Certification of Biden's win, Georgia runoffs, Three Kings Day: 5 things to know Wednesday

Editors, USA TODAY

Ga. runoffs: Senate control hinging on Perdue-Ossoff result after Warnock win

Ballots will continue to be counted in Georgia as the runoff election result between GOP Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Earlier Wednesday, Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, according to projections by the Associated Press. With the projected victory, Warnock became the first Black man elected as U.S. senator from Georgia with his victory and the first Democrat elevated to the Senate from Georgia in 20 years. A win by Ossoff would result in a 50-50 split in the Senate, effectively giving Democrats control of the chamber since Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast tiebreaking votes.

Fireworks expected as Congress certifies Biden's election win

A group of Republican lawmakers plan to object Wednesday when a joint session of Congress meets to formally count the votes cast by the Electoral College, marking a dramatic conclusion to the bitter 2020 presidential election. The meeting, required by the U.S. Constitution, is all but certain to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Donald Trump by a count of 306-232 electoral votes. But multiple House Republicans, taking their lead from Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, have indicated they will object to some states' electoral votes. Nearly a dozen Senators have said they would join the effort unless an "emergency 10-day audit" of the returns in the "disputed states" is completed. Vice President Mike Pence, who has not acknowledged that Trump lost, will preside over the session. "We'll hear the objections. We'll hear the evidence," Pence said at a rally in Georgia Monday.

DC braces for violence as protests to Trump's election loss continue

Protests planned for Washington, D.C., Wednesday are likely to attract large numbers of President Donald Trump's supporters, including militia groups and members of the extremist group the Proud Boys, raising concerns of violent confrontations. The rallies coincide with the official congressional vote to certify the Electoral College votes from the 2020 election and declare President-elect Joe Biden the winner. Far-right groups from around the country have vowed to descend on the capital to protest the vote and attempt to pressure lawmakers into voting against certifying the results, an outcome that even the leaders of the effort admit is unlikely to happen. Trump himself has amplified conspiracy theories about the election and encouraged his supporters to show up at the protests. The rallies began Tuesday and by Tuesday night, DC police had announced six protest-related arrests. The charges ranged from carrying a pistol without a license to assault of a police officer, according to a spokesman.

Christians celebrate Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day

Many Christians across the world on Wednesday will celebrate Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day in many places. Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, recounted in the Bible in the story of the wise men who brought the baby Jesus gifts and proclaimed him the Son of God. The day traditionally is celebrated 12 days after Christmas, closing out the holiday season, although most U.S. Protestants mark the day on the Sunday closest to Jan. 6. Many Latino families in the U.S. and abroad give children toys, candy or other gifts for Three Kings Day.

Macy's to close more stores. Is yours on the list?

Macy’s is expected on Wednesday to reveal the stores it plans to close by the middle of the year as the retailer struggles to stay relevant at a time when shoppers are doing their buying online. The department store chain announced in February 2020 that it planned to cut 2,000 jobs and close one-fifth of its stores or roughly 125 locations over the next couple of years. Macy's along with other department store chains temporarily shuttered all of its stores amid the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March. The company, which includes Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, started reopening stores in May and added curbside pickup.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress to confirm Biden win, DC protests: 5 things to know Wednesday

Latest Stories

  • 21-Year-Old Woman Becomes the Youngest Mayor in India’s History

    A 21-year-old Indian politician and college student has officially become the youngest mayor in India’s history on Dec. 28. Arya Rajendran won 54 votes out of the 100-member Council in December and is now the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, a city and the capital of Kerala, India, according to The Hindu. Rajendran is a member of the Councilor of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), an alliance of left-wing political parties, which includes the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

  • Trailing behind Warnock, Loeffler says she still has 'a path to victory'

    Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) told supporters on Tuesday night that she's certain she'll be able to gain enough votes to defeat her Democratic challenger, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.With 97 percent of the vote in, Warnock is ahead of Loeffler by nearly 36,000 votes. "This is a game of inches," she said during a brief speech. "We're gonna win this election. We're gonna save this country." Loeffler declared that she still has "a path to victory," and will make sure "every legal vote" is counted.Loeffler was appointed to her seat in late 2019, after Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson resigned due to health issues. She announced Monday night that she will join Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Republican senators in objecting to the formal Electoral College vote count on Wednesday. They are doing this at the behest of President Trump, who has falsely claimed the election was fraudulent. During her Tuesday night speech, Loeffler said she will head to Washington, D.C., in the morning so she can "fight for this president."More stories from theweek.com Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun What will, and might, happen if Democrats sweep Georgia races for a 50-50 Senate

  • China says delay in WHO investigation of virus 'not just a visa issue'

    Delays to a long-planned mission by WHO experts to China to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic are "not just a visa issue", Beijing said Wednesday. A year after the outbreak started, international health experts were expected to arrive in China this week for a highly politicised visit to explore the beginnings of the virus, which first emerged late last year in the city of Wuhan. The sensitive mission has been beset by delays and politics, with fears of a whitewash by Beijing. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Wednesday that talks were continuing between the two sides over "the specific date and specific arrangement of the expert group's visit". "The issue of origin-tracing is incredibly complicated. To ensure the work of the international expert team in China goes smoothly, we have to carry out necessary procedures and make relevant arrangements," said Hua. She said the country is "doing its best to create good conditions for the international expert group to come to China". On Tuesday the head of the World Health Organization told reporters Beijing had not yet finalised permission for the team's arrival, saying he was "very disappointed with this news" - in a rare rebuke of Beijing from the UN body. Earlier this week Chinese authorities refused to confirm the exact dates and details of the visit, a sign of the enduring sensitivity of the mission. The WHO had previously said China has granted permission for a visit by a 10-person team. Hua said China was "placing great importance and is actively communicating with the WHO".

  • UPS worker seen on racist rant video while delivering to a Latino household is fired

    "This is about the things people do when they think no one is watching them," said the mother of a young Latino police officer who lives in the house.

  • 11 Storage Beds to Keep You Organized in 2021

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

  • Doctor Resigns After 20 Years Over Seattle Children's Hospital's Alleged Use of the N-Word, Japs

    A doctor quit his post in protest due to the alleged racism at Seattle Children’s Hospital, the establishment that oversees the clinic he once worked for. Broken institution: Dr. Ben Danielson, the former medical director of the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, revealed in an interview with Crosscut that the hospital is "replete with racism and a disregard for people who don’t look like them in leadership." One minority colleague was fired “without explanation,” while another claimed she was pushed into resigning from her leadership post.

  • Georgia election official says if Perdue or Loeffler loses, it's due to 'Trump and his actions'

    Gabriel Sterling is Georgia's Republican voting systems manager, and during an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, he said if one or both of the Republican Senate candidates loses their runoff election, they can blame President Trump."I'll speak outside of my role working for the state," he said. "This is a personal opinion that it will fall squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions since Nov. 3rd."Trump has spent the last two months claiming, without any evidence, that the election was stolen from him. He lost Georgia to President-elect Joe Biden, and on Saturday asked the secretary of state to "find" enough votes for him to overturn the results. By constantly making false accusations and telling people "your vote doesn't count, it's been stolen ... people start to believe that," Sterling said.The president has been trying to "trigger a civil war inside the Republican Party," Sterling declared, and he believes Trump has successfully divided the GOP. "The thing now is, no matter what you say, you can't undermine the people of Georgia's integrity to know the voting system works and their vote is going to count at the end of the day, one way or the other, how this election comes out," Sterling said.More stories from theweek.com Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun What will, and might, happen if Democrats sweep Georgia races for a 50-50 Senate

  • 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."

  • Indian vaccine makers end spat, pledge 'smooth rollout' of COVID-19 shots

    Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech said on Tuesday they would end a public spat and focus on rolling out COVID-19 shots after executives of both Indian vaccine makers clashed over the approval of their rival shots. "Both companies respect the great work being carried out by each other and put behind us the miscommunication and misunderstanding caused during the past week," SII's Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech's Chairman Krishna Ella said in a joint statement. India's drugs regulator on Sunday approved for emergency use a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which will be manufactured by SII, and another developed domestically by Bharat Biotech.

