TODAY celebrates 100th birthdays: Jan. 15, 2021

With the help of Smucker’s, TODAY’s Al Roker sends special wishes to viewers celebrating 100th birthdays.

Recommended Stories

  • Myanmar's U.N. ambassador vows to fight after junta fired him

    Myanmar's United Nations envoy in New York vowed to fight on Saturday after the junta fired him for urging countries to use "any means necessary" to reverse a Feb. 1 coup that ousted the nation's elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "I decided to fight back as long as I can," Kyaw Moe Tun told Reuters on Saturday. Myanmar state television announced on Saturday that Kyaw Moe Tun had been fired for betraying the country.

  • Stock gains power higher Berkshire profit, Buffett presses on with stock buybacks

    Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Saturday said stock market gains fueled a record quarterly profit, while the billionaire signaled investors are undervaluing his company by repurchasing another $9 billion of its stock. Berkshire's fourth-quarter buybacks boosted the company's overall stock repurchases to $24.7 billion in 2020, five times the record from a year earlier, and Berkshire appears to have repurchased another $4 billion or more in 2021. "The math of repurchases grinds away slowly, but can be powerful over time," Buffett wrote in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders.

  • Biden administration sanctions Saudi operatives, but not crown prince, after blaming him for Khashoggi killing

    After blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Biden administration is announcing new sanctions against Saudi operatives, but not against the crown prince himself. The U.S. on Friday declassified an intelligence report concluding that Mohammed bin Salman "approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." Shortly after the report's release, Politico's Natasha Bertrand reported the U.S. Treasury Department is announcing new sanctions against General Ahmed al-Asiri, former deputy head of the Saudi intelligence services, as well as the crown prince's personal protective detail, over their alleged roles in the Washington Post journalist's killing. However, according to Bertrand, "Crown Prince MBS will NOT be sanctioned," and Politico quotes a senior administration official as saying that the "aim is recalibration, not a rupture, because of the important interests that we do share" with Saudi Arabia. Similarly, The New York Times reports that President Biden "has decided that the price of directly penalizing" the crown prince "is too high" and that he's "simply too important to American interests to punish." Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday did, however, also announce a new "Khashoggi Ban" policy, under which the State Department will impose visa restrictions on individuals "believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities" while "acting on behalf of a foreign government." Blinken also said the U.S. is now imposing visa restrictions against 76 Saudi individuals under this policy. But a lack of direct punishment for the crown prince is likely to draw criticism, Politico's Nahal Toosi noted. "For activists, the WHOLE POINT was to punish MBS," Toosi said. "Will Biden's other new sanctions/policies appease them? Doubt it." And the Times writes that "in the end, Mr. Biden came to essentially the same place on punishing the young and impetuous crown prince as did Mr. Trump." More stories from theweek.comBiden in the quagmireBen Sasse on Matt Gaetz: 'That guy is not an adult'FDA grants emergency use authorization for Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine

  • CPAC: Gaetz says media ‘biased’ over Ted Cruz’s Cancun trip and should have focused on ‘caravans’ of migrants instead

    Outspoken GOP congressman complains ‘the left and the media’ were less concerned about ‘caravans going through Mexico’ than Texas senator visiting

  • Tiger Woods ‘in good spirits’ after suffering serious injuries in car crash

    Golfer cut from car after vehicle collided with tree before toppling over several times

  • Republicans cite ‘public health emergency’ for skipping Covid relief votes while speaking at maskless CPAC

    Lawmakers due to attend conservative conference where crowds booed hosts for asking guests to wear masks

  • As capacity limits lift, leaders worry about bar crowds on St. Patrick's Day

    Get the latest Boston-area weather forecast.

  • Exclusive: Two rights groups quit Hong Kong as security law sends shudders through NGOs

    At least two political rights groups advocating democracy have quietly quit Hong Kong and moved overseas, unnerved by a national security law that has fanned fears over the erosion of freedoms under China’s rule, sources told Reuters. In the past, China-focused rights groups had valued the wide-ranging autonomy, including freedom of speech and assembly, guaranteed for Hong Kong when control over the former British colony was returned to Beijing in 1997. But some non-government organisations (NGOs) say the new legislation means they face a choice of either having to leave Hong Kong or work with the same kind of fears and constraints they would encounter in mainland China.

