Missing rideshare driver found dead in Allentown was mother of 4

A rideshare driver who had been missing for several days has been found dead in Allentown, Pa.

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  • Trump is reportedly planning a made-for-TV exit on Air Force One from the White House to a rally on Inauguration Day, hoping to pull viewers from Biden

    Trump is reportedly considering breaking democratic tradition by boycotting Joe Biden's inauguration and staging a rally instead.

  • U.S. Supreme Court hears World War Two-era Jewish property claims

    The lingering legacy of World War Two reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday as the justices weighed two cases involving claims by Jews in Germany and Hungary and their descendants whose property was taken amid persecution that culminated in the Holocaust. The justices heard arguments in the two cases that hinge upon a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that limits the jurisdiction of American courts over lawsuits against foreign governments. In one case, the justices considered Germany's bid to avoid facing in a U.S. court a lawsuit that accused its former Nazi government of pressuring Jewish art dealers to sell a collection of medieval artwork in the 1930s.

  • As virus spreads, Kansas hospital runs out of staff

    The radiology technician slept in an RV in the parking lot of his rural Kansas hospital for more than a week because his co-workers were out sick with COVID-19 and no one else was available to take X-rays. A doctor and physician assistant tested positive on the same day in November, briefly leaving the hospital without anyone who could write prescriptions or oversee patient care. The hospital is full, but diverting patients isn’t an option because surrounding medical centers are overwhelmed.

  • Hundreds pay respects at funeral of Chechen refugee who beheaded French teacher

    Several hundred people paid their respects last week at a funeral in Russia for the Chechnyan teenager who beheaded a teacher in France over cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Samuel Paty, a 47-year old history teacher, became the target of a hostile online campaign after discussing the cartoons in a class on freedom of speech and was eventually attacked and murdered by Abdoulakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, in October. Anzorov was shot dead by police shortly after the attack on October 16. His body was repatriated to Russia last week to allow his family to bury him in his ancestral village in the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya. Several hundred people attended the funeral on Friday in the village of Shalazhi, chanting prayers on their way to the cemetery, a video released by several media outlets showed. Salman Magamadov, the village chief, insisted in an interview with the Podyem media outlet on Monday that Anzorov received an ordinary burial without “any special honours”. Prominent Muslim clerics in Russia have used the attack to condemn French authorities for mocking their religion. Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, said French President Emmanuel Macron was to blame for allegedly encouraging insults against Muslims. Mr Kadyrov later sought to distance his region from the attack, insisting that the teenager, an ethnic Chechen, was born in Moscow and moved to France when he was a small child.

  • Trump suggests Rudy Giuliani's crusade to overturn the election results is 'more important' than when Giuliani led New York's 9/11 response

    Giuliani was lauded for his 9/11 response, but his public image has cratered as he spins a web of increasingly incoherent conspiracy theories.

  • Despite Biden pledge, coronavirus bill in Congress now may be all Americans get: analysts

    President-elect Joe Biden has called the $908 billion coronavirus aid bill taking shape in Congress a "downpayment" toward a bigger stimulus next year, but if it passes, that is all U.S. businesses and workers should count on, economists and political analysts say. There is likely to be little appetite among Republicans for supporting a second round of $1 trillion-plus spending after Biden takes office on Jan. 20 - a task that would be made more difficult if Republicans retain control of the Senate in Jan. 5 runoff elections in Georgia - said John Lieber, managing director of the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy. "If they do the full bipartisan $900 billion, then I think it's a big ask to do anything new after Biden takes office," said Lieber, a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

  • Former Alabama state senator dies of Covid, warns in his last words, 'We messed up'

    "We let our guards down. Please tell everybody to be careful. This is real, and if you get diagnosed, get help immediately," former Sen. Larry Dixon said.

