Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., reacts House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., denying her Marine son from attending her swear-in ceremony and Gov. Andrew Cuomo facing backlash after covering up nursing home deaths.
Dr. Susan Moore, a physician battling COVID-19, documented what she described as poor and hostile treatment she received at an Indiana hospital because she was a Black woman. Her death highlighted an issue that’s persisted among medical professionals since as early as the era of slavery.
Mace claims Trump was not president when he was impeached, which is false
The first major demonstration this year by Thailand’s student-led pro-democracy movement on Wednesday turned into a confrontation with police, who quickly arrested 10 activists who were putting up banners and posters. The rally by more than 1,000 people in central Bangkok was called by the Ratsadorn movement, which campaigned last year for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government to step down, the constitution to be amended and the reform of the monarchy to make it more accountable. Wednesday's rally focused on the detention of four top protest leaders who were charged Tuesday with defaming the monarchy, or lese majeste.
Russia said on Friday it would be ready to sever ties with the European Union if the bloc hit it with painful economic sanctions, a statement that Germany described as disconcerting and incomprehensible. Ties between Russia and the West, already at post-Cold War lows, have come under renewed pressure over the arrest and jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Three European diplomats told Reuters on Thursday the EU was likely to impose travel bans and asset freezes on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly as soon as this month.
China has criticised the BBC for its reports on coronavirus and persecution of the Uighurs.
Donald Trump stands accused of being the “Inciter in Chief” who summoned a mob of violent insurrectionists to attack the Capitol building and try to overturn the result of the November election. In chilling new video footage played during his trial for impeachment, Senators were shown just how dangerous, violent and committed those rioters were on Jan 6. There are desperate calls for backup. Panicked Senators run through the building looking for escape routes. Brave police officers try to hold their lines and push the rioters back. Mitt Romney, a Republican senator who was steered away from trouble by police officer Eugene Goodman, said: "It tears at your heart and brings tears to your eyes. "That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional". This is how the day unfolded, according to Democrat prosecutors. 12:30pm - Trump's speech
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was prepared to plead guilty to third-degree murder in George Floyd's death before then-Attorney General William Barr personally blocked the plea deal last year, officials said. The deal would have averted any potential federal charges, including a civil rights offense, as part of an effort to quickly resolve the case to avoid more protests after protests and riots damaged a swath of south Minneapolis, according to two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the talks. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.
Venezuelan government officials and opposition leaders have met to discuss buying coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX program using cash frozen in the United States by economic sanctions, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Opposition leader Juan Guaido last week said that Venezuelan funds controlled by the U.S. Treasury Department could be used to pay for vaccines. The cash-strapped government of President Nicolas Maduro has signed up for COVAX, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide vaccines globally, but has not made the associated payments.
