U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams encourages Americans to continue practicing health safety measures amid vaccine rollout, new coronavirus strain in Britain.
Sen. Mitt Romney said President Trump's continuing struggle to overturn the November election is both "sad" and "embarrassing."
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris campaigned in Georgia on Monday for Senate Democratic hopefuls Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, emphasizing the “need” for them in Washington.
$600 direct payments could be issued as soon as next week, Treasury Secretary says
On Monday, outgoing Attorney General William Barr is expected to announce criminal charges against Abu Agila Masud, a former Libyan intelligence officer, in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, three U.S. officials familiar with the matter told CNN.Masud is believed to be in Libya, and CNN reports that U.S. officials are talking with their Libyan counterparts about how to take him into custody.Flight 103 was en route from London to New York when a bomb blew the plane up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The terrorist attack killed 270 people, with a majority of the victims from the United States. Monday is the 32nd anniversary of the bombing.When Barr served as attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration, the United States charged two Libyan men in the bombing: Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah. After Libya refused to extradite the men to the U.S., it was finally agreed upon that they could be tried by a Scottish court in the neutral Netherlands.Fhimah was acquitted and Megrahi was sentenced to 27 years; after being diagnosed with cancer, he was released from prison in 2009 and died three years later. In 2003, former Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi accepted responsibility for the bombing, but claimed he did not order the attack.More stories from theweek.com Democrats wanted a tax credit for low income families. Republicans wanted a tax break for '3 martini lunches.' Are the worst days of the Trump presidency still ahead? $900 billion relief package extends moratorium on evictions, weekly unemployment benefits
To create his dream home, Love drew inspiration from New York’s industrial past with a hint of the American WestOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Kuwait’s Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Sabah, the eldest son of the late emir, who emerged as an influential reformer in the oil-rich Gulf sheikhdom, died on Sunday, the country’s state-run news agency reported. Sheikh Nasser, who held various government posts over the years including minister of defense and deputy prime minister, had been considered a top contender for crown prince following the death in September of his father, the 91-year-old Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. Although he drew popular support for his ambitious mega-projects and anti-corruption efforts, he was passed over for his uncle, Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, a more cautious choice of heir apparent at a turbulent time for Kuwait’s politics and the wider region.
Skylar Mack was sentenced to prison in the Cayman Islands for breaking Covid isolation protocols. Her family has appealed to the U.S. government for help.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government approved a ninth consecutive rise in military spending on Monday, funding the development of an advanced stealth fighter and longer-range anti-ship missile to counter China's growing military power. The Ministry of Defense will get a record 5.34 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) for the year starting in April, up 1.1% from this year. With Suga's large majority in parliament, enactment of the budget is all but certain.
Pope Francis on Sunday appeared to add his snub to widespread criticism of an unorthodox Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square, telling visitors to visit a nearby exhibition of traditional crèches instead.
House Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that all members of the House Intelligence Committee should receive a classified FBI briefing on Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.McCarthy received a closed-door FBI briefing on Swalwell's close ties to Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, on Friday and said afterwards that he thinks Swalwell should not be on the House Intelligence Committee."I’m going to request that every single member on the House Intelligence Committee gets the exact same briefing from the FBI that I did," McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News. "Because if this individual is sitting on this committee — Eric Swalwell — they’ve got to know the background of what has gone on. I can’t talk about the classified part, but you know what’s out there in the press.”“No one that was in that room could walk out and say Eric Swalwell should be on the intel committee," McCarthy said of the briefing. "I don’t know — they had a briefing before in 2015 and I don’t know what that briefing was like compared to this one, but it could not have been the same.”Between 2011 and 2015, Fang developed close relationships with Swalwell, bundling donations for the up and coming lawmaker and even placing an intern in his office.Since Swalwell's ties to Fang came to light earlier this month, Republicans on the intelligence committee have demanded answers, some even calling for an investigation and for him to be immediately removed from the committee in order to deprive him of the access to classified information that comes with membership on the high-profile panel.Fang, believed to have been acting at the behest of China’s Ministry of State Security, helped fundraise for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign and helped place at least one intern in the California Democrat’s office.Fang also had romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors over a three-year period. Swalwell, who married shortly afterwards in 2016, declined this week to answer questions about whether his relationship with Fang was sexual or romantic in nature.In 2015, federal investigators briefed Swalwell on their concerns about Fang, at which point he says he severed all his ties with her. However, Swalwell’s brother and father remained connected with Fang on Facebook.Swalwell said Tuesday that he has committed no wrongdoing and expressed confidence that the controversy will not threaten his seat on the House Intelligence Committee.“The one answer that I got out of that briefing was there is no way Eric Swalwell should continue to serve on the intel committee,” McCarthy added, noting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have to remove Swalwell from the committee if he refuses to step down.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly uncovered details of his own poisoning by successfully duping a Russian agent into revealing them.Navalny, a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is recovering after being poisoned in August. On Monday, CNN reported that an agent from the toxins team at Russia's FSB security service made the "stunning disclosure" that Navalny was poisoned through a nerve agent planted in his underwear.The way the revelation came about was just as stunning: evidently in a 45-minute phone call in which the agent, who was tasked with trailing Navalny, thought he was speaking with an official from Russia's National Security Council -- but in reality, he was speaking with none other than Navalny himself. Navalny disguised his phone number so it looked like that of Russia's FSB headquarters to dupe the agent, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who ultimately "talked about others involved in the poisoning in the Siberian city of Tomsk, and how he was sent to clean things up," CNN reports. Bellingcat also reported on details from the phone call."Every once in a while, you come across a story, John [Berman], that really leaves your jaw wide open," CNN's Clarissa Ward said on CNN Monday morning. "And this is one of them."Ward added, "Boy, does this conversation punch a giant hole in the Kremlin's narrative, which has always been to say that, 'Well, while the FSB might have been trailing Navlany, that does not prove that they poisoned him.' Well, this certainly would appear to prove it." Read more from Navalny's call at CNN. > EXCLUSIVE: A Russian officer is duped into telling Alexey Navalny how he was poisoned: through his underpants https://t.co/fzrQl65CXc pic.twitter.com/dRBAEFv7ad> > -- New Day (@NewDay) December 21, 2020More stories from theweek.com Democrats wanted a tax credit for low income families. Republicans wanted a tax break for '3 martini lunches.' Are the worst days of the Trump presidency still ahead? $900 billion relief package extends moratorium on evictions, weekly unemployment benefits
Dozens of journalists at Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned media company, have been targeted by advanced spyware in an attack likely linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a cybersecurity watchdog said Sunday. Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said it traced malware that infected the personal phones of 36 journalists, producers, anchors and executives at Al-Jazeera back to the Israel-based NSO Group, which has been widely condemned for selling spyware to repressive governments.
