Tens of thousands took to the streets across Russia on Sunday to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have shaken the Kremlin. More than 4,700 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and some were beaten.
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‘Yes, I believe that we do [have the votes],’ Senator Bernie Sanders says of party-line Covid relief proposal
Thousands are rallying across Russia as nationwide protests in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny continue to grow. For the second straight weekend, Russians took to the streets on Sunday in the Far East and Siberia as Moscow geared up for the rally with a strict security lockdown. Defying minus 20 degrees temperatures, more than 6,000 people marched across Russia’s third-largest city of Novosibirsk on Sunday, chanting “Down with the czar!” after riot police sealed off the main square. In Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, police pushed the crowds on the frozen Amur Bay where officers chased protesters in the snow. More than 500 arrests were reported across the country by Sunday morning.
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told "Axios on HBO" that he doesn't consider China to be a major geopolitical threat — a stance that may cause him friction with the Biden administration and Congress — even as he vowed to limit Chinese control of critical technology sectors.Why it matters: Zelensky's comments represent a break with U.S. national security leaders from both major political parties who are trying to rally allies to confront the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.Driving the news: Asked about emerging consensus in Washington that China is the No. 1 geopolitical threat, Zelensky said, "I cannot agree with that because in Ukraine we do not feel this." * "There really is this a sort of cold war between China and the United States," he said. * "We know United States business is represented in Ukraine, but at the same time, it's true that Chinese business is also represented." * "I believe that regardless of the nation, the nationality, if people, if business, if a certain country, treats you with respect, respecting your people and borders, they can be present in your country."Between the lines: There's only so much leverage the U.S. has to push Zelensky away from China. Beijing has crushed Washington at vaccine diplomacy — a painful reality that Zelensky discussed in the "Axios on HBO" interview. * Zelensky has tried to obtain for his country the higher-quality American vaccines. And he’s pushed the Europeans for their help. But given the difficulty he’s faced to secure doses, he said he is willing to work with Beijing to get large quantities of a safe COVID vaccine for the Ukrainian people. * Worth noting: The U.S. did not offer its superior vaccines to Ukraine and in fact took steps to make it harder for Zelensky to obtain them.Behind the scenes: How to handle China is a growing sore point in U.S.-Ukraine relations. Trump administration officials privately expressed concerns that China — which became Ukraine's top trading partner in 2019 — was flooding Ukraine with easy cash and in return embedding itself in Ukraine's critical sectors including defense and telecom. * U.S. officials are worried about China stealing intelligence secrets and wielding nefarious influence over allies who are increasingly beholden to Beijing.Yes, but: Senior U.S. government officials have been trying for years to persuade Ukraine to stop China from buying Motor Sich, an aero engine manufacturer that is the crown jewel of Ukraine's defense sector. * In the interview, Zelensky said for the first time definitively that he will not allow China, or any other country, to buy a controlling stake in Motor Sich. * "Never," he said. "Not under me. I am not here for life... [But] in my time [in office], definitely not.The bottom line: Russia is a far more imminent concern for Ukraine. But when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, China never condemned Russia's action. So while Zelensky may not call out China as a threat, he knows that China can't be relied upon in a Russia-Ukraine crisis.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist who helped run presidential campaigns for the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2000 and 2008 and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) in 2016, has been accused of online harassment by 21 men, The New York Times reports. In interviews, the men said that over the course of several years Weaver — who is also a co-founder of, but not longer involved with, the Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump group formed by Republican — sent unsolicited and sexually provocative over the internet. The exchanges reportedly did not lead to physical encounters except in one consensual case, and the men did not accuse Weaver of unlawful conduct, the Times notes, but they did describe being "preyed upon by an influential older man in the field in which they wanted to work." Weaver even sent messages to a 14-year-old boy, eventually inviting him to come to Las Vegas with him after he turned 18. One of the men who received messages from Weaver last year when he was a recent college graduate looking for a job in politics said "it just seemed like he was exploiting his power." The Times' provided new, specific details about the situation, but allegations of Weaver's solicitations were first reported earlier this month by The American Conservative. In response to that story, Weaver acknowledged sending the inappropriate messages and apologized. Read more at The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comTrump's impeachment defense is out. Bannon is reportedly encouraging him to go to the Senate himself.How Moscow police's attempts to shut down pro-Navalny protests may have backfired5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