If not a lot of luxuryOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest
NEW DELHI — India, the unmatched vaccine manufacturing power, is giving away millions of doses to neighbors friendly and estranged. It is trying to counter China, which has made doling out shots a central plank of its foreign relations. And the United Arab Emirates, drawing on its oil riches, is buying jabs on behalf of its allies. The coronavirus vaccine — one of the world’s most in-demand commodities — has become a new currency for international diplomacy. Countries with the means or the know-how are using the shots to curry favor or thaw frosty relations. India sent them to Nepal, a country that has fallen increasingly under China’s influence. Sri Lanka, in the midst of a diplomatic tug of war between New Delhi and Beijing, is getting doses from both. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times The strategy carries risks. India and China, both of which are making vaccines for the rest of the world, have vast populations of their own that they need to inoculate. Though there are few signs of grumbling in either country, that could change as the public watches doses get sold or donated abroad. “Indians are dying. Indians are still getting the disease,” said Manoj Joshi, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “I could understand if our needs had been fulfilled and then you had given away the stuff. But I think there is a false moral superiority that you are trying to put across where you say we are giving away our stuff even before we use it ourselves.” The donating countries are making their offerings at a time when the United States and other rich nations are scooping up the world’s supplies. Poorer countries are frantically trying to get their own, a disparity that the World Health Organization recently warned has put the world “on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure.” With their health systems tested like never before, many countries are eager to take what they are offered — and the donors could reap some political good will in reward. “Instead of securing a country by sending troops, you can secure the country by saving lives, by saving their economy, by helping with their vaccination,” said Dania Thafer, the executive director of the Gulf International Forum, a Washington-based think tank. China was one of the first countries to make a diplomatic vaccine push, promising to help developing countries last year even before the nation had mass produced a vaccine that was proved to be effective. Just this week, it said it would donate 300,000 vaccine doses to Egypt. But some of China’s vaccine-diplomacy efforts have stumbled from supplies arriving late, a lack of disclosure about the efficacy of its vaccines and other issues. Chinese government officials have cited unexpectedly strong needs at home amid isolated outbreaks, a move that could blunt any domestic backlash. Even as Chinese-made vaccines spread, India saw a chance to bolster its own image. The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine factory, churns out the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine at a daily rate of about 2.5 million doses. That pace has allowed India to begin to dole out doses free of charge to neighbors. To much fanfare, planeloads have arrived in Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles and Afghanistan. “Acting East. Acting fast,” said S. Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, announcing the arrival of 1.5 million doses in Myanmar, on Twitter. The Indian government has tried to score publicity points for doses shipped to places like Brazil and Morocco, though those countries purchased theirs. The Serum Institute has also pledged 200 million doses to a global WHO pool called Covax that would go to poorer nations, while China recently pledged 10 million. For now, the Indian government has room to donate abroad, even after months when cases soared and the economy was hobbled, and even as it has vaccinated just a tiny percent of its 1.3 billion people. Part of the reason for a lack of backlash: the Serum Institute is producing at a faster rate than India’s inoculation program can currently handle, leaving extras for donations and exports. And some Indians are not in a rush to get vaccinated because of skepticism over a homegrown vaccine called Covaxin. The Indian government approved its emergency use without disclosing much data about it, leading some people to doubt its effectiveness. While the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab has faced less skepticism, those getting vaccinated don’t have a choice of which vaccine they receive. For India, its soft-power vaccine drive has given it a rejoinder to China, after years of watching the Chinese make political gains in its own backyard — in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and elsewhere. Beijing offered deep pockets and swift answers when it came to big investments that India, with a layered bureaucracy and slowing economy, has struggled to match. “India’s neighborhood has become more crowded, more competitive,” said Constantino Xavier, who studies India’s relations with its neighbors at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a New Delhi think tank. “The vaccine push bolsters India’s credibility as a reliable crisis-responder and solutions provider to these neighboring countries.” One of India’s largest donations has been to Nepal, where India’s relationship has been at a historic low. Sandwiched between India and China, the tiny country is strategically significant to both. Over the past five years, following border disputes and what some in Nepal criticize as a master-and-servant relationship with India, the government of K.P. Sharma Oli, the prime minister, began cozying up to China. Oli held workshops on “Xi Jinping Thought,” based on the strategies of China’s top leader, and signed contracts for several projects as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s infrastructure and development push. But the prime minister started losing his grip on power last year. As both Chinese