The Biden administration wants to use the Agriculture Department money to tackle climate change, support restaurants and kickstart other programs without waiting for Congress; Fox Business Network's Charles Payne reacts.
Former President Donald Trump and those closest to him believed before Election Day that he would win a second term, "their views swayed by the assurances of pro-Trump pundits and the unscientific measure of the size and excitement of the president's rally crowds," The New York Times reports. Trump had laid the groundwork for a Plan B, arguing that he lost only because of a vast conspiracy of fraud, but he and his close circle didn't think he would need it, the Times reports: Flying home on Air Force One from the final campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the early hours of Nov. 3., Mr. Trump's son Eric proposed an Electoral College betting pool. He wagered that the president would win at least 320 electoral votes, according to a person present for the exchange. "We're just trying to get to 270," an adviser more grounded in polling and analytics replied. [The New York Times] The Times did not report how much Eric Trump bet or whether he ever paid up. But watching returns come in on election night, Donald Trump "fell into enraged disbelief as his lead inexorably dissipated, even in formerly red states like Arizona," the Times reports. "Eric Trump goaded him on — a dynamic that would play out in the weeks to come." Read more about Trump's post-election machinations at The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House production5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problemRise of the Barstool conservatives
Part of Highway 1 in the Big Sur area collapsed after heavy rains and slid into the Pacific.
Environmentalists and labor unions that threw their support behind U.S. President Joseph Biden now find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle over the construction of big pipeline projects between Canada and the United States. The United States is the world's largest producer of oil and gas. Biden's administration aims to transition the U.S. economy towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and his initial moves towards that goal included cancelling a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline (KXL) and reducing oil-and-gas leasing.
Ursula von der Leyen has claimed she had secured assurances from Boris Johnson that the EU could receive vaccine supplies from AstraZeneca factories in Britain. The European Commission president said on Sunday night that the Prime Minister had promised Britain was not seeking exclusive access to the supplies of the jab. The British Government has never said it wanted exclusive access to the supplies. It has an agreement with AstraZeneca that stipulates that the company must supply the UK with 100million vaccines before it can ship to elsewhere. “I was glad that he guaranteed that the two factories who produce AstraZeneca will of course supply to Europe, just as European vaccine doses for example from [Pfizer] BioNTech are being delivered to Britain,” said Mrs von der Leyen on German television on Sunday. There were fears that vaccines from Pfizer’s Belgian plant could be stopped from being exported to Britain after the European Commission threatened an export ban, as its row with AstraZeneca spiralled out of control last week. It is thought Mr Johnson was offered similar assurances over the EU supply of vaccines to Britain.
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.
As states were formulating plans to vaccinate their residents against COVID-19 last fall, top Trump administration officials pushed Congress to deny the state governments any extra funding for the vaccine rollout, Stat News reported Sunday. The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and White House Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought, disregarded "frantic warnings from state officials that they didn't have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation," focusing instead on $200 million the states had not yet spent, Stat reports. Vought was "obsessed" with the fact that states hadn't already spent the allocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Republican Senate aide told Stat, adding that even staunch fiscal conservatives in Congress knew states needed more than $200 million to inoculate 300 million Americans. But "much of the lobbying push came from Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services," Stat reports, citing a Democratic congressional aide and Mango himself. "A lot of them had shut down their economies and they weren't getting tax revenue," Mango told Stat. "I'm sure they could use money — that's not in dispute — what's in dispute is whether they needed money given all they hadn't used to actually administer vaccines." The National Governors Association and the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) both warned the Trump administration last fall that more funding was needed to prepare for the soon-to-be-approved vaccines, and former CDC Director Robert Redfield had asked Congress for $6 billion for the states' efforts. Mango told Stat that Redfield was "lobbying Congress for money behind our back" to "help their friends at the state public health offices." State health departments note they were not vaccinating anyone in October and said they were drawing down sources of money that were set to expire before tapping the $200 million, especially because it wasn't certain Congress would allocate anymore. Congress did approve $4.5 billion in December, but the funds didn't start arriving in states until January. Read more about the lobbying effort, what effect it may have had on the slow rollout, and the schism between the Trump political appointees and public health officials at Stat News. More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionEric Trump reportedly wagered Election Day that his father would win 320 electoral votes5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
“This is not something that any of us should want to justify,” said Mayor Lovely Warren, who ordered an investigation.
