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  • Jerry Falwell Jr. spent heavily on Trump, GOP causes with funds from nonprofit Liberty University

    Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University in August after a series of scandals involving sexual indiscretions and questionable use of university funds on friends and family, but Liberty's board is still split on the partisan direction Falwell steered the private evangelical Christian school founded by his father, Jerry Falwell Sr.Especially divisive, Politico reports, is the question of whether Liberty should continue funding the Falkirk Center, a conservative "think tank" named after Falwell and GOP activist Charlie Kirk that "has produced no peer-reviewed academic work and bears little relation to study centers at other universities," but did run "pro-Trump ads, hired Trump allies including former adviser Sebastian Gorka and current Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to serve as fellows, and, in recent weeks, has aggressively promoted [President] Trump's baseless claims of election fraud."As a 501c(3) nonprofit, Liberty University is technically barred from supporting political candidates and spending money on political campaigns. But the Falkirk Center, founded in 2019, "purchased campaign-season ads on Facebook, at least $50,000's worth of which were designated by the network as political ads, that promoted Trump and other Republican candidates by name," Politico reports. And more generally, since endorsing Trump for president in 2016, Falwell has "pumped millions of the nonprofit religious institution's funds into Republican causes and efforts to promote the Trump administration, blurring the lines between education and politics."Last July, for example, the Falkirk Center held a two-day summit on China policy at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., featuring a host of GOP officials and Trump allies but no Democratic speakers, Politico reports. Numerous evangelical groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars holding events at Trump's Washington hotel, where "prominent evangelical ministers were given VIP status," The New York Times reported in October. But Liberty University also has an academic mission, and slashed its humanities programs even as it poured millions into GOP organizations."The Falkirk Center, to me, represents everything that was wrong with Liberty when Jerry was there," Karen Swallow Prior, a professor at Liberty for 21 years who left at the end of last school year, told Politico. "It's brazenly partisan." University spokesman Scott Lamb said the donations to GOP organizations "are consistent with the mission and focus of Liberty University as an evangelical Christian university," and went toward "nonpartisan" activities like voter registration.More stories from theweek.com Judge appointed by Trump heard his case to overturn Biden's win, wholly rejected it on the merits Electoral College to vote, formalize Biden's victory, in state capitals nationwide National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, wife are reportedly making Europe event a holiday vacation

  • Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler posed for a photo with a former KKK chief - but says she didn't know who he was

    Chester Doles was jailed in 1993 for viciously beating a Black man. On Friday, he posted a selfie with Loeffler to Russian social media site VK.

  • 'We have no oxygen': First journalist to access Yemen after Covid discovers major cover up in country of her birth

    Like many others in March I was spending my days locked down in my London flat, listening to reports about how overwhelmed the NHS was and the struggle to get essential supplies. However where I differed is that all I could think about was Yemen. I am British, but I’m originally Yemeni, and regularly report from it for BBC News and the World Service. If the UK was struggling to cope, I thought to myself, just how would the authorities in Yemen fare? I was terrified for them: my family, my friends, the nation. But I mainly feared for my grandmother. She is in her late 70’s and ticked all the vulnerable categories. I began calling my sister who lives in northern Yemen every day asking her if there were any cases. But while I was terrified, she, like so many others in the war-torn country was oblivious to the threat. The Houthi authorities in the north hadn’t announced a single case. From London I set about trying to find out what was truly happening, but it was near impossible. The Houthis had imposed a blanket restriction on all Covid reporting from areas they control.

  • Gunman shot dead by police at NYC church after concert; no one else wounded

    A gunman shouting "Kill me!" opened fire from the steps of New York City's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine just after an outdoor choir performance there on Sunday, and was himself shot dead by police, according to police and a Reuters photographer at the scene. No one else was struck by gunfire thanks to quick action by three officers on the scene who confronted the suspect, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters following the late-afternoon violence on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The shooting occurred outside the landmark cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, located at Amsterdam Avenue and West 112th Street, about 15 minutes after the conclusion of an outdoor choir performance on the church steps attended by about 200 people.

  • China warns of interference over Bloomberg journalist arrest

    International pressure is mounting after a Chinese Bloomberg journalist was detained by Beijing.

  • Iran president says Israel was behind killing of scientist

    Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Monday claimed that Israel was behind the killing of a scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program in the 2000s in an effort to start a war in the last days of President Trump's administration. Rouhani's comments in a news conference marked the first time he has directly accused the Jewish state of carrying out the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh late last month. Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last decade, has repeatedly declined to comment on the attack.

