Blinken warns Iran may be just 'weeks away' from nuclear weapon

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Former State Department senior adviser Christian Whiton joins 'Fox News @ Night' to discuss latest foreign policy test

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  • House Democrats make constitutional case for impeaching Trump in scathing memo

    The House impeachment managers said the U.S. Constitution does not restrict impeachment to people currently in office and that they interpret the text as giving Congress broad powers to pursue impeachment.

  • Israel's rapid rollout provides the first real-world proof that COVID vaccination works as well as promised

    Now that a huge share of Israelis have been vaccinated, experts are looking at the country’s experience as a kind of real-world, real-time experiment, with unique data that could start to answer some of our most pressing questions about the power of vaccines to curb the pandemic.  

  • Schumer, McConnell end standoff to organize 50-50 Senate

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced an agreement Wednesday with Republicans to organize the evenly split chamber, ending a weekslong standoff that prevented the new Democratic majority from setting up some operations and soured relations at the start of the congressional session. Schumer, D-N.Y., said that he and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had agreed on committee ratios and other details in the 50-50 chamber, where Democrats have the slim edge because Vice President Kamala Harris is a tie-breaking vote. Senators can now promptly “get to work, with Democrats holding the gavels,” Schumer said.

  • People Are Changing Their Profile Photos to Drawing of Thai Man Pushed to His Death in SF

    In a show of solidarity, social media users have started changing their profile photos to an illustration of Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai man who died after being shoved in San Francisco last week. The attack, which was caught on surveillance video, occurred as Ratanapakdee was walking along Anza Vista and Fortuna Avenues at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 28. For no apparent reason, Antoine Watson, 19, darted from the right side of the camera frame to push Ratanapakdee to the ground, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

  • Huckabee: Biden 'making Barack Obama look like Ronald Reagan'

    Former Arkansas governor joins FOX News contributor Marc Thiessen to discuss president's progressive agenda on 'The Story'

  • Biden's team is reportedly surprised Republicans don't see the political upsides of backing a big COVID-19 bill

    The politics of COVID-19 spending legislation is complicated. President Biden and former President Donald Trump, who don't agree on much, both pushed to get $2,000 direct payments to most Americans this winter, and the Republican governor of West Virginia is backing Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package while his state's Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, favors a smaller package. The White House is privately meeting with a group of Senate Republicans who proposed a $618 billion alternative package, The Associated Press reports, even as Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reject that amount as insufficient and urge Democrats to go big and go quickly. Biden and his advisers "publicly tout the virtues of bipartisan collaboration," but "they aren't pollyannaish about it," Sam Stein reports at Politico. "They know there is no recent history to suggest any such collaboration is coming.," but "inside the White House there is still some surprise that Republicans currently aren't more interested in working with them on COVID relief. Not because they believe Republicans philosophically support the bill, but because there are clear political incentives for them to do so." Biden and his aides have noted repeatedly that just because the budget reconciliation process would allow Democrats to pass much of the $1.9 trillion package without Republican support, Republicans can still vote for the package. If Democrats go the budget reconciliation route, the 10 Senate Republicans can either "oppose the measure without being able to stop it or work to shape it, pledge to vote for it, and get credit for the goodies inside it," Stein reports. "Put another way: Republicans could vote for a bill that includes billions of dollars of help for states, massive amounts of cash for vaccine distribution, and $1,400 stimulus check for most Americans. Or they could oppose it on grounds that the price tag is too steep, or the minimum wage hike is too high, or the process too rushed." And if they do that, a senior administration official told Stein, "they'll get no credit" for those $1,400 checks. Democrats only have the party-line option because they unexpectedly won both Senate seats in a Georgia runoff election, Stein notes, and one political "lesson from that episode is, quite bluntly: It's better to be on the side of giving people money." Trump understood that. Time will tell what Senate Republicans will decide. More stories from theweek.comStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New YorkDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wants

  • Navy Task Force Calls for Changing Ship Names that Honor Confederacy

    Task Force One Navy was directed to identify and dismantle barriers of inequality.

  • Officer who ordered arrest, pepper-spraying of man resigns, Keller police say

    Officer Blake Shimanek was the officer-in-charge who told another officer to place Marco Puente in handcuffs and pepper-spray him as Puente filmed his son’s arrest.