Gunmen on two motorcycles burst into a weekend party and robbed those at the house, then returned a few minutes later and opened fire, killing six men and one woman, authorities in north-central Mexico reported Sunday. Jalisco state prosecutors said the attack occurred late Saturday. Jalisco has long been home to the cartel of the same name, but the attack occurred close to the border with Zacatecas state, where several drug gangs have been fighting for territory.
About 2 million Australians begun their first full day of a strict coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state, but no new cases have since been found. Authorities ordered a five-day lockdown of Perth after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people returning from overseas was found to have contracted the virus. The state government said 66 people have been deemed close contacts of the unidentified guard and none of those already tested were infected.
Warning bells are sounding for the U.S. semiconductor industry as Intel grapples with internal and competitive challenges that could imperil the future of domestic chipmaking.Why it matters: Chips are some of the only strategic tech products that are actually manufactured in the U.S., accounting for a quarter-million U.S. jobs. They're also a small but key piece in the power struggle between the U.S. and China. Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.Driving the news: Intel is weighing whether to outsource some manufacturing after struggling mightily to get its next-generation chip production up and running. * Costly delays are already handing a technical edge to rivals like AMD, which outsources its manufacturing to Taiwan's TSMC. * The percentage of chips made in the U.S. has already declined from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the trade group that represents U.S. chipmakers.Policymakers and chip industry reps are now pleading for government intervention to keep what remains of U.S. chip manufacturing in the country.The big picture: Beijing has grand designs on dominating the global chip market, which would in turn boost China's economic and technological might and could give the country an edge in A.I. and other next-generation technologies. * China's efforts have run into troubles of their own, but Intel falling behind will do the U.S. no favors.Between the lines: For all the talk of how computers and smartphones should be made in the U.S., the practical reality is that we have neither the infrastructure nor the labor force nor the economic setup to bring such manufacturing here. * Chips, on the other hand, are highly strategic, require a modest but well-paid labor force and are already made here.What they're saying: Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin talked about the strategic importance of the U.S. chip industry in their confirmation hearings. * SIA head John Neuffer said in a statement to Axios, "Semiconductors are critical to our economy, national security, and future innovation." * "To strengthen America’s semiconductor supply chains and keep our country on top in chip technology, leaders in Washington need to fully fund the semiconductor manufacturing incentives and research investments called for in the annual defense bill."That bill — the most recent incarnation of the National Defense Authorization Act — has a provision that provides for federal incentives for domestic manufacturing and investments in semiconductor research. * However, those provisions still need to be funded through congressional appropriations.Be smart: The right government investment and incentives could encourage other firms to expand U.S. chipmaking and prevent an exodus of chip jobs even if Intel does reduce the amount of manufacturing it does in-house. * Already, South Korea's Samsung is reportedly weighing a $10 billion expansion of its chipmaking plant in Texas.What's next: Pat Gelsinger, recently tapped to be Intel's new CEO, acknowledged on an earnings call last week that "it's likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products." * But he maintained that he remains "confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally."Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
Royal Dutch Shell is forging its own path…when it comes to moving away from oil production.Reuters can now report that, unlike its rivals, Shell is betting on its expertise in power trading and fast growth in hydrogen and biofuels markets…rather than joining rivals in a scramble for renewable energy assets.Reuters Oil and Gas Corporates correspondent Ron Bousso.''First of all, Shell is going to put a huge emphasis on its trading capabilities, which are already the world's biggest LNG trading operations and is also going to grow its hydrogen and biofuel businesses significantly over the coming decade because that's where it sees its biggest opportunities and biggest advantages over rivals to capture the big changes that are expected to happen in the energy landscape with the transition to low carbon. On the other hand, Shell is not putting a huge amount of emphasis on growing its own renewable wind power and solar energy generation capacity. Of course, it will grow its renewable footprint, particularly in offshore wind.''Like its European peers, the Anglo-Dutch company is under pressure from investors and regulatorsto slash greenhouse gas emissions and reach net zero by 2050.But unlike its rivals BP and Total, who are investing heavily in renewables, sources say Shell sees more profit as an intermediary between green energy producers and end customers ... like electric vehicle owners.It's already the world's biggest energy trader, and aims to increase its spending on low-carbon energy to 25% of overall capital expenditure by 2025.''And the strategies have been met with kind of mixed reaction from investors, on the one hand welcoming them, because obviously that will be essential to reach the Paris climate agreement goals.But on the other hand, there are a lot of questions of whether the majors, which are companies that have been around for 100, 120, sometimes even longer years, are able to change their model and move from the oil and gas markets into the power markets, where you already have big players that are developing big renewable power businesses. So there's a lot of skepticism about whether these companies will be able to do the transition even with their good intentions.''Shell will keep its oil and gas production largely stable for the next decade to help fund its energy transition plans, the sources said.Unlike its rival BP, which committed to slashing its fossil fuel output by 40% by 2030.
