Authoritarians have a love-hate relationship with social media
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Few would argue that government-mandated internet shutdowns are preferable to a freely accessible internet.
YAUARETÊ, Brazil (Reuters) - An army helicopter flew to two isolated indigenous villages in Brazil's Amazon jungle this week with a welcome cargo - coronavirus vaccines. Traditional medicine prescribed by a shaman is highly respected here, but there was no resistance to receiving the vaccine by China's Sinovac Biotech. "We are grateful for the vaccination, so we will not catch the disease," said Hupda chieftain Jorge Pires in the village of Santo Antanasio, near the Colombian border and a 25-minute helicopter flight from the nearest military outpost.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to adapt to survive, one Baltimore-based nonprofit organization is proving that teamwork helps them thrive. Together, but socially distanced nowadays, gatherings in person are rare. Couples like Anthony Royster and Joy Gough crave the socialization.
Two months after Capitol attack, embittered conspiracy cult holds out for last-ditch effort to revive former president – but law enforcement warns that the insurrection was not an isolated event
President Joe Biden's nominee to become the Pentagon's top policy adviser faced relentless Republican criticism on Thursday over his support for the Iran nuclear deal, in a confirmation hearing that could foreshadow bigger fights over Biden's national security agenda. Colin Kahl, who was a top aide to Biden during the Obama administration, reaffirmed his views on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, strong defense ties with Israel and the U.S. military's so-called "triad" of nuclear missiles, submarines and bombers. But Republicans including their most senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jim Inhofe, lambasted Kahl over his past remarks about Iran and social media posts that were sharply critical of Donald Trump's policies as president.
The European Union began blocking exports of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on Thursday as Europe's leaders finally admitted they were wrong about the jab and that it worked. EU countries now recognise that the vaccine is vital to ramping up the slow pace of their vaccine programmes – which lag far behind those in Britain, the US, Serbia and Israel – after attacking AstraZeneca for delivery failures and branding its vaccine ineffective. Germany made the vaccine available to over-65s after Angela Merkel, the chancellor, called for age restrictions to be lifted. New data proved the jab was "highly effective". Jens Spahn, the country's health minister, said: "This is good news for any elderly person waiting to be vaccinated. They can now be vaccinated faster." Jean Castex, the French prime minister, said the AstraZeneca vaccine was "very efficient" and as good as the other EU-approved jabs. In January, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, sparked fury when he said the vaccine was only "quasi-effective" in older people – comments thought to have slowed French vaccinations further. Greece and Sweden announced they would lift age restrictions on the jab following Belgium, with Spain considering following suit as realisation dawns that countries were wrong not to follow Britain's lead in approving it for all ages.
Obama administration greatly expanded the use of drone strikes before later imposing checks
The Biden administration's nominee for top Pentagon policy adviser was met with sharp criticism from Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, including accusations that he has been too partisan. Colin Kahl, who served as national security adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration, faced repeated questions on his previous support for the Iran nuclear deal and how he would approach that issue now. “We know that there is a new administration and that we will have policy disagreements that we will all try to work through,” said the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.
Republicans have one goal for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package: erode public support for the rescue plan by portraying it as too big, too bloated and too much wasteful public spending for a pandemic that’s almost over. Senate Republicans prepared Saturday to vote lockstep against the relief bill, taking the calculated political risk that Americans will sour on the big-dollar spending for vaccination distribution, unemployment benefits, money for the states and other outlays as unnecessary, once they learn all the details. Reviving a page from their 2009 takedown of President Barack Obama’s costly recovery from the financial crisis, they expect their opposition will pay political rewards, much like the earlier effort contributed to the House Republicans' rise to power.
Former President Donald Trump has demanded that three main Republican groups stop using his name and likeness to help raise money, a Trump adviser said on Saturday. The adviser, confirming a report in Politico, said that lawyers for Trump on Friday had sent cease-and-desist letters to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Campaign and National Republican Senate Campaign, asking them to stop using his name and likeness on fundraising emails and merchandise.
Members of Princeton's debating society were unhappy at Cruz's support of voter fraud claims in the 2020 election and his role in the Capitol attack.
Meghan Markle's longtime friend Jessica Mulroney was one of several people who publicly defended the duchess against accusations she bullied staff.