  • Emirati royal buys 50 per cent stake in Israeli football club

    A member of the Emirati royal family has bought a 50 per cent stake in an Israeli premier league club, the latest major deal to emerge from a normalisation treaty struck by the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan signed the deal with Beitar Jerusalem, a controversial club which has never signed an Arab player and has battled with a reputation for anti-Muslim racism. "I am thrilled to be a partner in such a glorious club that I have heard so much of and in such a great city, the capital of Israel and one of the holiest cities in the world,” Sheikh Hamad said in a statement on the club's website. The reference to Jerusalem as the "capital" of Israel is noteworthy as the city is claimed by both the Israelis and the Palestinians as their own, and is one of the biggest sources of tension in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A spokesman for the club said that Beitar would set up a new board of directors and that Sheikh Hamad’s son would represent him on it. Sheikh Hamad has also pledged to invest 300m shekels (£69m) in the club over the next ten years. The purchase is the latest in a string of lucrative deals made possible by the Abraham Accords, an agreement to end hostilities between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

  • Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner purchase $30 million Indian Creek plot — report

    Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump appear to be moving to Miami-Dade.

  • Iran says US 'got the message' on tense exchanges in Gulf

    Iran said Monday it was glad the United States “got the message” and modified its behavior in the Persian Gulf, after the top U.S. Navy official in the region said his forces had reached a state of deterrence with Iran after months of regional attacks and seizures at sea. “Unfortunately, the U.S. has often had an unprofessional approach toward Iran’s navy,” he said. Paparo, who oversees the Navy's 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said the two sides had reached a state of “uneasy deterrence” and that he had a “healthy respect” for Iran's regular navy and the naval forces of its Revolutionary Guard.

  • Schumer: Biden ‘Considering’ Forgiving $50,000 in Student Loan Debt via Executive Action

    President-elect Joe Biden is “considering” forgiving $50,000 in federal student loan debt for low-income and middle class students, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Monday.Schumer held a press conference alongside Democratic Congressmen-elect Ritchie Torres, Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman of New York, during which the group announced they have “come to the conclusion” that Biden can “forgive $50,000 of debt the first day he becomes president.”“You don’t need Congress, all you need is the flick of a pen and President-elect Biden — then President Biden — can make this happen,” Schumer said.> JUST IN: Sen. Chuck Schumer: President-elect Joe Biden is "considering" forgiving $50,000 in federal student loan debt for all borrowers. pic.twitter.com/KS4WNgAb79> > -- The Hill (@thehill) December 7, 2020He added that the group is urging Biden to choose a secretary of education who will support student loan forgiveness because “it’s up to the secretary of education officially, but if President Biden wants it, I’m sure it will happen.”“This debt is a huge burden on the backs of our students standing in the way of them and their economy and it stays with them for a very long time,” he said.He said they are calling on Biden to take executive action to administratively cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for federal student loan borrowers with an income below $125,000, and to do so in a way that the borrowers would have no tax liability when they receive the forgiveness.Schumer said he has spoken to Biden about "how important" the loan forgiveness is and that he is "considering" it.Asked if Biden will have the executive authority to forgive the debt, the New York Senator said the president-elect is researching that and "I believe when he does his research, he will find that he does."When asked what the forgiveness would mean for families who have “made sacrifices to pay off student loans” Schumer said it would be “good for everybody.”“Lots of students paid off student loans but it’s such a burden it’s good for everybody to make sure that this debt is vanquished,” he said. “It’s never been this high.”He added that when he finished college it cost $1,700 but “people can’t afford it now.”

  • Thousands protest in London against India's farming reforms

    Thousands of people protested and blocked traffic in central London on Sunday over Indian agricultural reforms that have triggered mass demonstrations in India, and police made 13 arrests over breaches of COVID regulations. Tens of thousands of farmers have protested in India against three laws the government says are meant to overhaul antiquated procurement procedures and give growers more options to sell their produce. Farmers fear the legislation, passed in September, will eventually dismantle India's regulated markets and stop the government from buying wheat and rice at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers.

