since 1988. What we are focusing on when we go and talk to voters in these communities, something that we learned from Stacey Abrams, is we go and ask them what they need, and when they answer … we let them know Rev.
WorldAssociated PressAustralian leader thrilled at Iran's release of academic
Australia's prime minister said he's “thrilled and relieved” after Iran released in a prisoner swap a 33-year-old academic who was imprisoned for more than two years on spying charges, but added it would take time for Kylie Moore-Gilbert to process her “horrible” ordeal. Iran first announced on state television that it had freed the British-Australian scholar in exchange for three Iranians held abroad. The report was scant on detail, saying only that the Iranians had been imprisoned for trying to bypass sanctions on Iran.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Democratic Senate hopeful Jon Ossoff of Georgia holds drive-through event to ‘inspire people out to the polls’
Jon Ossoff, one of the two Democrats running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, is looking to build off President-elect Joe Biden's narrow victory in the state. By holding various socially distanced events all over Georgia to connect with voters, Ossoff hopes the more engagement he has with residents will translate to historic voter turnout in the Jan. 5 runoff.
WorldBBCWhy Bhutan's Sakteng wildlife sanctuary is disputed by China
Sandwiched between China and India, the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is feeling the squeeze as its giant neighbours square up for supremacy. A close ally of India, Bhutan got a shock when China made sudden new claims in the summer - over a wildlife sanctuary in the east of the country, on land that had not been considered disputed. Most Bhutanese commentators don't want to discuss this in detail, but many believe Beijing is trying to drag the Buddhist majority nation - population 750,000 - into the territorial stand-off with India.
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump loyalist pushed out of White House now leading a shake-up at the Pentagon
A retired Special Forces colonel, Miller had worked to revamp civilian oversight over special operations forces in a previous Pentagon job. A driving force behind the current initiative is Ezra Cohen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who has held several national security positions during the Trump administration and is now the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, or SO/LIC. The appointment of Cohen as the acting assistant secretary was a major factor behind the decision to implement the congressional legislation.
PoliticsReutersU.S. Cabinet official postpones trip to Taiwan
The cabinet-level head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, has postponed a visit to Taiwan due to "pressing" priorities at home, his agency said on Tuesday, removing a potential source of friction with Beijing. China, which claims the democratic island as its own, reacted with anger to his planned trip, which would have been the third visit by a senior U.S. official since August. "Due to pressing domestic priorities at home, Administrator Wheeler's visit to Taiwan has been postponed," EPA Spokesman James Hewitt said.
WorldAssociated PressMine explodes, damaging oil tanker off Saudi Arabia
A mine in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia's coast near Yemen exploded and damaged an oil tanker Wednesday, authorities said, the latest incident targeting the kingdom amid its long war against Yemen's Houthi rebels. The blast happened before dawn and struck the MT Agrari, a Maltese-flagged, Greek-managed oil tanker near Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia. “Their vessel was attacked by an unknown source,” a statement from the Agrari's operator, TMS Tankers Ltd., said.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden says the White House is cooperating fully with his transition but Trump still won't speak with him
President-elect Joe Biden praised the smoothness of his delayed presidential transition on Tuesday, saying efforts from the White House to hand over to him were "sincere." The transition was authorized Monday after an unprecedented two-week standoff while President Donald Trump groundlessly disputed the outcome of the election. Speaking with NBC News, Biden said that he had been authorized to receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and that agencies had been forthcoming with information.
WorldAssociated PressJapan, China agree on economic ties, split over islands
China's top diplomat told Japan's leader on Wednesday that Beijing wants the two Asian powers to have good relations and cooperate in fighting the coronavirus and reviving their pandemic-hit economies, but the two sides remained at odds over an island dispute. Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping expressing his hope of developing positive relations with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and "strengthen cooperation with Japan in pandemic measures and for the economic recovery," Wang told reporters after meeting with Suga. Wang told Suga that ties between the two countries have improved through high-level dialogue and mutual efforts and that China wants to cooperate further in a range of areas.
WorldBBCCovid: How do you vaccinate a billion people?
India plans to receive and utilise some 500 million doses of vaccines against the disease and immunise up to 250 million people by July next year. This confidence is bolstered by its track record of immunising large numbers of people every year. India's 42-year-old immunisation programme, one of the world's largest health programmes, targets 55 million people - mainly newborns and pregnant women who receive some 390 million free doses of vaccines against a dozen diseases every year.
