Let there be light
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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.
Police said Beaux Cormier hired two of his friends to kill his niece to stop her from testifying in a rape trial against him.
President Joe Biden encouraged Democratic lawmakers Wednesday to “act fast” on his $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan but also signaled he's open to changes, including limiting the proposed $1,400 direct payments to Americans with lower income levels, which could draw Republican support. Biden told lawmakers in private comments he's "not married" to an absolute number for the overall package but wants them to “go big" on pandemic relief and “restore the soul of the country.” “Look, we got a lot of people hurting in our country today,” Biden said on a private call with House Democrats.
Harry Dunn's alleged killer was "employed by an intelligence agency in the US" at the time fatal road crash - which was "especially a factor" in her departure from the UK, a court has heard. The Alexandria district court in Virginia was told Anne Sacoolas and her husband Jonathan Sacoolas worked for the US State Department and they "fled" the country due to "issues of security". The revelations came out during Sacoolas's application to dismiss a civil claim for damages against her made by the Dunn family on Wednesday. The suspect's barrister, John McGavin, told the court he could not "completely candidly" explain why the Sacoolas family left the UK - adding: "I know the answer, but I cannot disclose it." Family spokesman Radd Seiger told the PA news agency UK authorities must "urgently investigate whether she had diplomatic immunity" at the time of the incident. Mr Dunn, 19, was killed after a car crashed into his motorbike outside US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.
Eleven semi-automatic rifles and 12 magazines of ammunition seized in two Colombian police raids last month were destined for leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas in Venezuela, a high-ranking police source said on Wednesday. Colombia's tax and customs police (POLFA) had on Tuesday heralded the late-January seizure of five Anderson AM-15 rifles of U.S. origin and five magazines of 5.56 caliber ammunition and the capture of two suspects, saying it was investigating whether the final destination was Venezuela.
In order to justify a reimbursement of such a big amount, Boebert’s distance driven during the campaign has to be 38,712 miles
Prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sought a new arrest warrant Wednesday for Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people during an Aug. 25 protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man now paralyzed from the waist down. The prosecutors said Rittenhouse has violated the terms of his $2 million bond by moving without informing the court or providing his new address. After a court filing sent to Rittenhouse was returned as undeliverable Jan. 28, Kenosha detectives visited Rittenhouse's listed address and discovered another man has been living there since mid-December, prosecutors explained. It is "extremely unusual for a defendant facing a charge of first-degree intentional homicide in Kenosha County to post cash bond and be released from custody pending trial," prosecutors said in their motion. "Rarely does our community see accused murderers roaming about freely." Along with Rittenhouse's arrest, they asked the court to increase his bond by $200,000, noting that since his $2 million bond had been paid from a "dubious internet fundraising campaign," Rittenhouse "has no financial stake in the bond" and no incentive to cooperate since "he is already facing the most serious possible criminal charges and life in prison." Rittenhouse's lawyer, Mark Richards, responded Wednesday night, saying his client is in an undisclosed "safe house" due to death threats and "has stayed in constant contact" with his lawyers, if not the courts. He said he had offered to provide prosecutors with the new address if they would keep it secret, and they declined. Rittenhouse, now 18, is accused of fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding a third man. He says he fired in self-defense. Prosecutors sought to amend the terms of his bail last month after video footage captured him drinking with a group of Proud Boys at a Wisconsin bar and flashing white-power hand signs. It is legal for 18-year-olds to drink in bars in Wisconsin if a parent is present, and Rittenhouse's mom was apparently at the bar with him. More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsJobless claims remain high but dip to lowest level since November
President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a confrontation of the “political extremism” that inspired the U.S. Capitol riot and appealed for collective strength during such turbulent times in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, a Washington tradition that asks political combatants to set aside their differences for one morning. The breakfast has sparked controversy in the past, particularly when President Donald Trump used last year's installment to slam his political opponents and question their faith.
