Misinformation about the vaccines has surged online as rollout has been susceptible to local disruptionA Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine, because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released on Monday. Continue reading...
Prominent Republican declines to say whether he is involved in effort to reverse result when Congress meets on WednesdayA prominent Republican senator has declined to clearly answer a question about whether he is involved in a bid to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election that Democrat Joe Biden won convincingly in November.Related: 'Fight like hell': grievance and denialism rule at Trump Georgia rally Continue reading...
Voting begins in Georgia’s Senate runoff races this morning, and will decide which party controls the upper chamber of Congress. Plus, FBI asked to investigate Trump recordingGood morning.Today is the day that Georgia will vote for two Senate representatives, and in doing so, determine which party will control Congress’s upper chamber. If Democrats win both seats, the Senate will be evenly split, giving Kamala Harris as vice-president the tie-breaking vote. If Republicans win even one of the races, Mitch McConnell will stay in place as Senate majority leader, making it considerably harder for the Biden administration to pass key pieces of legislation and deliver on policy promises. Continue reading...
Wins by Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff would hand Democrats control of the chamberTwo Democrats are bidding to flip two Republican Senate seats in Georgia on Tuesday in a race that will decide which party controls the upper chamber.Meet the four candidates at the center of the must-win contests. Continue reading...
As the new series of Cobra Kai starts, Loretta Hunt talks to fighters about how the original film inspired their combat careers“Show me wax on.”Sean Daugherty watched intently as the moment of truth played out on his parents’ television in Youngstown, Ohio. It was the fall of 1984 and Prince’s Purple Rain ruled the air waves, every young man had a pair of camo cargo pants and young ladies scoffed up rubber jelly bangles that they stacked up their forearms like Slinkys. Ghostbusters was the blockbuster hit that summer, but a less ambitious film called The Karate Kid caught the nine-year-old Daugherty’s attention more. Continue reading...
The young Green Wave activists follow in the steps of the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in forcing changeThe women looked like my grandmothers, at least as I remember them. Every Thursday, they would sit on benches in the square, white headscarves covering their hair, and together they would wait or march. The scarves represented nappies, as if their children were still babies, whatever their age. They were the mothers – and later the grandmothers – of the Plaza de Mayo, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the 1970s and 1980s. Once strangers to each other, they occupied the square to wait. They met at police stations and churches, where they went in search of information about their children. What exactly were they hoping to find? Their children – young men and women, students and workers – who had been disappeared by the military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 to 1983. What they found instead was an unbearable truth: their children had been tortured and killed by the government.Only later did it occur to me that I must have looked like their disappeared granddaughters, orphaned soon after birth inside the dictatorship’s prisons. These women searched for the truth in the Argentine style of politics from below: they took to the street, occupied the square, made their own bodies into a monument to the struggle. Continue reading...
As Donald Trump supporters prepare to rally in Washington seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud, Washington DC's acting police chief warns that firearms will not be permitted in the US capital.Washington has mobilised the National Guard ahead of planned protests by Trump supporters in the lead-up to the congressional vote affirming Joe Biden’s election victory.
Control of the US Senate – and the fate of the Biden presidency – is on the line in a pair of runoff racesMore than 81 million Americans voted last November to install Joe Biden as president. But the fate of the Biden presidency could come down to a pair of runoff US Senate elections happening in the state of Georgia this Tuesday.Control of the US Senate is on the line. If the Democrats win both races, the president-elect will gain a big opportunity to build a progressive legacy. If Democrats lose one or both races, the country will enter at least a two-year period of divided government, with the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, retaining power and likely frustrating Biden’s agenda. Continue reading...
Some voters not surprised by president’s call but expressed uncertainty over how it would impact the raceAn explosive recording of Donald Trump pressuring Georgia election officials to overturn the election results is further electrifying voters in Georgia’s elections for two US Senate seats, in Tuesday’s runoff that will determine which party controls Congress’ upper chamber.In the call, made public by the Washington Post on Sunday, Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes”, to overturn Trump’s loss there. When Raffensperger refused, Trump suggested he and his aides may be committing a criminal offense. Continue reading...
At a Georgia rally the night before closely contested Senate runoffs, Donald Trump repeated false claims about election fraud and called on his vice president, Mike Pence, to 'come through' for him on Wednesday when he presides over a joint session of Congress that is set to confirm Joe Biden's victory. Trump said he was going to 'fight like hell' to remain in the White House.
Unrepentant president urges voters to support Republicans in the Senate runoffs on Tuesday and veers off script with bogus claims of a stolen electionAn unrepentant Donald Trump has urged voters in Georgia to back Republicans in Tuesday’s Senate runoffs and vowed revenge against Republican state officials who refuse to overturn his own defeat.On a chilly night at a remote airport in Dalton, the US president mercilessly aggravated divisions within his own party, embracing loyalists and castigating perceived traitors. While it was ostensibly a campaign rally on behalf of Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, he could not resist veering off script to push bogus claims of a stolen election. Continue reading...
