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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Former FDA suggests 'costly delay' getting vaccines to nursing homes was probably avoidable

    Residents in long-term care facilities will be among the first people to receive the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, but there has already been a distribution delay that could prove costly for a population group that is particularly vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19.The vaccine, which was authorized for emergency use last week, is expected to roll out Monday, but CVS and Walgreens, two companies that will distribute the shots at many nursing homes, have said they were told not to administer them in those locations until the week of Dec. 21 (although Human and Health Services Secretary Alex Azar has contradicted that timeline.)The news has created some confusion, but former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb broke the process down for CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday. As Gottlieb explained, the "critical issue" is that the government hasn't gone into the nursing homes to get consent from individual patients in care facilities. That needs to be done before employees from CVS and Walgreens can administer the vaccine.Gottlieb believes the "costly delay" may have been avoidable, despite regulatory orders. "I think they could have" gotten ahead of the FDA's emergency use authorization, Gottlieb said, by clearing a "fact sheet" on Pfizer's trial data with the FDA ahead of the official hearing, or maybe even providing a limited emergency use authorization just for nursing homes. However, that wasn't done and "we are where we are right now." > Why the delay for Covid19 vaccines at nursing homes? @ScottGottliebMD breaks down the "costly delay" where "there's a lot of death," happening --> pic.twitter.com/wCw6gjY3yw> > -- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 13, 2020More stories from theweek.com The Constitution has an answer for seditious members of Congress What will become of Trump's border wall? The green hydrogen hype

  • Two Ohio girls who ran away from home together were located states apart - but only one of them was found safe and alive

    The two 15-year-olds were found separately in California and Nevada after they ran away with a 19-year-old boy and were reported missing since Thanksgiving.

  • Loeffler campaign: She had 'no idea' she posed with neo-Nazi

    The campaign of Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is disavowing a photo circulating on social media of her posing with a longtime white supremacist at a recent campaign event, with less than a month to go until the runoff elections that will determine the balance of the U.S. Senate. Loeffler did not know who Chester Doles was when she took a picture with him, her campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday. The picture was taken Friday at a campaign event in Dawsonville, Georgia.

  • 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."

  • First woman detained under India's controversial Love Jihad laws 'forced into miscarriage'

    The first woman detained under India's controversial new 'Love Jihad' laws has miscarried in custody, her family have told The Sunday Telegraph. Yesterday a distraught Muskan Jahan, 22, called her mother-in-law, from a government shelter where she is being held in the city of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, saying she had bled profusely and then lost her baby. Mrs Jahan believes her three-month-pregnant daughter-in-law was given an injection to abort the baby by staff because she converted from Hinduism to Islam and married a Muslim man. “The tyrannical world has said goodbye to this child before he was able to see the world,” said Mrs Jahan. Muskan's husband Rashid, 27, is being held in an unknown prison in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly coercing Muskan into converting from Hinduism to Islam by marrying her. Uttar Pradesh passed legislation last month designed to prevent marriages arranged to convert Hindu women into Muslims, a practice known as 'Love Jihad'. But critics say the law is a poorly disguised attempt by the Hindu nationalist ruling party of prime minister Narendra Modi to break up interfaith unions.

  • In 1st public remarks since pardon, Michael Flynn says courts won't decide next president

    In his first public remarks since President Trump pardoned him last month, retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn told Trump's supporters not to "get bent out of shape" after the Supreme Court tossed a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election.Speaking at a pro-Trump demonstration from the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Flynn — who briefly served as Trump's national security adviser in 2017 before pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador — echoed other Trump allies who have been pushing unfounded allegations that the president lost the November's election to President-elect Joe Biden because of widespread voter fraud. Like the others, including the president himself, Flynn didn't produce any actual evidence of fraud, but said "in this crucible moment of our time, we have to pray that truth triumphs over lies, justice triumphs over abuse and fraud, honesty triumphs over corruption. Our sacred honor triumphs over infamy."He added that there are "avenues" to keep challenging the results and that "courts aren't going to decide who the next president of the United States is going to be. We the people decide." He did not, however, elaborate on how that would work now that polls have been closed for more than a month.The Washington Post notes that after Flynn finished speaking "he was chased by shouting admirers." Read more at The Hill and The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com The Constitution has an answer for seditious members of Congress What will become of Trump's border wall? The green hydrogen hype

  • Germany to close shops from mid-week in tighter lockdown: sources

    Germany will close shops from the middle of next week in a tightening of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The decision came ahead of a meeting planned for Sunday morning between Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders as Europe's largest economy grapples with a rise in infections. Germany has been in partial lockdown for six weeks, with bars and restaurants closed, while stores and schools have remained open.

  • Hunter Biden told to disclose information related to Ukrainian energy company Burisma as part of his tax investigation

    Hunter Biden, the President-elect's son, has been asked to disclose information related to Burisma as part of a tax investigation.

