A top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tells leading state Democratic lawmakers that the administration had reportedly withheld data on COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes to avoid federal scrutiny; Laura Ingle reports.
Ms Hawley called the protest 'an assault' on her home, though there was no damage and no violence occurred
A Wisconsin judge on Thursday denied requests to issue an arrest warrant and increase the bond for Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old accused of homicide for killing two people in Kenosha last summer. The Kenosha County District Attorney's Office said Rittenhouse violated the conditions of his bail after he failed to update the court with his new address. Rittenhouse's attorney said his client had to move due to threats made against him. Rittenhouse has become a cause célèbre for the alt-right, with his supporters raising enough money in November to get him released from custody on a $2 million bond. Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder denied the motion to increase Rittenhouse's bail by $200,000, and said while his new address could be given to the court, it would not be made public or shared with prosecutors. "After what this town has been through in the last six months, I don't want any more problems," Schroeder said. "The police don't need any more problems. We don't need to have people's safety in jeopardy in any way." On Jan. 5, Rittenhouse was spotted at a Wisconsin bar, where prosecutors say he was drinking beer and hanging out with people singing the anthem of the Proud Boys. He was also photographed making a white supremacist hand sign. In response, a judge on Jan. 22 approved new conditions for Rittenhouse's bond, prohibiting him from drinking alcohol, having weapons, and associating with anyone known to harass others based on their race or religion. More stories from theweek.comMike Pence's 'nuclear football' was also apparently at risk during the Capitol siegeImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump mostTrump impeachment lawyer dodges question about whether Trump lost the election
The BBC’s director general has warned of the “growing global threat to the free media” after the corporation was banned from broadcasting in China and Hong Kong. In his first intervention since Beijing announced the ban, Tim Davie said that countries such as China were now trying to expand their “control of information”. Mr Davie, who took up the post of director general in the autumn, said it was of “deep concern” that China was preventing the BBC from doing its job. But he stressed the wider concern that China - and by implication other countries such as Russia - were trying to peddle their own state-controlled news operations abroad while attacking the free press within their borders. Mr Davie last night told The Telegraph: “Media freedom matters. The latest developments in China, including the banning of the World Service in Hong Kong, are deeply worrying developments. The BBC should be able to do its reporting without fear or favour. “It is of deep concern when our journalists are restricted and their work curtailed. Importantly, in these difficult times when misinformation is rife, we have seen growing audiences for trusted news sources - including hundreds of millions coming to the BBC. “This is not just about stopping the BBC from broadcasting news in China, there are significant and growing global threats to the free media as some seek to increase their control of information. Now, more than ever, it is important that we speak out to defend free and fair journalism.” Senior BBC sources said there was now three-fold threat from states such as China and Russia, through manipulation of social media, funding their own biased news operations and shutting down trusted international broadcasters. “These states are actively manipulating social media to undermine legal democracies while at the same time flexing their muscles by pumping millions of rubles or whatever currency into global news services that distort the truth. And now they are preventing the likes of the BBC from broadcasting.” China banned the BBC World News Channel on Thursday in apparent retaliation for Ofcom's decision to revoke the UK broadcasting license of Chinese state broadcaster CGTN after finding the organisation is “ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party”
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly harangued Democrats for lack of proper ‘investigation’ before trial
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.
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.
On the third day of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Democratic House impeachment manager Rep. Diana DeGette presented the case that participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were inspired by Trump.
