West African leaders on high-stakes mission to end Mali standoff

Presidents of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal arrive in Bamako in a bid to defuse political crisis.

Latest Stories

  • Clinton and Pelosi suggest Trump may have been on phone with Putin during Capitol siege

    Nancy Pelosi called pro-Trump rioters ‘Putin puppets’ and the Capitol siege a ‘gift’ to the Russian president

  • Boy Killed By Father After Vaccination Dispute in Heartbreaking Murder-Suicide in SF

    A boy who was killed in an alleged murder-suicide by his father has been identified as 9-year-old Pierce O’Loughlin. Family tragedy: The boy and his father, Stephen O'Loughlin, 49, were both found dead at their home on Scott Street, Marina District in San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, SF Chronicle reports. The boy’s mother, Lesley Hu, asked authorities to check on her son after learning that he did not show up for school that day.

  • Thai court gives record 43-year sentence for insulting king

    A court in Thailand on Tuesday sentenced a former civil servant to a record prison term of 43 years and six months for breaching the country's strict law on insulting or defaming the monarchy, lawyers said. The Bangkok Criminal Court found the woman guilty on 29 counts of violating the country’s lese majeste law for posting audio clips to Facebook and YouTube with comments deemed critical of the monarchy, the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said. “Today’s court verdict is shocking and sends a spine-chilling signal that not only criticisms of the monarchy won’t be tolerated, but they will also be severely punished,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for the group Human Rights Watch.

  • Boris Johnson unveils £23 million compensation fund for fishing industry losses over Brexit red tape

    Boris Johnson has unveiled a £23 million fund to compensate the fishing industry for losses caused by Brexit red tape as Scottish seafood hauliers descended on Downing Street to protest. The Prime Minister confirmed that any business experiencing difficulty exporting to the EU "through no fault of their own" would be compensated. However, he insisted the pandemic was responsible for some of the losses, citing reduced demand for Scottish seafood from restaurants on the Continent that have been forced to shut. His announcement came as more than 20 lorries drove up Whitehall, the majority from seafood exporters in Scotland, complaining they were being "tied in knots with paperwork" by the Brexit fishing deal. The Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) warned last week the industry was facing "mounting financial losses" and the only way to ensure a fair price was a 72-hour round trip to land catch in Denmark. Exporters said they faced possible bankruptcy following a suspension of road deliveries last week due to border delays.

  • "MyPillow guy" says he'd welcome suit from voting machines maker

    Mike Lindell says it would help him prove to the world his belief that the recent presidential election was rigged. He also says some major retailers are dropping his company's products.

  • Congresswoman's spokesman quits less than 2 weeks into term

    The spokesman for Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has quit less than two weeks after she was sworn into office, saying he felt like he need to due to the insurrection at the nation's Capitol.

  • Canada urges Biden not to cancel oil pipeline on first day

    Top officials in Canada want a chance to make the case for a long disputed oil pipeline to be built amid reports President-elect Joe Biden will cancel Keystone XL. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Monday he will seek legal damages if reports are true that Biden plans to scrap the pipeline on his first day upon taking office. Biden’s plan is outlined in transition documents seen by Canadian media outlets.

  • Texas man who stormed Capitol accused of threatening to shoot kids if they turned him in

    Court documents recounted the man's telling his children that he would consider them "traitors" if they contacted authorities.

  • The U.S. Postal Service had a terrible Christmas

    The U.S. Postal Service had a very rough December, as did anyone hoping to get their Christmas cards delivered on time, The New York Times reports, citing delivery data from the USPS and outside companies that track mail service. Only about 68 percent of first-class mail was delivered on time around Christmas, and it was considerably slower in some areas. "This is the worst I've ever seen it in at least the last 10 to 20 years that I can recall," Angelo Anagnostopoulos at mail-tracking firm GrayHair Software told the Times.> You are not imagining it. The mail got even slower in December.https://t.co/vutl3hhSPQ> > — The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) January 19, 2021In Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, only a quarter of first-class mail was processed on time in December, and less than a third of mail was delivered on time in the Baltimore, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Northern Ohio districts, the Times reports.Things were worse for large-scale mailers, often stuck in line after packages and first-class letters. "Some mail sent in early January was delivered sooner than mail sent in mid-December, when letters piled up in processing plants behind newly arriving packages and mail," the Times reports. "Delays like these had further consequences, in bill payments that arrived past due, in coupons that missed the sale window, and in nonprofit fund-raising pleas that weren't opened before the end of the tax year."December's delays marked the second severe drop in service in 2020, after an initial decline over the summer following policy changes enacted by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. After the Postal Service reversed many of DeJoy's changes under pressure and court order, USPS deliveries rebounded enough to deliver 135 million mail-in ballots mostly on time, the Times reports. But then a deluge of 1.1 billion holiday packages started arriving, the post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 wave hit postal workers, and USPS had to compete with other stretched shipping services for temporary workers. "December was the perfect storm," said Paul Hogrogian, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union.Read more about the USPS's tough December, and how much was just a bad confluence of events, at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com 5 more scathing cartoons about Trump's 2nd impeachment Melania Trump released a farewell video. So did Colbert's Late Show Melania Trump. Anthony Scaramucci says even he got an invite to Trump's D.C. sendoff