  • Oklahoma man jailed for shooting deaths of 5 kids, brother

    Police in Muskogee said they don't yet know why Jarron Deajon Pridgeon fatally shot Javarion Lee, 24, or the children, the oldest of whom was 9. The children's mother, Brittany Anderson, was also wounded in the shootings early Tuesday and was hospitalized in Tulsa. Police identified the slain children as Jalaiya Pridgeon, 1; Jaidus Pridgeon, 3; Harmony Anderson, 5; Neveah Pridgeon, 6; and Que’dynce Anderson, 9.

  • House impeachment brief contains a whole section dedicated to its Republican support

    House Democrats are adding a new element to their second impeachment case against former President Donald Trump: Republicans. The House's impeachment managers, all Democrats, released their impeachment trial brief on Tuesday deeming Trump "singularly responsible" for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. And to capitalize on the support of 10 Republicans who voted with every Democrat to charge Trump, the managers included a whole section dedicated to how the article of impeachment was approved "with bipartisan support." The section of the trial brief emphasizes the speed with which House members took up impeachment after the riot, specifying that "five days after the assault on the Capitol, an article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection was introduced in the House," and that it was approved two days later. "The House acted with urgency because President Trump's rhetoric and conduct before, during, and after the riot made clear that he was a menace to the nation’s security and democratic system," the brief argues. To solidify their point, the impeachment managers quoted statements from Republicans who voted to charge Trump. Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), for example, noted in a statement that "it cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection." Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) stated that even after the riot, where five people were killed and many more injured, Trump "has not addressed the nation to ask for calm." And House Republican Caucus Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) simply said that "there has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution." Trump's trial begins in the Senate next week. It's still unclear if any Senate Republicans will vote for his impeachment, making it unlikely that Democrats will get the 67 votes they need for conviction. More stories from theweek.comStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New YorkDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateBiden's team is reportedly surprised Republicans don't see the political upsides of backing a big COVID-19 bill

  • Biden Admin. to Open Migrant Overflow Facility amid Increase in Unaccompanied Minor Apprehensions

    The Department of Health and Human Services is reopening an overflow facility for unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border to keep up with an influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally, according to a new report. The department, which is charged with caring for children taken into custody at the border by the Department of Homeland Security, is set to reopen a facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas that can take in roughly 700 children, according to CNN. The facility, which will house children who are cleared from COVID-19 quarantine and will not be used for minors under the age of 13, can be expanded if necessary. There were roughly 4,730 children in the care of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement as of Thursday. “HHS is mindful of these children’s vulnerability, and our priority is the safety and wellbeing of each child in our care. HHS anticipates the need to start placing children at Carrizo Springs in 15 days or soon after,” the agency said in a statement. Apprehensions of unaccompanied children have spiked as a confluence of factors, both economic and environmental, has pushed migrants to attempt to enter the U.S. The Biden administration, and its perception as being more welcoming toward immigrants, may also be driving an increase. Meanwhile, facilities at the border are struggling with reduced capacity limits due to COVID-19. Children who are taken into DHS custody are subject to expulsion under a Trump-era policy. However, if they are placed in care, case managers work to match the child with a sponsor in the U.S., like a parent or relative. DHS is starting to expand its processing capacity, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection building structures in Donna, Texas to offer additional processing capacity in the Rio Grande Valley, a hotspot for illegal border crossings where a nearby processing center is closed for renovation.

  • Biden news - live: President says $1.9trn Covid bill ‘promise to Americans’ in GOP snub as Taylor Greene hits out

    Live updates on Joe Biden from the White House and Trump news

  • Vaccine diplomacy: Latin America turns to Russia and China to save them from crushing second wave

    In the Brazilian jungle city of Manaus, thought to have achieved “herd immunity” during the first, crushing Covid-19 surge last year, exhausted gravediggers are once again burying the thousands of dead vertically, one on top of the other. In Peru, much of the country returned to lockdown on Sunday, with the Andean nation’s already overwhelmed public intensive care capacity of nearly 2,000 beds — a 10-fold increase on the pre-pandemic figure — not even expected to cover half the coming demand. In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the country’s richest man, telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim, both tested positive last week. While López Obrador, 67, has regularly downplayed the pandemic and ignored calls to mask up, Slim, aged 81 and worth £40 billion, may well have been as well shielded as any of Mexico’s 128 million citizens. Both are now said to be recovering. Across Latin America, from some of the world’s largest cities to remote indigenous communities, the pandemic’s second wave is shooting out of control. And while the United States, United Kingdom and European Union are prioritizing vaccinating their own populations, desperate governments of all political stripes here are turning to Russian and Chinese manufacturers, creating a visceral opportunity for Moscow and Beijing to spread their influence in the region through “vaccine diplomacy”.

