Olympic swimmer faces seven charges over Capitol riots

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Gustaf Kilander
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Klete Keller reacts at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games (AP)
Klete Keller reacts at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games (AP)

Klete Keller, a swimmer with two Olympic gold medals, has been indicted on seven charges surrounding his involvement in the Capitol riot on 6 January.

Video footage from inside the Capitol shows the 6-foot-6 Mr Keller standing out from the crowd in the building, wearing a jacket that looked to be from his time as an Olympian with "USA" printed on the sleeves and on the back, KDVR reported.

The seven-count grand jury indictment states that the 38-year-old Mr Keller "committed and attempted to commit an act to obstruct, impede, and interfere with a law enforcement officer," that he obstructed "an official proceeding," that he unlawfully entered "a restricted building," that he engaged in "disorderly" conduct, that he disrupted "a session of Congress," that he "impeded passage" through the Capitol, and that he "paraded, demonstrated, and picketed" in the US Capitol building.

The New York Times reported that former coaches and teammates recognized Mr Keller in footage and images from the riot as he towered over the crowd. Few said they were surprised to see him there, as Mr Keller's now-deleted social media accounts have previously been filled with messages in support of former President Trump.

While no video has emerged of Mr Keller being violent, he was seen in a video in which other Trump supporters fight back against police as they try to retake the rotunda in the Capitol building.

Mr Keller was registered as a member of USA Swimming in 2008. The organisation put out a statement in January, saying "Mr Keller’s actions in no way represent the values or mission of USA Swimming. And while once a swimmer at the highest levels of our sport – representing the country and democracy he so willfully attacked – Mr Keller has not been a member of this organization since 2008".

Read more: Follow live updates on Mr Trump’s second impeachment trial

Having expressed frustration in a 2014 interview about putting so much time and effort into the sport without thinking about what he would do afterwards, Mr Keller resigned last month from his role as an independent contractor at real estate agency Hoff & Leigh in Colorado Springs, NBC News reports.

In the 2014 interview with NBC Sports, Mr Keller said: "Being good at an Olympic sport is almost as much a curse as it is a blessing because I kind of got a skewed sense of reality. If I was as good at basketball or football as I was at swimming, I wouldn’t have had to worry about that stuff because I would have had lots of money. You make just enough swimming to be comfortable, and then you have to get real after [your swimming career ends]. In that way you have to have your head on straight."

Going from job to job and struggling with drinking and depression after his swimming days, Mr Keller said on a podcast with the Olympic Channel in 2018:

“I found the real-world pressure much more intimidating and much more difficult to deal with because I went from swimming to having three kids and a wife within a year.

“So the consequences of not succeeding were very, very real, and if I didn’t make a sale or if my manager was ticked off at me or I got fired, aw shoot, you have no health insurance, it’s very concrete and there are other people that are blood-related that are counting on you.

“So I felt, when I failed, a much more acute sense of pain and frustration and failure than I did with swimming. With swimming, it was just me. All those years of success I had with swimming really gave me an inaccurate expectation of the world, so it was all the much harder to cope with the little mini-failures I would face any given day.”

Read More

FBI: Capitol rioter dubbed 'Doobie Smoker' arrested

Oath Keeper extremist who stormed US Capitol kept ‘death list’ and fantasised about mutilating corpses of enemies

Mike Pence had ‘nuclear football’ with him as he was rushed to safety during Capitol riot

Donald Trump accused of inciting rioters and failing to protect Capitol as Democrats close historic prosecution

Eugene Goodman to receive Congressional Gold Medal along with officers who protected the Capitol during riots

Latest Stories

  • 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.

  • Russia says it would be ready to cut EU ties if hit with painful sanctions

    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.