  • 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 Inside AD100 Designer Pierre Yovanovitch’s History-Rich Parisian Apartment

    In the hands of Pierre Yovanovitch, the Paris apartment that iconic designer Jean-Michel Frank once called home gets a spectacular new lease on lifeOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Pakistan's opposition to lead march to capital in bid to oust PM Khan

    The leaders of an anti-government alliance urged tens of thousands of supporters at a rally on Sunday to join a march to the Pakistani capital next months to demand the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they say was installed by the military in a rigged 2018 election. An alliance of 11 major opposition parties - Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) - has been holding mammoth rallies in since its inception in September to seek Khan's ouster and press the military to stop interfering in politics. Khan, who says the protest campaign is aimed at blackmailing him into dropping corruption cases against its leaders, has criticised the rallies amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

  • Man climbs on wing of Alaska Airlines plane departing Las Vegas airport, takes off shoes and socks

    Passengers were shocked to see a man climb aboard the wing of a departing Alaska Airlines flight and taking off his shoes. He was arrested.

  • Former Cuomo staffer says the New York governor sexually harassed her 'for years'

    "I am not the only woman," said Lindsey Boylan, who worked for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from 2015 to 2018 as one of his advisors.

  • Rudy Giuliani on Trump election fight: We have ‘1,000 affidavits from witnesses in 6 different states’

    President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani provides insight into the strongest piece of evidence he will present for legal challenge.

  • Analysis: Short work by high court of Trump's `big one'

    It didn't take the Supreme Court long to make short work of what President Donald Trump called “the big one.” Trump has been clinging to baseless claims of fraud in the hope of reversing election results that made Democrat Joe Biden the next president and deprived Trump of four more years in the White House. For all Trump's predictions that the court and his justices would make things right, he and his supporters were lacking one basic element: a strong legal argument that might plausibly attract some sympathy on a court now dominated by conservative justices.

  • Yes, there is a war between science and religion

    As the West becomes more and more secular, and the discoveries of evolutionary biology and cosmology shrink the boundaries of faith, the claims that science and religion are compatible grow louder. If you’re a believer who doesn’t want to seem anti-science, what can you do? You must argue that your faith – or any faith – is perfectly compatible with science.And so one sees claim after claim from believers, religious scientists, prestigious science organizations and even atheists asserting not only that science and religion are compatible, but also that they can actually help each other. This claim is called “accommodationism.”But I argue that this is misguided: that science and religion are not only in conflict – even at “war” – but also represent incompatible ways of viewing the world. Opposing methods for discerning truthMy argument runs like this. I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute. These tools include observing nature, framing and testing hypotheses, trying your hardest to prove that your hypothesis is wrong to test your confidence that it’s right, doing experiments and above all replicating your and others’ results to increase confidence in your inference.And I’ll define religion as does philosopher Daniel Dennett: “Social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.” Of course many religions don’t fit that definition, but the ones whose compatibility with science is touted most often – the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam – fill the bill.Next, realize that both religion and science rest on “truth statements” about the universe – claims about reality. The edifice of religion differs from science by additionally dealing with morality, purpose and meaning, but even those areas rest on a foundation of empirical claims. You can hardly call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ, a Muslim if you don’t believe the angel Gabriel dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad, or a Mormon if you don’t believe that the angel Moroni showed Joseph Smith the golden plates that became the Book of Mormon. After all, why accept a faith’s authoritative teachings if you reject its truth claims?Indeed, even the Bible notes this: “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”Many theologians emphasize religion’s empirical foundations, agreeing with the physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne:> “The question of truth is as central to [religion’s] concern as it is in science. Religious belief can guide one in life or strengthen one at the approach of death, but unless it is actually true it can do neither of these things and so would amount to no more than an illusory exercise in comforting fantasy.”The conflict between science and faith, then, rests on the methods they use to decide what is true, and what truths result: These are conflicts of both methodology and outcome.In contrast to the methods of science, religion adjudicates truth not empirically, but via dogma, scripture and authority – in other words, through faith, defined in Hebrews 11 as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” In science, faith without evidence is a vice, while in religion it’s a virtue. Recall what Jesus said to “doubting Thomas,” who insisted in poking his fingers into the resurrected Savior’s wounds: “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”And yet, without supporting evidence, Americans believe a number of religious claims: 74 percent of us believe in God, 68 percent in the divinity of Jesus, 68 percent in Heaven, 57 percent in the virgin birth, and 58 percent in the Devil and Hell. Why do they think these are true? Faith.But different religions make different – and often conflicting – claims, and there’s no way to judge which claims are right. There are over 4,000 religions on this planet, and their “truths” are quite different. (Muslims and Jews, for instance, absolutely reject the Christian belief that Jesus was the son of God.) Indeed, new sects often arise when some believers reject what others see as true. Lutherans split over the truth of evolution, while Unitarians rejected other Protestants’ belief that Jesus was part of God.And while science has had success after success in understanding the universe, the “method” of using faith has led to no proof of the divine. How many gods are there? What are their natures and moral creeds? Is there an afterlife? Why is there moral and physical evil? There is no one answer to any of these questions. All is mystery, for all rests on faith.The “war” between science and religion, then, is a conflict about whether you have good reasons for believing what you do: whether you see faith as a vice or a virtue. Compartmentalizing realms is irrationalSo how do the faithful reconcile science and religion? Often they point to the existence of religious scientists, like NIH Director Francis Collins, or to the many religious people who accept science. But I’d argue that this is compartmentalization, not compatibility, for how can you reject the divine in your laboratory but accept that the wine you sip on Sunday is the blood of Jesus?Others argue that in the past religion promoted science and inspired questions about the universe. But in the past every Westerner was religious, and it’s debatable whether, in the long run, the progress of science has been promoted by religion. Certainly evolutionary biology, my own field, has been held back strongly by creationism, which arises solely from religion.What is not disputable is that today science is practiced as an atheistic discipline – and largely by atheists. There’s a huge disparity in religiosity between American scientists and Americans as a whole: 64 percent of our elite scientists are atheists or agnostics, compared to only 6 percent of the general population – more than a tenfold difference. Whether this reflects differential attraction of nonbelievers to science or science eroding belief – I suspect both factors operate – the figures are prima facie evidence for a science-religion conflict.The most common accommodationist argument is Stephen Jay Gould’s thesis of “non-overlapping magisteria.” Religion and science, he argued, don’t conflict because: “Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings and values – subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve.”This fails on both ends. First, religion certainly makes claims about “the factual character of the universe.” In fact, the biggest opponents of non-overlapping magisteria are believers and theologians, many of whom reject the idea that Abrahamic religions are “empty of any claims to historical or scientific facts.”Nor is religion the sole bailiwick of “purposes, meanings and values,” which of course differ among faiths. There’s a long and distinguished history of philosophy and ethics – extending from Plato, Hume and Kant up to Peter Singer, Derek Parfit and John Rawls in our day – that relies on reason rather than faith as a fount of morality. All serious ethical philosophy is secular ethical philosophy.In the end, it’s irrational to decide what’s true in your daily life using empirical evidence, but then rely on wishful-thinking and ancient superstitions to judge the “truths” undergirding your faith. This leads to a mind (no matter how scientifically renowned) at war with itself, producing the cognitive dissonance that prompts accommodationism. If you decide to have good reasons for holding any beliefs, then you must choose between faith and reason. And as facts become increasingly important for the welfare of our species and our planet, people should see faith for what it is: not a virtue but a defect.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more: * Jesuits as science missionaries for the Catholic Church * Why do science issues seem to divide us along party lines? * War between science and religion is far from inevitableJerry Coyne 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.