  • One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Coffee Table

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  • Stephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New York

    The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has reviewed all 143 of the pardons and commutations issued by former President Donald Trump in his final hours in office, and it's weighing whether to bring charges against former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon and Ken Kurson, a friend of Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, The New York Times and The Washington Post report. Presidential clemency covers only federal crimes, and both men were pardoned before their cases went to trial, meaning they almost certainly wouldn't be protected by New York State's double-jeopardy law. Bannon and three associates not pardoned by Trump were charged in August with defrauding investors in an enterprise called Build the Wall; Bannon was accused of personally receiving more than $1 million of the $25 million raised to build border wall on private land. All four men pleaded not guilty. Vance's prosecutors "have taken significant steps in their investigation" of Bannon, the Times reports, "including seeking records and requesting to interview at least one potential witness." Vance would have jurisdiction because some of Bannon's alleged victims live in Manhattan. Kurson, a former editor of The New York Observer who is also close with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was arrested in October on charges of cyberstalking and harassment tied to the 2015 dissolution of his marriage, the Times reports. "He was accused of having stalked a Manhattan doctor, her colleague, and the colleague's spouse." Vance's office has been investigating Trump and his family business on tax fraud and other charges since 2019, and it is currently awaiting a second Supreme Court ruling on whether it can obtain eight years of Trump's tax returns. Vance also charged another Trump campaign official, Paul Manafort, with mortgage fraud and more than a dozen other state felonies in 2019, before Trump pardoned him, but the case was dismissed on double-jeopardy grounds. Vance has appealed that ruling to a higher state court, arguing that the lower court misread the law, the Post reports. More stories from theweek.comDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateBiden's team is reportedly surprised Republicans don't see the political upsides of backing a big COVID-19 billMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wants

  • Top Marine General: We Need to Get Comfortable with 'Throwaway' Equipment

    The Pentagon needs to think differently about investments, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said.

  • White House tries to pacify Democratic senator upset at Kamala Harris doing media in his state without telling him

    Joe Manchin annoyed at vice president plugging Covid relief without his knowledge