  • Russian report claims Putin is secretly working at a duplicate office in seaside resort

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a visible presence during Russia's COVID-19 pandemic, but only on TV, shown working from his office at his official residence outside Moscow. Few people have seen Putin in person since March, and those who are allowed into his office have to first quarantine for two weeks then walk through a tunnel that sprays a fine mist of antiseptics, Russian journalists say. But the investigative news organization Proekt reported last week that Putin's isolated workaholism isn't all that it appears.Putin, a former spy, has actually been working at an identical office set up at his residence in Sochi, a resort town and popular vacation destination on the Black Sea, Proekt reports, citing anonymous sources plus presidential plane flight logs and other circumstantial evidence. Putin's office denied the report, The New York Times notes. "The president has many offices and no identical offices," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists last week, claiming that the Proekt report and other exposés about Putin's personal life are an "information campaign, an information attack."Opposition figure Alexei Navalny, recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning believed to have been ordered by Putin, said the Proekt report about the president working at a secret duplicate office at the seashore "is absolutely Putin's style — to lie even in the little things." Ekaterina Schulmann, a political commentator for the Echo of Moscow radio station, said the recent spate of leaks about the personal life of Putin's family and inner circle are probably tied to competing factions within the government trying to embarrass rivals as their children vie for plum jobs in government and state-run corporations.More stories from theweek.com Judge appointed by Trump heard his case to overturn Biden's win, wholly rejected it on the merits Electoral College to vote, formalize Biden's victory, in state capitals nationwide National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, wife are reportedly making Europe event a holiday vacation

  • Blast on tanker in Saudi port caused by 'external source'

    An explosion on a Singapore-flagged oil tanker off the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Monday was caused by an “external source”, the ship’s owner said. The BW Rhine was hit while discharging refined oil products at Jeddah about 0400 on Monday local time, Hafnia said in a statement, without giving more information on the cause of the explosion. The 22 crew were uninjured and able to extinguish a subsequent fire onboard, the tanker company said. “It is possible that some oil has escaped from the vessel,” the statement read. “But this has not been confirmed and instrumentation currently indicates that oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident.” Saudi authorities did not immediately acknowledge the blast, which followed several other recent incidents in the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane for oil and cargo. On November 25, an oil tanker was damaged at the Saudi terminal of Shuqaiq, south of Jeddah, which the Saudis blamed on a naval mine laid by Houthi rebels from Yemen. While Houthis have previously laid mines in the Red Sea, Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence firm, said if the Houthis were responsible for Monday’s blast, it “would represent a fundamental shift in both targeting capabilities and intent.”

  • U.S. expects to have immunized 100 million against COVID-19 by end of March -Slaoui

    The United States expects to have immunized 100 million people with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of March, the chief adviser for the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program said on Sunday. The first vaccine was authorized for emergency use by U.S. regulators on Friday night and began shipping on Sunday. "We would have immunized 100 million people by the first quarter of 2021," U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Joe Biden's agenda 'a little hazy' and criticizes his Cabinet picks as lacking an 'overall vision'

    Joe Biden has promised to build the "most diverse cabinet based on race, color, based on gender that's ever existed in the United States of America."

  • One person shot in violent protests in Washington state

    Police in Olympia arrested one person Saturday afternoon following a shooting at a violent protest between two heavily armed groups near the Capital building. The Olympia Police Department said the person who was shot was taken to a hospital by other civilians. The two groups had opposing political views, and each side was heavily armed with rifles, handguns and clubs, and engaged in violent clashes, police said.

  • More than a quarter of excess deaths in the U.S. in 2020 were from non-COVID-19 ailments, analysis finds

    More than a quarter of the estimated 356,000 excess deaths in the United States in 2020 have been attributed to ailments other than COVID-19, a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.Diabetes deaths are believed to be around 15 percent above normal nationwide this year, and at least 20 percent in several states, including New Jersey, where the figure is estimated to be 37 percent.Deaths from Alzheimer's and dementia, high blood pressure, and pneumonia and the flu are all estimated to have increased at double digit rates compared to a normal year, as well. However, many of these cases could have been undiagnosed coronavirus infections, particularly early in the pandemic when testing was scarce.The Times notes the excess mortality, regardless of the cause, is likely at least partially related to the coronavirus pandemic, which has created disruptions in the health care system. Economic stress and social isolation stemming from lockdowns could also have played a role, especially for people with chronic illnesses. "You end up choosing between your prescription medications or buying groceries or keeping a roof over your head," Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the Times. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Judge appointed by Trump heard his case to overturn Biden's win, wholly rejected it on the merits Electoral College to vote, formalize Biden's victory, in state capitals nationwide National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, wife are reportedly making Europe event a holiday vacation

  • Philippines targets deal for 25 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine

    The Philippines aims to finalise negotiations with Sinovac Biotech this week to acquire 25 million doses of the Chinese company's COVID-19 vaccine for delivery by March, a coronavirus taskforce official said on Monday. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has pursued warmer ties with Beijing, wants to inoculate all his country's 108 million people, preferably buying vaccines from Russia or China. Philippine officials had met with Sinovac representatives on Friday and there would be another meeting this week to finalise a deal, Carlito Galvez, the country's vaccine chief, said.