PoliticsReutersExplainer: Can Trump's lawyers be disciplined for making false claims?
Representative Bill Pascrell, a Democrat, on Friday called for Giuliani and other members of the legal team to be stripped of their law licenses for bringing "frivolous" lawsuits and allegedly attempting to help Republican Trump steal the Nov. 3 vote from President-elect Joe Biden. Here's why Trump's lawyers are very unlikely to face disbarment, suspension, or even lighter sanctions such as a fine.
- HealthAssociated Press
AstraZeneca manufacturing error clouds vaccine study results
AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Wednesday acknowledged a manufacturing error that is raising questions about preliminary results of their experimental COVID-19 vaccine. A statement describing the error came days after the company and the university described the shots as “highly effective” and made no mention of why some study participants didn't receive as much vaccine in the first of two shots as expected. In a surprise, the group of volunteers that got a lower dose seemed to be much better protected than the volunteers who got two full doses.
WorldBusiness InsiderChina's Xi Jinping finally congratulates Biden on his 2020 election win, with only a few world leaders still holding out
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his 2020 victory, weeks after other world leaders. "Promoting the healthy and stable development of China-US relations is not only in the fundamental interests of both peoples, but also meets the common expectation of the international community," Xi said in a message on Wednesday, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. A handful of world leaders — from Russia, Brazil, and Mexico — have still not congratulated Biden.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump adviser who was with Rudy Giuliani at press conference tests positive for coronavirus
Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Donald Trump who recently joined Rudy Giuliani at a press conference alleging widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election, has announced that he tested positive for the coronavirus. Mr Giuliani is expected to travel to Pennsylvania on Wednesday as Republican lawmakers in the state hold a hearing on “voter fraud” following the president's loss in the 2020 election. Along with Mr Epshteyn, the younger Giuliani and other members of the president's legal team who launched a spurious legal effort to overturn the results of the election, attended a press conference where the president's personal attorney amplified baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and other conspiracies.
BusinessAssociated PressGa. Sen. Perdue boosts wealth with well-timed stock trades
On Jan. 23, as word spread through Congress that the coronavirus posed a major economic and public health threat, Perdue sold off $1 million to $5 million in Cardlytics stock at $86 a share, according to congressional disclosures. Weeks later, in March, after the company's stock plunged following an unexpected leadership shakeup and lower-than-forecast earnings, Perdue bought the stock back for $30 a share, investing between $200,000 and $500,000. The Cardlytics transactions were just a slice of a large number of investment decisions made in the early days of the pandemic by Perdue and other senators.
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%.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderMueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann says Trump should be investigated and charged with potential federal crimes after leaving office
Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor on the special counsel Robert Mueller's team, said President Donald Trump should be investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted for federal crimes after leaving the White House. "Mr. Trump's criminal exposure is clear," Weissmann wrote in a New York Times op-ed, adding that Mueller's team gathered "ample evidence" to show Trump obstructed justice in the Russia investigation.
BusinessAssociated PressPicture of US economy is worrisome as virus inflicts damage
Gripped by the accelerating viral outbreak, the U.S. economy is under pressure from persistent layoffs, diminished income and nervous consumers, whose spending is needed to drive a recovery from the pandemic. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week to 778,000, evidence that many employers are still slashing jobs more than eight months after the virus hit. Layoffs are still historically high, with many businesses unable to fully reopen and some, especially restaurants and bars, facing tightened restrictions.
WorldAssociated PressWith hope high for vaccine, Britain prepares to roll it out
With major COVID-19 vaccines showing high levels of protection, British officials are cautiously — and they stress cautiously — optimistic that life may start returning to normal by April. Even before regulators have approved a single vaccine, the U.K. and countries across Europe are moving quickly to organize the distribution and delivery systems needed to inoculate millions of citizens. If we can roll it out at a good lick … then with a favorable wind, this is entirely hypothetical, but we should be able to inoculate, I believe on the evidence I'm seeing, the vast majority of the people who need the most protection by Easter,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday after vaccine makers i...
TechnologyArchitectural DigestThe Top 6 Black Friday Deals for Vacuums
We have you covered with all the best vacuum deals that you need to know about Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
“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.”