  • Your stimulus check might be delayed if you filed your taxes with an online tax preparer

    Stimulus payments may be delayed for as many as 14 million customers, the IRS and major tax prep software companies warned.

  • 70 percent of Covid shots in the US have not been administered - these states have lowest vaccination rate

    Kansas has vaccinated fewest people per capita so far, South Dakota is on top

  • GOP congressmembers won't reject Electoral College vote because party 'depends' on it for presidential wins

    Republican House members against an attempt to oppose the certification of the Electoral College's vote are saying the quiet part of their argument very, very loud.A coalition of 11 GOP senators are planning to join with some House Republicans to oppose the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's win on Wednesday, giving debunked claims of election fraud as their reasoning. But another group of seven House congressmembers warned against undermining trust in the Electoral College, saying in a Monday statement that doing so could cost the party its only chance to win a future presidential election.Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) released their joint statement Monday, claiming they do believe "significant abuses in our election system" took place in 2020. The U.S. electoral system should guarantee "only legal votes are cast to select its leaders" and the electors who formally choose them, the statement said. "But only the states have authority to appoint electors," and after they do so, Congress can only count their votes, the group wrote. "To take action otherwise" only "strengthen[s] the efforts of those on the left" who want to end the Electoral College altogether.From there, the groups gets specific about the "purely partisan" side of their argument. Republican presidential candidates have only won the popular vote once in the past 32 years, relying on the Electoral College for the majority of their wins. "If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes ... we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024," the congressmembers finished.Top intelligence officials and former Attorney General William Barr have affirmed there is no evidence of election-altering fraud in the 2020 election.More stories from theweek.com Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? McConnell stares down the barrel of Trump's gun After getting vaccinated, New Orleans woman delivers a blunt message to non-believers

  • UN chief recommends Libya cease-fire monitors based in Sirte

    Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is recommending that international monitors be deployed to Libya under a U.N. umbrella to observe the October cease-fire agreement from a base in the strategic city of Sirte, the gateway to the country's major oil fields and export terminals. The U.N. chief said in an interim report to the Security Council on proposed cease-fire monitoring arrangements circulated Monday that an advance team should be sent to Libya’s capital Tripoli as a first step to “provide the foundations for a scalable United Nations cease-fire monitoring mechanism based in Sirte.”

  • Woman clings to hood of speeding car to try to stop theft of $10,000 puppy

    Late last month, a felony charge was filed against the woman who was allegedly driving the car in the theft.

  • Georgia election officials slap down Trump tweet about voting machines

    Georgia officials overseeing the state's Senate runoffs on Tuesday hit back at a tweet from President Donald Trump stoking fears about voting machines, saying that despite an early problem in one county, the elections were running smoothly. The tweet was retweeted more than 45,000 times. Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office responded in a statement that although some issues were reported, they did not stop the vote and were resolved by 10 a.m.

  • 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

  • Portland suspect escapes after cleaning crew leaves holding room door unlocked

    David Dahlen, 24, was arrested Saturday on a warrant for the attempted murder of a police officer.

  • Philadelphia Man, 83, in ICU After Being Brutally Beaten and Robbed on New Year's Eve

    An elderly Filipino American man is in critical condition after being attacked in North Philadelphia on New Year's Eve. The incident, which left family members desperate for answers, occurred in the victim's home on Fairhill Street at around 9:30 p.m. [caption id="attachment_10086094" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Mauricio Gesmundo, Sr. was attacked on New Year's Eve. Image via the Gesmundo Family[/caption] Mauricio Gesmundo Sr., 83, was getting ready for dinner when he heard loud sounds from inside his house.

  • Trump news – live: President warns ‘terrorist’ Antifa to stay out of DC as Proud Boys leader ejected from city OLD

    Follow the latest updates

  • An attorney got disbarred in 2020 for not answering the Florida Bar. She died in 2019

    Delray Beach attorney Sabrina Spradley wasn’t the first attorney to receive a longer suspension or even be disbarred for ignoring the Florida Bar’s requests for paperwork after a suspension.