House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House of Representatives would vote to remove Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee positions after House Republican leaders declined to proactively discipline her. Pelosi said she was ‘profoundly concerned about House Republican leadership’s acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist’
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Jackie Kennedy made private White House visit eight years after JFK’s death
Letters on display at Nixon and Kennedy libraries show how former first lady requested to ‘slip in unobtrusively’ in 1971
Fifty years ago, Jacqueline Onassis entered the White House for her first visit since her husband, John F Kennedy, was assassinated.
By 1971, it had been almost eight years since Onassis had been in her former home, but she had written to the then first lady, Pat Nixon, to request a private visit ahead of the unveiling of Kennedy’s official portrait.
Continue reading...‘It let white supremacists organize’: the toxic legacy of Facebook’s Groups
Facebook has said it will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users, but experts warn that isn’t enough
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, announced last week the platform will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users in an attempt to “turn down the temperature” on online divisiveness.
Continue reading...Donald Trump takes up a post-presidency hobby: revenge
Instead of discreetly returning to private life the ex-president is focused on punishing Republicans he feels betrayed him
Every former American president picks up hobbies after leaving office (books, painting, skinny dipping, boxing). For the early days of Donald Trump’s post-presidency he has picked something a little different: revenge.
It’s early and presidents usually intentionally recede from public view dramatically after leaving office. But Trump appears uninterested in following that practice.
Continue reading...Republicans take no action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote
Republicans met to consider fate of two prominent congresswoman in a divided party
House Republicans faced a reckoning on Wednesday as leaders in the US House of Representatives confronted calls to punish two prominent congresswomen who represent clashing visions for a party struggling to chart a path forward since Donald Trump left the White House.
Related: House to vote on removing rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees – live
Continue reading...Parler social network terminates CEO John Matze
Platform popular with US far right has faced an uncertain future after being essentially forced offline
Parler, the social media platform favored by the US far right, has dismissed its CEO John Matze.
Continue reading...US ‘deeply disturbed’ by reports of systematic rape in China’s Xinjiang camps
State department says ‘atrocities’ against detained Uighur and Muslim women in region must be ‘met with serious consequences’
The United States government is “deeply disturbed” by reports of systematic rape and sexual torture of women detained in China’s Xinjiang camps for ethnic Uighur and other Muslims, and demanded serious consequences.
The US state department was responding to a BBC report, published on Wednesday, detailing horrific allegations rape, sexual abuse and torture, based on interviews with several former detainees and a guard. The interviewees told the BBC “they experienced or saw evidence of an organised system of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture”.
Continue reading...‘A second chance’: first successful face and double hand transplant completed
Joe DiMeo underwent a 23-hour surgery in August after suffering third-degree burns over 80% of his body in a 2018 car accident
Doctors at New York University’s Langone Health have completed the very first successful face and double hand transplant, a historic first.
“We’ve succeeded in a tremendous undertaking that shows we can continue to take on new challenges and advance the field of transplantation,” Dr Eduardo D Rodriguez, who has led at least four face transplant surgeries, told NBC’s The Today Show.
Continue reading...US supreme court sides with Germany in Nazi art dispute
Court ruled unanimously that Germany had sovereign immunity in US courts from claims over the Guelph collection
The US supreme court rejected a suit on Wednesday by the heirs of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers for compensation from Germany for a storied collection of medieval art treasures.
Related: Nazi art dispute goes to US supreme court in landmark case
Continue reading...‘Simply horrible’: Rochester mayor laments police pepper-spraying girl
Two officers have been placed on administrative leave and another suspended after video footage emerged
The mother of a nine-year-old girl has accused police of “excessive use of force” after her daughter was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed in Rochester, New York.
Two were placed on administrative leave and another suspended on Tuesday, after police released video footage of the incident, which showed the nine-year-old being pepper-sprayed as she sat in the back of a squad car.
Continue reading...Bezos leaves Amazon in its prime – keeping it that way is the task
Analysis: Running the online retailer should be a dream job, but where and how to grow will challenge Andy Jassy
A pain-free departure of a visionary founder is a difficult trick to pull off for any business. The stakes are even higher for a company the size of Amazon, as Jeff Bezos steps back from his day-to-day management role.
The decision by Bezos, 57, to quit as chief executive later this year took analysts by surprise, but the first step has already gone smoothly, with Andy Jassy appointed as his successor without any public power struggle.
