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  • Republicans who cheered Trump's executive orders now grumble about 'record number' from Biden

    Over the past week, a growing number of Republicans began sounding the alarm about the number and content of executive orders being issued by President Joe Biden.

  • Jill Biden spent her first week as First Lady reshaping the role. Melania Trump spent hers isolated in a tower

    New first lady signals she will be an active and constant presence in the White House - drawing stark contrasts to her predecessor

  • Far-Right 'Proud Boy' leader arrested ahead of Capitol riots revealed to have been police informer

    The leader of the Proud Boys extremist group has been unmasked as a "prolific" former FBI informant. Enrique Tarrio, 36, worked undercover exposing a human trafficking ring, and helped with drug and gambling cases, according to court documents. Tarrio's documented involvement with law enforcement related to the period 2012 -2014. There was no evidence of him cooperating after that. But the revelation raised further questions over why police did not take further steps to secure the US Capitol ahead of the riots on Jan 6. At least half a dozen members of the Proud Boys were arrested over involvement in the riots. Tarrio denied ever being an informer, telling Reuters: "I don’t know any of this. I don’t recall any of this."

  • China seeks details about Chinese crew after tankers seized by Indonesia

    China said on Wednesday it was seeking details about 25 of its nationals who were among 61 crew on two supertankers seized by Indonesia on suspicion of illegally transferring oil. Indonesia said on Sunday it had seized the vessels after they were detected making the transfer from Iranian-flagged MT Horse to Panamanian-flagged MT Freya, causing an oil spill. The Indonesian authorities said the seizure was not related to U.S. sanctions, which Washington imposed in a bid to shut off Iran's oil exports in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.

  • Congress prepares for major fight over voting laws in the wake of Trump's false fraud claims

    Former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” about a stolen election may have been discredited over and over in the courts, and disgraced by the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the corrosive effect of his dishonesty will linger on, complicating efforts to strengthen American elections.

  • Russian authorities target Navalny's associates and wife in series of police raids ahead of protests

    Russian authorities raided the homes of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his associates on Wednesday, piling pressure on opposition figures ahead of a major rally planned for this weekend. Masked police on Wednesday afternoon broke down the door of Mr Navalny’s rented flat despite the pleas from his wife who was inside, asking for her lawyer, Veronika Polyakova. Ms Polyakova arrived at her house but was not allowed in to witness the search, a clear violation of the Russian law,she told the Dozhd TV channel. In the biggest wave of police action against the opposition in months, law enforcement agents raided at least seven homes on Wednesday, including a Moscow property owned by Mr Navalny but where he has not lived for years, and the office of his associates who run his YouTube channel. A video posted online by Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of Mr Navalny, showed black-clad masked men break down the door and walk into the office.

  • Biden announces government's intention to increase total U.S. COVID-19 vaccine orders by 50 percent

    President Biden announced Tuesday that his administration intends to order an additional 100 million doses of both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. The extra 200 million doses, which Biden said should arrive by the summer, would boost the country's supply by about 50 percent to 600 million shots total, meaning that there would be enough shots available to inoculate 300 million people in the coming months without the Food and Drug Administration granting approval for any other vaccine candidates. Pres. Biden says his admin has ordered 200 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses that will be available by summer, increasing the total number ordered from 400 million to 600 million pic.twitter.com/VFZ3qTmUK9 — NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 26, 2021 It's another sign that the government is raising expectations for the vaccine rollout. On Monday, Biden upped the daily vaccination goal from 1 million to 1.5 million throughout his first 100 days in office and suggested that any American who wants a shot could be able to get one by the spring. FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver applauded the administration for getting more ambitious, though he noted it could be difficult — impossible, even, unless the shots are approved for children — to find 300 million willing Americans to get vaccinated by the end of summer. In practice it's going to be hard to find 300m Americans willing to get vaccinated by Sept. 22. (It's literally impossible until vaccines are approved for children.) And we'll probably eventually mix in some one-dose vaccines. Still, ramping up to 2-2.5m/day is a laudable goal. — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 26, 2021 More stories from theweek.comMitch McConnell is the GOATWho is the Cinderella in the GameStop fairy tale?The left's fake Senate majority

