Sen. Rubio on Biden policy toward China: US has a commitment to defend Taiwan

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., weighs in on the Biden administration defending Taiwan, as the U.S. Destroyer sails through the Taiwan Strait.

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  • Conservative Newsmax guest says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was chosen 'probably for his skin colour'

    New appointment is a four-star general and commanded US forces in Iraq

  • Why the House was able to kick Greene off her committees, explained by a former congressman

    The House voted 230 to 199 on Thursday to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her seats on the education and budget committees, with 11 Republicans joining the Democrats in what is believed to be an unprecedented action. Typically, each party decides which of its members will sit on which committees, and occasionally a party punishes its members by stripping them of committee assignments, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did with former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in 2019. McCarthy indicated Wednesday he had no plans to sanction Greene. But the entire House actually votes to put every member on committees, former Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) explained Thursday, linking to the bill the House approved Jan. 28. And the House can therefore vote to take members off their committees. There’s a general misunderstanding of how House committee assignments work. The entire House votes to put each and every member on the particular committees. Though this typically happens via a voice vote (not roll call), it’s done through a normal resolution passed on the floor. — Justin Amash (@justinamash) February 4, 2021 In short, the whole House put her on those committees, and the whole House can take her off. That’s how the process works, even if tradition is to defer to the preferences of the member’s party. — Justin Amash (@justinamash) February 4, 2021 A lot of individual House members may not have even known they voted Greene onto the two committees, Amash said, "but congressional leaders certainly know, and the assignments are always voted on by the whole House." More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMike Pence is joining the Heritage Foundation to fight back 'against a socialist agenda'Pro-worker Republicans go missing

  • Teen Who Pushed Elderly Thai Man to His Death Pleads Not Guilty to Murder

    A 19-year-old man facing murder and elder abuse charges over the death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee has pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance at the Hall of Justice on Wednesday. Details -> https://t.co/6Z5rqIQpcZ pic.twitter.com/PJnuuWgE3Y — Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) February 1, 2021 Ratanapakdee, who was originally from Thailand, died from injuries on Saturday after being slammed into the ground by Antoine Watson, NextShark previously reported. Watson was arrested on Saturday for the seemingly unprovoked attack on Ratanapakdee, reports SF Examiner.

  • David Hogg launching pillow company to compete with MyPillow's Mike Lindell

    March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg tweeted on Thursday that he and software developer William LeGate are launching a pillow company to compete against MyPillow, which is led by Trump supporter CEO Mike Lindell. Driving the news: Lindell is one of former President Trump’s most adamant defenders and has repeatedly shared unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the election since President Biden took office.Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * Lindell had a tumultuous interview with Newsmax earlier this week, where anchors attempted to block the CEO from reiterating conspiracies about the 2020 election. He refused. * Dominion Voting Systems also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lindell last month and ordered him to preserve all documents related to the company. * Lindell told Axios in response: "I want Dominion to put up their lawsuit because we have 100% evidence that China and other countries used their machines to steal the election." * The Department of Justice has found no evidence to support Lindell's claims about Dominion Voting Systems or widespread voter fraud.Details... Hogg wrote that he and LeGate hope to "sell $1 million of product within our first year" and to launch in about six months. * "[W]e would like to do it sooner but we have strict guidelines on sustainability and [U.S.] based Union producers," Hogg added. * "Mike isn't going to know what hit him—this pillow fight is just getting started."What they're saying: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told Axios in a text Thursday morning, "Good for them.... nothing wrong with competition that does not infringe on someone's patent."Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

  • Al Qaeda leader in Yemen in custody, U.N. confirms

    Khalid Batarfi was arrested in October, and the terror group has since suffered an erosion of its ranks caused by desertions, the U.N. said in a report.