and Indian delegations arrived in Kathmandu to steer Nepal’s domestic political jockeying, the Nepali leader seems to have lowered the temperature with India. After Oli sent his foreign minister for talks in New Delhi, India donated 1 million doses. China’s Sinopharm has also applied for Nepal’s approval of its vaccine, but drug authorities there have not given it the go ahead. “The vaccine emerged as an opportunity to normalize ties” between Nepal and India, said Tanka Karki, a former Nepali envoy to China. Still, the strategy of using vaccines to win hearts and minds isn’t always successful. The United Arab Emirates, which is rolling out vaccines faster than any country except Israel, has begun donating Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccines it purchased to countries where it has strategic or commercial interests, including 50,000 doses each to the Seychelles, the island nation in the Indian Ocean, and Egypt, one of its Arab allies. But in Egypt some doctors balked at using them, because they said they did not trust the data the UAE and the vaccine’s Chinese maker had released about trials. The government of Malaysia, one of the Emirates’ biggest trading partners, declined an offer of 500,000 doses, saying that regulators would have to independently approve the Sinopharm vaccine. After regulatory approval, Malaysia bought vaccines instead from Pfizer of the United States, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and one made by another Chinese company, Sinovac. Even accepted goodwill can be short-lived. Witness Sri Lanka, where India and China are in a battle for influence. Since Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office as president in 2019, New Delhi has struggled to get his government to commit to a deal his predecessor signed to complete a terminal project at the Colombo port to be developed partly by India. While large Chinese projects continued, Rajapaksa opened the Indian deal for a review. Hoping to stress the importance of the project, Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, visited last month. That same month, 500,000 vaccine doses arrived from India. Rajapaksa was at the airport to receive them. Sri Lanka has also placed a purchase order of 18 million doses from the Serum Institute, the health ministry in Colombo confirmed. The Indian media treated both as a diplomatic victory, and it seems clear Sri Lanka will depend largely on India for vaccines. But on Jan. 27, Rajapaksa received another gift, from China: a pledge to donate 300,000 doses. The dueling donations are just part of a much larger diplomatic dance. Still, a week later, Rajapaksa’s Cabinet decided that Sri Lanka was developing the Colombo terminal on its own, pushing India out of the project. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
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.comThe most important person in the impeachment trial is missing. It isn't Trump.5 brutally funny cartoons about Republicans' twisted impeachment logicImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump most
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.
Taiwan's government expressed its thanks to and "admiration" for U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday after he told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of his concerns about Beijing's pressure against the island China, which claims as its own territory. Biden's government, which took office on Jan. 20, has moved to reassure democratic Taiwan that its commitment to them is "rock solid", especially after China stepped up its military activity near the island shortly after Biden's inauguration. Biden, in his call with Xi, underscored his "fundamental concerns about Beijing's coercive and unfair practices, its crackdown in Hong Kong, reported human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan", according to the White House.
A California couple has been arrested and charged with inflicting horrible physical abuse on their newborn son, resulting in the infant’s death. RayRay Darn, 35, and Marilyn Northington, 28, are accused of beating and abusing the 5-week-old boy. The baby was allegedly malnourished, dehydrated, covered in bruises and burn marks, and had several broken bones.
The Fort Worth Fire Department said the pileup left multiple people trapped in their cars.
Civil servants, even police officers, are risking their jobs to protest the military takeover in Myanmar, and one of the more dramatic examples of crossing that line also illustrates the deep roots of the country's ethnic conflicts. In a small village in the eastern state of Kayah, 42 local police officers stood as one to declare their support for the protesters and refuse entreaties from a senior officer to return to duty.
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."
Britain may have to keep “some measures” in place to restrict the spread of COVID-19 until its entire adult population is vaccinated, Susan Hopkins, the managing director of Public Health England, said on Thursday. “I think we are going to have to have some measures in place until the whole population is vaccinated, at least all of the adult population,” she told Sky News. So far, Britain has given a first vaccine shot to about 13.5 million people and is also bringing in new strict border controls, which make it illegal to go on holiday, to prevent new strains of the virus entering the country.
A judge on Thursday refused prosecutors’ request to issue a new arrest warrant for an 18-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two people during a police brutality protest in Wisconsin last summer. Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger alleged that Kyle Rittenhouse failed to update his address when he moved out of his Antioch apartment in November, amounting to a bail violation. In addition to a new arrest warrant, Binger asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to increase Rittenhouse's bail by $200,000.
The woman was reportedly shot in the head by police at a rally in the capital Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday.
