Pelosi, House Democrats block veterans’ health care bill
Democrats slow veterans' health care bill. Executive director of Concerned Veterans for America Dan Caldwell weighs in on 'Fox & Friends.'

The group hopes to register the 23,000 Georgia teens who could not vote in the general election but turn 18 in time to vote in the Senate runoffs.

The FBI recently opened a criminal investigation into claims that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton abused his office to benefit a wealthy donor. The probe, which was confirmed to The Associated Press by two people with knowledge of it who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, marks an escalation in the latest controversy to surround the high-profile Republican, who has spent years under indictment on unrelated state securities fraud charges. The FBI's interest in Texas' top law enforcement official arose from a rebellion by Paxton's top deputies, who accused him of breaking the law by using his office to help a wealthy donor with a troubled real estate empire who also hired a woman with whom the married Paxton allegedly had an affair.

A group of Republicans, including Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) are launching a lawsuit -- in the hopes of blocking the certification of Pennsylvania's election results -- that claims a state law passed in 2019 allowing for universal mail-in voting is unconstitutional. If that were the case, mail-in ballots would be invalidated, likely swinging the state back to President Trump.> Here is the complaint introduction from the Commonwealth Court filing /5 pic.twitter.com/OdF3hdUpwS> > -- Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) November 21, 2020The lawsuit quickly drew heated criticism, including accusations that Kelly (who was just re-elected himself) and the other plaintiffs are "openly rejecting democracy and the rule of law," but many observers were simply perplexed. For starters, the bill was passed over a year ago, raising questions as to why its constitutionality wasn't brought up between then and now. Plus, it was pushed through thanks to a majority GOP state legislature, with only one Republican member of the state House voting against it, while GOP senators backed it unanimously. > In the lawsuit, filed this morning in Commonwealth Court, plaintiffs say Act 77 is "unconstitutional," and "implemented illegally." They argue it's an illegal attempt to override limitations on absentee voting, and needed to go through a constitutional amendment first /3> > -- Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) November 21, 2020More stories from theweek.com 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's election denial America is buckling Biden reportedly could sacrifice unemployment benefit boost to secure relief bill
A commuter in the Russian city of St. Petersburg was found stabbed to death after an altercation on a bus with two passengers who refused to wear anti-COVID medical masks, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing police. Surveillance footage from the shuttle bus, published by the Fontanka.ru news website, showed the alleged victim confront a man and a woman sitting in front of him about the fact they were not wearing masks. The alleged victim then punched the man without a mask before running off.

Venezuelans fed up with fuel shortages have begun tapping into the country’s crude oil pipelines to distill their own petrol as the country's economic demise accelerates. The emerging practice was documented by a Reuters investigation that found desperate Venezuelans breaking holes in pipes and siphoning off crude oil and diverting it to makeshift rural laboratories. The revelation underscores the severity of the country’s spectacular economic and infrastructure collapse. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, however biting US sanctions and mismanagement by the state oil company nationalised by the socialist government has resulted in a dive in production. Venezuelans, who once enjoyed essentially free gasoline thanks to government subsidies, now spend days in petrol queues that snake through the streets. One man, mechanic Daniel Vásquez, told The Telegraph from the capital Caracas in April after sleeping in his car overnight waiting for petrol: “We have to be watching closely for when the line forms, some people find out that gas will arrive, and then we get in line, and then wait for hours or days.” To avoid the queues and make a profit off of the shortages, some have started puncturing pipelines at idled state oil fields, installing their own smaller tubes into the pipes. From there, the tubes transport the oil to small, homemade refineries where the substance must be distilled and refined. “This is the El Palito refinery,” a man proudly proclaims in an online video circulating in Venezuela circles on social media. The video shows two black canisters over a fire in a barrel with tubes transporting the substance into two other containers and finally into two gas canisters.

Giuliani added: "Somehow the Democrat party was hijacked by Clinton and since then it's gone more corrupt.”

Every week, Army Lt. Gen. Pat White dons his workout clothes and walks through the neighborhoods at Fort Hood with his wife, Emma, and golden retriever Sadie, looking for some unvarnished feedback from the soldiers at his embattled Texas base. As Fort Hood's commander, White faces the immense task of rebuilding trust and turning around an installation that has one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the Army, and drew unwelcome national attention this year because of the disappearance and brutal murder of Spc. White agrees that he and other commanders bear some responsibility for the problems.

For a second year in a row, Venezuela's stores have held "Black Friday,'' after President Nicolas Maduro's government relaxed regulations that for almost two decades forced companies to maintain consumer goods prices low despite high inflation. Malls and small retailers across the country advertised discounts of up to 80% on goods from shoes to electronics, hoping an influx of Christmas shoppers could compensate for weak sales so far in Venezuela's seventh straight year of economic contraction. In recent years the Venezuelan government has eased a complex, longstanding system of currency controls. That has led to a wider circulation of foreign currency, as Venezuelans turn to the dollar to protect their earnings against a fast-devaluing local bolivar.