  • What Russia's Sputnik V vaccine means for the UK

    This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free. What’s the story? It was the race the Kremlin was desperate to win. The global effort to find and develop an effective vaccine for the coronavirus was not just a matter of life and death for the countries that took part: it was a matter of national pride. Yesterday interim trial data showed that the Russian vaccine, known as Sputnik V, is almost 92 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid after two doses, bringing it in line with many of the jabs that have been developed in the West. Phase three trials reported by the Gamaleya National Research Centre, which developed the vaccine in Moscow, show little or no side effects in 20,000 participants. The Russian vaccine works in a similar way to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab: by placing the genetic material of Covid-19 into a harmless adenovirus, then injecting it into the patient. So-called “viral vector” vaccines are easier to store and cheaper to produce – making them more convenient than “spike protein” jabs, like the Pfizer and Moderna offerings. For the Russian government, the apparent safety of the Sputnik vaccine represents not just a national and public health victory but a relief, since authorities began distributing the vaccine before the results of the trials. More than 1.5 million people, including the Telegraph’s Moscow Correspondent Nataliya Vasilyeva, have already received it. That gamble appears to have paid off. Ian Jones, professor at the University of Reading, and Polly Roy, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, yesterday pointed out that the jab’s development “has been criticised for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency”. “But the outcome reported here is clear and the scientific principle of vaccination is demonstrated,” they said. “Another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19.” Others are more circumspect. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has been reluctant to address the news about Sputnik V, despite his enthusiastic support for Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca. In a briefing with reporters yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman insisted any comment on vaccines was a matter for scientists, not Downing Street. Asked why Mr Johnson had not yet welcomed the news, the spokesman would not comment further. Mr Johnson’s reluctance to welcome the news was shared by his Cabinet, who made no mention of the vaccine all day. Looking back That could be explained by the fact that the news follows months of anxiety about the UK’s own vaccine rollout, which began with the first NHS jab in December. Russia’s first dose, meanwhile, was injected in August. Vladimir Putin, the President, announced on television that his daughter was one of the first to receive it. The Russians have not been shy about treating the development of the jab as a competition, either. The product’s name is a reference to Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to be launched from Earth. That satellite was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, and marked both a major turning point in the space race and bitter defeat for the United States. For UK politicians, who pride themselves on their “world-beating” international comparisons, Russia’s vaccine success is problematic, while the timing of the announcement could not have been worse. Hours later, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, issued a statement condemning the Russian courts for their imprisonment of Alexei Navalny, an opposition politician who returned to the country following a near-miss poisoning with a toxic nerve agent, thought to have been carried out by Russian intelligence services. Anything else? All that could mean the UK is unlikely to want to cooperate with Russia on the rollout of its jab – but Russian scientists have already suggested a partnership with Britain. Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the group that funded Sputnik V and a close ally of Mr Putin, said combining a shot of his vaccine with one of the AstraZeneca jab could “actually work better because immunity gets stronger”. “This idea, called heterogeneous boosting, is at the core of the Sputnik vaccine because we use two different shots and we believe this is the best way to fight with mutations and this also fosters a partnership between different vaccine manufacturers,” he told the BBC. The proposal presents ministers with an interesting diplomatic question, as well as potential concerns about vaccine efficacy and logistics. Mixing supplies of Sputnik and AstraZeneca would mean unprecedented co-operation between public health bodies between the two countries. Before coronavirus, the last major incident Public Health England dealt with was the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury by Russian GRU agents, which marked a significant cooling of relations. Elsewhere, both countries also want to use vaccines as a diplomatic tool overseas. With supplies running short and almost all manufacturers based in richer countries, inoculations could become a major source of soft power for the states that have funded their development – including both the UK and Russia. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has already announced the UK will use its war chest of more than 400 million vaccines to help poorer countries around the world once Britons have been protected. Russia, meanwhile, has taken tens of millions of orders from Egypt, Nepal, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina for Sputnik. Both will likely use vaccines to strengthen their influence in regions of diplomatic interest, as well as through politically neutral schemes like the WHO’s Covax. The Refresher take The development of any new vaccine is a boon for the global fight against coronavirus because the disease will not be brought under control until it has been tackled everywhere. But the apparent success of the Sputnik V jab presents Russia’s Western rivals with an interesting dilemma: to embrace and support Mr Putin’s vaccine and consider combining it with their own, or to continue to ignore it. Mr Johnson’s current strategy, to continue to talk up Britain’s successes while jealously guarding its supplies for the first-phase rollout, will come to an end when all UK adults have received their doses. What he and others do next about Sputnik V could mark a major shift in Russia’s relationship with the West and in the course of the pandemic.

  • Tunisia, Palestinians to be among first COVAX recipients: WHO

    The Palestinian territories and Tunisia will benefit from a first wave of coronavirus vaccines from the COVAX scheme, but poorer states in the Middle East face a big gap in early vaccine provision, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Monday. The Palestinian territories are expected to receive 37,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech starting in mid-February through COVAX, while Tunisia is due to receive 93,600 doses, said Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region. The WHO set up COVAX along with the GAVI vaccine alliance to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations globally.

  • Pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood is being investigated for possible voter fraud

    Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney who spent months spreading baseless claims of a rigged election and participating in lawsuits to overturn the results, is under investigation for potential voter fraud. During an interview with Atlanta's WSB-TV, Wood said he changed his residency from Georgia to South Carolina on Monday, but in a follow-up email, he told reporter Justin Gray that he has been "domiciled in South Carolina for several months after purchasing property in the state in April." This has sparked an investigation by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose office told NBC News on Tuesday that the "question is whether [Wood] was a legal resident" of the state when he voted there in November. Under Georgia law, "if a person removes to another state with the intention of making it such person's residence, such person shall be considered to have lost such person's residence in this state." Wood, who has called for the execution of former Vice President Mike Pence, is also the subject of an investigation by the State Bar of Georgia, and has refused their order that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation. More stories from theweek.comStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New YorkDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateBiden's team is reportedly surprised Republicans don't see the political upsides of backing a big COVID-19 bill