  • Alan Dershowitz says Texas lawsuit tossed by Supreme Court should tell Trump's allies that they 'can't count on the judiciary' to invalidate election results

    The attorney and Trump ally said the president needed a "perfect storm" of courts, governors, and state election officials to aid his cause.

  • On the first day of Christmas...teachers got a legal headache over blurring the line between church and state

    During a school year disrupted by pandemic-related closures, students across the U.S. will soon be absent for a scheduled reason: the annual Christmas break.In New York City, the U.S.‘s largest school district, children will be off from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1. Officially called “winter” recess, the December hiatus coincides with Christian celebrations, adding to the number of approved days that many students take off from school on religious holidays, including Eid al-Fitr and Yom Kippur.As an academic who writes and teaches on education and the law with a special interest in church-state issues, I find it fascinating to note how religious holidays came to be acknowledged in public schools. But these traditions also pose a legal challenge in the classroom and concern over blurring the line of separation between church and state. The reality is that in the lead-up to the winter break – or the “December dilemma,” as some call it – public school officials walk a fine line when it comes to what they can and can’t display in classrooms in relation to Christmas. Holy days and holidaysThe observance of selected religious holidays in public schools has a long history in the United States. When compulsory attendance laws emerged in the mid-19th century, they were heavily influenced by the religious beliefs and practices that followed the earliest European settlers to the American colonies.In a piecemeal fashion that varied from one state to the next and even among school systems in the same states, school board officials recognized and broke for the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, including Good Friday.The unofficial religion of American public schools until well into the mid-20th century was Protestantism and typically followed the teachings of the locally dominant Protestant churches.Because Catholic immigrants – and their children – were often unwelcomed in the 19th-century United States, a meeting of bishops at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 decreed that all parishes had to maintain schools to which parents were obligated to send their children. As a result, time off for Christmas and Easter became firmly set in Catholic schools as it was in public schools.Christianity remains the largest single faith in the United States. But growing religious diversity has seen more religious holy days being marked in public schools. Still, few school boards nationally close in honor of the Jewish holidays. And, until very recently, the holy days of other faiths were completely ignored. New York City was one of the earliest, acknowledging Muslim holidays from the 2015-16 school year.Similarly, in 2017-18 six suburban school districts in New York state declared a holiday on the Hindu festival Diwali.But these are the exception rather than the rule. A study of the 2017-18 school year, found that of the 20 largest school systems in the U.S., only New York City, Philadelphia and Palm Beach, Florida, closed for Rosh Hashana, and only New York City closed for Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha. None of the school systems closed for Diwali.Things are changing in the face of growing religious diversity in the U.S. Educational leaders and lawmakers in states such as New York and Michigan have taken recent steps to ensure that the religious holy days of other faiths are commemorated in public school. Mixed legal messagesMeanwhile the status of how religious holidays can be marked in class remains unclear. The Supreme Court has yet to address such a case directly. Arguably, the leading case on religious holidays arose 40 years ago, when the Eighth Circuit upheld guidelines that a school board in South Dakota developed for use in connection with religious observances, most notably Christmas.The court suggested that explanations of historical and contemporary values relating to religious holidays were permissible, as was the use of religious symbols as examples and the integration of music, art, literature and drama with religious themes if they were presented objectively as a traditional part of the cultural and religious heritages of holidays.Other rulings have teachers walking a fine, but murky, line. While the Supreme Court has ruled that educators cannot allow overt religious activities such as prayer and Bible reading in schools, justices added that “nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”The court has yet to set clear parameters about how religious holidays can be celebrated in public schools and whether granting access to all faith traditions is either constitutionally necessary or acceptable.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.] To gift or not?Classroom activities present three special concerns. Courts agree that public school teachers cannot permit religious activities such as prayer or the use of religious music in class absent curricular connections. The Sixth Circuit in 2008 went so far as to affirm that a fifth grader in Michigan could not sell candy cane Christmas tree ornaments he made as part of a school project if they were attached to religious cards “promoting Jesus.”But a federal trial court in Texas two years later allowed students to sell “holiday” cards with biblical messages because doing so was not disruptive to school activities.A second concern – the displays of religious art such as Nativity scenes or paintings – is trickier. Again, while there is no Supreme Court judgment in regard to K-12 schools, an argument can be made from lower court orders. One such case from South Dakota found that religious art in schools may be permissible as parts of larger displays but that it cannot be overtly Christian and must emphasize the secular aspects of the season. Under this interpretation, placing Nativity scenes or displaying religious objects or paintings alone in schools, regardless of the time of year, likely violates the First Amendment by endorsing Christianity. A case illustrative of the confusion over classroom displays arose in New York City in 2006. The Second Circuit decided that public school officials could allow displays of menorahs during Hanukkah and stars and crescents during Ramadan because both were deemed multicultural secular symbols. But the court forbade the display of a Nativity scene due to its explicitly religious nature.Gift-giving during the holiday season represents a third concern. Educators probably can permit “secret Santa” exchanges as long as they are secular in nature and do not invoke any references to Christmas. However, courts largely agree that teachers cannot allow students to exchange identifiable Christian gifts, such as candy canes or pencils with attached religious messages, while in class. Teachable momentsWhat can be lost in this legal quagmire is, I believe, the chance to engage children in religious literacy. If educators and the courts prohibit students from learning about the religious traditions of their peers, especially when teachable moments emerge during holidays, one must wonder how children can develop tolerance of – and respect for – faiths different from their own. The challenge, then, for public school educators is walking the fine line by exposing children to religious celebrations while steering clear of violating the Constitution by making certain that they teach about religion rather than proselytize a particular form of belief.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Charles J. Russo, University of Dayton.Read more: * Schools looking for space could turn to churches to host classes – doing so has a rich history * How Hanukkah came to be an annual White House celebrationCharles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

