Americans celebrated their nation's 243rd anniversary of independence on Wednesday, with concerts, parades and a voracious display of hot dog-eating prowess in New York, as many cities and towns held fireworks displays after sundown.
Here's a look at some of the fireworks celebrations across the country.
See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.
Journalist Eli Lake, an aggressive critic of the government’s handling of the investigation into Trump and Russia, said that while there was a “scandal” in how the FBI conducted parts of its investigation, there was not a “deep state conspiracy.”
The settlement between Fox News and Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Rich, was publicly disclosed Tuesday, but with no details about the terms.
Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava calls decision ‘deeply frustrating’
A South Korean court has sentenced the operator of a vast online sex trafficking ring to 40 years in prison in a case that outraged the nation. Cho Ju-bin, 25, oversaw a group of 38 accomplices who befriended and then blackmailed at least 74 women into sharing explicit videos that were then posted in pay-per-view internet chat rooms. Sixteen of the victims were less than 16 years old, the age of consent in South Korea. The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday found Cho guilty of violating laws to protect minors from sexual abuse and of making a profit from producing and selling abusive footage, Yonhap News reported. Indicted on 14 criminal charges, including inducing another person involved in the trafficking ring to rape a teenage girl and concealing more than £70,000 in criminal proceeds, prosecutors had initially demanded a life sentence on the grounds of the “irreperable damage” Cho had caused his victims. They had also requested that he be obliged to wear an electronic monitoring device for 45 years. In a petition to the court, one of the women said Cho, who had worked in an orphanage and adopted the online name “The Doctor”, was “evil” and deserved a 2,000-year prison term. Passing sentence, the judge said: “The accused has widely distributed sexually abusive content that he created by luring and threatening many victims.” Media reports have suggested that some of the video clips showed a group of men raping a teenage girl in a motel room, while others included images of the word “slave” cut into a woman’s body. One video showed girls “barking like dogs”, the Kookmin Ilbo newspaper reported. Cho operated the chat room on the Telegram messenger service, with at least 10,000 people accessing the site and paying as much as £1,000 for access. Authorities have been tracing people who used the site and have identified serving police officers and teachers as among the users. Cho’s arrest in March sparked fury across South Korea after prosecutors initially refused to name the suspect before his trial opened. Within days, more than 5 million people had signed petitions on the home page of Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, demanding that the authorities withdraw his right to anonymity. A committee of senior judicial officials, a psychologist and a psychiatrist weighed the public’s right to know and took the unprecedented step of naming Cho. He was then brought out in handcuffs from a police station in central Seoul to face the public. “I apologise to those that I hurt”, Cho said. “Thank you for putting a brake on the life of a devil who could not be stopped.” South Korea’s Ministry of Justice has been the target of criticism for its failure to deal with the growing use of technology to carry out sex crimes, with one ministry official admitting that the case had been “a disaster” and apologising for its “lukewarm response” to online sexual abuse cases.
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.
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.
A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite charged with finding girls in the 1990s for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, said Tuesday that her client is awakened every 15 minutes in jail while she sleeps to ensure she's breathing. Attorney Bobbi Sternheim told a Manhattan judge that Maxwell faces more restrictive conditions than inmates convicted of terrorism or murder. Maxwell has no history of mental health issues or suicidal ideation and no criminal history, either, she said. She asked a judge to intervene on her client's behalf to improve her conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. In her request, Ms Sternheim made no direct reference to Epstein taking his life in August 2019 in his cell at another federal lockup, in Manhattan. US District Judge Alison J. Nathan instructed defense lawyers and prosecutors to confer over the next week over Ms Sternheim's request that the Brooklyn facility's warden directly address the concerns. A spokesperson for prosecutors declined comment. A message for comment was sent to the Federal Bureau of Prisons spokespeople. Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she procured three girls for Epstein to abuse in the mid-1990s. She has been held without bail while she prepares for a July trial.
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.
Turkey does not expect ties with the United States to be strained under President-elect Joe Biden and does not anticipate sanctions over its purchase of Russia S-400 defence systems, a senior official in President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party said. Relations have been tense between Ankara and Washington over issues from policy toward Syria to the U.S. refusal to extradite a cleric Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt. Turkey has relied on the good personal ties between Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump to smooth over divisions, but Biden is expected to be tougher on Turkey over foreign and defence policies and Ankara's human rights record.
Donald Trump Jr. tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Although he is asymptomatic, the CDC recommends sick people like him isolate for 10 days.
Footage filmed by North Korea's state media KCNA, which could not be verified by Reuters, showed the residents waving and cheering as trains carrying party members arriving Pyongyang railway station and buses drove past the streets. The footage also showed a large number of members attending a welcome ceremony in front of Kumsusan Palace of the Sun where the embalmed bodies of former North Korean leaders lie. In September, leader Kim Jong Un sent an open letter to party members in the capital noting that this year has witnessed "uncommon difficulties due to the protracted worldwide public health crisis" and natural disasters. It added that the Party Central Committee decided to dispatch 12,000 party members from Pyongyang to the typhoon-hit areas to help communities recover. KCNA has reported that more than 1,000 houses were destroyed in coastal areas of South and North Hamgyong provinces and reported that farmland and some public buildings had been inundated.