  • Biden administration has “deep concerns” about WHO’s COVID-19 probe

    President Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Saturday that the administration is concerned by the World Health Organization's (WHO) probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why it matters: Sullivan said the administration fears the Chinese government may have intervened or altered the findings of the investigation.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.Context: On the first day of his administration, Biden acted to return the U.S. to the WHO. The Trump administration had started a withdrawal from the organization in July 2020.WHO teams last month conducted the investigation in Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged. The investigation had been agreed to last May, but it was delayed after Chinese officials withheld authorization to allow the international team's scheduled visit. The delay drew a rare rebuke from WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.The WHO team concluded that it's "extremely unlikely" the virus came from a laboratory accident, and that it most likely jumped to humans via an intermediate species.“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research,” said WHO scientist Peter Ben Embarek.What they're saying: "The mission of the World Health Organization (WHO) has never been more important, and we have deep respect for its experts and the work they are doing every day to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and advance global health and health security," Sullivan said in a statement."But re-engaging the WHO also means holding it to the highest standards. And at this critical moment, protecting the WHO’s credibility is a paramount priority." "We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.""It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government. To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak."The big picture: Going forward, Sullivan said all countries, including China, should be more transparent in order to prevent health emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic and allow other countries to respond to them faster.Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • Senate acquits former President Donald Trump on charges he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

    The Senate votes to acquit former president Donald Trump after he was impeached for his role in the Jan. 6 attack against the U.S. Capitol.

  • 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 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 cowardiceTrump's acquittal is not foreordainedImpeachment 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!”.

  • Bidens view Valentine's Day decorations on White House lawn

    First lady Jill Biden has a valentine for the American people: giant pink, white and red hearts bearing calls for “unity,” “hope” and “love” installed early Friday on the North Lawn of the White House. “I just wanted some joy,” the first lady told reporters during a surprise visit to the lawn with President Joe Biden and their two German shepherds, Champ and Major.

  • 'Snow apocalypse' blankets frozen Moscow

    Heavy snowfalls have buried Moscow in massive snow piles, disrupting transport, delaying flights and making it tough to get around for pedestrians braving strong winds and temperatures of minus 15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit). The snowfall started late on Thursday and was expected to end on Sunday. Russia's emergency service advised people to stay away from trees, warning of winds gusts of 18 metres per second (40 mph).

  • Acquittal, but Not Vindication

    The impeachment trial is hurtling toward a conclusion, after brief drama over potentially calling witnesses. Former President Trump is almost certain to get acquitted, but it won’t be much of a vindication. His conduct in the post-election period and on January 6 will blight his reputation forevermore. He waged a dishonest and poisonous campaign to overturn the election that culminated in a mob disrupting the counting of electoral votes at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The new videos played by the House managers at the trial brought home again the national embarrassment of that day, with top elected officials scurrying for safety as the rabble descended. The House managers were at their strongest describing Trump’s conspiracy-laden effort to reverse the election result, his long catalogue of inflammatory comments, and his dereliction of duty in failing to urge the rioters to cease and desist as early and forcefully as possible. All of this is damnable, inarguably so. The weakness in their case stems from the defects of the article of impeachment itself, which both goes too far and not far enough. At the core of the article is the contention that Trump incited the crowd to attack the Capitol, that he “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.” This suggests an element of intent that the managers couldn’t prove. On the other hand, incredibly enough, the article doesn’t even mention Trump’s conduct during the riot, when he continued to criticize Mike Pence as he was being targeted by the mob, and that he went AWOL as allies begged him to tell the rioters to stand down. Trump’s defense team didn’t have good answers — or really any answers — when queried in the Q&A about what Trump was doing in these hours. If House Democrats hadn’t rushed to impeach Trump in an afternoon, they might have written a more airtight article. As it is, a number of Republicans will conclude, reasonably enough, that Trump is still guilty. If he hadn’t falsely insisted that he’d really won the election in the most incendiary terms and promoted a protest on January 6, there would have been no rabble to run out of control in the first place. On top of this, his pressure campaign to get Republican officials to throw the election to him in key states was intolerable in its own right. We hope Republicans voting to acquit largely on process grounds — a post-presidency trial is unconstitutional, it’s time to move on, etc. — will at least speak forthrightly about the president’s misconduct. This has been a quickie impeachment, running about a month from beginning to end. But the underlying events, and Trump’s unforgivably reckless behavior, will long reverberate.