US president-elect Joe Biden said he doesn’t know why Donald trump wants to keep the job of president because ‘he doesn’t want to do the work’. While campaigning for Democratic candidates in Georgia’s runoff election, Biden said Trump ‘spends more time whining and complaining’ than doing something about the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine. Biden also criticised the GOP candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, saying ‘they think they've sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not to the United States Constitution’
President-elect speaks at Atlanta rally alongside Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael WarnockJoe Biden urged Georgia voters to surprise the nation once again by sending two Democrats to the US Senate, on the eve of a pair of critical runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in Washington and the scope of the president-elect’s ambitious legislative agenda.Biden, speaking at a drive-in rally in downtown Atlanta alongside the Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock on Monday afternoon, did not mention Donald Trump’s increasingly brazen efforts to overturn the results of the November election, which escalated this weekend when the president pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat in the state. Instead, he focused on what Democrats could accomplish with control of the Senate. Continue reading...
Arrival of military plane president has occasionally used fuels questions over Trump’s plans for 20 JanuaryThe murk surrounding Donald Trump’s likely whereabouts on his last day as president has thickened considerably with news that an official plane he has used in the past is due to fly to Scotland the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration.Trump himself is sticking to his refusal to accept his decisive electoral defeat. He has been caught cajoling election officials to “find” thousands of extra votes and is encouraging his supporters to gather for a “wild” day of protest on Wednesday when Congress is due to ratify the result. Continue reading...
Discovery raises concerns about threats to hospital capacity should it spread rapidly in the stateNew York has found its first case of the more contagious variant strain of the coronavirus initially reported in the UK, Andrew Cuomo, the governor, said on Monday.The discovery raises concerns about threats to hospital capacity should it spread rapidly in the state, especially while efforts to get the public inoculated are behind schedule in the US, leading some states to threaten to redistribute vaccines if hospitals don’t get shots into more arms quickly. Continue reading...
Our concern shouldn’t focus on whether Trump can derail Biden’s inauguration. Instead we should be deeply concerned about whether this cult can derail our democracyEleven Christmases ago, a student boarded a Northwest Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit with a singular mission.As the plane crossed the US border, he spent 20 minutes in the bathroom and then returned to his seat. There he tried to detonate his underwear, but only succeeded in burning his leg. The likely reason Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to kill almost 300 people was because he was sweating too much. Continue reading...
Letter signed by executives at American Express, Goldman Sachs, JetBlue and others said: ‘There should be no further delay’Some of America’s top business leaders called on Congress to certify the electoral results for the president-elect, Joe Biden, in a letter Monday, arguing that “attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy”. Continue reading...
Dozens of health workers have tested positive and one has died since staffer wore fan-powered outfitAn inflatable costume worn on Christmas to cheer up patients is being investigated as the possible cause of a coronavirus outbreak – and at least one virus-related fatality – in a hospital in northern California.At least 44 emergency department staff members at the Kaiser Permanente San Jose medical center tested positive for the virus between 27 December and 3 January, according to a statement from the hospital. One emergency department employee who had been working on Christmas “has passed away as a result of Covid-19 complications”. Continue reading...
Owner of Ladbrokes and Coral right to take a wait-and-see approach ahead of US online betting bonanzaIt feels surprising that the big beasts of the US gambling scene, Las Vegas casino companies, are such digital dunces that they require UK-listed companies to tell them how to run an online betting business. But a pattern has been established. Slick back-office technology, proved over years in Europe, is seen as critical to cracking the liberalising US betting market.Caesars Entertainment last year agreed a £2.9bn purchase of William Hill. US money is flowing into Flutter Entertainment, owner of PaddyPower and Betfair. Now MGM Resorts has bid £8.1bn for Entain, as GVC, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, calls itself these days. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#5CCY3)
Georgia Republican facing Senate runoff bought significant shares in US bank after meeting with financial policy makersDavid Perdue, the Georgia Republican facing a Senate runoff election on Tuesday, has twice bought a significant number of shares in a US bank shortly after meeting with financial policy makers, raising more questions about his prolific stock trading while in office.In one case, in May 2015, Perdue bought between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of shares in Regions Financial Corporation two days after a 10-minute phone call with then treasury secretary Jack Lew. Continue reading...
Move comes as Iran resumes enriching uranium to up to 20% purity in significant breach of 2015 nuclear accordIran’s Revolutionary Guards have seized a South Korean vessel “for polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals” amid rising tensions between Iran and the US during the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.Iranian news agencies published photos showing Revolutionary Guards speedboats escorting the tanker MT Hankuk Chemi and said the vessel’s crewmembers, including nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, had been detained. The tanker is being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city. Continue reading...
Stella Moris, the partner of Julian Assange, welcomed a British judge's ruling that her fiance should not be extradited to the US. Declaring the move 'the first step towards justice', Moris urged Donald Trump not to appeal against the ruling. 'Mr President, tear down these prison walls,' she said. 'Let our boys have their father. Free Julian. Free the press'
Refusing to extradite Assange to the US on mental health grounds is humane, but it doesn’t protect future whistleblowersJulian Assange’s extradition to the US to face charges of espionage and hacking cannot take place. This ruling by judge Vanessa Baraitser is a victory, albeit one not won on the principled grounds that should form the basis of opposing his extradition. The legal basis of the ruling is that “extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm”. The WikiLeaks founder has a “recurrent depressive disorder” and he was likely to be imprisoned in a supermax prison, where procedures would not prevent Assange “from finding a way to commit suicide”.It is not to critique the soundness of Baraitser’s legal judgment to argue that this was the right decision, but for the wrong reason. That a British court has ruled that the US prison system is too barbaric to guarantee the safety of Assange tells its own story. But this is about something much bigger than Assange: it’s about journalism, the free press, and most importantly of all, the ability to expose atrocities committed by the world’s last remaining superpower. Continue reading...
