Calls for special counsel to probe Biden family dealings with China

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Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton discusses Hunter Biden's relationship with a China-owned investment firm.

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  • Biden news – live: President to punish GOP for opposing Covid relief and says Trump left ‘dire’ vaccine issues

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  • Tiny Drones Are the Biggest Threat in the Middle East Since IEDs, Top General Says

    State and nonstate actors have figured out another cheap way to target U.S. troops, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., warned.

  • Islamic State sleeper cells blamed for string of beheadings in Syrian camp

    Twenty people were killed in a Syrian displacement camp in January – including 10 who were beheaded – with guards suspecting Islamic State sleeper cells of the executions, according to a research group based in northeast Syria. The 20 Iraqis and Syrians killed in Al-Hol camp in January included a guard from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that maintains the detention facility, according to The Rojava Information Centre, which estimated 35 people were killed in the camp in all of 2020. Camp authorities, who struggle to impose security even around the camp perimeter, believe most of the deaths were the work of Islamic State assassins active inside Al-Hol. “The details of the assailants are unknown, most of the executions take place at night in the victims' tent or shelter,” said Charles Flynn, a researcher with the RIC. “Not all killings can be [attributed] to ISIS, as some deaths in the past have been related to feuds or disagreements in the camps,” he added. Among the most grisly of the recent killings at Al-Hol, an Iraqi elder was reportedly publicly beheaded in the camp on January 16. “The victim's head was completely removed,” said Mr Flynn, who reviewed photos of the incident. Local media reports suggest the slain guard was part of a security detail that was fired upon during a raid by unknown shooters inside the camp on January 8. A second guard was reportedly wounded in the attack. The RIC said local media reports and SDF statements formed the basis of its tally, which was partly corroborated by the United Nations, which warned of the deteriorating situation at Al-Hol on January 16 after receiving reports of 12 murders there since the start of the year. “The disturbing events indicate an increasingly untenable security environment at Al Hol,” the UN humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Imran Riza, and the regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Muhannad Hadi, said in a joint statement at the time. Al-Hol is the largest displacement camp in Syria, holding almost 62,000 residents in squalid conditions near the Iraqi border. Women and children make up more than 80 percent of the population in the camp, where aid agencies say hunger and disease are rife amid a lack of clean water and healthcare. Most of the inhabitants arrived in the camp in early 2020 after fleeing the final fighting between the Western-backed SDF and IS fighters around the terrorist group’s last sliver of territory at the town of Baghouz on the Euphrates River. As well as Iraqi and Syrians there are reportedly 8,705 third country nationals in Al-Hol, mostly from former Soviet central Asian states. In the past year, many Westerners – including high profile IS supporters such as the Halane twins from Manchester – have been moved from Al-Hol to the much smaller Roj camp, where security is stronger and living conditions are reportedly better. Killings in Al-Hol have increased over the past year since IS supporters were able to smuggle firearms into the camp, according to Elizabeth Tsurkov, a non-resident fellow with the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy. “The SDF's grip on the camp is clearly limited – smuggling of people and banned goods such as weapons, and smuggling of phones into the foreigners' annex, continue apace,” she said. The Kurdish-led SDF acknowledges that it has struggled to limit trafficking and has warned repeatedly of the deteriorating conditions, calling on foreign governments to repatriate their citizens. “Efforts are being made to control the camp,” it said in a January statement calling for greater support from the international community. On Monday, a group of United Nations human rights experts sent letters to the 57 governments who are believed to have nationals in Al-Hol and Roj camps calling on them to repatriate their citizens. “Thousands of people held in the camps are exposed to violence, exploitation, abuse and deprivation in conditions and treatment that may well amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international law, with no effective remedy at their disposal. An unknown number have already died because of their conditions of detention,” the experts said. “States have a primary responsibility to act with due diligence and take positive steps and effective measures to protect individuals in vulnerable situations, notably women and children, located outside of their territory where they are at risk of serious human rights violations or abuses, where States’ actions or omissions can positively impact on these individuals’ human rights,” they wrote. Meanwhile, the killings in Al-Hol have continued. On Monday, the SDF reported that a 27-year-old Iraqi man and a 20-year-old Syrian man were the latest victims. “Assassinations continue in the camp,” the SDF said on Twitter.

