If not a lot of luxury
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
President Biden predicted Thursday that the harrowing, previously unseen security footage from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that has been presented during President Trump’s impeachment trial could move some Republican senators to vote for a conviction.
Quawan "Bobby" Charles, 15, was reported missing by his family on Oct. 30.
A Moscow court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of a top ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but Lithuania, where the associate lives, bluntly rejected the demand to take him into custody. The action against Leonid Volkov by the Basmanny District Court was seen as part of an effort by authorities to squelch demonstrations demanding the release of Navalny, a top Kremlin foe who has been jailed since Jan. 17. Volkov, a chief strategist for Navalny, was charged with encouraging minors to take part in unauthorized rallies, which could land him in jail for up to three years.
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had approved an executive order paving the way for new U.S. sanctions on Myanmar generals after the military detained elected leaders and seized power on Feb. 1. Biden said the executive order would enable his administration "to immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests as well as close family members." While neither Biden nor the Treasury Department specified who would be hit by the sanctions or how, the president promised controls on exports and to prevent the generals from accessing $1 billion of Burmese government funds held in the United States.
Viewers who tuned into MSNBC and CNN at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday were able to watch as House impeachment managers presented new, harrowing footage of the Capitol rioters. Meanwhile, on Fox News, the network cut away from the proceedings to air The Five, which included a guest appearance by Judge Jeanine Pirro, who ranted that Democrats are "trying to tarnish Donald Trump so he can never run again." CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju tweeted about Fox News' decision to stop airing the trial, and his colleague Abby Phillip, CNN's senior political correspondent, responded, "Fox will do anything to prevent its audience from seeing the truth." It wasn't just Pirro slamming the impeachment trial; The Five host Greg Gutfield called it "emotional political theater," while over at the conservative Newsmax network, host Chris Salcedo sneered that the proceedings were "a bipartisan betrayal of the American people," adding, "let's watch the dagger plunge even further into the backs of we the people and this country." Newsmax host begins the 5 PM hour: "We have continuing coverage of a bipartisan betrayal of the American people...Let's watch the dagger plunge even further into the backs of we the people and this country" pic.twitter.com/vij8i9Biyy — Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 10, 2021 More stories from theweek.comThe most important person in the impeachment trial is missing. It isn't Trump.Trump publicly attacked Pence during the Capitol riot knowing Pence was in trouble, GOP senator suggestsWould the Capitol mob have killed Mike Pence?
Police said there is no reason to believe there is a further threat to Van Duyne, a Republican. The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaski held a briefing on Wednesday and was asked by White House Correspondent Hunter Walker if the administration considers the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol an attempted "coup."
In a landmark ruling, Pakistan's top court on Wednesday commuted the death sentences of two mentally ill prisoners who have spent decades on death row, the first such ruling in this conservative Muslim-majority nation. The decision by the Supreme Court was quickly hailed by Justice Project Pakistan, a rights group that has fought an extensive, years-long legal battle for the two inmates. One of the two prisoners whose sentence was commuted, Kanizan Bibi, has spent 30 years on death row.
Senator Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) is under investigation for his involvement in the New Georgia Project, a voter registration organization founded by Stacey Abrams, which officials say failed to follow state election deadlines in 2019. The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-0 Wednesday to launch an investigation into Warnock’s time as chairman of the board for the New Georgia Project in 2019, when officials say the group violated state election rules that require voting registration organizations to submit completed voter application within ten days after they are received from the voter. Officials say the New Georgia Project submitted 1,268 applications to the Gwinnett County elections office after the ten-day deadline in 2019. The board will refer the investigation to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican. The only Democrat on the board, as well as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, abstained from the vote. Nse Ufot, the CEO of New Georgia Project, pushed back against the claims in a statement, saying the board meeting was “the first time we heard about the allegations regarding NGP’s important voter registration work from 2019.” “We have not received any information on this matter from the Secretary or any other Georgia official,” Ufot said. In December, Raffensperger announced an investigation into the New Georgia Project and other voter registration groups, alleging that they had “sought to register ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters.” Warnock resigned from the New Georgia Project on January 28, 2020. Abrams founded the organization in 2014 and later made an unsuccessful bid for Georgia governor, losing by roughly 55,000 votes to Governor Brian Kemp. She claimed that Kemp, who was then- Georgia secretary of state, had won thanks to voter suppression efforts he implemented during his time in office, such as purging voter roles.
As Neera Tanden, President Biden's nominee to take over as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sat Wednesday for her confirmation hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, read aloud some reviews her former employees at the Center for American Progress left on Glassdoor over the last few years. Graham noted that Tanden, the president of CAP, referred the committee to the reviews, some of which were far from flattering about the management at the public policy organization, even when the overall experience was considered positive ("Great experience, terrible management," one read.) "All I can say," Graham said after going through some of the negative comments, "is that this is not the unifying pick that I was looking for in this position." CONFIRMATION HEARING: Sen. Lindsey Graham reads negative Glassdoor reviews of Center for American Progress under Neera Tanden after she referred committee to them: “‘1 out of 5 stars. Terrible absolutely horrible.’” pic.twitter.com/u6hKaZWg0W — Forbes (@Forbes) February 10, 2021 Republicans like Graham weren't the only ones to raise concerns about Tanden. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chair of the committee, joined some GOP colleagues in questioning Tanden about some inflammatory comments she previously made on Twitter. "Your attacks were not just made against Republicans," he said. "There were vicious attacks made against progressives. People I have worked with." Sanders acknowledged lawmakers are used to such criticism, but he clarified that "it's important" to refrain from personal attacks and instead express "differences on policy." Tanden told Sanders she regrets her past remarks and will change her approach if confirmed. .@SenSanders says it's important to "minimize the level of personal and vicious attacks." Asks Neera Tanden if she'll have a different approach at OMB.@neeratanden: "Absolutely...social media does lead to too many personal comments and my approach will be radically different." pic.twitter.com/QB6FAtrWQr — CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2021 More stories from theweek.comThe most important person in the impeachment trial is missing. It isn't Trump.Trump publicly attacked Pence during the Capitol riot knowing Pence was in trouble, GOP senator suggestsWould the Capitol mob have killed Mike Pence?