Continue reading...Republicans clash over futures of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney – live
- CDC: Vaccination of teachers not required to safely reopen schools
- Hundreds of congressional staff members urge Trump’s conviction
- Biden and Yellen urge Democrats to go big on Covid relief package
- Pete Buttigieg sworn in as transportation secretary
- Senate to vote on power-sharing agreement later today
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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she did not believe the vaccination of all teachers was required to safely reopen US schools.
Dr Rochelle Walensky told reporters at the White House coronavirus briefing, “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.”
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, encouraged people to safely watch the Super Bowl game this Sunday.
“Please watch the Super Bowl safely, gathering only virtually or with the people you live with,” Walensky said during the White House coronavirus briefing.
Continue reading...Biden pledges to ‘undo moral shame’ of Trump era with new orders on immigration – live
- President establishes taskforce to reunite children with families
- Senate moves to advance Covid relief package without Republican support
- Trump legal team files 14-page brief defending conduct on 6 January
- Biden and Republicans agree to more relief talks despite divisions
- How red states might block Biden’s roadmap to Covid recovery
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she is a sexual assault survivor
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
Related: New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations
A hastily executed transfer of nearly 200 people in California’s prison system set off a public health disaster that endangered the lives of thousands of prisoners and staff and led to dozens of deaths, according to a new report from the state’s office of the inspector general (OIG).
The report published on Monday, the third in a series examining the Covid-19 catastrophe in California state prisons, details the circumstances of a May 2020 transfer of 189 people from the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, California, to San Quentin state prison in the Bay Area and Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley.
Related: California prison transfer led to dozens of deaths and endangered thousands – state watchdog
Continue reading...New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations
Ice condemned as ‘rogue agency’ after rights groups allege torture by agents and man deported to Haiti who had never been there
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
Continue reading...Up in flames: SpaceX Starship test flight ends in fiery crash, again
- Futuristic rocket explodes on landing after test in Texas
- Elon Musk developing Starship to carry people to Mars
SpaceX’s second full test flight of its futuristic, bullet-shaped Starship ended in another fiery crash landing on Tuesday.
Elon Musk’s company launched its latest Starship prototype from the south-eastern tip of Texas, two months after the previous test ended in an equally explosive belly flop.
Continue reading...‘A moral and national shame’: Biden to launch taskforce to reunite families separated at border
President decries Trump administration that ‘literally ripped children from the arms of their families’ as he signs executive orders
Joe Biden plans to create a taskforce to reunify families separated at the US-Mexico border by the Trump administration, as part of a new series of immigration executive actions signed at an Oval Office ceremony on Tuesday.
Biden condemned Donald Trump’s immigration policies as a “stain on the reputation” of the US.
Continue reading...Jeff Bezos to resign as chief executive of Amazon
Bezos, who founded the company in 1994, will step down after company recorded $100bn in sales for last three months of 2020
Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon, will step down as chief executive, the company announced on Tuesday.
Related: Biden pledges to 'undo moral shame' of Trump era with new orders on immigration – live
Continue reading...GameStop shares plunge as traders dump stock
Reddit-inspired surge in stocks such as struggling video games store and AMC dive as hedge funds close positions
Shares in GameStop plunged by 65% in early trading on Wall Street as the trading mania sparked by small investors, that sent its stock surging and cost hedge funds billions of dollars, lost momentum.
The struggling Texas-based video game store chain has been the focal point of a battle by small traders, using forums such as Reddit, to punish Wall Street hedge funds that have bet on certain stocks falling in value. GameStop shares hit a high of $482 last Thursday but slumped to $80 shortly after the market opened. They recovered to $117 by mid-session, but closed down 60% at $90.
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reveals she is a sexual assault survivor – video
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks about how her experience of Capitol riot was affected by her experience as a survivor of sexual assault
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she is a sexual assault survivor
Democratic congresswoman reveals past trauma during candid account of Capitol attack
The Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday spoke in an emotional video about the insurrection at the US Capitol, and how what she went through was affected by her experience as a survivor of sexual assault.
In an account remarkably candid for an American lawmaker, Ocasio-Cortez recounted going into hiding as rioters scaled the Capitol on 6 January, hiding in a bathroom in her office while hearing banging on the walls and a man yelling: “Where is she? Where is she?” She had feared for her life, she told an Instagram Live audience of more than 150,000 people.
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