Judge Merrick Garland is reportedly under consideration to serve as attorney general in President-elect Joe Biden's administration.Garland, the federal appeals court judge who was nominated by former President Barack Obama to serve on the Supreme Court, is one of the candidates Biden is considering for the attorney general position, NPR reported on Friday.Obama in 2016 nominated Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat left open after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, but Senate Republicans didn't hold a confirmation hearing for him, arguing that a new Supreme Court justice should not be seated during an election year. Senate Republicans later confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was nominated by President Trump, to the Supreme Court during an election year in 2020, contending that the situation was different in the latter case because this time the same party controlled both the Senate and the presidency. Garland formerly served as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Among other possible contenders for the position of attorney general in Biden's administration include Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, according to CBS News. But CBS also reports that the question of who Biden will pick for this position "isn't likely to be answered for several weeks."More stories from theweek.com 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's election denial America is buckling Biden reportedly could sacrifice unemployment benefit boost to secure relief bill

Russia has banned entry to 25 British citizens in retaliation for similar measures by Britain, Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing their names. Britain brought sanctions against 25 Russians and 20 Saudis in July as part of post-Brexit measures foreign minister Dominic Raab said were aimed at stopping the laundering of "blood money". The British list includes Russian nationals Britain has said were involved in the mistreatment and death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The star presenter is making Indian TV news louder and more aggressive than ever before.
A former Mexican federal police officer accused of trafficking drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel was extradited this week to the U.S. from Italy, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday night. Ramón Santoyo-Cristobal, also known as “Dr. Wagner,” faces charges of participating in a long-running conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin from Mexico into the United States, as well as laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds. According to a Department of Justice press release, Santoyo-Cristobal, 44, was a fugitive for almost three years until he was arrested in 2019 in Rome.

President Trump's legal team has finally revealed what it claims is a definitive example of election fraud in Michigan — based on data from Minnesota.Since the presidential election more than two weeks ago, Trump and his supporters have launched legal efforts aimed at somehow overturning President-elect Joe Biden's win. Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis continued that effort in a wild Thursday press conference where they waved around a single affidavit, and claimed they had "hundreds" more, revealing all sorts of election fraud. Trump's team still hasn't shared many of those affidavits with the public, but has begun filing them in lawsuits across the country. One, from a Texas resident who works in cybersecurity, was filed in Georgia on Wednesday, but claims vote tallying machines in Michigan are highly susceptible to fraud. It goes on to list several "statistical red flags" that purport to show how those machines may have been manipulated, including numbers that imply as many as 350 percent of estimated voters in a range of Michigan towns cast ballots. The problem is, the towns the affidavit lists are all scattered across eastern Minnesota, not Michigan.The affidavit also claims there have been reports of votes switched from Trump to Biden in "Antium County, Michigan." There's no such county in the state, or in the United States at all. And if the affidavit means to imply there was fraud in Antrim County, Michigan, well, its county clerk has already corrected and testified regarding any mistaken voting tallies there.More stories from theweek.com 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's election denial America is buckling Biden reportedly could sacrifice unemployment benefit boost to secure relief bill
Turkish authorities have issued detention warrants for 101 people including lawyers and doctors as part of what they called terrorism-related investigations, a security source and state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Friday. Authorities launched the operation from the southeastern province of Diyarbakir and sought suspects across four cities and a total of 106 residential addresses, the source said. The suspects were believed to be connected to the Democratic Society Congress, which the source and Anadolu defined as the legislative arm of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

According Fox9 KMSP, A Minnesota judge has rejected a divorce agreement between Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was charged for the death of George Floyd in May, and his now estranged wife due to possible fraud. Kellie Chavin, 45, filed for divorce in May, after Floyd’s highly publicized death, and once Chauvin had been charged for murder. Washington County District Judge Juanita Freeman wrote that judges can reject an uncontested agreement if the “transfer features ‘badges of fraud,'” as reported by the Star Tribune.

A Black man who died while being beaten by supermarket security guards was buried on Saturday following protests that echoed those of the racial justice movement in the United States. João Alberto Silveira Freitas, a father of four, was buried wearing a white T-shirt in a coffin draped with the flag of his favorite soccer team in the city of Porto Alegre. “I just want justice," his partner, Milena Borges Alves, told Globo news.

Blackburn made the comments Friday evening live on ABC News, where she was being interviewed by Juju Chang.
Russia on Friday stopped a U.N. Security Council committee from blacklisting a Libyan militia group and its leader for human rights abuses because it said it wanted to see more evidence first that they had killed civilians. The United States and Germany proposed that the council's 15-member Libya sanctions committee impose an asset freeze and travel ban on the al-Kaniyat militia and its leader Mohammed al-Kani. Such a move has to be agreed by consensus, but Russia said it could not approve.

Sudan boycotted talks on Saturday between Nile Valley countries over Ethiopia's controversial mega-dam, calling on the African Union to play a greater role in pushing forward the negotiations that have stalled for years. It was the first time that Sudan refused to attend talks with Ethiopia and its northern neighbor Egypt, which has expressed for years its fears that the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile will dramatically threaten water supplies downstream.

The CDC found that counties in Kansas that opted out of the statewide mask mandate saw their number of cases jump by 100% over the period studied.