  • Florida man sentenced in Giuliani-related fraud case

    A Florida businessman whose fraud-busting business was exposed as a fraud itself was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison in a case in which prosecutors said Rudy Giuliani was hired as a consultant to attract investors. David Correia, 45, was sentenced remotely by U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken in Manhattan. The judge cited Correia's lesser role in the fraud scheme — he was charged alongside co-defendant Lev Parnas — and medical issues that might make his time in prison more challenging as he granted requests for leniency. He also ordered Correia to pay back the roughly $43,000 he received illegally, as well as over $2 million in restitution.

  • New York can't prosecute Paul Manafort after Trump pardon, court rules

    Former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort won't face a second round of prosecution in New York state after a court affirmed the state and federal charges against him constituted double jeopardy. Manafort was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison in early 2019 after being charged with financial crimes, as well as witness tampering and unregistered lobbying, as a result of the Mueller probe. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance charged Manafort with pretty much the same financial crimes shortly after his second sentence in what was seemingly an insurance policy against Trump's likely pardon of Manafort. After all, a president cannot pardon someone charged with state crimes. But the overlap turned out to work against Vance. In December 2019, New York state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley threw out the state's charges, saying that "the law of double jeopardy in New York State provides a very narrow window for prosecution." Vance took the case to the New York Court of Appeals — the state's highest court — but it said last week that it had declined to review the case. As a result, Wiley's ruling will stand. Trump did end up pardoning Manafort in December, though he was already serving his sentence at home due to COVID-19 concerns. Manafort had pleaded not guilty to the New York charges, and his lawyer told The New York Times he is pleased with the result. Manafort could still be charged with other federal or state crimes. More stories from theweek.comWhat's the point of Trump's second impeachment trial?Biden speaks with Modi, but doesn't mention India's farmer protests5 brutally funny cartoons about America's bungled vaccine rollout

  • Fox News guest claims Michelle Obama to blame for schools not reopening during Covid pandemic

    Rachel Campos-Duffy claims former first lady could get schools reopen 'with one little tweet'

  • U.N. envoy, Iran's Zarif discuss how to end war in Yemen

    United Nations Yemen mediator Martin Griffiths and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed on Monday how to make progress toward a nationwide ceasefire and reviving the political process in Yemen, a U.N. spokesman said. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing government forces fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis. The more than six-year long conflict is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

  • Syria 'finds' body of famed archaeologist beheaded by Islamic State

    Syrian authorities believe they have found the remains of a famed archaeologist who was beheaded by Islamic State militants in Palmyra in 2015, reportedly after refusing to divulge the location of the site’s hidden treasures. One of three bodies recently recovered from an area outside the Palmyra was thought to be that of Khaled al-Asaad, the longtime director of antiquities in the ancient city, state news outlet Sana reported on Sunday. In August 2015 Asaad was publicly executed in a local square in Palmyra, months after IS militants overran the strategic oasis city in Syria’s eastern desert. The crime made global headlines as the urbane Asaad had served as the custodian of the Unesco world heritage site for over half a century, receiving numerous awards and accolades in Syria and abroad. The octogenarian antiquities scholar was born in Palmyra and had remained in the city after the IS takeover to attempt to preserve its heritage. IS militants detained Asaad for over a month before his murder, his family said. The group was earning millions from looting and smuggling artefacts at the time and Syria’s antiquities minister said they had killed him after trying to extract information about the whereabouts of the city’s hidden treasure. The fate of Asaad’s own mortal remains has been something of a mystery since then. Following his death, unverified images circulated online showing a dismembered corpse supposedly belonging to Asaad hanging from a traffic light, with a handwritten sign accusing him of being director of Palmyra’s “idols”. But other sources later suggested his body was found tied to one of an ancient pillar in the ruins of Palmyra’s central square. Syrian forces recaptured Palmyra until March 2016 with the help of Russian air strikes. But that December IS fighters managed to recapture the strategic oasis city in a surprise assault and it was not finally liberated until March 2017. The Sana report did not give further information about the recently recovered bodies but said their identity would be confirmed by DNA analysis.

