If Republicans lose control of the Senate, the party is in 'bad shape': Rep. Keller

House Oversight Committee member Rep. Fred Keller joins 'Fox & Friends First.'

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  • At Georgia rally, Trump sounds less certain that victory is at hand

    President Trump campaigned Monday night on behalf of two incumbent Republican senators whose defeat in runoff elections on Tuesday could cost the party its majority in the U.S. Senate and deliver a symbolic capstone to his own time in office. 

  • Ex-chairman of China Huarong Asset Management sentenced to death

    BEIJING (Reuters) -The former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co has been sentenced to death, a court in the northern city of Tianjin said on Tuesday, in one of the country's highest profile corruption cases. Lai Xiaomin was convicted of receiving or seeking bribes totalling 1.788 billion yuan ($276.72 million) from 2008 to 2018, when he was also a senior banking regulator, according to the Secondary Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin. Lai, who was expelled from the ruling Communist Party in 2018, was also convicted on a charge of bigamy.

  • Wisconsin Gov. Activates National Guard ahead of Charging Decision in Kenosha Police Shooting

    Wisconsin governor Tony Evers mobilized the National Guard on Monday to provide support to law enforcement in Kenosha, ahead of an expected decision on whether to press charges a police shooting.A Kenosha officer shot Jacob Blake, an African American man, in August while responding to a domestic violence call. Authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Blake for suspected third-degree sexual assault. A white officer shot Blake several times during the attempted arrest, and Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down.Video of Blake's shooting quickly went viral and was followed by a week of riots in Kenosha, during which rioters destroyed dozens of businesses in the city. The riots came in the wake of widespread civil unrest after the police killing of George Floyd, an African American resident of Minneapolis.The Kenosha County District Attorney's Office is expected to announce a decision on whether to charge the officer who shot Blake sometime within last two weeks of January. Governor Evers ordered the National Guard to provide 500 service members to assist Kenosha law enforcement ahead of the district attorney's decision."We are continuing to work with our local partners in the Kenosha area to ensure they have the state support they need, just as we have in the past,” Evers told reporters on Monday. “Our members of the National Guard will be on hand to support local first responders, ensure Kenoshans are able to assemble safely, and to protect critical infrastructure as necessary.”Kenosha mayor John Antaramian and police chief Daniel Miskinis said in a joint statement that the city was preparing for possible unrest."Mayor Antaramian has been informed that the decision is likely to be announced within the first two weeks of January and is working with Chief Miskinis and other partners to protect peaceful demonstration and to guard against unlawful activity," the two said. "Our responsibility to public safety is paramount, and we are preparing for a number of possible public demonstration and safety efforts."

  • America's COVID-19 vaccine effort is 'total chaos,' should add first come, first served option, vaccine expert says

    The U.S. kicked off a second phase of its COVID-19 vaccine campaign on Monday, when health care workers and others at the top of the tiered system began getting their second and final doses of the vaccine. But the rollout of the inoculation effort has been "slow and uneven," The Associated Press reports, "marked by confusion, logistical hurdles, and a patchwork of approaches by state and local authorities."The Trump administration set a goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by Jan. 1, but as of Jan. 4, only 4.5 million had gotten their first shot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, out of 15 million doses distributed. There is some resistance to getting vaccinated, but much of the problem seems to be logistics, Politico reports. States are simply struggling to match vaccine shots with the people who want and are qualified to get them. The effort has also been hampered by ineffective communication plans, the lack of any meaningful national outreach and education campaign, and a fractured, sagging health care system."It's total chaos," Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Politico. "It's increasingly looking like we had a plan that was well-suited to vaccinate Singapore." The U.S. needs to inoculate about a million people a day to get the pandemic contained by September, and Hotez said America won't get those numbers under the current plan. He told Politico the U.S. should scrap its tiered system and supplement the doses shipped to nursing homes and hospitals with mass vaccination venues, like sports stadiums or outdoor tents, where anyone who wanted the vaccine could show up for a shot. "That is in the works in some states," Politico notes.The U.S. needs to "get the vaccine in people's arms," Hoetz said. "The only other choice is to continue with 3,000 deaths a day."More stories from theweek.com McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers

  • Why did Trump pick fights with Congress he was sure to lose?

    President Trump stood little chance of compelling Congress to change the stimulus package or defense funding bill. So why did he take a stand on both pieces of legislation?