  • Seoul metropolitan area now a 'Covid-19 war zone' as South Korean capital records surge in cases

    South Korea’s capital is now in a “Covid-19 war zone,” the health minister warned on Monday as the East Asian nation struggles to contain another strong surge of the virus. This week began with 615 new infections, bringing the total to more than 5,300 over the past ten days. Monday was the 30th consecutive day of triple-digit figures - an alarming landmark for a country that has been hailed as a pandemic success story because of its robust testing, tracing and treatment system, and the high level of mask-wearing. The nation has seen 38,161 and 549 deaths this year but there are now 7,873 active cases and concerns about rising hospital admissions. The latest spike in cases has been linked to private gatherings and facilities vulnerable to infections like schools, hospitals, restaurants and care homes. The first large Covid-19 outbreak in February took the country by surprise after it spread silently through mass gatherings of the secretive Shincheonji sect in the southern city of Daegu. The spread was beaten back by strict social distancing and isolation measures, easily available testing and tracing methods that involve mobile phone tracing and the use of surveillance cameras and credit card details. The borders have also been strictly controlled and most visitors required to quarantine for 14 days.

  • 10 Indoor Plant Stands That Seriously Stand Out

    Take your home garden to the next level this winterOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • A pro-Trump doctor who bragged about not wearing a mask while treating patients had his medical license suspended

    Dr. Steven LaTulippe attended a "Stop the Steal" rally last month and boasted publicly that he and his staff have never worn masks in their clinic.

  • Rep. Trent Kelly Becomes Highest-Ranking Military Member in Congress

    An engineer and combat veteran, Kelly served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and deployed to Iraq in 2005 as operations officer.

  • Brazil's president rejects COVID-19 vaccine, undermining a century of progress toward universal inoculation