Six Chinese fighter aircraft and a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Sunday, the island's defence ministry said, in an unusual admission of U.S. military activity. Tensions have spiked over the last week or so after Taiwan reported multiple Chinese fighters and bombers flying into the zone last weekend, in an area close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the northern part of the South China Sea.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the World Health Organization, and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg are among those nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.They are all backed by Norwegian lawmakers who have a track record of picking the winner.Thunberg was named as one of "the foremost spokespeople in the fight against the climate crisis."Navalny was nominated by Russian academics and noted for his democratic efforts in the country.The battle against COVID-19 is also front and center, with a nomination for the WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance.Henrik Urdal is the Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. "I mean, if the (Nobel) committee would want to award a prize for global collaboration to fight sort of a major global threat (ed note: climate change) I wouldn't have a problem with it but then in my view that would perhaps extend the domain of the prize well beyond what I think is the, at least the commonly accepted, right now."Thousands of people, from members of parliaments worldwide to former winners, are eligible to propose candidates. And other nominees include former U.S. President Donald Trump, NATO, and the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).The Norwegian Nobel Committee decides who wins the award and does not comment on nominations, which close on Sunday (January 31).The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.
Georgia congresswoman says she has the ‘full support’ of Donald Trump
Impeachment fever has struck Kentucky, where grievances over coronavirus restrictions and the outcome of the Breonna Taylor death investigation have spurred petitions to oust both the governor and the attorney general. It's a card rarely played in any serious way in the Bluegrass State, though Kentucky has had its share of provocative elected officials. In the two new cases, the effort to impeach was triggered by disagreements over policy or executive decisions at the highest levels of Kentucky government.
New research aims to give phone companies tools to help curb robocalls. Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty ImagesThe Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea More than 80% of robocalls come from fake numbers – and answering these calls or not has no effect on how many more you’ll get. Those are two key findings of an 11-month study into unsolicited phone calls that we conducted from February 2019 to January 2020. To better understand how these unwanted callers operate, we monitored every phone call received to over 66,000 phone lines in our telephone security lab, the Robocall Observatory at North Carolina State University. We received 1.48 million unsolicited phone calls over the course of the study. Some of these calls we answered, while others we let ring. Contrary to popular wisdom, we found that answering calls makes no difference in the number of robocalls received by a phone number. The weekly volume of robocalls remained constant throughout the study. As part of our study, we also developed the first method to identify robocalling campaigns responsible for a large number of these annoying, illegal and fraudulent robocalls. The main types of robocalling campaigns were about student loans, health insurance, Google business listings, general financial fraud, and a long-running Social Security scam. Using these techniques, we learned that more than 80% of calls from an average robocalling campaign use fake or short-lived phone numbers to place their unwanted calls. Using these phone numbers, perpetrators deceive their victims and make it much more difficult to identify and prosecute unlawful robocallers. We also saw that some fraudulent robocalling operations impersonated government agencies for many months without detection. They used messages in English and Mandarin and threatened the victims with dire consequences. These messages target vulnerable populations, including immigrants and seniors. Why it matters Providers can identify the true source of a call using a time-consuming, manual process called traceback. Today, there are too many robocalls for traceback to be a practical solution for every call. Our robocalling campaign identification technique is not just a powerful research tool. It can also be used by service providers to identify large-scale robocalling operations. Using our methods, providers need to investigate only a small number of calls for each robocalling campaign. By targeting the source of abusive robocalls, service providers can block or shut down these operations and protect their subscribers from scams and unlawful telemarketing. What still isn’t known Providers are deploying a new technology called STIR/SHAKEN, which may prevent robocallers from spoofing their phone numbers. When deployed, it will simplify traceback for calls, but it won’t work for providers who use older technology. Robocallers also quickly adapt to new situations, so they may find a way around STIR/SHAKEN. No one knows how robocallers interact with their victims and how often they change their strategies. For example, a rising number of robocalls and scammers are now using COVID-19 as a premise to defraud people. What’s next Over the coming years, we will continue our research on robocalls. We will study whether STIR/SHAKEN reduces robocalls. We’re also developing techniques to better identify, understand, and help providers and law enforcement target robocalling operations.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more:Robocalls are unstoppable – 3 questions answered about why your phone won’t quit ringingRise and fall of the landline: 143 years of telephones becoming more accessible – and smartWhy are there so many suckers? A neuropsychologist explains Sathvik Prasad is a member of the USENIX association.Bradley Reaves receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. This research was supported by in-kind donations from Bandwidth and NomoRobo. Reaves is a member of the Communications Fraud Control Association, ACM, IEEE, and the USENIX association.