Hathloul, 31, was detained in May 2018 and sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison on charges that U.N. rights experts called "spurious" under broad counter-terrorism laws. Another sister, Alia, said Hathloul was at their parents' home in Saudi Arabia. Rights groups and her family say Hathloul, who had campaigned for women's right to drive and to end Saudi's male guardianship system, was subjected to abuse, including electric shocks, waterboarding, flogging and sexual assault.
Fort Worth firefighters are calling the pileup on Interstate 35 a "mass casualty incident."
Fox News Channel cut off an impeachment manager in mid-sentence Wednesday as he was presenting dramatic video footage of the mob attacking the U.S. Capitol last month and government leaders running for safety. “The political math doesn't add up,” Fox's Jesse Watters said. The incident was a dramatic illustration of the tightrope walked by programmers at television networks that appeal to fans of former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial.
Iran has begun production of uranium metal, a further violation of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, according to the United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on February 8 that Iran’s Isfahan fuel plate fabrication plant had produced a small amount of uranium metal, IAEA head Rafael Grossi told member states on Wednesday. Uranium metal can form the core of an atomic weapon but also has civilian applications including fuel for nuclear power plants and as medical isotopes. But Iran is banned from producing the material under the agreement limiting its nuclear activity that it signed with Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the United States. Since Donald Trump, the former US president, unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal in 2018, the remaining states have tried to keep the accord alive, even as Tehran progressively walked back from its commitments. Iran’s latest violation of the agreement comes as the new administration of US president Joe Biden has indicated it is open to a return to diplomacy and Tehran is eager for relief from crippling economic sanctions. Last month Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said Iran must resume full compliance before the US returns to the agreement or consider lifting sanctions. But on Sunday Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted the US must first honour the agreement, leaving the two states at an apparent impasse. In its Wednesday report, the IAEA said the 3.6 grams of uranium metal Iran produced was natural uranium, meaning it was not enriched. Iran already has tonnes of low-enriched uranium and says it has no intention of producing a nuclear weapon, which would require highly enriched uranium. After the assassination of its top nuclear scientist in November, which Tehran blamed on Israel, Iran’s hardline-dominated parliament passed a law aimed at toughening the Islamic republic’s nuclear stance, which called for pursuing uranium production. In December it told the IAEA that it planned to conduct research and development on uranium metal production as part of its "declared aim to design an improved type of fuel" for a research reactor. In January Britain, France and Germany expressed concern at these plans, saying Iran had “no credible civilian use" for uranium metal. A joint statement from the foreign ministries of the three countries urged Iran to halt plants to produce uranium, saying it had "potentially grave military implications."
State and federal officials are searching for a white tanker.
A Russian court has sentenced a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses to 7.5 years in prison, a spokesman for the religious denomination said, while in Moscow state investigators opened a new criminal investigation into the group. Since then authorities have detained hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses and convicted dozens on extremism charges. In the southern region of Krasnodar, Alexander Ivshin, 63, was sentenced to 7.5 years in a penal colony, after being accused of organising activities on behalf of a banned group, spokesman Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses said in a statement.
Alabama would be the first state to carry out an execution this year if allowed to proceed with plans to put to death a 51-year-old inmate convicted in the shotgun slaying of a police detective's sister decades ago. Alabama on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift an appellate court stay currently blocking the evening execution from taking place. The state also asked justices to vacate an injunction banning the state from proceeding with the execution unless Smith is allowed to have his personal pastor present in the execution chamber with him.
Previously unreleased footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot shown during Wednesday's impeachment proceedings left Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) "angry," "disturbed," and "sad," she told reporters Wednesday night. The video and audio showcased the brutality of some members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol. In one clip, an officer was shown getting crushed in a doorway, while other videos showed officers getting shoved as they tried to keep rioters back. "I don't see how after the American public sees the whole story laid out here ... how Donald Trump could be re-elected to the presidency," Murkowski told reporters. The House impeachment managers put together a timeline detailing where the rioters were at the Capitol, Trump's messages to the mob, and pleas lawmakers made to Trump in an attempt to get his supporters to leave the complex. The managers are trying to prove that Trump incited an insurrection, and they are making "a strong case," Murkowski said. "The evidence that has been presented thus far is pretty damning." More stories from theweek.comThe most important person in the impeachment trial is missing. It isn't Trump.Trump publicly attacked Pence during the Capitol riot knowing Pence was in trouble, GOP senator suggestsWould the Capitol mob have killed Mike Pence?
The Philippines is set to receive 600,000 doses this month of Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine donated by China, a portion of which will be used to inoculate military personnel, a senior government official said on Thursday. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a regular news conference the Feb. 23 arrival of the vaccines is certain, but they would not be administered without the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Officials are still investigating the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died following the January 6 insurrection.