By Nov. 12, former President Donald Trump's team of election lawyers knew he had lost his re-election bid, that despite Trump's tweets and public comments, "there was no substantial evidence of election fraud, and there were nowhere near enough 'irregularities' to reverse the outcome in the courts," The New York Times reports. But their protestations just made Trump turn to allies telling him what he wanted to hear, so Nov. 12 was also the day "Trump's flimsy, long-shot legal effort to reverse his loss turned into something else entirely — an extralegal campaign to subvert the election, rooted in a lie so convincing to some of his most devoted followers that it made the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol almost inevitable." Trump's experienced legal team either quietly faded away or was sidelined by Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and other lawyers "ready to push forward with propagandistic suits that skated the lines of legal ethics and reason," the Times reports. That eventually included "the vast majority of Republican attorneys general, whose dead-on-arrival Supreme Court lawsuit seeking to discard 20 million votes was secretly drafted by lawyers close to the White House." Before Thanksgiving, Trump's allies — including Kris Kobach, a voting restrictions activist who previously led Trump's "election integrity" commission; former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin; and Lawrence Joseph, a lawyer who had worked to shield Trump's tax returns — started working on a new lawsuit that while "short on legal or factual merit" was "rich in the sort of sensational claims" sure to spread across conservative media, the Times reports. The argument was that Trump states could ask the Supreme Court to throw out 20 million votes in certain states President Biden won because, they claimed, those Biden states effectively cheated. "Only one type of lawyer can take a case filed by one state against another directly to the Supreme Court: a state attorney general," the Times reports. "The president's original election lawyers doubted that any attorney general would be willing to do so," but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton jumped at the chance. When the Texas solicitor general refused to be involved in the suit, Paxton hired Joseph as a special outside counsel, not disclosing to the court that Joseph and other outside Trump advisers had written the brief. Read more about Trump's extralegal campaign at The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionEric Trump reportedly wagered Election Day that his father would win 320 electoral votes5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
One woman with family in South Korea said she’s "jealous that they’re in a place where people care about other people and take precautions."
The role of policing in the United States is being hotly debated, with many liberal activists calling for reductions in police funding. Although advocates of defunding the police have failed to win over the general public, the political climate in certain Democratic-leaning cities, combined with the budget constraints imposed by COVID-19, has already succeeded in thinning the ranks of police departments in some parts of the country. In Minneapolis, the epicenter of last year’s protests and riots, over 100 officers left the ranks of the city’s police, “more than double the number in a typical year.” In Seattle, another hub of protests last year, the level of police attrition is “unprecedented.” The long-term impact of police reductions in these specific cities is at this point unclear. However, a study published in December in Justice Evaluation Journal offers some evidence that rapidly depleting the ranks of a city’s police force can in some circumstances have deadly consequences. Eric Piza, of John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY, and Vijay Chillar, of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, looked at police layoffs against the backdrop of the Great Recession of 2008–09. “There’s a large body of research that has looked at the relationship between police-force size and crime, but most of it has analyzed the effect of incremental changes in officer numbers,” Piza told me about why he pursued this research. “Large changes, such as what occurs with layoffs, hadn’t been analyzed before. Therefore, we felt that research on the effect of large, sudden reductions to a police force was needed in the field.” During that period, New Jersey’s two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City, faced severe budget stress as a consequence of the downturn in the economy. Both cities contemplated large police layoffs in response. In Jersey City, the local police union and city officials were able to reach an agreement that averted layoffs; in Newark, labor–management negotiations were not as successful, resulting in the layoff of 167 recently hired officers, a total of 13 percent of the force. Piza and Chillar used the examples of Jersey City and Newark as a natural experiment, examining their crime rates between 2006 and 2015 and looking to examine the impact of Newark’s layoffs on its levels of crime. Although no natural experiment is perfect, the similarities between the two cities made them comparable for purposes of the study. The researchers note in their paper that “as New Jersey’s two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City are more similar to one another than any of the other municipalities in the state in regards to police force size, pre-layoff resources, and pre-layoff crime levels.” They noted that both property-crime and violent-crime rates continued to decline throughout the