Members of Congress have been publicly receiving shot to build confidence among Americans
Nepal's president dissolved parliament on Sunday at the request of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's cabinet and announced that general elections would be held in April and May, more than a year ahead of schedule. The move plunges the Himalayan country, which has seen revolving-door governance since street protests restored multi-party democracy in 1990, into political turmoil as it battles the coronavirus pandemic. Seven ministers stepped down, including the tourism head, citing Oli's decision to go against the "popular mandate" given to them in the 2017 general election.
An Italian woman has been mauled to death by her five pet Czechoslovakian wolfdogs, prompting a debate over the danger posed by the increasingly popular crossbreed canine. Mariangela Zaffino, a 74-year-old pensioner, was attacked by her five pet dogs in her apartment in the town of Grugliasco near Turin. She was found by her daughter, who said the dogs, a cross between wild wolves and German shepherd dogs that shares many wolfish characteristics, had never shown any signs of being dangerous in the past. Neighbours, however, have questioned the wisdom of Mrs Zaffino and her daughter keeping five large dogs in a small flat. Police are trying to ascertain what may have prompted the dogs, named Ares, Aylen, Artù, Aragorn and Apache, to attack their owner.
Pakistan's military was on high alert in Kashmir on Monday as its prime minister warned India against carrying out any “false flag” operations in the disputed region after a U.N. vehicle in the Pakistan-held part came under attack. Pakistan blamed Friday's attack on India, implying it was aimed at embarrassing Islamabad and harming relations with the international community. India has denied the allegations.
Last week, Fox Business ran a pre-taped segment during Lou Dobbs' show that appeared to debunk the unfounded claims made by some of the network's hosts about corrupted voting machines in November's election. The segment re-aired during Jeanine Pirro's show Sunday. And Newsmax, one of President Trump's favorite outlets, began covering its tracks recently, as well. Much to the chagrin of some of its fans, the network put a page on its website "clarifying" its election conspiracy theory coverage, airing a similar segment on TV, as well.> This is very bizarre. Lou Dobbs ran a segment tonight basically debunking his own lies about Smartmatic voting machines pic.twitter.com/FDM91SPtT1> > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2020> newsmax has put up a page "clarifying" facts around smartmatic and dominion (after the threat of a big lawsuit). watching red-pilled people in the comments grapple with a burst of truth is something https://t.co/to5dvw9Uzq pic.twitter.com/ABNefKn1ji> > — David Mack (@davidmackau) December 21, 2020Ben Smith, The New York Times' media columnist, and others have suggested the shift is related to legal threats from voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion that are alleging defamation. Fox, Smith writes, should take the threat seriously, but it can probably handle drawn-out, expensive litigation, and — despite the opinion of certain hosts — the network, as a whole, doesn't seem too interested in remaining in Trump's good graces these days anyway.The lawsuits could, however, be "existential" for smaller outlets like NewsMax or One America News Network, which would like to transform into a "Trump TV" of sorts going forward, Smith writes. To do that, he says, they'll need big-time investors, but legal action could scare off potential buyers.It's too early to tell how the potential cases would turn out, but the legal experts Smith spoke to think they have legitimate standing. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Democrats wanted a tax credit for low income families. Republicans wanted a tax break for '3 martini lunches.' Are the worst days of the Trump presidency still ahead? $900 billion relief package extends moratorium on evictions, weekly unemployment benefits
The Trump campaign and its allies have filed numerous error-filled suits challenging election results across the country
The United States is monitoring the new strain of COVID-19 emerging in the United Kingdom, multiple U.S. officials said on Sunday, adding that it was unclear whether the mutated variant had made its way to America. Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, added that the UK mutation was "very unlikely" to be resistant to current vaccines, saying: "We can't exclude it, but it's not there now." Other health officials from the outgoing Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration also said they were watching the strain rapidly spreading in Great Britain.
Several European countries have restricted travel from the UK in a bid to ensure that a new, more infectious strain of coronavirus found in England does not spread across the continent. The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Italy have all moved swiftly to ban flights from the UK, while other countries including Germany and France are considering similar measures. Britain on Saturday night alerted the World Health Organisation (WHO) about a new variant of the coronavirus that the Prime Minister said may be "up to 70 percent" more transmissible than earlier strains. Boris Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for more than 16 million people by tightening lockdown measures to halt its spread. The announcement sparked a string of travel bans from its neighbours, as the WHO called on its European members to step up prevention measures in the face of the new variant. "Across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches," a spokeswoman for WHO Europe told AFP. Outside Britain, nine cases of the new strain have already been reported in Denmark, as well as one case in the Netherlands and another in Australia, according to the WHO.