  • Auckland COVID outbreak forces America's Cup postponement

    The first weekend of sailing in the America’s Cup has been postponed after new COVID-19 cases were reported in Auckland. Auckland was placed in limited lockdown for seven days from 6 a.m. Sunday with travel restrictions into and out of New Zealand’s largest city, strict limits on public gatherings, and a ban on sports events. The 36th match for the America’s Cup between Team New Zealand and Italy’s Luna Rossa was due to begin next Saturday.

  • 'WandaVision,' explained: An episode-by-episode guide

    In Marvel's "WandaVision," nothing is as it seems. So we prepared an episode-by-episode guide to the Disney+ series for you to keep handy as you watch.

  • Poland raises upper age limit for AstraZeneca shot, taking in Slovak patients

    Poland will raise the upper age limit for people being given the AstraZeneca vaccine to 69, and will take COVID-19 patients from neighbouring Slovakia, a health ministry spokesman said on Friday. COVID-19 cases have been surging in central and eastern Europe, but in common with the rest of the European Union the region has faced problems with vaccine deliveries. "Today the health minister's vaccination team recommended extending (the age limit)...Within an hour there will be a announcement from the health minister," spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz told a news conference.

  • CPAC: What is the convention Trump, Pence and Farage are speaking at and why is it so influential?

    Republican gathering began in 1974 and sees American conservatives debate social worries but has struggled with position on 'alt-right' in recent years

  • L.A. restaurant closes after high-tech "dine and dash" scheme

    "I just felt so incredibly helpless and frustrated," said Spoon by H owner and chef Yoonjin Hwang.

  • Myanmar riot police fire to break up protests

    There were no immediate reports of injuries.The Southeast Asian nation has been in crisis since the army seized power on Feb. 1 and detained civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership after the military complained of fraud in a November election.There have been daily protests and strikes by democracy supporters for about three weeks, often drawing hundreds of thousands of people across the diverse country.

  • Jonah Hill shares inspiring message for ‘kids who don’t take their shirt off at the pool'

    The actor says his childhood insecurities were “exacerbated” by years of public mockery, and he doesn’t want kids to endure the same fate.

  • Jonah Hill slams the media for body-shaming photos: 'I'm 37 and finally love and accept myself'

    After the Daily Mail posted photos of a shirtless Jonah Hill, the actor clapped back at "public mockery of his body" and said it "doesn't phase" him.

  • 'We're done with that lifestyle': Jessica Watkins, Ohio woman charged in Capitol riot, renounces Oath Keepers

    Jessica Watkins, 38, says she has disbanded her local armed group and is canceling her Oath Keeper membership after her arrest.

  • GOP congresswoman's husband, whose truck had Three Percenters decal, says he never heard of armed group before

    Illinois state Rep. Chris Miller said he was given the sticker featuring the armed group's logo by a friend "who said that it represented patriotism."

  • 'If he dies, he dies': Suspect in stabbing of Asian man in New York City told authorities

    "This case is every New Yorker's worst nightmare....to be attacked by a complete and total stranger with a large knife for no reason at all," an assistant D.A. said.

  • Lady Gaga poised to hand over $500,000 reward to mystery woman after safe return of Bulldogs

    Lady Gaga is poised to hand over a $500,000 reward to a mystery woman who returned her beloved French bulldogs kidnapped in a violent street robbery near her home in Hollywood. Koji and Gustav, thought to be worth up to $10,000 dollars each, were given in at a downtown LAPD Police Station by an unnamed woman late on Friday night. Authorities believe the woman who handed the dogs in was "uninvolved and unassociated" with the attack - but she is still eligible for the "unconditional" $500,000 and is said to be in contact with Gaga’s representatives. “If you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same,” Gaga had said in a post confirming the hefty sum before the dogs were handed back on Friday. The violent abduction on Wednesday saw the singer’s dog-walker and close friend Ryan Fischer shot in the chest. Gaga's third dog named Miss Asia escaped the attack and was later found by police. The singer, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, has kept silent since the dogs were handed into police. But her reward offer has raised eyebrows.