period they studied in Jersey City. In Newark, however, violent-crime rates increased after the layoffs. Using statistical models, Piza and Chillar estimate that there were “approximately 108 . . . additional violent crime incidents per month resulting from the layoffs,” while there were also an additional 103 property-crime incidents each month. One possible culprit for the increase in crime following the layoffs was the decision of the Newark Police Department (NPD) to curtail the use of hot-spots policing, which involved assigning officers to proactively police the city’s crime hot spots during the majority of their shifts. From 2006 to 2009, hot-spots policing was a major feature of the department’s activities, but budget constraints and layoffs forced the NPD to discontinue this form of policing, as personnel were needed elsewhere. It’s also possible that the sudden and dramatic decrease in police officers harmed the force’s morale, contributing to a reduction in policing quality. Piza and Chillar point to a 2018 study that found that teacher layoffs in the state of Washington led to less teacher productivity. Whatever the reason, the study clearly shows a relationship between layoffs and a spike in crime in Newark, one that did not take place in similarly situated Jersey City. Piza advised caution on drawing larger lessons from the study and suggested that layoffs don’t necessarily have to lead to higher crime levels if they are done in a more strategic way that allows departments to continue crime-control practices that work. “The layoffs weren’t part of any larger efforts to reimagine public safety, which are occurring currently,” he told me. “With that said, I don’t think reducing police-force sizes needs to automatically result in more crime, as long as police cuts are supplemented with resources that can help maintain evidence-based crime-control practices.” But it’s unclear whether the cuts we’re seeing across the country are being done in a judicious environment or whether they’re a knee-jerk response to the political moment that is taking place around the country. We know for instance that Austin, Texas, cut a third of its police budget, and New York City disbanded a plainclothes anti-crime unit. These cuts are coming at a time when many American cities have experienced a huge increase in homicides and shootings. Some locales, such as Wilmington, Del., saw a record number of homicides last year. St. Louis, Mo., long one of America’s most violent spots, saw its highest rate of killing in 50 years. Since the advent of smartphones and social media, we’re all intimately aware of acts of unjustified police violence and brutality. But we should contextualize any policy responses we take, carefully weighing costs and benefits. The Piza and Chillar study shows that a sharp and sudden reduction in police staffing can have disastrous consequences for a community, leading to more needless death.
Driving on the seaside sand, a long-lived tradition in Daytona Beach, is now threatened along one short stretch where poles are blocking any vehicles. The Hard Rock Hotel erected the poles along a 410-foot (124-meter) section of beach to prevent driving there. The chair of the Volusia County Council, Jeff Brower, has made beach driving a priority since his election in November.
Most travelers entering Cuba as of Feb. 6 will be quarantined for up to a week, the government announced on Saturday, and flights from the United States and some other countries reduced to no more than one per week per airline.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) bestowed some bipartisan praise on the Biden administration Sunday, telling ABC News' Martha Raddatz that the vaccine distribution in his state has been "seamless" lately and he's grateful President Biden and his team are "working to assure" the Arkansas-U.S. government partnership remains in tact. When asked if he thought Biden was doing enough, Hutchinson said he "was delighted that we had a 14 percent increase in vaccine supply last week." And, given the global vaccine supply shortage, he's happy "we have that partnership, which is good, with the federal government." “In terms of the vaccine distribution, it’s been seamless,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says on the Biden administration’s efforts. “President Biden and his team is working to assure that partnership and not tear it apart, which I’m very grateful for.” https://t.co/0tIupXQlob pic.twitter.com/VQQiXHie2v — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 31, 2021 More stories from theweek.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionEric Trump reportedly wagered Election Day that his father would win 320 electoral votes5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
The Texas lawsuit sought to overthrow 20 million votes in four battleground states
Mexican soldiers and immigration agents rescued a 2-year-old girl from Chile after she apparently fell into the Rio Grande and the adults who were with her left her and crossed the river into the United States, officials said Sunday. The National Immigration Institute said the incident occurred Saturday as a group of migrants was crossing the river near Ciudad Acuna, across from Del Rio, Texas. The adults made gestures, pointing out the toddler to soldiers and immigration agents, who then waded into the river to rescue her, the agency said.
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.comThe Jan. 6 rally that fed the deadly Capitol siege was reportedly a Trump White House productionEric Trump reportedly wagered Election Day that his father would win 320 electoral votes5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problem
