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  • U.S. says visa applicants denied due to Trump 'Muslim ban' can reapply

    Most U.S. visa applicants who were denied because of former President Donald Trump's travel ban on 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries can seek new decisions or submit new applications, the State Department said on Monday. President Joe Biden overturned Trump's so-called Muslim ban on Jan. 20, his first day in office, calling it "a stain on our national conscience" in his proclamation. State Department spokesman Ned Price said applicants who were refused visas prior to Jan. 20, 2020, must submit new applications and pay a new application fee.

  • Myanmar coup: The shadowy business empire funding the Tatmadaw

    Advocacy groups are calling for sanctions against the military's secretive business interests.

  • QAnon Shaman's '60 Minutes' interview backfired. Judge cites interview when ruling he must remain jailed until trial.

    Jacob Chansley's perception of his actions on January 6 show a "detachment from reality," a federal judge argued in new court documents.

  • Megyn Kelly says Meghan Markle always claims to be a 'victim' after bombshell Oprah interview: 'Give me a break'

    "Everyone victimizes Meghan! Everyone! The palace! The press!" the former Fox News host, who was fired for making racist statements, said.

  • A new lab study shows troubling signs that Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID-19 shots could be far less effective against the variant first found in South Africa

    A mutation called E484K appeared to help the variant, first found in South Africa, to evade antibodies produced by the vaccines, the authors said.

  • UK's Johnson steers clear of royal racism row after Meghan interview

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson avoided wading into the clash of British royals on Monday, praising the queen but sidestepping questions about racism and insensitivity at the palace after an interview by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. The former Hollywood actress, whose mother is Black and father is white, accused the royal family of pushing her to the brink of suicide. In a tell-all television interview, she said someone in the royal household had raised questions about the colour of her son's skin.

  • Officer says he arrested reporter after pepper spray blasts

    A police officer testified Monday that he arrested a journalist at an unruly Black Lives Matter protest last year in Iowa after she did not leave when he repeatedly shot clouds of pepper spray to disperse the crowd. Des Moines Officer Luke Wilson said he wasn’t aware Andrea Sahouri was a Des Moines Register reporter when he responded to a chaotic scene where protesters were breaking store windows and throwing rocks and water bottles at police outside Merle Hay mall on May 31. Wilson said he sprayed the chemical irritant from a device known as a fogger to clear a commercial parking lot and that it worked in scattering the rest of the group, including Sahouri’s then-boyfriend Spenser Robnett.

  • Iran enriching with new set of advanced machines at Natanz: IAEA

    Iran has started enriching uranium with a third set of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, the U.N. nuclear watchdog told its member states on Monday, a further breach of Tehran's 2015 deal with major powers. The move is part of a recent acceleration by Iran of its violations of restrictions under that deal, which granted Iran relief from financial sanctions in return for curbs to its nuclear activities. It began breaching limits after then-U.S. President Donald Trump quit the deal and re-imposed sanctions in 2018.

  • Iowa governor signs GOP-forced voting changes bill into law

    Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a Republican-backed bill that makes it harder to vote early, potentially eroding a key aspect of Democratic campaigns. Republicans in the House and Senate quickly approved the changes over the opposition of all Democratic legislators. Republicans said the rules are needed to guard against voting fraud, though they noted Iowa has no history of election irregularities and that November’s election saw record turnout with no hint of problems in the state.

  • Biden nominates female generals who were passed over by the Pentagon because they feared Trump's reaction

    Pentagon officials believed former President Donald Trump would oppose the promotion of female generals, report says.

  • Harry implies family were jealous of Meghan’s Diana-like connection to public

    Harry says wife’s success ‘brought back memories’ of his mother for royal family

  • Looming China extradition deal worries Uighurs in Turkey

    Joining hundreds of women in Istanbul to protest at China's treatment of Uighurs, Nursiman Abdurasit tearfully thinks of her jailed mother in Xinjiang and fears that Uighurs like her in Turkey may one day be sent back under an extradition deal. Beijing approved an extradition treaty between the two nations in December and with the deal awaiting ratification by Ankara's parliament, activists among some 40,000 Uighurs living in Turkey have stepped up efforts to highlight their plight.