  • GOP Senators Will Force Dems to Vote on Paying Illegal Immigrants, Raising Taxes during Pandemic

    Senate Republicans will make Democrats vote on a number of controversial topics in the coming days as part of the budget reconciliation process that Democrats are using to pass President Biden’s COVID relief plan against GOP lawmakers’ wishes. Debate on the budget resolution began Wednesday and will continue in the Senate on Thursday. After that time expires, a “vote-a-rama” begins, allowing any senator to file an amendment to the resolution. As retribution for using budget reconciliation — which will allow Democrats to avoid the 60-vote threshold required to pass most legislation and instead only require just a simple majority vote to pass Biden’s plan — Republicans plan to force Democrats to vote on a number of hot button issues. “The new President talks a lot about unity, but his White House staff and congressional leadership are working from the opposite playbook,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), said of the budget reconciliation process. “We’ll be discussing the facts… Senate Republicans will be ready and waiting with a host of amendments to improve the rushed procedural step that’s being jammed through.” He continued: “We’ll be getting senators on the record about whether taxpayers should fund checks for illegal immigrants… whether Democrats should raise taxes on small businesses in the midst of this historic crisis… and whether generous federal funding should pour into school districts where the unions refuse to let schools open. And this is just a small taste.” While not all of the amendments that are introduced will receive a full floor vote and some may be dropped for violating the Byrd rule, which says anything passed during budget reconciliation must have to do with the federal budget, senators plan to bring up a wide array of issues. Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) introduced an amendment that would keep federal funding from going to schools that don’t reopen for in-person learning as battles over whether it is safe to return to the classroom rage across the country between teachers unions and school districts. Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.,) said that he is spearheading seven amendments for the reconciliation process and co-sponsoring three others, including amendments that reverse Biden’s decision to scrap the Keystone XL oil pipeline project; resume oil and gas leasing on federal lands; stop tax increases while the pandemic is ongoing; prevent the federal government from using taxpayer money to implement the Paris Climate agreement; and more. Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.,) said that he plans to introduce amendments to support funding for the U.S. nuclear weapons program; oppose taxpayer funding from being used for abortion internationally and at domestic nonprofits; oppose illegal immigrants from using U.S.-government supported health care options; and support keeping the number of Supreme Court justices at nine. “Republicans are happy to work with Democrats to bring COVID-19 relief to the American people, but we cannot and will not support a bill that redirects funds to long-standing Democratic priorities,” Cotton said. “My amendments are designed to ensure the American people – not the Senate Democrats’ far-left policies – are protected.”

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene tells lawmakers she regrets being 'allowed to believe things that weren't true'

    Controversial lawmaker Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) acknowledged Thursday afternoon the 9/11 terrorist attacks really happened while insisting inflammatory remarks she's made "do not represent me." Greene, who has been under fire for past racist and anti-Semitic remarks and support of conspiracy theories including QAnon and the false assertion that school shootings are hoaxes, spoke on the House floor ahead of a vote to remove her from committee assignments, saying she regrets being "allowed to believe things that weren't true." The Georgia representative described at the end of 2017 becoming "very interested" in QAnon, which involves the false belief in a satanic cabal made up of prominent Democrats, but said that she later "started finding misinformation" in these online posts and then "stopped believing it." "You see, school shootings are absolutely real," Greene said, adding that "9/11 absolutely happened" and "I do not believe that it's fake." She previously questioned in 2018 if the Pentagon was actually hit by a plane on Sept. 11. Greene went on to assert that her "words of the past" don't "represent me" or "my values," even though she's under fire for comments made just within the past few years, while at the same time drawing an equivalence between QAnon and the news media. "Will we allow the media, that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies, to divide us?" she asked. Greene did not offer a direct apology during her remarks. A floor vote to remove her from her committee assignments is set to take place later on Thursday. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "A lot of Americans don't trust our government...I was allowed to believe things that weren't true...and that is absolutely what I regret because if it weren't for the Facebook posts & comments that I liked in 2018, I wouldn't be standing here today." pic.twitter.com/TLfVmvbvqn — CSPAN (@cspan) February 4, 2021 More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMike Pence is joining the Heritage Foundation to fight back 'against a socialist agenda'Pro-worker Republicans go missing

  • Police: Man shot assisted living worker to stop 'thievery'

    A 95-year-old Colorado man accused of shooting and killing a maintenance worker at his assisted living center told police he was tired of staffers stealing money from him and decided to shoot the man to make the thefts stop, according to a court document released Thursday. Okey Payne was arrested Wednesday in his room at Legacy Assisted Living in Lafayette, 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of Denver. Investigators say he shot Ricardo Medina-Rojas after confronting him about $200 that he said was missing from his wallet.

  • Head of Army Europe and Africa Wants a New Command for Long-Range Fires

    A theater fires command is among the additional assets Gen. Chistopher Cavoli wants to bring to the region.

  • Biden reportedly considering sending face masks to all Americans after Trump scrapped a similar plan

    White House says there are 'range of options on the table' after previous administration allegedly nixed USPS plan to distribute face masks to households nationwide

  • 27 Best Desk Lamps to Brighten Up 2021

    Let there be lightOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Government admits it had no idea Harry Dunn’s alleged killer was a US spy

    The Government has admitted for the first time that it had no idea that Harry Dunn’s alleged killer was a US spy and therefore did not have diplomatic immunity from prosecution. The admission came after it emerged in a US court that Anne Sacoolas, 43, worked for a US intelligence agency at the time of the fatal road crash when her car hit the teenager outside the US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. It meant she should not have been able to claim diplomatic immunity and instead should have been prosecuted in the UK after being charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Under a UK-US agreement that dates back to the 1990s, any official working for US state agencies should have their diplomatic immunity pre-waived so that they could be prosecuted for any criminal behaviour in the UK. However, because she was not classed as a state employee but declared to the UK Government as only the wife of Jonathan, also an alleged spy working at RAF Croughton, she had diplomatic immunity before fleeing the UK with her husband. Asked about the new evidence, the Prime Minister's official spokesperson said "we don't comment on intelligence matters" but added: "She was notified to the UK Government by the US as a spouse with no official role." He said: "I would emphasise that our position on this case remains unchanged, we have consistently called for her diplomatic immunity to be waived and believe that the US refusal to extradite her amounts to a denial of justice." The disclosure led to demands that the Government reinvestigate her claim of diplomatic immunity and take action to ensure she is brought to trial. Harry Dunn was 19 when he was killed in the crash in August 2019. Mrs Sacoolas was able to return to her home country after the US government asserted diplomatic immunity on her behalf. The US rejected a UK extradition request after she was charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Harry’s family and their lawyers have been campaigning for Ms Sacoolas to return to the UK to stand trial and have lodged a civil claim for damages in the US.

  • Sherrod Brown publicly shames Rand Paul for not wearing a mask on the Senate floor

    Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is not afraid to enforce Congress' mask mandate — and encourage some basic common sense. Continuing his reputation for calling out his colleagues for not wearing masks, Brown on Thursday turned his attention to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). When Paul made a request to keep a vote to just 10 minutes, Brown responded with an unrelated objection: "I would like to ask Senator Paul, in front of everybody, to start wearing a mask on the Senate floor like the entire staff does all the time." "I wish Senator Paul would show the respect to his colleagues to wear a mask," he continued. .@SenSherrodBrown: "I would like to ask Senator Paul, in front of everybody, to start wearing a mask on the Senate floor like the entire staff does all the time...I wish Senator Paul would show the respect to his colleagues to wear a mask." pic.twitter.com/c8qEETZ403 — CSPAN (@cspan) February 4, 2021 Brown also got into a dispute with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) after asking the senator to put on a mask back in November. Video of that led Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to call Brown an "ass" for demanding Sullivan wear a mask "when nobody is remotely near him" — even though a Senate staffer's head is clearly visible in front of Sullivan in video of the incident. .@SenSherrodBrown: "I'd start by asking the presiding officer to please wear a mask as he speaks..."@SenDanSullivan: "I don't wear a mask when I'm speaking, like most Senators...I don't need your instruction." pic.twitter.com/WQH04hCD53 — CSPAN (@cspan) November 17, 2020 Since Brown's brush with Sullivan, President Biden has mandated masks be worn on all federal property, including the Capitol building. More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemMike Pence is joining the Heritage Foundation to fight back 'against a socialist agenda'Pro-worker Republicans go missing

  • Developments in Rittenhouse case are highly unusual, experts say

    "There are so many appropriate ways to take care of the circumstances in the Rittenhouse case that don't involve telling the judge lies," one expert said.

  • Ohio police officer charged with murder over Andre Hill death

    A white Columbus, Ohio, police officer was charged with murder Wednesday in the latest fallout following the December shooting death of 47-year-old Andre Hill, a Black man, the state's attorney general said.

  • Wisconsin governor issues mask mandate after state GOP kills previous order

    Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Thursday issued a new statewide mask mandate almost immediately after the state Legislature voted to repeal his previous order.Why it matters: Evers' attempts to combat COVID-19 have faced pushback from Republicans since early in the pandemic. Even with a new order, the Legislature could again vote to repeal the mask requirement. Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.What he's saying: "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I promised I would: never play politics with your health, trust and follow science and public health experts, and never stop doing everything I can to keep you healthy and safe. I haven't broken those promises and I won't start today," Evers said in a video released Thursday afternoon. * He added that his efforts to protect Wisconsinites have been met with "lawsuits, political rhetoric, and obstruction," citing the Legislature's vote Thursday. * "We know that as we work to get shots in arms as quickly as we have vaccines available, no amount of vaccine in the world could bring back the lives we stand to lose if we have no statewide mitigation strategy in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. * "Wearing a mask is the most basic thing we can do to keep each other safe. Wearing a mask saves lives."Context: 5,992 people have died from the virus in Wisconsin to date, per state data. Now, coronavirus variants pose fresh risks. The previous mandate remained in effect since August. * Republicans, who control both the state Assembly and Senate, argue that Evers overstepped his authority by extending the mask mandate without legislative approval. * The governor says that the unusual circumstances posed by the pandemic give him the authority to issue such orders.The big picture: Health experts have urged states to adopt mask mandates as the U.S. counts 26.6 million cases, per Johns Hopkins University. * "Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation," per the CDC. * Nearly 60 organizations, including groups representing American Indian tribes, hospitals, schools and businesses, have opposed to the repeal. * This is not the first time Republican lawmakers have challenged Evers' attempts to manage the pandemic. Last year, Republican legislators persuaded the state Supreme Court to throw out his stay-at-home order. Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Gov. Evers' new mandate.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

  • Ilhan Omar blasts ‘Looney Tunes’ Republicans after they try drawing her into Marjorie Taylor Greene scandal

    'This is not about me and it should not be about me,' said Democrat

  • U.S. should delay complete troop pullout in Afghanistan - report to Congress

    The United States should extend the May 1 deadline for pulling all its troops from Afghanistan, and make force cuts contingent on progress in peace talks as well as by the Taliban in reducing violence and containing al Qaeda, a bipartisan report to Congress said on Wednesday. Washington should not abandon the Afghan peace process, the report said. Withdrawing all U.S. troops then could lead to civil war, destabilizing the region and reviving the al Qaeda threat.

  • Beirut: Six months after the explosions that scarred a city, in pictures

    Six months after the Aug 4 blast that damaged much of the Lebanese capital, the scars of the explosion remain visible across Beirut. The investigation into what happened has been brought to a virtual halt by the same political rivalries that have dogged the country for years. What started as an investigation into how nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertiliser component, were stored in Beirut port for years, has taken a turn, wading into a web of murky international business interests in the explosives trade and global shipping. While there are still few answers, the devastation wrought by the explosion has been captured vividly in new pictures taken from a drone from above the blast site and surrounding area. A massive crater

  • Mother died protecting daughter from hitmen allegedly hired by her brother

    Police said Beaux Cormier hired two of his friends to kill his niece to stop her from testifying in a rape trial against him.