During a GOP caucus meeting on Wednesday night, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) received a round of applause after she apologized for putting her fellow Republicans in a difficult spot due to her past racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim remarks, The Washington Post reports. Prior to her election in 2020, Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy, questioned the 9/11 attacks, claimed school shootings were staged, said Jewish space lasers sparked a California wildfire, endorsed the execution of Democratic leaders, and made a variety of racist remarks during podcasts and livestreams. Several Republicans who attended Wednesday night's meeting said Greene offered an apology for some of those earlier comments. Before the meeting, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he spoke with Greene on Tuesday night, and made it clear that her remarks "do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference." More stories from theweek.comProsecutors don't know where Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is, want him arrested again5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wants
The Biden administration is preparing to notify Congress and others that it will dramatically increase U.S. admissions of refugees. Officials and people familiar with the matter say Biden plans to announce this week that he will increase the cap on the number of refugees allowed into the United States to more than eight times the level at which the Trump administration left it. Former President Donald Trump had drastically reduced the refugee admissions cap to only 15,000 before he left office.
The European Union is considering demands by Britain and some Northern Irish politicians to extend grace periods for goods checks, but post-Brexit trade arrangements for the province will not change much, Ireland's foreign minister said. A dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol, which stems from Britain's Jan. 1 exit from the EU's orbit, threatens to reopen a rift that bedevilled years of Brexit talks. Many pro-British Northern Irish unionists fiercely oppose the new trade barriers and some of the checks were suspended at two ports this week after reports of staff intimidation in a region beset by violence until a peace deal 23 years ago.
In a White House briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden was not breaking a campaign promise of delivering Americans $2,000 in coronavirus relief. Psaki said the current proposal of $1,400 in a relief bill would be in addition to $600 relief checks that were distributed during the Trump administration.
Don’t get up; these flowers will come directly to youOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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.comProsecutors don't know where Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is, want him arrested again5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wants
A Pakistani teacher, social worker and activist was arrested on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar, after a court denied him bail on charges of terror financing and sedition, his daughter said. Gulalai Ismail tweeted that her father, Mohammad Ismail, was taken into custody in a long-standing case that also charges her and her mother since 2019. According to Gulalai Ismail, the local court in Peshawar granted the provincial counter-terrorism authorities permission to hold her father for questioning for three days.
Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s leftist dictator, has announced his intention to create a “National Secretariat for Outer Space Affairs, the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.” GIven that Nicaragua is one of the world’s poorest countries, many people find it funny.
Data: The COVID Tracking Project, state health departments; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/AxiosNew coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement.The big picture: The U.S. still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.By the numbers: Nationwide, the U.S. is averaging about 139,000 new cases per day — a 16% improvement over last week, which was a 16% improvement over the week before. * The number of new hospitalizations was also down last week, by just over 26%. * And deaths fell by about 6%, to an average of 3,097 deaths per day.Between the lines: 139,000 cases and 3,000 deaths per day is still a very bad pandemic, but at least the numbers are headed in the right direction. * The U.S. is back at about the same caseload we were experiencing shortly before Thanksgiving. * The number of new daily cases fell over the past week in 42 states, and held steady in the remaining eight states. No state got worse — another sign that this improvement could be sustainable.Yes, but: Experts warn that a more contagious variant of the virus is quickly becoming the dominant strain within the U.S. * As it gains more ground, each infected person is more likely to infect others. And because the U.S. still has so many infected people, that could cause cases to spike again. * But the best protection against another surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths is to get cases down and keep them there — and that’s what we’re doing.Each week, Axios tracks the change in new infections in each state. We use a seven-day average to minimize the effects of day-to-day discrepancies in states’ reporting.Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
President Joe Biden is planning to take an executive action mandating a review of critical U.S. supply chains with an eye to securing U.S. industrial supplies made by competitors including China, according to four people familiar with the matter. The action, which will focus both on government contractors and private industry, aims to ensure the United States can supply the goods it needs to combat the COVID-19 crisis, as well as other critical technology and raw materials, the sources said. Biden will sign an order mandating a 100-day review to ensure domestic manufacturers can deliver the country's needed supplies and that demands for goods that must be satisfied by other countries are done in a more secure and sustainable manner.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced student protesters as “terrorists" and vowed to crackdown on demonstrations opposing the appointment of a government loyalist to head Istanbul’s most prestigious university. Students and faculty members of Bogazici University have spent weeks protesting Erdogan’s Jan. 1 appointment of Melih Bulu, an academic who once ran for parliament as a candidate for Erdogan’s party. Scores of students have been detained amid the protests, some taken away following raids of their homes.
Bob Sellers stormed out of the live show as MyPillow’s Mike Lindell continued to rant about unsubstantiated claims of rigged voting machines