  • UN group says Sri Lanka virus cremation rule violates rights

    A group of U.N experts has criticized Sri Lanka's requirement that those who die of COVID-19 be cremated, even it goes against a family's religious beliefs, and warned that decisions based on “discrimination and aggressive nationalism” could incite hatred and violence. The experts, who are part of the Special Procedures of the U.N Human Rights Council, said in a statement Monday that rule amounts to a human rights violation. “We deplore the implementation of such public health decisions based on discrimination, aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism amounting to persecution of Muslims and other minorities in the country,” the experts said.

  • Let's Answer Dr. Jill Biden's Call to 'Join Forces'

    "Our veterans, families and caregivers will benefit from the return of Joining Forces, and our nation will as well."

  • China, New Zealand ink trade deal as Beijing calls for reduced global barriers

    China and New Zealand signed a deal on Tuesday upgrading a free trade pact to give exports from the Pacific nation greater access to the world's second-largest economy. The pact comes as Beijing seeks to establish itself as a strong advocate of multilateralism after a bruising trade war with the United States, at a time when the coronavirus has forced the closure of many international borders. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed the signing of the expanded deal.

  • Trump-appointed judges could slow down the Biden revolution

    Donald Trump may be out of office, but his legacy is likely to throw a spanner in the works for the Biden revolution. The Democrats control the White House, the House of Representatives and, with the aid of Kamala Harris’s casting vote, the Senate. But it took less than a week for a Trump-appointed judge to slam the brakes on a Biden immigration initiative. US District Judge Drew Tipton issued a restraining order preventing the new administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on deportations. His ruling was a foretaste of what is to come over the next few years. Immigration, of course, is one of the biggest areas of contention between the parties. While Donald Trump was in power, the Democrats repeatedly – and often successfully - went to court to block immigration restrictions. Think back to the ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. It was repeatedly knocked back by the courts. It had to be rewritten time and time again before finally getting approved by the Supreme Court. It is hardly surprising that the Republicans will use the courts to delay – and if possible block - the Biden administration where it can.

  • Singapore detains 16-year-old over plans to attack mosques

    Authorities in Singapore said Wednesday that they had detained without trial a 16-year-old student who made detailed plans and preparations to launch “terrorist attacks” on two mosques with a machete. The Internal Security Department said the Singaporean teen was inspired by an Australian gunman who killed 51 worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019. The teen was detained in December, and was the youngest terror suspect to be held under the country's Internal Security Act, it added.

  • DHS issues bulletin warning of 'heightened threat environment' in the U.S.

    The Department of Homeland Security has issued a bulletin warning that extremists could "continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence" around the United States. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security David Pekoske issued a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin on Wednesday, citing a "heightened threat environment across the United States" that "DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful presidential inauguration." The bulletin comes three weeks after supporters of former President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election, stormed the Capitol building in a violet riot to disrupt Congress' certification of the election results. "Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence," DHS said. The DHS also said it's concerned that extremists "may be emboldened" by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, though it added that domestic extremists have been "motivated by a range of issues, including anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force." The last such advisory issued by DHS using this alert system was related to a potential threat from Iran following a U.S. strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, ABC News reports. The White House last week announced that Biden has ordered a threat assessment focused on domestic extremism to be conducted in coordination with DHS in the wake of the Capitol riot. "The January 6 assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known: the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. More stories from theweek.comMitch McConnell is the GOATWho is the Cinderella in the GameStop fairy tale?The left's fake Senate majority

  • Hungary, Ukraine top diplomats aim to defuse dispute over minority rights

    The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine were expected to meet in Kyiv on Wednesday for talks on repairing badly strained relations but Budapest said its diplomatic missions in the ex-Soviet republic had received threats of "bloodletting" violence. The two countries are at loggerheads over the right of some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia in western Ukraine to use their native tongue, especially in education. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government in Budapest has responded by blocking Kyiv's efforts to build closer ties with NATO and the European Union, of which Hungary is a member.