  • Georgia Senate election: Loeffler and Perdue accused of photoshopping opponents in racist attack ads

    ‘There is no level she could stoop to that would surprise us,’ says Warnock’s campaign after ad manipulation by Loeffler

  • Russia now probing case of helicopter downed by Azerbaijan as murder -Interfax

    Russian military investigators are now treating the Nov. 9 downing of a helicopter over Armenia as "wilful murder", a more serious charge than the previous "death through negligence", Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing a source. A Russian Mi-24 helicopter was shot down over Armenia near the border with a region belonging to Azerbaijan, killing two crew members and injuring another, just few hours before a Moscow-brokered peace deal over Nagorno-Karabakh was reached. Heavy fighting between Azerbaijan, which has the political backing of Turkey, and ethnic Armenian forces over the mountainous region had been raging for six weeks at the time of the incident.

  • 11 Storage Beds to Keep You Organized in 2021

    Read on for space-saving, clutter-clearing magicOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Georgia election official on Trump call: ‘Nobody I know who would be president would do something like that’

    Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling condemned President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, saying, “I personally found it to be something that was not normal, out of place and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state."

  • Pakistani court orders rebuilding of destroyed Hindu temple

    Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Tuesday to rebuild a century-old Hindu temple that was vandalized and set on fire by a mob last week, drawing condemnation from the government and leaders of minority Hindus. The court ruled after authorities said they arrested more than 100 people for attacking the temple and several police officers were fired for neglecting to protect the structure. Supporters of Pakistan’s radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party and residents attacked the building after being incited by a local cleric who was opposed to the temple's planned renovation.

  • After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers

    Maureen Weil received the coronavirus vaccine Monday in New Orleans, and the 79-year-old hopes all of her fellow Americans follow in her footsteps.In an interview with NBC News, Weil said she felt "excited" and "blessed" to be among the first people to get the vaccine. "I have a chance to see a few more days on this Earth because I'm protected," Weil said. "I believe in science."When asked what she would tell people who question the vaccine and don't want to receive it, Weil responded, "I call them stupid because -- that or either a buffoon. Because that's the only thing I could think of that could justify their stupidity."She said a lot of people don't believe in the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 350,000 Americans, because "they listen to the man that's in Washington, D.C., that's on his way out the door talking about how it's all a hoax and all that bullcorn. And he shouldn't be doing that because that's peoples' lives. Look at the parents who've died and left young children. I mean, it's sad."Getting the vaccine "didn't hurt," Weil said, and now she has "peace of mind," and "knows one thing for sure. I'm gonna save somebody else's life by protecting myself. I won't get the corona so I can't spread it to anybody else. So that gives me a little satisfaction that I'm doing it not just for myself but for others." Americans "have to believe in science," Weil said. "There's no other way. When we didn't have a vaccine we were really up the creek, weren't we? And we had a hole in the boat. But we got a vaccine, so we got safety." > "I know one thing for sure. I'm gonna save somebody else's life by protecting myself.> > ... > Because then I won't get the corona so I can't spread it to anybody else." > -Maureen Weil, coronavirus vaccine recipient pic.twitter.com/TSecX57iAu> > -- Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 5, 2021More stories from theweek.com McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? Trump's claim that Pence can 'reject fraudulently chosen electors' quickly shot down

  • How many people need to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to stop the coronavirus?