The US vice-president-elect said a phone call made by Donald Trump to Georgia's secretary of state in which he asked to reverse his 3 November election defeat is a 'bold abuse of power'.Speaking at a rally in Savannah on Sunday, Harris said the call was 'the voice of desperation'.The Washington Post obtained the recording of a conversation on Saturday between Trump and Brad Raffensperger.
Term would ‘inject prejudice’ into trial, say attorneys for a Georgia father and son accused of shooting unarmed black manLawyers for a Georgia father and son accused of pursuing and shooting dead an unarmed black man in street ambush have asked a court to forbid prosecutors from using the term “victim” at their murder trial.Related: Exclusive: Police tried to tase Ahmaud Arbery in 2017 incident, video shows Continue reading...
Businesses lose total of £3.4m in 2019 despite first signs of profitability at his flagship Turnberry resortDonald Trump’s Scottish golf courses have again reported significant losses, totalling £3.4m, despite the first signs of profitability at his flagship Turnberry resort.The annual accounts for Trump Turnberry’s parent company, Golf Recreation Scotland, show the luxury hotel and golf resort in Ayrshire lost £2.3m in 2019 after ploughing more money into upgrading its facilities. Continue reading...
In an extraordinary recording, Trump tells Georgia’s secretary of state to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. Plus, Fauci says there are ‘no excuses’ over US’s slow vaccine distributionGood morning.Donald Trump has been recorded pressing a senior official in Georgia to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory in the state. In the recording, obtained by the Washington Post and released in full on Sunday, Trump tells Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, that “I just want to find 11,780 votes”, and that “there’s nothing wrong with saying … that you’ve recalculated”. Trump also tries to intimidate Raffensperger by suggesting he could face criminal charges. Helen Sullivan has six key takeaways from the astonishing recording. Continue reading...
The two runoffs on 5 January will decide whether the Republicans continue to control the Senate, with profound implications for Joe Biden’s presidencyOn 5 January the US state of Georgia will vote, again, on who to send to the Senate.The control of the Senate is up for grabs, and thus the prospects for the Biden administration – at least for the next two years. Continue reading...
Civil rights groups want to see the Biden administration reunify victims, grant protection in the US and provide restitutionThe US government’s policy of separating migrant families at the border has continued to wreak havoc and inflict suffering in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency, with parents still missing, reunifications blocked and reunited families struggling to pick up the pieces of their lives. Continue reading...
C Nicole Mason, who coined the term to describe a recession that affects women disproportionately, sets out what is needed for an equitable recoveryFor the first time in history, the US is in a “shecession” – an economic downturn where job and income losses are affecting women more than men. The term was coined by C Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a thinktank. Continue reading...
Tens of thousands of students contracted coronavirus during a tumultuous fall semester and return to campus in new year looks equally challengingThough the virus is surging across the US, the majority of its colleges will be opening to students in-person in January and February after a tumultuous fall semester when tens of thousands of students contracted Covid-19. Continue reading...
Washington made the postseason with a losing record by virtue of winning the putrid NFC East. There were better teams whose seasons ended earlyAnd so the Washington Football Team, with a record of 7-9, are into the NFL playoffs as NFC East winners. It would be churlish to begrudge Washington their place in the postseason: head coach Ron Rivera has had to cope with a cancer diagnosis, quarterback Alex Smith has come back from a horrific injury that almost cost him his leg and they have a defense that looks like it could dominate the division for years to come. And yet … they’re 7-9, and benefited from the Philadelphia Eagles pulling starter Jalen Hurts in the middle of Sunday’s game, which Washington won 20-14. There are teams that will feel deserve they deserve a shot at the Super Bowl this year at Washington’s expense. Here’s a look at some of them. Continue reading...
Conversation between president and Georgia’s secretary of state laid bare Trump’s determination to cling on to powerDonald Trump has been recorded pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn US president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, in a tape obtained by the Washington Post.The conversation is mainly between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, but Trump allies including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorney Cleta Mitchell were also present, as was Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel. Here are the main points: Continue reading...
Unprecedented letter calls on voted-out president to accept Joe Biden’s election victory amid growing fears over his behaviourAll 10 former US defence secretaries still living, including two who worked for Donald Trump, have called for the president and his supporters to accept he lost the election and warned against attempts to involve the military in his increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the result.In an unprecedented joint letter published in the Washington Post, the defence secretaries addressed the worst fears of what could happen in 17 days of Trump’s administration remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration: an attempt by Trump to foment a crises with the aim of triggering a military intervention in his last-ditch struggle to hold on power. Continue reading...
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