Violence soars in Portland after defunding of police there

Radio host Jason Rantz discusses the surge in violence in Portland, Oregon, after a significant cut to police funding there.

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  • Trials begin for 10 charged with fleeing from Hong Kong

    Trials for 10 people accused of attempting to flee Hong Kong by speedboat during a government crackdown on dissent began in China on Monday, a court official said. A spokesperson for the Yantian District People’s Court in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, said the trials began Monday afternoon as scheduled. The spokesperson declined to give her name, as is usual among Chinese court officials.

  • Ghislaine Maxwell denied $28.5m bail in sex crime case

    The British socialite, the ex-girlfriend of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested in July.

  • Republican senators reportedly start wavering on $2,000 stimulus checks

    The Senate faces an "uphill battle" in passing legislation that would increase direct COVID-19 relief payments for individuals from $600 to $2,000, but Republican lawmakers are facing more pressure to back the measure, Axios reports.The House on Monday narrowly reached the two-thirds majority needed to pass the proposal -- which is separate from a larger $900 billion relief bill approved by both chambers of Congress last week and subsequently signed into law by President Trump after a few days deliberation Sunday -- but it's unclear if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will even let it come to a vote in the upper chamber.Its passage similarly requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, and while most Democrats are seemingly on board, many Republicans have appeared more hesitant because of concerns about mounting debt. But with Trump and their constituents calling for larger checks, there's a chance enough GOP senators will wind up backing the proposal, Republican sources told Axios. One source said if McConnell does bring the measure to the floor, "it might get 60" votes.Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) made it clear Monday night he will vote for the increase despite concerns about the debt, so a handful of like-minded colleagues would turn the tide. Read more at Axios.> I am concerned about the debt, but working families have been hurt badly by the pandemic > > This is why I supported $600 direct payments to working families & if given the chance will vote to increase the amount https://t.co/EciB6TszTY> > -- Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 28, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump has learned nothing 2021 might just be incredible Schumer reportedly abandons fundraising efforts in Georgia's Senate runoffs

  • Philippines expands travel ban to limit spread of coronavirus variant

    MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines will ban travellers from 19 countries and territories until mid-January as a measure to keep out a new variant of the coronavirus, its transport ministry said on Tuesday. The regulation will be in effect from midnight of Dec. 29 to Jan. 15 and covers Filipinos and foreigners arriving from the "flagged countries", the transport ministry told reporters in a group text message. The Philippines previously imposed and later extended a flight ban from Britain until mid-January as the more contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus was first detected in England.

  • 15 of the Most Popular Products Purchased by Clever Readers in 2020

    Unsurprisingly, you invested in sleeping, cleaning, and organizingOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Top associate of Russia's Navalny released from detention

    A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from detention Sunday and said she was charged with trespassing after entering the apartment building of an alleged security operative who inadvertently revealed details of Navalny’s supposed poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent. Lyubov Sobol, a key figure in Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was detained for 48 hours on Friday after a day of interrogation. The move followed Sobol’s attempt on Monday to enter the Moscow apartment of the alleged operative, whom Navalny had previously duped into revealing details of his alleged poisoning.

  • Two New Jersey women arrested for holding 200 person party with ‘makeshift bar’

    People allegedly seen eating, drinking alcohol and participating in illegal gambling at gathering

  • Schumer reportedly abandons fundraising efforts in Georgia's Senate runoffs

    Democrats still have a chance to retake the Senate -- but the body's leadership has reportedly all but given up.Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are challenging Georgia GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in races that will determine the outlook of the Senate. But as Ossoff and Warnock scramble to match Republicans' fundraising efforts, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has stopped meeting with donors altogether, a source tells NBC News.Over the past two months, Ossoff and Warnock have each brought in more than $100 million, largely via grassroots donations. Their fundraising totals beat out the Republicans' efforts during the same periods, but outside Republican groups are winning in terms of big-dollar TV ad spending, NBC News reports. This leaves the GOP with plenty of resources to engage in direct voter contact and encourage new or unlikely voters to turn out on their behalf on Jan. 5 -- something Warnock and Ossoff's campaign managers called "essential" in a campaign memo obtained by NBC News. "To win this election in 8 days, we need to continue our historic efforts to turn out every single voter -- but we won't be able to do that if our fundraising revenue continues to fall," the managers wrote.Outside Democratic donors did spend big during the 2020 election cycle in an effort to overturn the Republicans' Senate majority. But after Democrats failed to decisively do so, Schumer has reportedly stopped asking for more support. Despite the fact that President-elect Joe Biden flipped the state for the first time in decades, Schumer is "pessimistic" about Ossoff and Warnock's chances and is no longer meeting with donors to avoid ruining relationships for years to come, the source tells NBC News. But as Ossoff and Warnock's campaigns see it, donations focused on boosting turnout have never been more important. Read more at NBC News. Update 2:30 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for Schumer said NBC News' reporting is "absolutely not true." The representative, Justin Goodman, added that "Schumer has diligently made calls and fundraised for both Georgia candidates and is optimistic about their chances in January."More stories from theweek.com Trump has learned nothing 2021 might just be incredible At L.A. hospital, there are so many COVID-19 patients some are being put in the gift shop

  • U.S. judge orders two Georgia counties to halt voter purge ahead of Senate runoff

    The counties seemed to have improperly relied on unverified change-of-address data to invalidate registrations, the judge, Leslie Abrams Gardner, said in her order filed late on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. "Defendants are enjoined from removing any challenged voters in Ben Hill and Muscogee Counties from the registration lists on the basis of National Change of Address data", Gardner wrote in the order. The judge is the sister of Democratic activist Stacey Abrams, who lost a race for Georgia governor in 2018.

