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  • Ron Johnson, Mitt Romney reportedly got into a heated discussion after impeachment witness vote

    As the Senate floor transformed into a state of confusion following the surprising vote to hear from witnesses in former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) reportedly got into a heated discussion with his GOP colleague Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who along with four other Republicans joined Democrats in the 55-45 tally. “... They were going back and forth with Sullivan in the middle of them. I heard Johnson tell Romney ‘Blame you.’ Voices were definitely raised.” — Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) February 13, 2021 Johnson, like most everyone else, was apparently under the assumption the vote would go the other way, setting up a quick end to the trial on Saturday. But Democrats became more interested in hearing from witnesses after more details about a call between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the middle of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot emerged. And shortly after the Senate convened on Saturday morning, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a House impeachment manager, said he and the other managers wanted to hear from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who described McCarthy's recounting of the call. Trump was and still is headed toward acquittal, as it remains unlikely enough Republicans will be swayed by witnesses to reach the two-thirds majority required for conviction. For instance, it was reported earlier Saturday that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was at least publicly on the fence, had told colleagues in an email that he was prepared to vote to acquit. It doesn't seem like that will change, since his reasoning was based on the fact that Trump is already out of office rather than on anything about Trump's alleged role, or lack thereof, on Jan. 6. Other lawmakers are expected to move forward with the same rationale. More stories from theweek.com7 scathingly funny cartoons about Republicans' impeachment cowardiceHow to make perfect French toast in 4 simple stepsImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump most

  • Fake rallies in made-for-Putin videos tell Russia's leader how popular he is

    They came from all walks of life - paramedics, footballers, steelworkers and students - to march in a huge column for their leader, Vladimir Putin. At least that's how it seemed. A slick new video showing young and old congregating under the name of the Russian leader has been exposed as one of a number of fake rallies concocted by the Kremlin. Rattled by protests in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny that have swept across the country, Mr Putin's government appears desperate to prove his popularity is unscathed in a series of dubious demonstrations. In Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, where one of the videos was filmed, the crowd joins together after leaving their workplaces and football pitches to flash the torches on their phones at the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. The clip, shared by local MPs from Mr Putin's United Russia, wrapped up with a strapline across the screen: “We stand with you, Vladimir Vladimirovich!”.

  • Four people in Oregon who received both doses of vaccine test positive for coronavirus

    There are two cases each in Yamhill and Lane counties, the state's Health Authority said.

  • Myanmar coup leader: 'Join hands' with army for democracy

    Myanmar's coup leader used the country's Union Day holiday on Friday to call on people to work with the military if they want democracy, a request likely to be met with derision by protesters who are pushing for the release from detention of their country's elected leaders. “I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw for the successful realization of democracy,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said using the local term for the military. In addition to the military commander's message published Friday in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the new junta also announced it would mark Union Day by releasing thousands of prisoners and reducing other inmates’ sentences.

  • Trump triumphantly declares MAGA movement 'has only just begun' after Senate acquittal

    These days, it can often feel like former President Donald Trump is off the grid, but he made himself known Saturday shortly after he was acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial for the second time in just over a year. In a statement, Trump thanked his legal team and the lawmakers who voted not guilty, while blasting Democrats, whom he accused of getting a "free pass to denigrate the rule of law." The impeachment effort, Trump claimed, was "another phase" of what he considers "the greatest witch hunt" in American history. Once he was done chiding his opponents, the former president turned his attention to his supporters, promising them "our historic, patriotic, and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun," and that "I have much to share with you" in "the months ahead." TRUMP STATEMENT on acquittal: "This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country." pic.twitter.com/ZCztYtcZfa — Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) February 13, 2021 More stories from theweek.com7 scathingly funny cartoons about Republicans' impeachment cowardiceHow to make perfect French toast in 4 simple stepsImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump most

  • U.S. says North Korea an urgent priority for the United States

    North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs are an urgent priority for the United States and Washington remains committed to denuclearization of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. The Biden administration's lack of direct engagement with North Korea should not be seen as an indication that the challenge posed by its weapons programs was not a priority, department spokesman Ned Price said.

  • No execution: Courts side with inmate wanting pastor present

    An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a planned lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber. Thursday's scheduled execution of Willie B. Smith III was called off by Alabama officials after the justices maintained an injunction issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he could not be executed without his pastor present in chamber. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Samantha Rose said the execution would not proceed given the ruling.

  • New York City makes $125,000 settlement with girlfriend of Black man fatally shot by off-duty officer

    New York City on Friday settled a lawsuit brought by the girlfriend of Delrawn Small, a Black man who was killed by an off-duty police officer during a traffic incident in the summer of 2016. As part of the settlement, Zaquanna Albert, who was with Small at the time of the killing, received $125,000, according to New York Daily News. Two children, including the couple’s son, were also passengers in the car when New York Police Department officer Wayne Isaacs, who is also Black and remains on the force today, fatally shot Small on the fourth of July in Brooklyn.