Russia and Turkey opened a joint centre on Saturday to observe a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh that was agreed following a flare-up in the conflict in the region last year, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said on Saturday. The centre, which both countries agreed to set up in November, was officially opened in the Agdam region of Azerbaijan. It will be staffed by up to 60 servicemen each from Turkey and from Russia, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) led a group of 10 Republican senators — including fellow moderates Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — that on Sunday announced plans to unveil a $600 million COVID-19 relief package they believe could serve as a bipartisan alternative to President Biden's $1.9 trillion plan, which the GOP has deemed too expensive. The details are expected to be released Monday, though The Washington Post reports it will likely not include Biden's proposal to increase the federal minimum wage and it will also reportedly narrow eligibility for a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals earning $50,000 per year or less or couples earning $100,000 per year or less. The Republicans want to meet with Biden to discuss their counterproposal. "We want to work in good faith with you and your administration to meet the health, economic, and societal challenges" of the COVID-19 pandemic, they wrote in a letter. Whether Democrats will be open to discussing the idea remains to be seen (Biden's top economic adviser reiterated Sunday that the president is determined to act swiftly), but, as the Post notes, the fact that 10 Republicans are on board with the plan is significant. If the two sides do reach a compromise that would give the Senate the 60 votes required to pass legislation without the Democrats having to seek a workaround. Read more at The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.comTrump's impeachment defense is out. Bannon is reportedly encouraging him to go to the Senate himself.How Moscow police's attempts to shut down pro-Navalny protests may have backfired5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens.
Wall Street is gearing up for another week of market mayhem, with signs that the retail frenzy that pumped up the stock prices of the likes of GameStop Corp and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc is spreading to other assets. Some of Wall Street's largest hedge funds are still licking their wounds after retail traders sought to drive up the prices of stocks that were heavily bet against, resulting in large losses for major investors. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund at the center of the GameStop drama, lost 53% in January but received commitments for fresh cash from investors in the last days of the month, Reuters reported on Sunday.
The storm will also cause near-hurricane force wind gusts and major coastal flooding.
Australia's two-week run without any cases of community Covid transmission has come to an end, after the infection of a hotel guard in Perth triggered a five-day lockdown. On Sunday afternoon, officials in Western Australia announced that a hotel security guard had tested positive to Covid-19, and speculated that the man may also have been working as a rideshare driver. "I know for many Western Australian, this is going to come as a shock… Western Australians have done so well for so long, but this week it is absolutely crucial that we stay home, maintain physical distancing and personal hygiene, and get tested if you have symptoms,” said Mark McGowan, the premier of Western Australia. It is believed the man has contracted one of the new, more infectious strains of Covid-19, such as the UK and Brazil variants. The revelation that the infected security guard may have also worked as a rideshare driver has angered some Australians. They pointed to the use of casual guards at multiple sites being a driving factor behind Melbourne’s disastrous second wave in 2020. Mr McGowan announced the Labor Party would suspend its election campaign due to the lockdown, with voters due to go to the polls on 13 March. Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup suspended the Liberal Party’s campaign, and appeared to support the government’s strategy in a short statement. “We have got through this before and we will do it again. Remain calm. Follow the advice. Keep each other safe. The coming days will be tough,” he wrote. The Government announced that schools, due to commence term one on Monday, would remain closed, and bars, pubs, restaurants and many other public venues would be closed as of 6pm Sunday evening. The city’s popular Fringe Festival, half way through its run, will be shut down, and Australia’s domestic T20 league is now facing uncertainty. All workers are advised to work from home if possible and people must wear masks if leaving their homes. The restrictions cover the Perth metropolitan area, the Peel region and the South West. Western Australia had enjoyed a relatively uneventful 2020, with a combination of luck, geographical isolation, a short lockdown and strict border controls staving off a serious outbreak of the coronavirus. In total, the state of almost 2.8million people has recorded just 903 Covid cases and nine deaths.