  • Leaders to push Brexit trade talks beyond Sunday deadline

    London and Brussels agreed on Sunday to "go the extra mile" in coming days to try to reach an elusive trade agreement despite missing their latest deadline to avert a turbulent exit for Britain from the European Union's orbit at the end of the month. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the president of the EU's executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen had given negotiators a Sunday deadline to find a way to resolve an impasse on arrangements that would guarantee Britain zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the EU's single market.

  • National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, wife are reportedly making Europe event a holiday vacation

    National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien is heading to Paris on Monday as head of a U.S. delegation to the 60th anniversary of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Convention, the White House announced Sunday. His wife, Lo-Mari, is accompanying him on the lame-duck trip, which will double as "a holiday tour of the romantic Mediterranean and European capitals, including seeking a private tour of the Louvre despite it being closed because of coronavirus restrictions," Axios reports.Most Americans are barred from traveling to France or other European countries, and U.S. citizens already in Paris are supposed to leave their homes only for grocery shopping or work. O'Brien and his wife will also visit Tel Aviv, Rome, and London, Axios reports, and their holiday tour "is causing consternation among O'Brien's hosts and questions about the need for his wife to tag along." Most of the participants in the Paris event, including many heads of state representing their countries, will attend virtually due to COVID-19 concerns.NSA spokesman John Ullyot told Axios that "while we don't comment on spousal travel on specific trips, anytime Ambassador O'Brien has his wife on official trips, any associated costs for her travel are paid for by Ambassador O'Brien and there is no additional cost to taxpayers." U.S. government employees abroad will have to shepherd the couple on their foreign travels, though, one overseas diplomat tells Axios.The inspector general for the State Department reported last week that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had failed to receive written approval for six of the eight trips his wife, Susan, accompanied him on, at taxpayer expense, from April 2018 to April 2020, breaching internal rules for official travel of family members. Pompeo criticized the report, and acting Inspector General Matthew Kilmow told colleagues on Thursday he's stepping down earlier than expected, CNN reports.Kilmow is the department's third inspector general this year; President Trump fired the Senate-confirmed one, Steve Linick, at Pompeo's urging in May, when Linkick was investigating Pompeo's potential misuse of government resources and several other instance of potential wrongdoing involving the Pompeos.More stories from theweek.com The Constitution has an answer for seditious members of Congress What will become of Trump's border wall? The green hydrogen hype