Ravi Zacharias, a prominent evangelical Christian leader and author who died of cancer last May at age 74, led a double life of coerced sexual gratification from massage therapists, his organization, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), said Thursday. RZIM released an independent report by the Atlanta law firm Miller & Martin detailing Zacharias' transgressions, including sexual misconduct and rape allegations from more than a dozen massage therapists and the discovery of about 200 photos of young women on his phones, some of them nude selfies. The board of RZIM, which is led by Zacharias' daughter, said it was "shocked and grieved by Ravi's actions," and apologized to his victims: "Words cannot come close to expressing the sorrow that we feel for what you have been through or the gratitude we feel for the bravery with which you have responded." RZIM denied any sexual misconduct by its founder last fall, and Zacharias had sued one accuser for extortion before he died. Most of the women Miller & Martin interviewed said that during massages, Zacharias would grab their breasts or genitals and ask for sexual gratification. Investigators found more than 200 other massage therapists listed in his phones, many of them in Asia. He spent months at a pair of apartments he owned in Bangkok, and the investigators found 2016 texts showing that Zacharias "spent his days writing and his nights receiving massages" there. The woman who accused Zacharias of rape said that after he "arranged for the ministry to provide her with financial support, he required sex from her," then "made her pray with him to thank God for the 'opportunity' they both received." The woman told investigators that Zacharias "called her his 'reward' for living a life of service to God," and "said he warned her not ever to speak out against him or she would be responsible for the 'millions of souls' whose salvation would be lost if his reputation was damaged." Zacharias, born in India and raised in Canada, first rose to prominence preaching at a 1983 conference organized by Rev. Billy Graham. He went on to write about two dozen books and had a radio show. His funeral in August was attended by then-Vice President Mike Pence, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, and other boldface names. "In Ravi Zacharias, God gave us the greatest Christian apologist of this century," Pence said at the funeral. "He was the C.S. Lewis of our day." More stories from theweek.comMike Pence's 'nuclear football' was also apparently at risk during the Capitol siegeImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump mostTrump impeachment lawyer dodges question about whether Trump lost the election
Georgia congresswoman ‘doesn't represent my son or my family’, says Republican after exchange
Phyllis Pena said she charged at him before he could run away, and held him until police in Lake Jackson, Texas, arrived.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday the United States must pay if it wants to keep a two-decade-old troop deployment agreement with his country that is central to U.S. strategy in Asia. Duterte, a firebrand nationalist who openly disapproves of the long-standing U.S. military alliance, unilaterally cancelled the Visiting Force Agreement last year in an angry response to an ally being denied a U.S. visa. The withdrawal period has been twice extended, however, to create what Philippine officials say is a window for better terms to be agreed.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered tougher legal supervision to support his development plans, state media said Thursday, as he works to salvage an economy battered by the pandemic and other challenges. Kim faces what appears to be the toughest crisis of his nine-year rule as the already-troubled economy is hit by pandemic-related border closings that have sharply reduced the North's external trade, a spate of natural disasters last summer and persistent U.S.-led sanctions. During the party congress, Kim described the difficulties as the "worst-ever." Kim spoke Wednesday during a ruling Workers' Party meeting this week convened to follow up on decisions made at the ruling party's congress in January, where he admitted previous economic plans had failed and announced a new five-year development plan. Kim "stressed the importance to strengthen legal supervision and control over the establishment and executive process of the national economic plan," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The pile up left six people dead and more than 30 injured
The man thought it was a fake gun, Berkeley police said.
New security camera footage unveiled Wednesday at former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial showed just how close the mob ransacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 came to nabbing former Vice President Mike Pence and his family. When U.S. Strategic Command saw the footage, CNN reported late Thursday, they realized how close the mob came to Pence's "nuclear football," the backup nuclear launch system a military aide carries near the vice president at all times in case the president is incapacitated. The military officer, apparently seen fleeing down back stairs with Pence and his family, never lost control of the backup "football," and Trump was safe in the White House during the entire period Pence was being hunted down, a defense official told CNN. That means the Pentagon would not have needed to deactivate Pence's nuclear launch system, even if they had been aware it was in danger. And if the insurrectionists had managed to grab the "football," they would not have been able to bypass the security systems, the official added. That's not the point, Kingston Reif of the Arms Control Association told CNN. "The risk associated with the insurrectionists getting their hands on Pence's football wasn't that they could have initiated an unauthorized launch. But had they stolen the football and acquired its contents, which include pre-planned nuclear strike options, they could have shared the contents with the world," creating "a security breach of almost incomprehensible proportions." The people who broke into the Capitol were clearly not opposed to taking home trophies. Florida Man, Helpfully, Includes Closeup Of Barcode On Damaged U.S. Senate Property In His Facebook Post About Storming The U.S. Capitol pic.twitter.com/d5cSXVkkEA — Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) February 11, 2021 Thankfully, we never have to know what they would have done had they found Pence, or his nuclear strike machine. More stories from theweek.comImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump mostTrump impeachment lawyer dodges question about whether Trump lost the electionTrump will be convicted by history, right?
Sweet dreams are made of theseOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. People who get a COVID-19 vaccine can still become infected with the novel coronavirus, although they are likely to be protected against severe illness, and a new study suggests they also may be less contagious. At a large Israeli health maintenance organization where 650,000 members received the two-dose vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, researchers identified 2,897 patients who later tested positive for COVID-19.
‘I’ve faced a lot of criticism over the years...by being so closely tied to such a controversial administration’
For 90 tense minutes, members of the Senate relived the horror. If any senators were tempted to avoid images of the violence at the Capitol, or bury memories of fleeing the violent mob of Donald Trump's supporters, they were not able to do so any longer. While videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, the graphic compilation provided a more complete narrative, with a chilling focus on the rioters' methodical search for lawmakers.
Rebecca Benson says aftermath of accident was ‘like a zombie movie’