  • Russia warns EU it is 'ready' to break off ties over threatened Navalny sanctions

    Moscow said on Friday that it was “ready” to cut ties with the European Union if the bloc imposes further sanctions over its jailing of prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The comments mark another deterioration in relations between Russia and the West after Mr Navalny, an outspoken Kremlin critic, was poisoned with Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok last summer. After a months-long convalescence in Germany, he returned to Russia in January, only to be arrested and later jailed for three years for violating the terms of his parole. Mr Navalny’s ordeal has sparked Russia’s biggest nationwide protests in a decade and the EU has already imposed sanctions on six senior Russian officials over his poisoning. Now it is raising the prospect of further sanctions and Moscow has signalled that it will fight back. Asked in an interview on Friday if Russia was moving towards “breaking off” with the EU, Mr Lavrov said Russia was “ready” if “sanctions are imposed in certain areas that create risks for our economy”. “We don’t want to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world but we need to be ready for this. If you want peace, prepare for war.” A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said “these statements are really disconcerting and incomprehensible.” The foreign ministry and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later softened the minister’s remarks, insisting that he was misunderstood. The foreign ministry said Russia had no plans to cut ties but that it would be “ready” if the EU were to do it. Mr Peskov insisted that Moscow “wants to foster ties with the European Union but if the EU follows this path (of introducing further sanctions), then yes, we will be ready because you need to prepare for the worse.” EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss new sanctions on Russia on Feb 22. Mr Lavrov’s remarks came a week after as a disastrous visit to Moscow by Josep Borrell. The EU foreign policy chief got a public dressing down by Mr Lavrov, who criticised the bloc for alleged human rights abuses in Latvia and said the relationship was marked by “lack of trust.” While Mr Borrel was still in Russia, the Kremlin ordered three diplomats from Germany, Sweden and Poland to be expelled for observing January’s opposition protests. Meanwhile, Mr Navalny, who has been locked up in a notorious Moscow’s prison since his return in January, was back on trial on Friday on charges of defaming a Second World War veteran. Mr Navalny has accused Russian authorities of concocting the case and exploiting the 94-year-old man to smear him in the eyes of ordinary Russians on state TV. He insisted that he was expressing an opinion and did not target the veteran in any way. The charges related to Mr Navalny’s blog post last summer, in which he denounced a group of people filmed in a TV ad for President Putin’s constitutional reforms allowing him to stay in power as “lackeys and traitors.”

  • Historians say impact of expected Trump acquittal will be felt for years

    It's not lost on historians that Donald Trump's likely impeachment trial acquittal could fall on Presidents' Day weekend, a holiday celebrating the examples set by America's first president, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, who held the republic together through civil war and ended slavery.Why it matters: Through his repeated efforts to overturn the election, Trump put the country through one of the toughest tests of democracy it has ever faced. Historians say his expected acquittal on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection will have consequences we are only beginning to understand — and they'll be felt for years.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeThe big picture: Historians are examining this moment — the election fraud lie, the efforts to overturn the results through violence, the impeachment of a president days before his exit, and the actions of his own party to block his conviction — through many lenses.The power of impeachment: That's pretty much gone. Historian Douglas Brinkley says Trump's acquittal will make the limits of its power obvious: it's a political process, not a legal one.Trump is more likely to face danger from the legal investigations that are happening elsewhere, Brinkley said.They include New York's criminal and civil investigations of his businesses to the newly launched probe by the Fulton County, Georgia district attorney into the January phone call where he pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the election outcome there."Impeachment is a political process, and we got a political result out of it."America's changing demographics: Renee Romano, an Oberlin College professor who specializes in the field of historical memory, says the impeachment outcome raises the question: "Can America ever truly be a multiracial democracy?'"She sees it as the result of tension between two opposing historical narratives — one saying the election was stolen and violence is justified to take it back, the other saying Joe Biden won legitimately because more people support the Democrats and they were able to assemble a multiracial coalition."I think a lot of this is about race, and entitlement ... and now, we’re at a stage where you basically have to use violence to overthrow the results of a democratic election to protect white minority power.""In any society where you have such a divide over how you see reality, that’s an unstable country," Romano said. "I’m not hopeful for the future of the country."Congress leaves the field: With this acquittal, the Senate has passed on two chances to hold a president accountable for undermining the power and authority of Congress, said Andrew Rudalevidge, an expert on presidential power.In last year's impeachment, the second article charged Trump with obstruction of Congress for ordering administration officials to ignore congressional subpoenas.This time, the central issue is Trump's role in a physical attack on Congress. "Congress not even pushing back against a physical assault suggests that there's a lot they will put up with," Rudalevige said."It's a President's Day present: an affirmation of the autonomy of the executive branch."The bottom line: The speedy trial was designed to allow America to move on — but the wounds from Jan. 6 are so deep that it's nowhere near ready to move on.This story has been updated to clarify the timing of the vote.More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

  • Magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes near site of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster

    At least 14 aftershocks had been recorded and almost 850,000 households left without power, authorities said.

