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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.

  • California Covid patient beats roommate to death with oxygen tank

    Authorities have not yet determined motive for attack

  • Japanese supreme court grants retrial to 84-year-old known as world's longest death-row inmate

    Japan's highest court has upheld a ruling granting a retrial to a man described as the world's longest-serving death row inmate, a lawyer for the 84-year-old said on Wednesday. Iwao Hakamada has lived under a death sentence for more than half a century, after being convicted of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife, and their two teenaged children. Mr Hakamada had confessed to the crime but later recanted in court citing his allegedly brutal police interrogation and planted evidence. In a rare about-face for Japan's rigid justice system, a district court in the central city of Shizuoka in 2014 granted his request for a retrial. The court said investigators could have planted evidence and ordered the former boxer freed. Prosecutors appealed the ruling and won at the Tokyo High Court, prompting Mr Hakamada to move the case to the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday ruled in his favour, backing the retrial.

  • 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? Trump shows up too late to his presidency A Lincoln Project ad reportedly turned Trump against Mike Pence. Pence is now bending.

  • Russia’s New Territory

    In November, Russia gained a slice of somebody else’s country. It did this not through unidentified troops moving across a border, nor through hybrid warfare. Instead, it negotiated its capture in full view of, and without a single question asked by, the United States or the rest of the world.Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh preceded the annexation. The mountainous region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but since a 1994 ceasefire between the two nations has been controlled by ethnic Armenians. The conflict flared up again in September. Two months later came a peace deal, with Russia the winner: It mediated a ceasefire that placed the Kremlin’s ostensibly peacekeeping boots on the ground. America watched idly as this happened.As Armenia’s traditional protector, Russia held the only leverage to convince Armenia to sign this ceasefire. By signing, Yerevan gave up claims to the territories it had occupied within Azerbaijan since 1994 and gained nothing — bar a ceasefire rather than a forced surrender. In return for securing for its ally a marginally smaller humiliation, Moscow gained a present and a presence.In reality — unless America is prepared to engage fully in the peace process — Nagorno-Karabakh is now Russia’s indefinitely. The Kremlin ostensibly controls the territory for five years, with an automatic rollover for an additional five should none of the three parties to the ceasefire object six months before the end of the mandate.Russia certainly won’t. It is now gatekeeper to a region central to Europe’s energy diversification (reducing the role of Russian imports). If the region is strategically important to NATO, that makes it strategically important to the Kremlin.Armenia, for mistrust of Azerbaijan, will want the peacekeepers to stay. The short but brutal conflict has proven conclusively that Armenia cannot win militarily, and that therefore ethnic Armenians must accept either governance by Azerbaijan or the protectorate of Russia. Weak and broken, Yerevan finds it less of a humiliation to accept Russian tutelage in Nagorno-Karabakh, if only to deny an archenemy a complete victory. But this is a longer-term disaster for the Armenians. It means they are effectively trapped in a Russian embrace. They cannot turn west and cannot turn east — either diplomatically or for investment — because the Russians are now in charge.Though traditionally thought of by Moscow as “on the other side,” Azerbaijan — owing to lukewarm support from the United States and EU in recent years — has been steadily deepening diplomatic and economic relations with Russia, in part from necessity and a lack of serious alternatives. Yet now, with Russian military boots on Azerbaijani territory for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow’s leverage has also become economic leverage: By militarily guaranteeing a transport corridor across Armenia — closed before the ceasefire — to Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan, Russia now controls Azerbaijan’s long-sought-after, direct land route from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and Europe.The West certainly could have seen this coming. This is how it always begins: A toehold soon morphs into a footprint. Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, South Ossetia, Abkhazia — the list of examples goes on. Russian presence becomes Russian control: the only logic of Putin’s neo-czarist ambitions.Indeed, now, only a matter of weeks after troop deployment, the Kremlin is maneuvering: Lines on maps have started to bend and flex. On the Russian Ministry of Defense website, a page shows a map outlining the area where Russian peacekeepers, by the terms of the agreement, are to be stationed and will have jurisdiction within which to operate. On December 13, miraculously, the land they control had expanded. This was changed back to the original on the next day, after Azerbaijani diplomatic pressure. But this activity demonstrates that Kremlin cartographers are getting creative — and very early in this intervention.Rumors now swell of Russian “passportization” in Nagorno-Karabakh. Manufacturing new demographic realities on the ground by granting citizenship has been used to maintain influence in the internal affairs in other post-Soviet nations. Once Russians occupy the area, the Russian state is obliged to step in.It is a classic of the Kremlin repertoire. It preceded the invasion of Crimea. It happened in two regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, again before wars broke out, with Russia coming out as the chief beneficiary. Most recently, passportization has been aggressively deployed in eastern Ukraine, through a helpfully streamlined process. The Kremlin forecasts that there will be over one million Russian citizens bearing newly minted documents by the end of the year. In all of these situations, Russia’s grip is secure.Passportization would mean that a negotiated settlement on the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh — what was supposed to be some form of autonomy within Azerbaijan, as in Soviet days — will never materialize. It will instead turn into a Russian-passport protectorate, giving Russia the pretext — or in Moscow’s lexicon, the legal right — to jump into the region were any imagined threat to its “citizens” to emerge.Considering the U.S.-led assistance now poured into Ukraine in the wake of Russian destabilization, it is surprising that more precautionary measures are not being taken in the South Caucasus.Yet time remains for America to step in: The ceasefire shall give way to negotiations for a final peace deal, with much left to decide. The U.S. must fully and comprehensively oppose passportization. American companies should invest in infrastructure and energy projects in the region so as to limit Russia’s room for maneuver. And U.S.-led joint investment initiatives between Armenia and Azerbaijan would help to cut the dependence of both on Russia.It’s time for America to step up diplomatic and economic efforts and reinsert itself in this process. Otherwise, Russia’s empire will continue to expand unchecked.