  • The Queen emerges unscathed as Meghan and Harry lavish praise on his grandmother

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex unloaded on Prince Charles, The Duchess of Cambridge, and the tabloid press in their extraordinary tell-all with Oprah Winfrey. But despite the numerous allegations levelled at named and unnamed members of the Royal family, The Queen emerged unscathed, and instead received glowing praise from the couple. Meghan described how "everyone" welcomed her to the royal set-up initially, but singled out the Queen as making her particularly comfortable. In another sign of their positive relationship, the Duchess said: “I just pick up the phone and I call the Queen - just to check-in. Meghan said the Queen has "always been wonderful" to her and that she reminded the Duchess of her own grandmother. "She’s always been warm and inviting," the Duchess added. The Duchess shared a touching anecdote on how her future husband’s grandmother gave her "some beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace" for the couple's first joint engagement together, and that the monarch also shared her blanket while travelling together between visits. The pair attended a ceremony for the opening of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, in Widnes, Cheshire in June 2018 and travelled north on the Royal train.

  • How plans to slim down monarchy have spiralled into racism row

    For a monarch determined to slim down and modernise the Royal family for the 21st century, the Queen’s decision not to give her great-grandson Archie the title of prince made perfect sense. Following controversy over the roles and publicly funded privilege of minor members of The Firm, the Queen and the Prince of Wales had already decided to shift the focus to Her Majesty and just six others. What they could not have predicted was that two years later, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would try to weave that perceived snub into a new narrative – one of racism at the heart of the House of Windsor. “They didn't want him to be a prince,” the Duchess told Oprah Winfrey, “which would be different from protocol ... we have in tandem the conversation of, ‘He won't be given security. He’s not going to be given a title.’ And also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.” Regardless of its veracity, Harry and Meghan’s claim that there were concerns about the colour of their baby’s skin has the power to do permanent damage to the royal brand. Irrespective of who made the alleged comment about Archie’s skin, the Duke and Duchess have put the Prince of Wales in the eye of the storm by claiming he ignored warnings of possible racist attacks on Archie when decisions were made about his security. A source close to the Sussexes said the couple had seen intelligence and security reports that suggested their son was at a heightened risk, partly because of his mixed race heritage. “Security was paramount to them,” the source said. “On that basis, as a couple, they wanted him to be a prince and that was made clear to the Royal family.”

  • Biden eyes trashing Trump-era rules that advocates feared would silence sexual assault survivors on college campuses

    The rules were unveiled by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in the final year of the Trump administration.

  • Lebanon's army chief warns economic crisis is hurting troops

    Lebanon’s army chief warned Monday that soldiers are hurting from the severe economic crisis engulfing the country, voicing rare criticism from the military of a ruling class that has done little to try and resolve a monthslong political deadlock. Gen. Joseph Aoun’s comments came as protesters, angry with Lebanon's political class, blocked major roads leading to the capital for the seventh straight day. Lebanon's currency has lost 85% of its value in the past year and a half.

  • Princess Diana's chief of staff says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal rift echoes the past - and responsibility for reconciliation lies with 'senior palace management'

    Ahead of bombshell Oprah interview, Patrick Jephson told CNN that previous tell-all interviews with the royal family "in all cases" has "backfired."

  • Spring breakers spreading COVID-19 variants could 'spell disaster' for the country, expert warns

    A world-leading health expert has warned that spring breakers could increase the spread of highly-transmissible coronavirus variants across the US.

  • Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, says he will fight for Republicans to get a say in Biden's infrastructure bill and block it if they don't

    Manchin, who has become a pivotal figure in the finely balanced Senate, wants to see Democrats seek bipartisan backing for bills.

  • The WHO said it still hasn't written off the 'extremely unlikely' theory that the coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan lab

    The World Health Organization has said that all hypotheses for the origin of the virus "remain open."