    The world is eagerly awaiting the release of several COVID-19 vaccines, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is not. “I’m not going to take it. It’s my right,” he said in a Nov. 26 social media broadcast. Bolsonaro, who came down with COVID-19 in July, has also criticized face masks. He and his more faithful supporters oppose any suggestion of mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. Vaccine resistance has a long history in Brazil. In November 1904, thousands of people in the city of Rio de Janeiro protested government-mandated smallpox vaccinations in a famous revolt that nearly ended with a coup. Making modern BrazilThe smallpox vaccine had arrived in Brazil almost a century earlier. But the syringes were long, left skin pockmarked and could transmit other diseases such as syphilis. Between 1898 and 1904, only 2% to 10% of Rio’s population was vaccinated yearly, according to historian Sidney Chalhoub. In 1904, smallpox killed 0.4% of Rio residents – a higher percentage of the population than COVID-19’s victims in New York City this year.But these were not the only reasons Brazil made vaccinations mandatory in 1904. As part of a “modernization” plan to attract European immigration and foreign investment, President Rodrigues Alves was committed to eradicating epidemics – not just smallpox, but also yellow fever and the bubonic plague.To rid Rio de Janeiro, then the nation’s capital, of sanitary hazards while opening space for Parisian-style avenues and buildings, hundreds of tenements were demolished between 1903 and 1909. Almost 40,000 people – mostly Afro-Brazilians but also poor Italian, Portuguese and Spanish immigrants – were evicted and removed from downtown Rio. Many were left homeless, forced to resettle on nearby hillsides or in distant rural areas. Meanwhile, public health agents accompanied by armed police systematically disinfected homes with sulfur that destroyed furniture and other belongings – whether residents welcomed them or not. Conspiracy and barricadesPoliticians and military officers who opposed President Alves saw opportunity in the outrage these health initiatives caused. They stoked discontent.With the help of labor organizers and news editors, Alves’ opponents led a campaign against Brazil’s public health mandates throughout 1904. Newspapers reported on violent home disinfections and forced vaccinations. Senators and other public figures declared that mandatory vaccinations encroached on people’s homes and bodies.In mid-November of that year, thousands of protesters gathered in public squares to rally against public health efforts. Rio police reacted with disproportionate force, triggering six days of unrest in the city. A racially diverse crowd of students, construction workers, port workers and other residents fought back, armed with rocks, housewares or the tools of their trade, flipping over streetcars to barricade the streets. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, conspirators were mobilizing young military cadets. Their plan: to overthrow Alves’ government. Their scheme was foiled when the president called upon both the Army and the Navy to contain protesters and detain alleged insurgents. Brazil’s great vaccine revolt was soon suppressed. The language of rightsAfterward, newspapers portrayed protesters as an ignorant mass, manipulated by cunning politicians. They deemed one of the uprising’s popular leaders, Horácio José da Silva – known as “Black Silver” – a “disorderly thug.”But Brazil’s vaccine revolt was more than a cynical political manipulation. Digging into archives, historians like me are learning what really motivated the uprising.The violent and segregationist features of Alves’ urban plan are one obvious answer. In early 20th-century Brazil, most people – women, those who couldn’t read, the unemployed – couldn’t vote. For these Brazilians, the streets were the only place to have their voices heard.But why would they so virulently oppose methods that controlled the spread of disease?Delving into newspapers and legal records, I have found that critics of Brazil’s 1904 public health drive often expressed their opposition in terms of “inviolability of the home,” both on the streets and in courts.For elite Brazilians, invoking this constitutional right was about protecting the privacy of their households, where men ruled over wives, children and servants. Public health agents threatened this patriarchal authority by demanding access to homes and women’s bodies.Poor men and women in Rio also held patriarchal values. But for them there was more than privacy at stake in 1904. Throughout the 19th century, enslaved Afro-Brazilians had formed families and built homes, even on plantations, carving out spaces of relative freedom from their masters. After slavery was abolished in 1888, many freed Afro-Brazilians shared crowded tenements with immigrants. By the time of Alves’s vaccination drive, the poor of Rio had been fighting eviction and police violence for decades. For Black Brazilians, then, defending their rights to choose what to do – or not to do – with their homes and bodies was part of a much longer struggle for social, economic and political inclusion. Deadly learning experienceFour years after the 1904 revolt, Rio was struck by another smallpox epidemic. With so many people unvaccinated, deaths doubled; almost 1% of the city perished.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]It was a deadly learning experience. From then on, Brazilian leaders framed mandatory smallpox, measles and other vaccines as a means to protect the common good, and invested in educational campaigns to explain why. Throughout the 20th century, vaccinations were extremely successful in Brazil. Since the 1990s, 95% of children have been vaccinated, though the numbers are dropping.Today, Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As in the past, Afro-Brazilians are hurting more than others.By invoking Brazilians’ individual right not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, President Bolsonaro is ignoring the lessons of 1904 – undermining a century of hard work fighting disease in Brazil.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Pedro Cantisano, University of Nebraska Omaha.Read more: * COVID-19 is deadlier for black Brazilians, a legacy of structural racism that dates back to slavery * In Brazil’s raging pandemic, domestic workers fear for their lives – and their jobsPedro Cantisano 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.

  • Former Florida health official posts video of state police entering her home, drawing their weapons

    Rebekah Jones, a former Florida Health Department official, tweeted a video in which it appears state police entered her home to confiscate her computer and other devices. The video appears to show police drawing their weapons.

  • EU to discuss measures against Turkey in eastern Mediterranean row: Germany

    European foreign ministers will discuss measures against Turkey at their meeting on Monday as there has been no de-escalation in the conflict in the eastern Mediterranean in the past months, Germany's foreign minister said on Monday. "Germany has worked hard to facilitate a dialogue between the European Union and Turkey over the past months," Heiko Maas said before meeting his European Union counterparts.

  • San Francisco officer who seriously injured suspect indicted

    Accused burglar, whose leg was amputated after arrest, also charged; DA declines to give details before arraignment.