No one is really sure what Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner will do after leaving the White House in January or where they will live, but people who know them are certain they plan on getting out of Washington, D.C., as fast as they can, The New York Times reports. President Trump's daughter and son-in-law have never fit in, several people told the Times, but it's not a sure bet that they will return to New York City. Donny Deutsch, a marketing expert and critic of the president, said he thinks Ivanka and Jared would have an "even harder time than Trump himself" moving back to Manhattan. Trump is "despicable but larger than life," he added. "Those two are the hapless minions who went along."Georgina Bloomberg — daughter of Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and Democratic presidential nominee — told The Daily Beast earlier this month that Ivanka gets unfair criticism due to her father, and she thinks Manhattan society will be more forgiving. Two friends told the Times Trump could revive her jewelry and clothing lines, peddling it to a conservative audience, but two others said the Ivanka Trump brand is dead and won't sell. As for Kushner, who worked in real estate, Deutsch said he could go back to making deals, and "if he's doing anything with the Trump name, he can monetize it in red areas."The couple could be thinking about settling in New Jersey, where they have a large "cottage" on the grounds of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. The town recently received blueprints for renovations to the abode, including expanding the master bedroom and bathroom and adding two bedrooms, a study, and a veranda. There are also plans to build a complex for spa treatments and a "general store" on the property, the Times reports. For more on Trump and Kushner's future — and the drama surrounding their children's schooling in D.C. — visit The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com 7 cartoons about America's COVID Thanksgiving Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead. This is the most important Thanksgiving of your life
Azerbaijan's president vowed Wednesday to rebuild and revive the Kalbajar region, the latest territory that Armenian forces have ceded in a truce that ended six weeks of intense fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. “We will restore Kalbajar, let no one have doubts about that, and life will return there,” President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation soon after Azerbaijani troops entered the region. “I gave an order to prepare a general layout of the reconstruction of the town, and not just the town of Kalbajar, but of all of the towns" in the region, also known as Kalbajar.
Ms Powell posted links to the legal documents on her website with the words, ‘The Kraken is released on Georgia!’ and ‘The Kraken is released on Michigan!’
The contact between Fauci and Biden's team comes as the US may be entering the darkest stage yet of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cordless? Handheld? Robotic? We have you covered with all the best vacuum deals that you need to know aboutOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Daniel Stueck is accused of moving a chainsaw "up and down in a cutting motion" against his Black neighbor, according to the Kansas City Star.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam lauded the city’s new national security law on Wednesday as “remarkably effective in restoring stability,” despite criticism that it is severely narrowing the space for free speech and political opposition in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Lam said in her annual policy address that the law had prevented a return of political unrest and that bringing normalcy back to the political system is an urgent priority. Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong in June, aiming to crack down on dissent following months of anti-government protests in the city that at times descended into violence.
Former President Obama claimed on Wednesday that evangelical Latino voters chose President Trump over Joe Biden because Trump backs their views on abortion and gay marriage.While Trump lost the 2020 election, he gained support among Latino voters according to exit polls and voting data in counties with large Hispanic populations. For example, in 93-percent Hispanic Zapata County in Texas, Trump won by six percentage points while Hillary Clinton carried the county in 2016 by 33 percentage points."People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump," Obama commented on the podcast The Breakfast Club. "But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics."Obama continued, "The fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans or…puts undocumented workers in cages—they think that's less important than [that] he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion." (The "cages" Obama refers to were in fact built during his administration, as chain-link enclosures meant to temporarily house illegal immigrants at border facilities.)Giancarlo Sopo, the Trump campaign's director of rapid response for Spanish media, disputed Obama's claim."Our Hispanic advertising and communications largely focused on economic issues, public safety, Latin America, and socialism," Sopo wrote in an email to National Review. "We never ran a single ad that even mentioned gay marriage, and while our surrogates did address abortion in media appearances, our only advertising on the topic was limited to a modest radio buy in New Mexico. "According to Sopo, who was involved in the production of Spanish-language campaign advertisements, the campaign emphasized different topics for outreach to various Latino groups."In states like Texas and Arizona, where Latinos are predominantly Mexican-American, the President's strong border policies and measures to combat poverty were very popular," Sopo said. "Meanwhile, law and order was a top priority for voters in areas with large Puerto Rican communities, such as Orlando and Philadelphia."Meanwhile, Cuban and Venezuelan Americans have widely cited the "socialist" leanings of some progressive Democrats to explain their support for Trump.Trump supported abortion rights before the 2016 campaign, but pivoted towards the pro-life movement and has courted the backing of pro-life organizations. The Trump campaign did not speak about marriage rights at all during the election.Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), criticized Obama's comments as "condescending."> Ah yes, those Hispanic evangelicals. So backwards. Clinging to their guns and religion, you might say. Barack Obama still the most condescending corporate liberal in America https://t.co/IqUdbx5FB7> > -- Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 25, 2020"Ah yes, those Hispanic evangelicals. So backwards. Clinging to their guns and religion, you might say," Hawley wrote on Twitter. "Barack Obama still the most condescending corporate liberal in America."
President-elect is spending the holiday in Delaware with his wife, while vice-president-elect Harris will remain in DC with her husband