  • China to sanction U.S. officials for 'nasty behaviour' over Taiwan

    U.S. officials who have engaged in "nasty behaviour" over Chinese-claimed Taiwan will face sanctions, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after Washington lifted curbs on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese officials. Sino-U.S. ties have worsened as China has already condemned this month's easing, announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the waning days of President Donald Trump's presidency. Further adding to China's anger, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, spoke last week to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, after a planned trip to Taipei was called off.

  • Harris prepares for central role in Biden's White House

    Kamala Harris will make history on Wednesday when she becomes the nation’s first female vice president — and the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office. With the confluence of crises confronting Joe Biden's administration — and an evenly divided Senate in which she would deliver the tie-breaking vote — Harris is shaping up to be a central player in addressing everything from the coronavirus pandemic to criminal justice reform. Symone Sanders, Harris' chief spokeswoman, said that while the vice president-elect's portfolio hasn't been fully defined yet, she has a hand in all aspects of Biden's agenda.

  • Capitol rioter threatened to shoot his own children if they reported him, say officials

    ‘If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors...traitors get shot,' he told his children

  • Photos: Nationwide protests of Trump supporters fail to materialize

    Security remained tight around state houses throughout the country as fears of major protests by armed, far-right supporters of President Trump outside the Capitol and at state capitols Sunday proved unfounded, with only small groups, some carrying weapons, gathering in a handful of cities.

  • Biden picks transgender woman as assistant health secretary

    President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her one of the few transgender people serving in elected or appointed positions nationwide. “Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond," Biden said in a statement.

  • Woman who allegedly stole laptop from Pelosi's office to sell to Russia is arrested

    A woman accused of breaching the Capitol and planning to sell to Russia a laptop or hard drive she allegedly stole from Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was arrested in Pennsylvania's Middle District Monday, the Department of Justice said.Driving the news: Riley June Williams, 22, is charged with illegally entering the Capitol as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct. She has not been charged over the laptop allegation and the case remains under investigation, per the DOJ.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.The big picture: Video footage appears to show Williams entering the Capitol with other rioters on Jan. 6. She appears to direct them up a staircase in the building. * Following the siege, a person called the FBI tip line to identify Williams and claimed that she told them she planned to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, per a DOJ statement of facts. It's alleged the friend planned to then sell it to Russia’s foreign intelligence service. * The caller said the transfer fell through and alleged that Williams either still has the device or destroyed it. Of note: Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff confirmed the laptop's disappearance on Jan. 8 but said it was "only used for presentations." For the record: Williams had developed a sudden interest in President Trump's politics and "far-right message boards," her mother told ITV News on Jan. 16. * Her mother said her daughter fled after the insurrection. * Williams also deleted her social media accounts and changed her phone number, according to FBI officials.Go deeper: Deadly Capitol riot: The people facing federal chargesBe smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

  • Violence create food crisis in northern Mozambique: WFP

    Militant attacks that have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province have created a humanitarian crisis, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. "What is happening is nothing short of a food security and nutritional crisis," WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri told a U.N. briefing.

  • Indonesia earthquake: Heavy rain hampers search for survivors

    The death toll has now risen to 78 following the powerful tremor on Sulawesi island on Friday.

  • What Biden can and can't get from an evenly divided Senate

    So what does a 50-50 Senate get President-elect Joe Biden? Washington has barely had time to process the implications of Democratic control after two Georgia runoff elections that are delivering the Senate to Democrats. The unexpected new balance of power giving Democrats only the barest control of Congress has big consequences for the president-elect — easy confirmation of his Cabinet most importantly — but the road ahead for his ambitious legislative agenda remains complicated and murky.

  • Fired Florida COVID data scientist arrested: "Censored by the state"

    "Insurrectionists planning attacks across the country this week and Florida is jailing scientists for the crimes of knowing and speaking," she tweeted.

  • 'One village, one policy': China keeps it local to battle COVID wave

    China is using localised tactics to battle a wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, an approach that avoids the sort of widespread shutdowns that devastated the economy last year but is also sowing uncertainty ahead of the Lunar New Year travel season. In the province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing and has seen hundreds of infections in the last two weeks, officials were told in a Monday meeting to adhere to the principle of "one village, one policy" and draw up individual plans for each community. After keeping confirmed new COVID-19 infections to just a handful a day for months, China has seen a spike in cases since the beginning of the year, with more than 100 a day recently, raising fears of a large-scale outbreak.