    It has been clear for a while that, at least in the U.S., the only way out of the coronavirus pandemic will be through vaccination. The rapid deployment of coronavirus vaccines is underway, but how many people need to be vaccinated in order to control this pandemic?I am a computational biologist who uses data and computer models to answer biological question at the University of Connecticut. I have been tracking my state’s COVID-19 epidemic with a computer model to help forecast the number of hospitalizations at the University of Connecticut’s John Dempsey Hospital.This type of computer model and the underlying theory can also be used to calculate the vaccination rates needed to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus. My estimate is that for the entire U.S., roughly 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated to stop the pandemic. But variation in how people behave in different parts of the country, as well as open questions on whether the vaccine prevents infection entirely or just prevents people from getting sick, add a degree of uncertainty. Cutting off transmissionClinical trials have shown that once a person gets vaccinated for the coronavirus, they won’t get sick with COVID-19. A person who doesn’t get sick can still be infected with the coronavirus. But let’s also assume that a vaccinated person can’t spread the virus to others, though researchers still don’t know if this is true.When enough of the population is vaccinated, the virus has a hard time finding new people to infect, and the epidemic starts dying out. And not everyone needs to be vaccinated, just enough people to stop the virus from spreading out of control. The number of people who need to be vaccinated is known as the critical vaccination level. Once a population reaches that number, you get herd immunity. Herd immunity is when there are so many vaccinated people that an infected person can hardly find anyone who could get infected, and so the virus cannot propagate to other people. This is very important to protect people who cannot get vaccinated.The critical vaccination level depends on how infectious the disease is and how effective the vaccine is. Infectiousness is measured using the basic reproduction number – R0 – which is how many people an infected person would spread the virus to on average if no protective measures were in place. The more infectious a disease is, the larger the number of people who need to be vaccinated to reach heard immunity. The higher the effectiveness of the vaccine, the fewer people need to be vaccinated. Not the same everywhereR0 values differ from place to place because their populations behave differently – social interactions are not the same in rural and urban locations, nor in warm climates compared to cold ones, for example.Using the data on positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths, my model estimates that Connecticut currently has an R0 of 2.88, meaning that, on average, every infected person would pass the virus on to 2.88 other people if no mitigation measures were in place. Estimates at the county level range from 1.44 in rural Alpine, California to 4.31 in urban Hudson, New Jersey.But finding an R0 value for the entire U.S. is especially tricky because of the diversity of climates and because the virus has affected different areas at different times – behavior has been far from uniform. Estimates vary from 2.47 to 8.2, though most researchers place R0 for the entire U.S. around 3.While R0 varies by location and between estimates, the effectiveness of the vaccines is constant and well known. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 95% and 94.5% effective at preventing COVID-19, respectively. Using values for vaccine effectiveness and the R0, we can calculate the critical vaccination level. For Connecticut, with an R0 of 2.88, 69% of the population needs to be vaccinated. For the entire U.S., with R0 of 3, this would be 70%. In New York City, with an estimated R0 of 4.26 this would be 80%. A lot of uncertaintyWhile the math is relatively simple, things get complicated when you consider important questions for which epidemiologists still have no answers. First, the formula for critical vaccination level assumes that people interact randomly. But in the real world, people interact in highly structured networks depending on work, travel and social connections. When those contact patterns are considered, some researchers found critical vaccination levels to be considerably smaller compared to assuming random interactions.Unfortunately, other unknowns could have an opposite effect. Vaccine trials clearly show that vaccinated people don’t get sick with COVID-19. But it is still unknown whether the vaccines prevent people from getting mild infections that they could pass on to others. If vaccinated people can still be infected and pass on the virus, then vaccination will not provide herd immunity – though it would still prevent serious disease and reduce mortality drastically. A final question that remains to be answered is how long immunity to the coronavirus lasts after a person is vaccinated. If immunity wanes after a few months, then each individual will need repeated vaccinations.It is hard to say with certainty how many people need to be vaccinated in order to end this pandemic. But even so, the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines has been the best news in 2020. In 2021, as a large proportion of individuals in the U.S. get the vaccine, the country will be heading toward the critical vaccination level – whatever it may be – so that life can start to return to normal.[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation’s newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Pedro Mendes, University of Connecticut.Read more: * Test positivity rate: How this one figure explains that the US isn’t doing enough testing yet * What’s not being said about why African Americans need to take the COVID-19 vaccinePedro Mendes currently receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. In the past he has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the European Union.

  • Georgia runoff election results – live: Exit polls show record turnout as officials say when results may come

    Follow the latest updates

  • Germany mulls delaying second COVID-19 vaccine shot, Denmark approves delay

    Germany was weighing on Monday whether to allow a delay in administering a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer to make scarce supplies go further, after a similar move by Britain last week. Separately, Denmark approved on Monday a delay of up to six weeks between the first and second shots of the vaccine. In Berlin, the health ministry was seeking the view of an independent vaccination commission on whether to delay a second shot beyond a current 42-day maximum limit, according to a one-page document seen by Reuters on Monday.

  • Hong Kong's top judge cautious on calls for judicial reform

    Hong Kong’s outgoing top judge said Tuesday that calls for reform of the city’s judiciary cannot be based on dissatisfaction with court rulings, as pro-Beijing figures and state-owned media step up criticism of the city’s legal system. “(The) judiciary’s position has all along been the same. In recent weeks, Chinese officials and state-owned media have accused the semi-autonomous city’s courts of misinterpreting Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, in rulings relating to last year's pro-democracy protests.

  • Paul Ryan, Dick Cheney, 9 ex-defense secretaries slam 'anti-conservative' GOP effort to overturn Biden's win