  • Iran says Pfizer vaccine batch expected from US benefactors

    An unidentified group of U.S.-based philanthropists plans to send 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Iran in the coming weeks, Iranian media reported Monday, in a step that could bring the hardest-hit country in the Middle East closer to inoculating its citizens against the coronavirus. It quoted the chief of the country's Red Crescent Society as saying he expects the vaccine created by American drug maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech to be imported by Jan. 19 “based on coordination with a group of benefactors in the U.S." Iran has struggled to stem the worst virus outbreak in the Middle East, which has infected over 1.2 million people and killed nearly 55,000.

  • Exclusive: Britain must use Brexit freedoms to become more competitive, Boris Johnson told

    Boris Johnson has been urged to use new-found Brexit freedoms to ensure that the UK becomes more competitive. Shanker Singham, a former Brexit adviser to the Government, said that in order to "maximise the benefits" of leaving the EU, Britain should not remain tied into Brussels' rules. Mr Singham, the CEO of economic consultancy Competere, said the ability to diverge on standards could boost competitiveness if both parties lowered market barriers as a result of the free trade deal. Writing in The Telegraph, he said: "We must now, as a country, choose to use our freedom wisely. "We must use it to create wealth, not destroy it – to be governed by competition on the merits as an economic principle, not intervention and Government distortion. We must put consumers above producers, recognising that all producers are consumers of something." The former Brexit secretary David Davis said new industries could flourish in the UK if the Government managed to get regulation "right" after Brexit. He said: "For me it's more about the new industries, from new pharmaceuticals to gene biology and AI. We need to establish our own regulation. If we get it right we will attract all sorts of new industries here."

  • Trump news – live: President calls GOP leaders ‘weak and tired’, then backs Sanders’ filibuster threat

    Live updates from the White House and beyond

  • Russia says reinforcing Syrian area where Turkey-backed fighters have clashed with Kurdish forces

    Russia said late on Sunday it had sent more military police to an area in northern Syria where fighters backed by Turkey have clashed with Kurdish forces near a strategic highway patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops. The deployment comes ahead of talks in Russia on Tuesday between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

  • Belarus, Argentina start vaccinations with Russian shots

    Belarus and Argentina launched mass coronavirus vaccinations with the Russian-developed Sputnik V shot on Tuesday, becoming the first countries outside Russia to roll out the vaccine, which has faced criticism over the speed with which it was approved. The first batch of Sputnik V arrived in the former Soviet republic of Belarus on Tuesday and the vaccination effort began almost immediately.

  • Neighbor says Nashville bomber told him he was going to be 'so famous'

    The FBI is still trying to determine a motive behind the Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville that injured at least eight people and damaged 40 buildings.Police have identified Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, as the bomber, and say he died Friday morning when the RV he was in exploded. FBI agent Doug Korneski told CNN on Monday investigators are interviewing people who knew Warner in an attempt to find a motive, and so far, there is no indication that anyone else was involved in the bombing.Warner lived in Antioch, Tennessee, and neighbor Rick Laude told CNN on Monday that four days before Christmas, he asked Warner, "Is Santa going to bring you something good for Christmas?" Laude said Warner responded, "Yes, I'm going to be more famous. I'm going to be so famous Nashville will never forget me."Laude did not suspect that Warner was going to achieve fame due to an act of terrorism, and stressed to CNN that no one in the neighborhood would "claim to be a friend of his. He was just a legitimate recluse." Other neighbors agreed, with one telling CNN Warner was "kind of a hermit," and they usually only waved at each other over their shared fence.More stories from theweek.com Trump has learned nothing 2021 might just be incredible Schumer reportedly abandons fundraising efforts in Georgia's Senate runoffs

  • Trump biographer says the humiliation of Mike Pence is ‘reaching a crescendo’

    The Pulitzer Prize-winning author called Mr Pence’s tenure a 'continuous show of servility’

  • Trump signs massive funding measure

    President Trump has signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package that will deliver long-needed cash to businesses and individuals. It also avoids a government shutdown.

  • Gaza militants fire rockets into the sea in first joint exercise

    An array of Palestinian militant groups launched rockets into the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip on Tuesday at the start of what they called their first-ever joint exercise, which Israeli media described as a show of force organised by Iran. Gaza is run by Hamas and also home to other militant groups, including Islamic Jihad.

  • Nashville bomber left hints of trouble, but motive elusive

    In the days before he detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas, Anthony Quinn Warner changed his life in ways that suggest he never intended to survive the blast that killed him and wounded three other people. Warner, 63, gave away his car, telling the recipient that he had cancer. A month before the bombing, he signed a document that transferred his longtime home in a Nashville suburb to a California woman for nothing in return.

  • Police launch probe after Breonna Taylor statue smashed in Oakland, California

    The Oakland Police Department said late Monday it was looking into the incident, although it had not identified any suspects or motives. Leo Carson, the artist who created the bust, told the media that he considered the smashing of Taylor's statue "an act of racist aggression aimed at suppressing the fight for Black freedom." The ceramic bust depicted a smiling Taylor and was installed in downtown Oakland near City Hall.