  • Woman Gets 10 Years in Prison for Kil‌l‌ing Nail Salon Manager After Skipping on Bill in Las Vegas

    A woman who killed a Vietnamese nail salon manager in Las Vegas in 2018 has been sentenced to a prison term of 10 to 25 years. The verdict: On Friday, Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones sentenced Krystal Whipple to prison for the death of 51-year-old Nhu "Annie" Ngoc Nguyen, the Associated Press reports. With the plea, she effectively avoided trials of felony murder, burglary, robbery and stolen vehicle charges, which she initially faced.

  • Trump's impeachment lawyer specializes in medical malpractice and 'people falsely accused in Me Too cases'

    Former President Donald Trump's impeachment lawyer wasn't exactly his first choice — he's not exactly known for taking on high-profile federal cases. Still, Bruce Castor is ready to defend the man he calls "the nicest guy in the world," and isn't anticipating it'll be very hard, he tells The Washington Post. Castor, the former district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was tapped to defend Trump just a week ago, after the former president's first team of lawyers quit. But Castor thought he actually had the job weeks earlier. His cousin Stephen Castor was the House Republicans' counsel in Trump's first impeachment, and he had asked Castor if he was interested in the job back on Jan. 17. Castor was of course interested; Though he still has never met Trump, he voted for him, and said he has had nothing but "delightful" interactions with him since getting the role. The late addition left Castor with barely a week to prepare for the trial — "I would have liked the extra two weeks of preparation time," he told the Post. After all, since leaving public service, Castor has been focused in medical malpractice, personal injury and "people falsely accused in Me Too cases where their reputations were ruined," he said. He's probably most famous for not prosecuting Bill Cosby in 2005, when Andrea Constand accused him of sexual assault. But as Castor tells the Post, he doesn't find Trump's case "particularly complicated." He's "enormously proud" of the defense he and fellow lawyer David Schoen drew up in response to House impeachment managers' charge of incitement of insurrection, even if it did misspell the name of the United States. And as long as the whole thing doesn't "get bogged down with everyone wanting to ask questions," Castor said he's ready to succinctly "get it done and go home." Read more about Castor's defense plan at The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.comWhat's the point of Trump's second impeachment trial?Biden speaks with Modi, but doesn't mention India's farmer protests5 brutally funny cartoons about America's bungled vaccine rollout

  • Husband of slain Alabama online model sentenced to prison for 16 years

    A former campus police officer convicted of manslaughter in the death of his wife, an adult model who posted racy photos online, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Monday by a judge who said the man still hadn't taken responsibility for the death.

  • Don Jr complains about Super Bowl ads, calling them ‘woketopia’ after first commercial

    Twitter users advised that he should turn off his TV if he was 'triggered'

  • Yellen Calls for Americans Making $60,000 to Receive Stimulus Checks

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday called for Americans earning up to $60,000 to receive stimulus checks as part of the Biden administration’s massive coronavirus relief package. “If you think about an elementary school teacher or a policeman making $60,000 a year and faced with children who are out of school and people who may have had to withdraw from the labor force in order to take care of them and many extra burdens, [President Biden] thinks, and I would certainly agree, that it’s appropriate for people there to get support,” Yellen said on CNN. “The exact details of how it should be targeted are to be determined, but struggling middle class families need help,” she added. The administration has signaled that it is willing to potentially compromise on lowering the income threshold for Americans to be eligible to receive the one-time $1,400 stimulus checks included in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but President Biden has refused to budge on the size of the checks. “President Biden is certainly willing to work with members of Congress to define what’s fair and he wouldn’t want to see a household making over $300,000 receive these payments,” Yellen said Sunday. Some Republicans and moderate Democrats including Senator Joe Manchin have proposed sending checks to individuals earning up to $50,000 and couples earning up to $100,000 instead of $75,000 and $150,000, respectively, the thresholds for the last round of direct payments. Last week, Senate Democrats used budget reconciliation, a process requiring only a simple majority in the Senate, to pass the relief bill because not enough Republicans were willing to get on board. Republicans previously used budget reconciliation to pass the Trump administration’s major tax reform bill. Biden and Senate Democrats have indicated their intention to push the package through without GOP support after a group of ten Republican senators proposed a stimulus package costing only about $600 billion. “I’m going to act, and I’m going to act fast,” Biden said last week. “I’d like to be doing it with the support of Republicans. I’ve met with Republicans — there’s some really fine people want to get something done. But they’re just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.”