  • Father who 'begged' GP for an MRI scan dies from cancer after Covid backlog

    A father-of-two who had to "beg" to get an MRI scan because of the coronavirus crisis has died of cancer, his family have revealed. Sherwin Hall, 27, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, went to hospital on March 23 suffering from leg pain but despite repeated visits he was only given a course of antibiotics for a misdiagnosis of prostatitis. After "begging for a scan" and 13 hospital visits in four weeks, Mr Hall was finally given an MRI on May 26 which revealed a 14cm malignant tumour in his pelvis and 30 small tumours on his lungs. Before his death, Mr Hall said: "I kept begging them in April and May to give me an MRI scan, but no-one would listen. "Both my GP and my consultant told me that I couldn't get one because scanning services were slowed down because of the coronavirus." His widow, LaTroya Hall, who is being supported by the Catch Up With Cancer Campaign, said: "I am devastated. I have lost the love of my life. "If Sherwin's cancer had been found earlier it is likely he would still be here today. He would want me to do everything I can to prevent other families suffering as we have. "It worries me that the Government and NHS leaders continue to say cancer services are back to normal; our family's experience has been that, even now, this is simply not the case.” Mr Hall's death comes as cancer patients, celebrities and NHS staff have launched a Christmas video as part of a campaign calling on the Government to boost cancer services "devastated" by the Covid-19 crisis. The Catch Up With Cancer campaign was launched by the parents of Macclesfield beautician Kelly Smith who died after her treatment for bowel cancer was stopped because of the pandemic. TV presenter Victoria Derbyshire said in the film: "I'm Victoria Derbyshire and all I want for Christmas is for people who've noticed changes in their body or noticed unexplained symptoms to go to the doctor's please." Cancer charity MacMillan says the backlog of cancer patients from the first lockdown is 50,000 while there might be double the number of patients from the second lockdown. An international study has suggested that for every four-week delay in treatment there is a 6 per cent to 13 per cent reduction in survival which could lead to the death of tens of thousands of cancer patients who could have survived under normal circumstances. A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: "Cancer diagnosis and treatment has remained a priority throughout the pandemic and we urge people to come forward if they have symptoms. "The NHS is working hard so as many people as possible get the help they need and more than 870,000 people were referred for cancer checks between March and August. "We've given £3 billion to support the NHS in tackling the impact of Covid, including £1 billion to provide extra checks, scans and operations."

  • Spectacular eruptions from Mount Etna

    The eruptions began at 9:20 p.m (2020GMT) on Sunday (December 13) and continued until around 3 a.m. (0200GMT) the following morning. According to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, there were two eruptive fissures on the south-eastern crater of the volcano. Volcanic ash from the eruption covered parts of the nearby small Catanian villages between Pedara and Tremestieri Etneo. On Monday morning, cars, streets and balconies were covered in black ash as workers and locals worked to clear it up.

  • Families marry off daughters to ease finances amid COVID-19

    The man first caught a glimpse of Marie Kamara as she ran with her friends past his house near the village primary school. Intervention is only sometimes effective at preventing the marriages, even where they are illegal.

  • Germany likely to be under lockdown until early next year -Merkel aide

    Germany is unlikely to lift its coronavirus lockdown early next year, a top aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday, signalling Europe's biggest economy will have to contend with the crippling restrictions well into the winter months. "A comprehensive easing is very, very unlikely," Helge Braun, Merkel's chief of staff, told the RTL broadcaster. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported more than 16,000 new cases and 188 deaths on Monday, almost half the daily infections reported late last week.

  • Suspected Russian hackers broke into US federal agencies and spied on emails in a 'highly sophisticated' cyberattack

    The security breaches were so alarming that they reportedly prompted the National Security Council to meet over the weekend.