A group of 10 Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), sent a letter to President Biden Sunday requesting a meeting with the president, saying they have developed a counterproposal to the president's COVID-19 relief plan.The big picture: The proposal includes $160 billion in spending for vaccines, testing and tracing, treatment and medical equipment. The senators said the plan "could be approved quickly by Congress with bipartisan support," if it gained Biden's support.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * The Senators' proposal includes a measure to renew unemployment benefits that expire in March. It also seeks to send a new round of direct payments to "families who need assistance the most," and to send additional assistance to small businesses. * "Our proposal reflects many of your stated priorities," the senators wrote.What they're saying: “In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a COVID-19 relief framework that builds on prior COVID assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support,” the senators wrote.Between the lines: Biden has said he prefers a bipartisan approach to getting his plan through Congress, writes Axios Hans Nichols. * But he hasn’t ruled out relying on Democratic votes alone to pass his proposal through budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled last week that Democrats would seek to use the tactic if they could not garner Republican support.What's new: National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday morning that the White House has "seen the letter and will be reviewing it over the course of the day."What's next: The senators will reveal more of the plan's details on Monday, per Politico. Go deeper: White House plots "full-court press" for $1.9 trillion relief planGet smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
Members of a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited another Wuhan hospital that had treated early COVID-19 patients on their second full day of work Saturday. Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital was one of the first in the Chinese city to deal with patients in early 2020 suffering from a then-unknown virus and is a key part of the epidemiological history of the disease. “Just back from visit at Jinyintan hospital, that specialised in infectious diseases and was designated for treatment of the first cases in Wuhan," Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans said in a post on Twitter.
Kay Martley said she was stunned by the Los Angeles County DA’s decision to stop opposing parole for the Manson follower convicted of killing her cousin.
Republicans are facing calls to expel a new congresswoman who backed wild conspiracy theories about a vast paedophile ring propping up the Democrats and claims that several high-profile school shootings were a hoax. Democrats are preparing a resolution to oust Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter, who has been embroiled in near-daily scandals over her controversial comments since taking office earlier this month. But Republicans face a dilemma that strikes at the heart of a fight over the future of the party. The GOP’s position on Ms Greene is being seen as the first real test of whether the party wants - or is able - to move past Trump-style politics after the former president spent years advancing conspiracy theories of his own. Ms Greene, who was recently appointed to the House education committee, has spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about the school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, which she alleged was a “false flag” operation, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, which claimed the lives of 20 children. A video taken in 2019 emerged this week of the congresswoman outside the US Capitol confronting 20-year-old Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, whom she has called “Little Hitler”, appearing to berate him over his advocacy on tightening gun laws.
Five attorneys who were prepared to defend former President Donald Trump in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial have departed his legal team, people familiar with the situation confirmed to CNN and The New York Times. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are out, as are Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser, and Greg Harris. No other attorneys have announced they were involved with the case, so it appears that, for now, Trump is defenseless. The lawyers reportedly left because of a disagreement over legal strategy. Trump reportedly wanted them to push his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in last year's presidential election rather than focus on whether convicting a former president after he's out of office is constitutional, an argument that appears to be the consensus among Republicans and the reason he'll likely be acquitted. Bowers, a source said, lacked chemistry with Trump and the decision to leave was reportedly mutual. It's unclear where Trump will go from here — his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly wants to take the case, but he's a potential witness in the trial because he spoke at the rally preceding the deadly Capitol riot Trump is accused of inciting, and the Times notes "almost all" of Trump's advisers blame Giuliani for the impeachment in the first place. Considering GOP senators have signaled they won't vote to convict, some are wondering why Trump would even bother spending money on attorneys at all at this point. And here is a statement Trump has made to advisers almost verbatim > https://t.co/zktWOIrUD6 — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 31, 2021 Stephen Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, thinks the former president should go the Senate himself because "he's the only one who can sell it." However, aides are reportedly against the idea. Read more at The New York Times and CNN. More stories from theweek.comHow Moscow police's attempts to shut down pro-Navalny protests may have backfired5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problemThe reality of Brexit