  • 12 Best Bedding Sets for Kids

    Sweet dreams are made of theseOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Hours after new CDC guidance for schools released, teachers give nod of approval

    The guidelines released Friday don't require Covid-19 vaccinations for all educators before returning to classrooms.

  • BBC director general warns of 'global threat' to media freedom after China bans British broadcaster

    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”

  • Man charged with threatening to kill president Biden and White House staff and ‘chop all your heads off’

    The charges could land the man in a federal prison for up to five years

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Six pirate skeletons discovered in 1717 shipwreck off coast of Cape Cod

    A team of investigators has discovered the remains of at least six pirates from a 1717 shipwreck off Cape Cod, Massachusetts that could lead to them to the infamous buccaneer Captain “Black Sam” Bellamy. The remains, entombed in several large concretions – hard, compact mineral masses – were found in the wreck of the Whydah, the world’s only confirmed pirate shipwreck, by a team from the Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The skeletons are currently being examined by underwater explorer Barry Clifford and his team, the museum said in a statement. Mr Clifford discovered the Whydah in 1984. "We hope that modern, cutting-edge technology will help us identify these pirates and reunite them with any descendants who could be out there,” Mr Clifford said in the statement. The Whydah was originally commissioned in London as a cargo and slave-trading ship by Sir Humphrey Morice, an MP and figurehead of Britain’s slave trade, and was named after the Kingdom of Whydah in modern-day Benin.