  • Biden’s new sign language interpreter runs a right-wing Facebook group and has been pictured in a MAGA hat

    One video featuring Heather Mewshaw is titled ‘Joe Biden is literally and legally not the President elect’

  • Netherlands rocked by third night of protests

    Police in the Netherlands arrested at least 70 people on Monday after riots broke out across the country for a third night in a row. In Rotterdam, anti-lockdown demonstrators started fires and clashed with police in protest of a new night-time curfew. There were similar scenes in Amsterdam, as well as the smaller centres of Haarlem, Geleen and Den Bosch. The 9pm to 4:30am curfew came into force on Saturday evening to curb the spread of coronavirus. It's the country's first nationwide curfew since World War Two. Many say it's not necessary as cases of COVID-19 are falling in the Netherlands, with the lowest number of cases reported on Monday since Dec. 1. But the government is worried about a highly contagious UK variant of the disease spreading. The unrest started over the weekend, when protesters in several cities looted stores, started fires, and clashed with police. In one case knives were thrown at police and a COVID-19 testing station was burned down. The events resulted in 240 arrests and thousands of fines were handed out for defying the curfew. Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, condemned what he called the "criminal violence" of the weekend: "What we saw has nothing to do with fighting for freedom. We didn't take all these measures for fun, we did so because we are fighting against the virus and it's the virus which is actually robbing our freedom." Schools and non-essential shops in the Netherlands have been shut since mid-December, following the closure of bars and restaurants two months earlier.

  • Thai court acquits 80-year-old writer of defaming monarchy

    An 80-year-old writer accused of defaming Thailand's monarchy in 2015 because of comments he made at a public seminar about the constitution was acquitted Tuesday by the Criminal Court. The court ruled that Bundit Aneeya had not violated the lese majeste law because he had not specifically referred to royalty and had not used rude language. The court last week gave a record sentence of 43 1/2 years under the law to a woman arrested six years ago who posted audio clips online deemed critical of the monarchy.

  • Here Are The Brightest Decor Buys of the Season

    Let’s get loudOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Nicola Sturgeon urges Boris Johnson to cancel Scotland visit as journey 'not essential'

    Nicola Sturgeon has urged Boris Johnson to cancel his visit to Scotland on Thursday, arguing the trip is not "essential" and could encourage people to break Covid travel restrictions. Ms Sturgeon insisted the Prime Minister was "not unwelcome" and she was not telling him to "stay away", but made it clear she did not think his visit could be justified within the coronavirus rules. Speaking at her daily Covid briefing, the First Minister said: "Boris Johnson travelling from London to wherever in Scotland" did not meet the "essential" benchmark needed to carry out such a journey. She said political leaders have a "duty to lead by example" and the test that should be applied was not "things I would like to do right now." Ms Sturgeon rejected the argument that Mr Johnson has an important figurehead role to play highlighting progress on vaccine development and rollout in the UK to boost public morale. But Downing Street said it is a "fundamental part" of the Prime Minister's job description to be the UK Government's "physical representative" and to make himself "visible and accessible." Earlier this month, Mr Johnson visited Oxford Biomedica to witness the manufacturing process of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. It is thought he could also visit a vaccination centre, highlighting the UK Government handing over almost a million doses to Ms Sturgeon's SNP administration to distribute to Scots.

  • Turkey-Greece talks held in 'very positive' atmosphere, Ankara says

    Bilateral talks between Turkey and Greece to resolve long-standing maritime disputes, which resumed on Monday after a five-year hiatus, were held in a "very positive" atmosphere, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday. Speaking at a news conference in Ankara with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney, Cavusoglu said the talks had focused on "whatever was discussed in the first 60 rounds", and urged Greece to refrain from "provocations" at a time when Ankara was trying to establish a positive agenda with the EU.