  • Should You Be Living in a Hotel?

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

  • UPS driver dies after assault; co-worker taken into custody

    A UPS employee sought in a deadly assault on a co-worker was taken into custody Wednesday, Connecticut state police said. The suspect, Elijah David Bertrand, 19, had been the target of search since Tuesday night when a fellow UPS worker, Nathan Burk, was found suffering from injuries. The two men apparently were riding in the same vehicle before the assault, Connecticut State Police Trooper Joseu Dorelus said at a news conference.

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

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

  • A US Naval Armada and 2,500 Marines Are Off Somalia to Cover Troop Withdrawal

    The carrier Nimitz and its strike group, as well as the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, are standing by.

  • Trump's longtime Deutsche Bank private banker and her close colleague abruptly resign

    Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank's wealth management division, has resigned, effective Dec. 31, Vrablic and Deutsche Bank said Tuesday. Vrablic became President Trump's private banker at the German lender in 2011, at a time when Trump was having difficulties borrowing money due to his history of defaulting on loans. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, already a client of Vrablic's, introduced her to Trump."The reasons for Ms. Vrablic's abrupt resignation were not clear," The New York Times reports. But Deutsche Bank in August opened an internal investigation into a real estate deal in which Vrablic and a longtime colleague at the bank, Dominic Scalzi, invested in an apartment building partly owned by Kushner. Scalzi is also resigning at the end of the year.The status of the internal review is unclear, the Times reports. But the relationship between Trump and Deutsche Bank is the subject of congressional, civil, and criminal investigations, including a criminal inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney. Vrablic is not among the handful of Deutsche Bank employees questioned by New York investigators yet, but her lawyer told CNN that "Ms. Vrablic is committed to cooperating with the authorities if asked."Deutsche Bank has been exploring how it can end its heavily scrutinized relationship with Trump, Reuters reports. But for Trump, his "key contacts at his biggest financial backer are leaving at a perilous time for the departing president," the Times reports. "He owes Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans come due in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Trump provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, meaning that if he fails to pay them back, the bank can pursue his personal assets."More stories from theweek.com What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? Trump shows up too late to his presidency A Lincoln Project ad reportedly turned Trump against Mike Pence. Pence is now bending.

  • Sussexes' Christmas card features tree decorated by Archie

    An animal welfare charity has been sent a Christmas card by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which features a drawing of the couple with their son Archie and their dogs. It was sent to London-based Mayhew, which was founded in 1886 as a home for starving cats, and whom the Duchess is patron of. The charity also shared the Duchess's message to them, which read: "This year we, as a family, have made donations to several charities with you in mind. From a local California organisation that helps families transition out of homelessness, to two of our U.K. patronages: one that supports animal and community welfare, and the other, a memorial fund for a cherished friend that helps to educate children and fight poverty in Uganda, we have honoured their work on behalf of all of us." In a tweet, the charity added: "We're thrilled to receive wonderful Christmas wishes from our Patron, the Duchess of Sussex, who also made a personal donation, helping dogs, cats and our community. From all of us at Mayhew, thank you and Merry Christmas."

  • U.S. teen who broke Covid protocols in Cayman Islands gets reduced sentence

    After an appeal, 18-year-old Skylar Mack received reduced jail time from four to two months for violating quarantine protocols in the Cayman Islands.

  • Lava lake forms as Hawaii volcano erupts after 2-year break

    Lava was rising more than 3 feet (1 meter) per hour in the deep crater of a Hawaii volcano that began erupting over the weekend after a two-year break, scientists said Tuesday. Kilauea volcano within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island was gushing molten rock from at least two vents inside its summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A lava lake has formed, rising about 440 feet (134 meters) from the bottom of the crater.