  • 2 killed, 2 injured when car plunges off Chicago expressway

    Two people were killed and two more were seriously injured early Friday when their vehicle hit a concrete wall and plunged off a Chicago expressway onto a street about 43 feet (13 meters) below, police said. The vehicle “was traveling too fast for road conditions” on Interstate 55 — also known as the Stevenson Expressway — when the accident happened at around 4 a.m., Illinois State Police said. The vehicle tumbled off the highway, struck a light pole and landed on the street in the McKinley Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest Side, Illinois State Police Trooper Omoayena Williams said.

  • Ex-boyfriend arrested after model's body found near highway

    Police officers were able to track down a Texas man after his details were found on a note in the 47-year-old’s pocket

  • 12 Best Bedding Sets for Kids

    Sweet dreams are made of theseOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • San Bernardino terrorist's mother sentenced for document shredding

    The mother of one of the shooters who carried out a 2015 terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif., was sentenced Thursday to six months of home confinement and three years of probation for shredding a document used to plan the massacre that killed 14 people and wounded 22.

  • Analysis: Trump will use his acquittal to relaunch political warfare

    Remember Sarah Palin? She lives in Alaska now, and you don't hear much about her. There are senior Republicans who hope Donald Trump will similarly become a voice at the fringes of the party, shouting into the wind, a subject for the occasional "Where are they now?" TV segment. But that is certainly not how the former president envisions his future, and the future of Republicanism. Instead, Mr Trump intends to use his impeachment trial as a launching pad for a forceful return to the political stage. Even if he does not run for the White House again himself he intends to dominate the landscape. Mr Trump is looking ahead to holding rallies, although that would not be "immediate," an adviser told The Sunday Telegraph. The former president plans to target his enemies and back Republican candidates loyal to him in next year's congressional elections, both financially and in person. He is sitting on an election war chest of $30 million, raised in the final months of his presidency. Mr Trump will probably also keep his profile high with paid speeches, which he is entitled to do as a private citizen, like Bill and Hillary Clinton before him. That could mean making appearances around the world - including the UK. He is also keen to look at new business ventures globally, including potentially new hotels. But a plan for a television station was said to have been rejected for now in favour of promoting existing supportive ones.

  • Mekong River at 'worrying' low level amid calls for more Chinese dam data

    Water levels in the Mekong River have fallen to a "worrying level" in part due to outflow restrictions from Chinese hydropower dams upstream, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Friday, calling on Beijing to share all of its water data. The vital waterway has turned blue along the Thai-Laos border, from its usual murky brown colour - signaling shallow water and low levels of nutrition-rich sediment - partially from outflow restrictions from the Jinghong dam in China's Yunnan province, the inter-governmental MRC said. "There have been sudden rises and falls in water levels immediately downstream of Jinghong and further down to Vientiane," said Winai Wongpimool, director of the MRC Secretariat's Technical Support Division.

  • Gender identity bill divides Spain's feminists, left-wing

    Victòria Martínez continues to sign official documents with the name that she, her partner and their two daughters ditched four years ago. Barring any surprises, she expects the Spanish government to recognize her as Victòria by May, closing a patience-wearing chapter familiar to transgender people around the world. Changing her legal identity at a civil registry office in Barcelona will allow Martínez to update her passport and driver's license and to carry a health card that correctly states she is a woman.

  • The Seven Republicans Who Voted to Convict Trump

    The Senate voted 57-43 on Saturday to acquit former President Donald Trump of “incitement of an insurrection,” with seven GOP senators joining Democrats in voting “guilty.” Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania voted to convict the president, along with 50 Democratic senators. However, a two-thirds vote was needed to convict Trump. All of the aforementioned senators, besides Burr, also voted with Democrats on Tuesday in affirming the constitutionality of the Senate impeachment trial of a former president. “The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” Burr said on Saturday. “Therefore, I have voted to convict.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted to acquit Trump on the grounds that the Senate lacks the authority to convict a private citizen, but said that Trump was nevertheless “responsible” for the Capitol riot in a floor speech after the vote. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shamefully shouting into the largest megaphone on earth,” McConnell said. “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things,” he added.

  • UK 's Johnson optimistic COVID lockdown can be eased soon

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he was optimistic he could announce the easing of some lockdown measures soon as the government nears its target of offering vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups. The government says it is on track to have offered an injection by Monday to everyone who is aged 70 and over, as well as those who are clinically vulnerable, frontline health and social care workers and older adults in care homes. With infections and hospitalisations beginning to fall, Johnson is under pressure from some in his own party to set out when strict lockdown restrictions, which have caused the biggest crash in economic output in more than 300 years, will be eased.