  • 'No, no.': Mexican president rejects mask-wearing after COVID-19 recovery

    Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday said he would not wear a face mask after his recovery from COVID-19, in spite of widespread support from top officials and the public for the measure. In his first news conference since testing positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 24, Lopez Obrador brushed aside repeated questions from reporters about whether he would wear a mask to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. Unlike many of his top officials, Lopez Obrador has shunned face masks throughout the pandemic.

  • Illinois man gets 30 years for sex assault on woman at bank

    An Illinois man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman he took hostage at gunpoint last year during a bank robbery that led to a police standoff. Nicholas August, of Rockford, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon.

  • Both sides of Trump's impeachment reach trial structure agreement

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the House impeachment managers, and former President Donald Trump's legal team have agreed on an impeachment trial structure, Schumer announced Monday. The resolution is expected to pass the Senate "early this week." It allows both the impeachment managers and Trump's counsel four hours, equally divided, to present their arguments on the constitutionality of the trial Tuesday before the Senate votes on whether it has jurisdiction to try a former president. That will be a simple majority vote, so the answer will almost certainly be yes. If things go forward, both sides will then present their case for and against conviction beginning on Wednesday — they'll have 16 hours total to do so, but they won't be able to exceed eight hours per day. Then, senators will have four hours to question the two parties. Before the Senate votes on the article of impeachment, there will be four hours allotted for arguments on whether the upper chamber should consider motions to subpoena witnesses and documents, and another four for closing arguments. Trial proceedings will stop at 5 p.m. on Friday no matter what, and won't pick back up until Sunday — Trump's lawyer David Schoen requested the pause so he can observe the Jewish Sabbath. Agreement on a Senate resolution setting up the structure of the #TrumpImpeachmentTrial "ensures the trial will be fair to both the impeachment managers and defense," says @SenSchumer. https://t.co/he6R203UHg pic.twitter.com/YSP9iYX2Y3 — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 8, 2021 Everyone seems pleased with the agreement — Schumer called it "eminently fair," McConnell said it "preserves due process and the rights of both sides, and Trump's team said the structure is "consistent with past precedent" and will "provide ... an opportunity to explain" why they believe impeaching a "private citizen" is unconstitutional. More stories from theweek.comWhat's the point of Trump's second impeachment trial?Biden speaks with Modi, but doesn't mention India's farmer protests5 brutally funny cartoons about America's bungled vaccine rollout

  • Cheng Lei: Australian journalist arrested on China spying charges

    TV presenter Cheng Lei, detained since August, is accused of supplying state secrets overseas.

  • Trump administration’s handling of the Covid ‘even more dire than we thought’, says Biden

    Joe Biden rounded on his predecessor’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic, saying “it was even more dire than we thought”. In his first major interview since becoming president, Mr Biden told CBS news anchor, Norah O’Donnell, the country faced a challenge to reach herd immunity before the end of the summer. The US president said the rate of vaccination had to be accelerated to meet the target of 75 per cent of Americans getting the jab set by infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci. Mr Biden said his administration had been led to believe there was far more vaccine available than turned out. “So that’s why we’ve ramped up every way we can,” he added. The new administration is using the Defence Production Act to get companies to boost production of vaccine and protective equipment.

  • Husband of slain Alabama online model sentenced to prison

    A former campus police officer convicted of manslaughter in the death of his wife, an adult model who posted racy photos online, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Monday by a judge who said the man still hadn't taken responsibility for the death. William Jeffrey West, 47, will get credit for the three years he has spent in jail since his arrest in the death of Kathleen Dawn West, 42, news outlets reported. Kat West was found dead in January 2018 along the street in front of the couple’s suburban home in Calera, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Birmingham.

  • UK calls for reset with EU and 'refinement' of Brexit deal

    Britain called on Monday for a reset in relations with the European Union and a refinement of a Brexit deal covering trade with Northern Ireland, saying trust was eroded when Brussels attempted to restrict COVID-19 vaccine supplies. Relations between Brussels and London strained by years of bruising Brexit talks took a turn for the worse last month when the EU threatened to use emergency measures to stop coronavirus vaccines going from the bloc into Northern Ireland. To avoid creating a hard border on the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland remained within the EU's single market for goods under the Brexit deal, effectively creating a frontier within the United Kingdom.