    "As the new Congress was sworn in Sunday, the Republican Party splintered badly as at least 12 senators planned to join about 140 House members to contest Joe Biden's election win," Politico reports. "The tensions are so high that individual GOP senators are now directly battling" in "open warfare against each other." While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is asking his caucus to accept President Trump's loss, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is reportedly giving his GOP colleagues the green light to object to the Electoral College results on Wednesday.McCarthy's predecessor, former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), urged Republicans to knock it off in a rare public statement Sunday. "Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory strike at the foundation of our republic," Ryan said. "It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act," and "the fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy." Trump has "had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence," he added. "Joe Biden's victory is entirely legitimate."Also on Sunday evening, all 10 living former defense secretaries signed an op-ed in The Washington Post affirming Biden's victory and warning that the military should not be dragged into Trump's effort to contest his loss. The signatories include James Mattis and Mark Esper, who served under Trump, as well as conservative stalwarts like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Cheney, who was also vice president for eight years, came up with the idea for the joint statement, said William Perry, former President Bill Clinton's defense secretary."American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy," the defense secretaries said. "Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the Electoral College votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived."Chuck Hagel, a Republican who served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, told the Post he considered whether warning about military intervention was an overreaction, but decided it was better to nip the idea, raised by some close Trump allies, in the bud.More stories from theweek.com After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Are we witnessing the fall of the United States?

  • He was stopped for not using turn signals. Police said he was dealing cocaine

    A Miami cocaine dealer was jailed Monday morning after bringing more than six ounces of the drug into the Florida Keys, police said.

  • Iran claims South Korea holding £5bn of its money 'hostage' after tanker seizure

    The Iranian government has accused South Korea of holding more than £5 billion of its money “hostage” in its banks, a day after its revolutionary guards stormed and captured a Korean tanker in the Persian Gulf. The tanker, the MT Hankuk Chemi, was seized yesterday and escorted to an Iranian port under the pretext that it was causing pollution in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian officials. But the ship’s owners have denied this and revealed the tanker was boarded by armed marines from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), suggesting that Tehran intends to use it as leverage in a dispute with Seoul over frozen Iranian assets. Ali Rabiei, a spokesman for the Islamic regime, denied accusations of “hostage diplomacy” over the capture of the ship, which was carrying a cargo 7,200 tonnes of ethanol from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates when it was intercepted by IRGC speedboats and a helicopter off the coast of Oman. “We've become used to such allegations ... but if there is any hostage-taking, it is Korea's government that is holding $7 billion (£5.15 billion) which belongs to us hostage on baseless grounds,” Mr Rabiei told reporters at a news conference streamed online. Tehran has previously accused South Korea of being a “lackey” of the United States and demanded it release the money which it says it is owed from oil sales made before the Trump administration tightened sanctions on the Islamic republic. The head of Iran's central bank has argued that it needs the money to purchase coronavirus vaccines, and should be exempt from sanctions.

  • Just 1% of Californians immunized amid slow vaccine rollout

    Distribution hiccups and logistical challenges have slowed the initial coronavirus vaccine rollout in California, setting a pace that’s “not good enough,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. The state is trying to execute the massive immunization campaign “with a sense of urgency that is required of this moment and the urgency that people demand,” but so far only about 1% of California’s 40 million residents have been vaccinated, the Democratic governor said. The 454,000 doses of vaccine that have been administered in California represent just a third of the more than nearly 1.3 million received in the state so far, according to the California Department of Public Health.

  • Kelly Loeffler says she will object to Biden's win with GOP colleagues. David Perdue can only watch.

    Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) announced Monday night that she will join about a dozen of her Senate Republican colleagues and object to President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory in a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Loeffler had been noncommittal on whether she would join the symbolic, dead-end effort to challenge Biden's victory, and she tweeted her announcement shortly before President Trump arrived in "North Georgia in a push to drive up rural white support ahead of Tuesday’s high-stakes runoff," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.Loeffler and David Perdue (R-Ga.), whose Senate term officially ended Sunday, are both on the ballot Tuesday, and if either of them wins, Republicans will keep control of the Senate. Perdue won't be able to participate in Wednesday's ceremonial electoral vote count because he is not currently a sitting senator, but he encouraged his colleagues Monday night to object to Biden's win. One way to read Loeffler's last-minute announcement, the Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein said, is "as a sign Republicans believe they're in trouble tomorrow and are desperate to turn out rural white supporters who haven't warmed to the two GOP incumbents yet."Loeffler's Democratic challenger, Rafael Warnock, responded to her "disappointing" statement by saying "Georgians need a senator, not a sycophant." On Sunday, Warnock said "Loeffler has a responsibility to speak out against the unsubstantiated claims of fraud, to defend Georgia's elections, and to put Georgia ahead of herself. She has not and never will."The push to object to Biden's victory has drawn about 140 House Republicans but has caused a schism in the Senate GOP caucus. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) announced Monday night that he will not join the effort, lamenting that the futile and inappropriate campaign "has become the exclusive litmus test for whether or not a member of Congress stands with President Trump." Cramer counted himself among the most "fervent, consistent, longstanding" supporters of Trump, but said he does not "have the authority to overturn the will of other states on behalf of North Dakota, nor do other members have the ability to overturn the will of my state."More stories from theweek.com McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers