Biden's Cabinet picks marked by obsession with diversity

Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza reacts to president-elect's boasts about the makeup of his advisers

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  • The disappointing downfall of Dr. Deborah Birx

    Along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Birx was seen as a potential counter to Trump and those who abetted his worst impulses.

  • Disgraced New York politician found limping by Ohio roadside 23 years after fleeing justice

    The former politician disappeared when he was sentenced for selling pistols without a permit

  • 1st batch of approved COVID vaccines reaches Latin America

    The first formally approved batch of coronavirus vaccine to arrive in Latin America was met with ceremonies fitting a VIP on Wednesday — flags, television cameras and Cabinet-level dignitaries lined up along the runway in Mexico. On the other end of the region, meanwhile, Argentina announced it had approved two vaccines, including one for which it has no distribution deal and another from Russia. A DHL flight touched down at Mexico City's international airport and a ground crew unloaded the first batches of ultra-cold vaccines produced by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech.

  • A Brexit deal looks imminent – but will Boris Johnson be able to sell it to the Conservatives?

    With just hours to go until Christmas, it was only natural that Downing Street would want to give the beleaguered public an early present in the form of a prospective Brexit deal. With millions more people set to be placed under Tier 4 Covid restrictions and queues of lorries at Dover prompting panic buying in supermarkets, here, finally, was a glimmer of good news. Yet as the UK and the EU continue to finalise the small print on what is expected to be an imminent agreement, it remains to be seen whether Boris Johnson will be able to sell it to a Conservative Party that has spent the last 40 years at odds over Europe. The mood among Tory Brexiteers on Wednesday night was described as "sceptical and suspicious" as the world awaited a plume of white smoke over Brussels. Already wound up by the announcement that more constituencies will be placed into the highest band of coronavirus measures on Boxing Day, seasonal goodwill between MPs and Number 10 is in notably short supply. As one prominent Tory leaver told The Telegraph: "Like everyone else, I don't trust Downing Street an inch right now. Obviously we will have to wait until any deal is published, but what we cannot have from the Prime Minister is another cop out. "The agreement on fish is going to be hugely significant because it has nothing to do with a trade deal – it's about our territory." It certainly did not bode well that a French official had gone around briefing anyone who would listen that "the British made huge concessions" in the last 48 hours, "mostly on fishing". Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was quick out of the traps, tweeting that the Government wanted a "Christmas Eve announcement to hide the fisheries sell-out".

  • Former police officer pardoned by President Trump speaks out: 'This means the world to me'

    Stephanie Mohr, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after her K-9 police dog bit an illegal immigrant while responding to a burglary, speaks out after the pardon on 'Fox & Friends.'

  • Ireland breathes sigh of relief as 'least bad' Brexit deal clinched

    Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin expressed relief on Thursday after neighbouring Britain agreed a last-minute trade deal with the European Union which he said was the "least bad version of Brexit possible". Ireland, the EU member state most exposed to the fall-out from Britain's departure, was an important player during four rocky years of exit negotiations in which it sought to shelter its highly exposed agricultural sector and avoid a hard border infrastructure with the British region of Northern Ireland.

  • The Blackwater guards Trump pardoned were jailed for a massacre of civilians, including 2 kids

    The 15 people President Trump pardoned Tuesday evening include the first two congressmen who endorsed him for president — former Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), both convicted of financial crimes — two people jailed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and four private guards working for Blackwater who were serving long sentences for an unprovoked and unnecessary 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead, including two boys, ages 8 and 11.Blackwater, since sold and renamed Academi, is a private military contractor outfit headed at the time by Erik Prince, brother to Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The Nisour Square massacre marked a low point in U.S.-Iraqi relations after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and federal prosecutors spent years bringing the four Blackwater guards — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard — to justice.After a federal judge in 2009 dismissed the first murder and manslaughter convictions of the Blackwater contractors, ruling the evidence was tainted, then-Vice President Joe Biden said at a press conference in Baghdad that the men had not been acquitted and the U.S. would appeal the decision. "In subsequent years, as the case continued, the contractors became known in conservative media as the 'Biden Four,'" The Washington Post reports. Slatten was eventually sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, while the other three were convicted of manslaughter and given sentences of 12 to 15 years."Campaigns urging that the four receive presidential pardons began in earnest last year, most arguing that the men were veterans still in engaged in quasi military duties," the Post reports, noting that Trump has already pardoned two Army officers convicted or awaiting trial on murder charges for shooting Afghan civilians. In a 2009 column at Fox News, Duncan Hunter — still in Congress — called "the Biden Four" brave "political pawns" who were "sent to prison for doing their jobs."More stories from theweek.com What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? 7 cartoons about America's COVID Christmas Our pandemic half-lives

  • Should You Be Living in a Hotel?

    7 extended-stay accommodations that transform work-from-home into work-from-anywhereOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • South Dakota’s controversial governor wields flamethrower in Instagram post

    'Is it too late to add something to my Christmas list,’ she wrote.

  • Israel arrests Palestinian suspect in West Bank killing

    Israel's internal security agency said Thursday it detained a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli woman near a West Bank settlement earlier in the week. The Shin Bet said a Palestinian suspect from the vicinity in the northern West Bank was apprehended as part of a joint operation with the Israel police and military. Esther Horgen, 52, a mother of six from the West Bank settlement of Tal Menashe, was found dead in a nearby forest on Monday after she had gone missing a day earlier.

  • Dog crushed to death by owner during confrontation with mugger

    A dog was crushed to death by its owner after she was knocked over during a confrontation with a mugger in an “unprovoked and unacceptable” attack. Norfolk Terrier, Rufus was crushed while the woman tried to pull the thief off her husband. The man, 56 and his 36 year old wife were walking their two dogs in Westminster, central London, when they were approached by a man pushing a bike along the footpath. The man, who wore a face covering and gloves, stopped the pair before pulling the watch off the man's arm, causing scratches to his forearm. The pair began to struggle and it was at this point that the wife tried to pull the mugger away during the attack at 4.15pm in Spanish Place on August 4.

  • HK court grants tycoon Jimmy Lai bail in national security, fraud case

    A Hong Kong court granted HK$10 million ($1.3 million) bail on Wednesday to media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the highest profile pro-democracy activist charged under the city's new national security law on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. Lai is one of the financial hub's most ardent critics of Beijing, while his Next Media group is considered one of the key remaining bastions of media freedom.

  • Trump’s final days: A transition unlike any other in U.S. history

    In the past 24 hours, President Trump has vetoed the military spending bill, threatened to upend COVID-19 relief, and issued controversial pardons.

  • Neilia Hunter Biden: How the death of Joe Biden’s first wife shaped his career in Washington

    Young Delaware senator’s devastating losses shaped life and career in Washington

  • Australian held in China hopes for justice despite torture

    A Chinese-Australian writer has told family he has been tortured during almost two years in detention in China but maintains confidence he will receive justice in court. Yang Hengjun was taken into custody upon arriving in Guangzhou in southern China from New York in January last year with his wife, Yuan Xiaoliang, and his 14-year-old stepdaughter. “After two years, especially with torture, more than 300 interrogations and a lot of verbal abuse, I am now in a place of deeper retrospective and introspective meditation,” Yang wrote in a recent holiday season letter addressed to his wife, sons and friends, colleagues and readers.

  • Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers defend divorce plan

    Ghislaine Maxwell only discussed getting a divorce from her husband before her arrest to "protect" him from the "terrible consequences" of being publicly linked to her, according to new court documents. As Ms Maxwell seeks bail prosecutors have argued that the divorce discussions undermined her claim that her marriage to tech CEO Scott Borgerson was a strong reason for her to stay in the United States to face trial. In a newly filed claim, lawyers for Ms Maxwell said: "Prior to her arrest Ms Maxwell and her spouse had discussed the idea of getting a divorce as an additional way to create distance between Ms Maxwell and her spouse to protect him... from the terrible consequences of being associated with her." They argued there was later no reason to continue the idea of a divorce, which "neither of them wanted in the first place", and that the US government had offered "nothing but unsupported innuendo." They added that the suggestion was "particularly callous and belied by the facts".

  • Turkey hopes to turn new page with U.S. and EU in 2021, Erdogan says

    ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey hopes to "turn a new page" in its ties with the United States and European Union, and that Ankara had been subjected to double standards by both its NATO ally Washington and the bloc. This month Washington sanctioned Turkey over its acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defences, and the EU also prepared punitive measures over Turkey's dispute with members Greece and Cyprus over Mediterranean offshore rights. Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, Erdogan said "artificial agendas" tested Turkey's ties with the EU and United States in 2020, but he hoped things would improve.

  • A Lincoln Project ad reportedly turned Trump against Mike Pence. Pence is now bending.

    President Trump has turned against everyone he thinks isn't fighting to keep him in office after he lost the Nov. 3 election, according to several reports and Trump tweets. And among those the president considers insufficiently loyal is Vice President Mike Pence, Axios reports. "A source who spoke to Trump said the president was complaining about Pence and brought up a Lincoln Project ad that claims that Pence is 'backing away' from Trump. This ad has clearly got inside Trump's head, the source said," per Axios.Some of the Lincoln Project's ads are explicitly aimed at getting inside Trump's head, and one spot about former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale reportedly helped lead to Parscale's ouster. Pence appears to be taking Trump's feelings seriously. Trump can't fire Pence, but "the vice president does not want to leave on bad terms with the president, I can assure you that," an administration official with knowledge of Pence's thinking told The Washington Post.When Pence addressed the pro-Trump group Turning Point USA in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, he fed them "the mirage that the election fight was not yet over," the Post reports. "As our election contest continues, I'll make you a promise: We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted," Pence said. "We're going to win Georgia, we're going to save America, and we'll never stop fighting to make America great again." Trump's loss in Georgia has already been affirmed several times, including after both a hand recount and a machine recount.The big challenge for Pence will be presiding over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress that will ratify President-elect Biden's electoral victory. "Pence's role on Jan. 6 has begun to loom large in Trump's mind," Axios reports. "Trump would view Pence performing his constitutional duty — and validating the election result — as the ultimate betrayal." Pence and his advisers "have begun thinking about how to handle Jan. 6 and escape Trump's ire, but no final decisions have been made," the Post adds.More stories from theweek.com What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? 7 cartoons about America's COVID Christmas Our pandemic half-lives

  • Turkish official says CoronaVac vaccine 91.25% effective

    An experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is 91.25% effective, a Turkish health official said on Thursday. Dr. Serhat Unal, an infectious disease expert serving on Turkey’s medical board, said the finding is based on early results of late-stage trials in the country and added that the vaccine is safe. CoronaVac is a so-called inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech.

  • Nearly 2.1 million have voted early in U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia

    Nearly 2.1 million people have cast ballots in a U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia that will determine whether Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the fate of President-elect Joe Biden's agenda, according to state data published Thursday. More than a quarter of the state's registered voters have either cast ballots early or through the mail, the state's figures show, a sign that turnout in the pair of Senate races will be high. About 4 million Georgians voted early in the November election, in which Democrat Biden defeated President Donald Trump.