  • Andrew Yang’s Baseless Call to Retire the New York City Flag

    On February 1, Andrew Yang — the New York author, entrepreneur, nonprofiteer, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate now running for New York City mayor — tweeted that the official flag of his adopted city, a flag that has iconically flown over the New York skyline since 1915, should be offhandedly retired and replaced with a less “old” design. “The colors are based on the Dutch Prince’s flag. . . . The seal is old,” Yang asserted, referring to the official NYC seal borne by the flag. “Corey Johnson [speaker of the NYC Council] proposed having a new flag designed by artists in New York as a symbol of civic pride,” Yang declared — and Yang apparently agrees with him: “I like the idea of a more modern flag for NYC.” In Mr. Yang’s philosophy, longevity is evidently no sign of success. Forget the flag design for a moment. Why the worry about the flag’s age? New York City itself was first settled in 1624 and is, therefore, centuries older than the flag Yang thinks is too geriatric to represent it. Should New York City, or New York State itself, therefore be abolished? Surely not. Oldness qua oldness is not an argument against the NYC banner. Yang needs a better argument to convince New York to abolish the iconic flag designed by the 1915 mayor’s committee. So enough with mere age as an argument. What of the flag itself? Should New York City’s banner be cast into the dustbin of history? Before June 1915, New York City had no official flag, and used, on an ad hoc basis, an unofficial white banner bearing the city seal. “Up to the present time,” as reported in Seal and Flag of the City of New York (published in 1915), “the City of New York has never possessed an official flag in any true sense of the term.” Mayor John Purroy Mitchel appointed a citizen-led committee to produce an official flag and to introduce a historically informed, standardized version of the city seal. The occasion was the 250th anniversary of the installation of the first mayor and board of aldermen of the City of New York in 1665, marking the beginning of “New York City” under the English and the end of Dutch rule over New Amsterdam — aside from a period in 1673–74 when the Netherlands regained control. The blue-white-orange tricolor produced by the mayor’s committee and approved by the city aldermen in 1915 was a smashing victory of design, and has flown proudly and distinctively over New York’s skyline for the last 105 years. The city flag and the seal that it bears combine the colors of the Dutch Republic’s flag with a “distinctively American” eagle crest on the city’s English-style arms, creating a bold emblem that unmistakably represents New York and its past. The flag was intended to showcase the identity and genesis of a fiercely proud American city. It was consciously created to evoke the heritage and history of New York and of New Amsterdam before it. The apparent “oldness” of the emblem is intentional, not accidental. But it appears that all this history is lost on today’s anti-flag crowd. Flag of New York City The design coup of the New York City flag is that it succeeds as a bold and energetic-looking symbol in a way that is in fact fostered, not obscured, by its roots in the past. It also has the official bearing necessary for a city such as New York. While modern flag designers often criticize the practice of putting seals on flags, if any design were an exception to this rule, the NYC flag would be it. The design works, and has for 105 years. Why punish this flag for its success? The same can be said of the design of the seal itself. When introducing their version of the city seal to the board of aldermen for approval, the 1915 Art Committee answered an expected criticism of the design. The committee’s response anticipated the complaints made by Yang over a century later: “It is in no sense a new design,” John B. Pine of the official Art Committee said, “and any criticism that it is not beautiful or that it does not meet heraldic requirements is irrelevant.” He added, No doubt, a more beautiful seal could be designed, but we regard it as of far more importance to perpetuate the seal which was adopted by the Common Council in 1686 and which ever since that date has been used by the City but with slight modification as the symbol of its corporate entity. (These words are found in the above-mentioned book, Seal and Flag of the City of New York. As it happens, John B. Pine himself edited the handsomely bound volume, which was officially authorized by the mayor’s seal and flag committee. It is a great read for anyone interested in the history of Gotham’s civic symbols. One can find it both at the NYC Public Library and online. It gives an in-depth background of the city’s emblems and brand-new official flag. Fittingly, it is bound in the blue and orange tinctures of the city flag. Evidently, the publisher did not share Yang’s qualms about the “Dutch Prince’s” colors.) Anyone concerned that the seal on the city flag is “old” has missed the boat with his concern by a good hundred years. The seal was already of venerable age in 1915, when the art committee and aldermen enthusiastically affixed it to the new Gotham tricolor. Far from deficient in civic pride, the flag was meant from the start to be a grand, civic-minded project that would foster pride in a great American city. Citizen-artists already designed the current flag, so retiring it would achieve nothing but to obscure their work. It would create the same wrong that a “new flag” would supposedly remedy. This suggests that those opposed to the flag do not understand its history, and view it as fair game to create excitement and novelty for a civic pet project. Finally, New York City is far from the only city or county that features the old Dutch, New Amsterdam colors. I am a lifelong resident of Dutchess County, New York, which draws from this aesthetic as well. But at least the NYC flag incorporates the Dutch colors in upright bars. With its orange-white-blue horizontal tricolor, the Dutchess County flag is an exact reproduction of the Dutch Prinsenvlag, distinguished only by the county seal. Ulster County is in the same predicament, as is Albany, the capital of New York State. Yang’s home county of Westchester, fittingly enough, also conspicuously bears the Dutch kleuren on its flag. Americans have stubbornly showcased their heritage through civic symbols throughout the nation’s history. Before sounding another flat-noted judgment on a classic American emblem like the NYC flag, Mr. Yang and his anti-flag allies should recognize that fact. After all, the American flag itself bears the title “Old Glory” — and not as an insult. Editor’s note: This article has been updated since its original publication.

  • Mike Pence's 'nuclear football' was also apparently at risk during the Capitol siege

    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.com7 scathingly funny cartoons about Republicans' impeachment cowardiceTrump's acquittal is not foreordainedImpeachment isn't what will hurt Trump most

  • Louise Linton complains she’s been ‘villainised’ because of association with Trump administration

    ‘I’ve faced a lot of criticism over the years...by being so closely tied to such a controversial administration’

  • Dozens hurt by huge blaze close to Iran-Afghanistan border

    At least 60 people were injured as hundreds of fuel vehicles exploded in a massive blaze that tore through a customs post in Afghanistan close to the Iranian border, disrupting power supplies and causing millions of dollars of damage. Iranian authorities sent fire engines and ambulances across the border, while scores of locals fought the blaze in the border town of Islam Qala before it was brought under control. Waheed Qatali, governor of the western province of Herat, said Iranian authorities and NATO-led personnel in Afghanistan were asked for assistance to help contain the fire, which damaged electricity infrastructure, leaving much of Herat's capital city without power.