  • Madison Cawthorn Vows to Contest Presidential Election Result, Help Primary GOP Holdouts

    North Carolina Congressman-elect Madison Cawthorn announced Monday that he plans to contest the presidential election results when Congress meets next month to count the electoral votes and warned other Republicans that he will fund their primary challengers if they do not call for "fair" elections."I will be contesting the election," Cawthorn, a Republican, said Monday during remarks at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida."And not only that," he continued. "I have a message for all other Republicans across the country. If you are not on the record calling for fair, free, and just elections now and in the future, I will come to your district, and I will fund a primary opponent against you."Cawthorn, 25, who was elected to represent North Carolina's 11th congressional district last month, claimed that swing states with "liberal" governors and secretaries of states have "broken the law and gone against our Constitution" in the 2020 election."The right to vote in a free and fair election is the cornerstone of our Republic," Cawthorn wrote Monday in a tweet after his announcement. "Attempts to subvert the Constitutional authority of state legislatures to conduct elections strikes at the very heart of representative government. I choose to stand in the breach, to fight for us.""On behalf of the people I am contesting this election based on constitutional violations by key states," he added in a later tweet.States certified their Electoral College results earlier this month, with former Vice President Joe Biden winning the election with 306 electoral votes to President Trump’s 232. A congressional joint session will be convened on January 6 before Inauguration Day next month to count the electoral votes.Cawthorn said his decision to contest the election results based on "substantial allegations of voter fraud" is not political and predicted that the move will "likely harm" rather than help his career in Washington.A formal challenge would require a senator to join Cawthorn in contesting Biden's victory.Since the election, Trump has refused to concede and claimed he won a second term, alleging widespread voter fraud favoring Biden. His legal team has filed a slew of lawsuits in swing states Biden won but has failed to produce evidence of fraud on a scale that would alter the election outcome.

  • White supremacists were plotting to attack US power grid over Trump election loss

    Court documents reveal a teen from Ohio discussed creating Nazi militant cells around the US

  • S. Korea scrambles jets after Chinese and Russian intrusion into air defense zone

    South Korea said on Tuesday it had scrambled fighter jets in response to an intrusion into South Korea's air defense identification zone by 19 Russian and Chinese military aircraft.

  • World's oldest captive giant panda dies

    She leaves behind at least 150 descendants around the world - plus legions of fans, and one doting zookeeper. Xin Xing - the world's oldest giant panda and a matriarch extraordinaire - has died at the grand age of 38. The Chinese-born bear was one of the most famous of her species after giving birth to at least ten cubs during her lifetime. It made her the chief ambassador of China's so-called "panda diplomacy", with her cubs and their offspring sent to grateful zoos around the world. She is thought to have had 153 descendants in all, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, living variously in the USA, Canada and Taiwan. As well as being a record-breaking mother - most pandas struggle to conceive in captivity – Xin Xing was among only a handful of pandas in zoos to have lived beyond the age of 30. Being aged 38 made her the equivalent of at least 110 in human years. Xin Xing - whose name in Mandarin translates as "New Star" - was born in a panda sanctuary in China's Sichuan Province, and transferred to a zoo in the south-western city of Chongqing at the age of one. She was among some 600 giant pandas in captivity, roughly a quarter of the total population. Zookeepers remember her for a prodigious appetite - she could eat 70lbs of bamboo shoots and fruit per day - and occasional fiery temper. However, according to Zhang Naicheng, her keeper for the last 28 years of her life, she grew more placid in her dotage. In an interview to mark her birthday last August - when she celebrated with a slap-up meal of watermelon, bamboo shoots and apple wedges - he said: “She is like a family member to me.”

  • Sister Abhaya: Indian priest and nun jailed for murder of convent sister

    A court found the pair killed a young nun after she saw them engaging in illicit sexual activity.

  • Israel's government collapses, triggering 4th election in 2 years

    Israel is headed to its fourth election in under two years, following the government's collapse early Wednesday morning.Because the Knesset, Israel's parliament, was unable to pass a budget by the midnight Tuesday deadline, the government automatically dissolved and elections were set for March 23.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will now have to see if he can fend off challenges from three former aides who broke away from his Likud party. In May, the right-wing Netanyahu formed an alliance with center-left Defense Minister Benny Gantz in order to form an "emergency" government, with Gantz named the "alternate prime minister" under the promise that he would become prime minister at the end of the year. This move alienated many of Gantz's supporters, The Associated Press reports, and his bloc is not expected to do well in the March elections.Last year, Netanyahu was hit with corruption charges, and witnesses will begin appearing in court for his trial in February. Gantz's Blue and White party called Netanyahu out on Tuesday night, saying, "A criminal defendant with three indictments is dragging the country to a fourth round of elections. If there wasn't a trial, there would be a budget and there wouldn't be elections."More stories from theweek.com What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? Trump shows up too late to his presidency A Lincoln Project ad reportedly turned Trump against Mike Pence. Pence is now bending.

  • 11 Luxurious Bedding Options to Start the New Year Right

    Slip into something a little more comfortableOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest