The Justice Department is considering whether to charge members of far-right groups involved in the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol under a federal law usually used against organized crime, according to two law enforcement sources.
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An 18-year-old from Illinois who's accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a police brutality protest in Wisconsin last summer fired a California attorney who had been soliciting money for his case. John Pierce, a Los Angeles lawyer, had been at the forefront of Kyle Rittenhouse's defense, helping raise money from conservatives to post Rittenhouse's $2 million bail in November. Rittenhouse, who is white and was 17 at the time, is accused of shooting three people in Kenosha in August as hundreds were protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.
An unidentified assailant was caught on surveillance camera pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground in a recent unprovoked attack in Oakland Chinatown. The incident happened outside the Asian Resource Center at the corner of Harrison and 8th streets on Jan. 31, according to ABC7. The suspect reportedly approached two other victims shortly after the first attack, resulting in one of them losing consciousness, according to the Oakland Police Department’s statement.
Let there be lightOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
As members of the House debate the future of freshman Rep. Marjorie Greene, who has become notorious for her bizarre conspiracy theories, racist and anti-Semitic statements, Rep. Cori Bush challenges her GOP colleagues to show leadership. “We all raised our hands and took that oath together,” Bush said. “We took that oath at the same time on January the third. So they need to think again, because [this work is about] saving lives and building communities, building families, building people. It's not a partisan issue. It's humanity.”
New appointment is a four-star general and commanded US forces in Iraq
Outraged members of a Hindu nationalist group have burnt photographs of Greta Thunberg in New Delhi after the Swedish environmentalist tweeted in support of India’s protesting farmers. Amid rising tensions between protesting farmers and the authorities, members of the United Hindu Front also held signs saying India will "not tolerate interference in internal affairs." Hundreds of thousands of farmers are occupying the streets outside of New Delhi ahead of a planned nationwide strike on Saturday, their numbers swelling after a farmer died after violent clashes with police on January 26. Tweets by Ms Thunberg and the singer Rihanna have catapulted the farmers' protests into headline news worldwide; farmers believe proposed new agricultural laws will decimate their profits by privatising the farming industry. In addition to tweeting her support of the protests, Ms Thunberg also shared a "toolkit" advising how people could peacefully demonstrate against the laws. The “toolkit” advocated for Indians joining a farmers’ march into New Delhi, showing their solidarity on social media using specific hashtags and tweeting messages to Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister.
Abu Arkan Ibrahim picked up a rifle and joined the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops when they occupied his hometown of Fallujah in 2003. Over the past 17 years, the municipal employee has watched his city fall to the United States, al Qaeda, Islamic State and, most recently, Iraqi forces fighting alongside Iran-backed paramilitaries. Ibrahim said the presence of U.S. troops in recent years helped suppress remaining Islamic State militants and rein in the Iran-backed militias - mutual foes accused by Iraqi officials of attacking locals.
A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns was moved to a jail in Virginia on Thursday after a federal judge ordered authorities to provide him with organic food while he's in custody. Jacob Chansley was transferred to the Alexandria Detention Center after his attorney argued that his client had gone nine days without eating because organic food wasn't served at the jail in Washington. Chansley lost 20 pounds since being transferred from Arizona to Washington last week, his attorney, Albert Watkins, told the judge.
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
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 problemGOP Sen. Ben Sasse slams Nebraska GOP over censure: 'Politics isn't about the weird worship of 1 dude'Senate votes down $15 minimum wage during vote-a-rama. Bernie Sanders seems unfazed.
Little Ferry, New Jersey, police officers told the driver to let off the gas. When they tried to call for a tow truck, they noticed the SUV was on fire.
Matt Gaetz may be auditioning for many roles in the Republican Party, but evidently House Republican whip isn’t one of them. Gaetz confidently predicted that a majority of House Republicans would vote to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership role when, instead, Cheney prevailed last night by a resounding 145–61 vote. For the sin of frankly stating Trump’s transgressions on January 6 and accordingly voting to impeach him, Cheney faced an immediate backlash. The most hard-core Trumpists in the House, led by Gaetz and Jim Jordan, sought to oust her from her position as chairwoman of the House Republican conference, an effort that came to a head last night in a long and intense internal meeting. Cheney didn’t give an inch. She didn’t apologize for her vote, and, counter to the criticism that she relied on parliamentary tactics to defend her job, she sought the verdict of the conference last night. In the end, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy strongly backed her. And the vote, despite the chest-thumping of Gaetz and wishful reporting in the Trumpist press, wasn’t even close. The vote is heartening, in that it shows that most Republicans realize it’s a mistake to let loyalty to one man in Mar-a-Lago dictate how they conduct their affairs. It’s depressing, in that it shows many Republicans are still much more willing to air this sentiment in private — it was a secret vote — than in public. In repulsing the leadership challenge, Cheney has passed her first political test, but she still has much repair work to do in Wyoming, where voters overwhelmingly disagree with her impeachment vote and she already has primary challengers. She will continue to be pursued by her critics until 2022. It will be better for the party if the ultimate outcome is the same as last night.
Jacob Anthony Chansley was transported to Virginia facility on Thursday evening
ON BOARD THE TAIWAN COAST GUARD SHIP PP-10062, East China Sea (Reuters) - Taiwanese coast guard commander Lin Chie-ming is on the frontline of a new type of warfare that China is waging against Taiwan. On a chilly morning in late January, Lin, clad in an orange uniform, stood on the rolling deck of his boat as it patrolled in choppy waters off the Taiwan-run Matsu Islands. The Chinese goal, Taiwanese officials say: pressure Taiwan by tying down the island democracy's naval defenses and undermining the livelihoods of Matsu residents.
The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would halt support of Saudi Arabia's offensive military operations in Yemen, where the war has caused a gigantic humanitarian emergency on top of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden will also reportedly appoint experienced diplomat Timothy Lenderking as special envoy to Yemen. It remains to be seen exactly how this will play out, but as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted in a statement, it looks like the start of a diplomatic push to get Saudi Arabia to end the brutal war in which it has been bogged down since 2015, obtain a general ceasefire, and coordinate an international aid effort. The Saudi military basically cannot do anything without U.S. support, and any strong signals from America that it should knock it off probably will be heeded. That's especially true now that Trump is gone, and Saudi dictator Mohammad bin Salman thus faces possible recrimination for ordering the cold-blooded murder of a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, back in 2018. It is worth noting that while Biden is reversing a Trump decision, the Yemen policy actually originated under the Obama administration. It is a marked difference from the early months of 2009, when Obama kept on George W. Bush's secretary of defense and planned for a massive troop surge in Afghanistan. Perhaps two decades of expensive, bloody, and totally unsuccessful wars are enough? More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemGOP Sen. Ben Sasse slams Nebraska GOP over censure: 'Politics isn't about the weird worship of 1 dude'Senate votes down $15 minimum wage during vote-a-rama. Bernie Sanders seems unfazed.
Two 16-year-olds will face charges as adults after setting fire to a house that killed five people in Green Valley Ranch in Denver last year. Arrest and charges: Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour, two of the three arrested teens connected to the fire that killed members of an immigrant family in August 2020, have been charged as adults, prosecutors said on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Per earlier @CBSDenver reporting, @DenverDAsOffice today announced two suspects are being charged as adults in the August arson fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family.
Gov. Tate Reeves called the legislation a “radical social experiment.”
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.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) held her ground in a closed-door House Republican conference meeting Wednesday, CNN reports. Cheney, who has faced criticism from some GOP House members for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump last month, reportedly calmly but firmly told those gathered she won't apologize for the vote. The No. 3 House Republican also reportedly called for a vote on her status as the House Republican conference chair, which, CNN notes, was interpreted by some in the room to mean Cheney is confident about her standing. Indeed, most Republicans have not gone after Cheney, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is also reportedly planning to defend Cheney and make the case for her to remain in the leadership position. House @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy has been telling ppl he plans to DEFEND Liz Cheney during closed-door meeting and make the case for her to stay in leadership, per sources. — Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 3, 2021 Meanwhile, regarding the separate, but related, GOP drama in the lower chamber, McCarthy issued an official statement Wednesday condemning past conspiracy theory-laden comments made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), but he did not indicate any plans to kick her off committees, instead saying he'll "hold her to her word" that she'll hold herself to a "higher standard" as a member of Congress. McCARTHY condemns GREENE but doesn’t say he will kick her off committees pic.twitter.com/uF8AjJfGUD — Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) February 3, 2021 More stories from theweek.com5 scathing cartoons about the GOP's Marjorie Taylor Greene problemKenyan woman finds a way to recycle plastic waste into bricks that are stronger than concreteSenate votes down $15 minimum wage during vote-a-rama. Bernie Sanders seems unfazed.