WASHINGTON — A member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The FBI has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party. The connection revealed by the communications data comes as the FBI intensifies its investigation of contacts among far-right extremists, Trump White House associates and conservative members of Congress in the days before the attack. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times The same data has revealed no evidence of communications between the rioters and members of Congress during the deadly attack, the official said. That undercuts Democratic allegations that some Republican lawmakers were active participants that day. Separately, Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys, told The New York Times on Friday that he called Roger Stone, a close associate of former President Donald Trump’s, while at a protest in front of the home of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. During the protest, which occurred in the days before the Capitol assault, he put Stone on speaker phone to address the gathering. A law enforcement official said that it was not Tarrio’s communication with Stone that was being scrutinized, and that the call made in front of Rubio’s home was a different matter. That two members of the group were in communication with people associated with the White House underscores the access that violent extremist groups like the Proud Boys had to the White House and to people close to the former president. Stone denied “any involvement or knowledge of the attack on the Capitol” in a statement last month to the Times. Tarrio was arrested in Washington on Jan. 4 on charges of destruction of property for his role in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that had been torn from a historic Black church during a protest in Washington in December. He was asked to leave the city, and was not present when the Capitol was attacked. His case is pending. The Justice Department has charged more than a dozen members of the Proud Boys with crimes related to the attack, including conspiracy to obstruct the final certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory and to attack law enforcement officers. In court papers, federal prosecutors have said groups of Proud Boys also coordinated travel to Washington and shared lodging near the city, with the intent of disrupting Congress and advancing Trump’s efforts to unlawfully maintain his grip on the presidency. The communication between the person associated with the White House and the member of the Proud Boys was discovered in part through data that the FBI obtained from technology and telecommunications companies immediately after the assault. Court documents show FBI warrants for a list of all the phones associated with the cell towers serving the Capitol, and that it received information from the major cellphone carriers on the numbers called by everyone on the Capitol’s cell towers during the riot, three officials familiar with the investigation said. The FBI also obtained a “geofence” warrant for all the Android devices that Google recorded within the building during the assault, the officials said. A geofence warrant legally gives law enforcement a list of mobile devices that are able to be identified in a particular geographic area. Jill Sanborn, the head of counterterrorism at the FBI, testified before a Senate panel Wednesday that all the data the FBI had gathered in its investigation into the riot was obtained legally through subpoenas and search warrants. Although investigators have found no contact between the rioters and members of Congress during the attack, those records have shown evidence in the days leading up to Jan. 6 of communications between far-right extremists and lawmakers who were planning to appear at the rally featuring Trump that occurred just before the assault, according to one of the officials. The Justice Department is examining those communications, but it has not opened investigations into any members, the official said. A department spokesperson declined to comment. The FBI did, however, say Thursday that it had arrested a former State Department aide on charges related to the attack, including unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstructing Congress and law enforcement, and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon. The former midlevel aide, Federico Klein, who was seen in videos assaulting officers with a stolen riot shield, was the first member of the Trump administration to face criminal charges in connection with the storming of the Capitol. His lawyer declined to comment Friday. Right-wing extremists, including members of the Oath Keepers, a militia group that mainly comprises former law enforcement and military personnel, have been working as security guards for Republicans and for Trump’s allies, such as Stone. Stone, who was pardoned by Trump after refusing to cooperate with the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian intelligence, has known Tarrio for some time and used Oath Keepers as bodyguards before and on the day of the assault on the Capitol. The Justice Department is looking into communications between Stone and far-right extremists to determine whether he played any role in plans by extremists to disrupt the certification on Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak about the investigation. Should investigators find messages showing that Stone had any connection to such plans, they would have a factual basis to open a full criminal investigation into him, the people said. Stone said last month that he was “provided voluntary security by the Oath Keepers,” but noted that their security work did not constitute evidence that he was involved in, or informed about, plans to attack Congress. He reiterated an earlier statement that anyone involved in the attack should be prosecuted. The Justice Department has charged more than 300 people with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 assault. It has used evidence gathered in its broad search for assailants — including information from cellular providers and technology companies — to help piece together evidence of more sophisticated crimes, like conspiracy. It is also looking at possible charges of seditious conspiracy, according to two people familiar with the investigation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
The previous record was held by a June 2019 vote on an amendment to a defense authorization bill that was held open for 10 hours and eight minutes.
The Chinese government on Friday defied expectations by doing something that's normally routine: setting a target for the economy.Beijing chose not to do so last year in the midst of 2020 uncertainty.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang laid out the nation's ambitions for its GDP at Beijing's yearly session of parliament."The main expected goals for development this year are GDP growth of more than 6%, urban surveyed unemployment rate of about 5.5%, consumer price index (CPI) at about 3%."The GDP growth target of 6% was seen as modest by analysts - who had predicted China's growth this year could soar to 8%.Last year China grew by just a little over 2%, its weakest in more than 40 years. However it was the only major economy to grow at all in 2020."China's development this year still faces many risks and challenges, but the fundamentals of the long-term economic improvement have not changed."Li also pledged to boost employment, pledging to create 11 million jobs.
Miley Cyrus appeared on the "Rock This with Allison Hagendorf" podcast on Friday and spoke about her hit TV show where she starred as Hannah Montana.
An anonymous source who is familiar with an FBI cellphone data report says there was communication between the two.
"You know, my friends and my family members, they all voted for him, and it's been hard for me to process it," Scarborough said of support for Trump.
Nicolas Cage, 57, tied the knot with Riko Shibata, 26, in Las Vegas on February 16.
When asked by a reporter Wednesday if he had taken the sexual harassment training, Cuomo said, "Short answer is yes."
Employees of Orlando's Walt Disney World Resort told the Orlando Sentinel about the harassment workers face when trying to enforce mask-wearing.