Actor takes aim at transphobic politicians and ‘those with a massive platform who continue to spew hostility’, saying they ‘have blood on [their] hands’
Elliot Page, who rose to fame as the lead in teen pregnancy comedy Juno as Ellen Page, has announced he is transgender.
“Hi friends,” he wrote on a variety of social media platforms, “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot.”
Continue reading...Joe Biden, the US president-elect, formally introduced his top economic advisers on Tuesday, as his incoming administration prepares to deal with the worst financial crisis in decades and a resurgent coronavirus pandemic.
Related: Bipartisan group pitches $908bn Covid-19 relief to break deadlock in Congress
Continue reading...City faced widespread uproar over news that Union Station testing center would be closed for filming of She’s All That remake
Los Angeles reversed the planned closure of a downtown coronavirus testing site, after the news that the center would be closed because of a film shoot for the remake of the popular teen comedy She’s All That was met with widespread uproar.
Continue reading...Joe DiGenova condemned for ‘mob attorney’ remark made on podcast shown on conservative Newsmax TV
A former head of US election security who said Donald Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden was not subject to voter fraud should be “taken out at dawn and shot”, a Trump campaign lawyer said.
Related: Trump's fraud claims undermine democracy, ex-US election security chief says
Continue reading...WHO ‘will do everything’ to find Covid origin; Mexico and Brazil seeing ‘alarming’ case surge; Scott Atlas resigns as special adviser to Trump on coronavirus
Russia has reported a record 569 deaths linked to Covid-19 today, bringing the official death toll to 40,464.
Authorities also reported 26,402 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, including 6,524 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national cumulative tally to 2,322,056.
Thanks to regular reader Scott Lafferty, who has been in touch to remind us that the Netherlands has today finally made face masks mandatory in indoor public spaces.
Face masks will be compulsory in all public buildings, shops, and stations from tomorrow as the coronavirus law comes into effect, and people who refuse to wear one face a fine of €95, reports Dutch News.
Continue reading...Outgoing first lady unveils ‘America the beautiful’ theme in White House, breaking with previous years that featured blood red trees and bare branches
Apart from the odd nod to a funerary urn, first lady Melania Trump broke with tradition this year with her White House Christmas decorations, opting for fairly normal green trees with red and gold ornaments instead of the blood-red foliage or Shining-esque ghost-white branches of previous years.
This year’s theme, unveiled on Monday, was “America the beautiful”, inspired, she said, by Americans’ shared appreciation “for our traditions, values and history”.
Continue reading...Diplomats call on UK, France and Germany to map out task facing incoming Biden administration
France, Germany and the UK must move quickly to set out a roadmap for Iran and the incoming Biden administration in the US to come back into compliance with the nuclear deal, some of Europe’s leading diplomats have said.
They warn that unless the three countries, known as the E3, coordinate a joint public statement setting out what both sides must do to end the impasse, there is a real risk that Joe Biden will come to power facing only escalating tensions with Iran.
Continue reading...Neuroradiologist who has no expertise in infectious diseases downplayed the threat of coronavirus
Scott Atlas has resigned as special adviser to Donald Trump, a White House official said on Monday, after a controversial four months during which he attacked science-based public health measures and clashed repeatedly with other members of the coronavirus taskforce.
“I am writing to resign from my position as Special Advisor to the President of the United States,” Atlas said in a letter to Trump dated 1 December, according to Fox News, which first reported his resignation. Atlas later confirmed his resignation in a tweet.
Continue reading...Wisconsin certification comes after partial recount expanded Biden’s margin, as president continues to fight results
Joe Biden’s victories in the US presidential election battlegrounds of Arizona and Wisconsin were officially recognised on Monday, handing Donald Trump six defeats out of six in his bid to stop states certifying their results.
The finalised vote counts took Biden a step closer to the White House and dealt yet another blow to Trump’s longshot efforts to undermine the outcome.
Continue reading...Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, pushed back at groups 'exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters' and misleading Donald Trump himself.
A vote recount was requested within two business days of certification in Georgia, where the margin was less than 0.5 percentage points in favour of Joe Biden.
The Trump campaign has also demanded an audit of the voter signatures that accompanied mail-in ballots
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Donald Trump has been losing Twitter followers since he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden – while the Democratic president-elect has been adding them.
According to Factbase, a website dedicated to tracking Trump’s public utterances, the president has lost 133,902 followers since 17 November while the president-elect has gained 1,156,610.
Related: Trump losing Twitter followers since election – as Biden gains them
It is not clear yet whether US democracy “survived” the 2020 presidential election unscathed.
If Donald Trump’s playbook of seeking to undermine a legitimate election becomes standard Republican practice – refuse to concede, make false claims of fraud, fan the flames of conspiracy, sue everywhere and refuse to certify any win by the other side – then American democracy might already have sustained a fatal wound.
Related: Five factors that helped US democracy resist Trump's election onslaught
Continue reading...The US continued to report more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the holiday weekend, as experts warned that widespread Thanksgiving travel could fuel a surge in coming weeks.
Related: Moderna Covid vaccine has 94% efficacy, final results confirm
Continue reading...Trump’s trashing of norms has been harmful but decentralization, turnout, transparency, the courts and the media played a key role
It is not clear yet whether US democracy “survived” the 2020 presidential election unscathed.
Continue reading...There is reason to hope the president-elect will pivot from long-standing US policy of backing continent’s strongman leaders
How different is the Biden-Harris administration’s Africa policy going to be from Donald Trump’s, or even Barack Obama’s? Many African people, as well as the continent’s strongman leaders, are now gingerly asking – is Biden going to be Obama 2.0, or Trump-lite?
For the sake of black lives mattering everywhere in these turbulent times, I hope Biden will chart a bold new course, diametrically away from not only Trump but also Obama’s Africa policy.
Continue reading...Moderna reports a 100% success rate in preventing severe cases; Italy reports 672 new Covid-related deaths, a rise on Sunday’s figure
Turkey’s daily Covid-19 death toll hit a record high for an eighth consecutive day on Monday, with 188 fatalities in the last 24 hours.
The number of new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, over the past 24 hours also reached a record high of 31,219.
The state of Sao Paulo, home to Brazil’s biggest city, has imposed stricter social distancing measures as it wrestles to contain a fresh rise in Covid-19 cases.
Opening hours and capacities for bars, restaurants and shopping malls will be restricted in Brazil’s most populous state which has been the centre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
Continue reading...The president-elect announces senior communications team, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield
President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.
Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary.
Continue reading...Senior White House adviser and his team to travel this week for talks with Saudi crown prince and emir of Qatar
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks in a region simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
A senior administration official said on Sunday that Kushner is to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the Saudi city of Neom, and the emir of Qatar in that country in the coming days. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation.
Continue reading...Metal structure that prompted multiple theories about how it came to be was removed by ‘an unknown party’, officials say
The tall, shiny, metal structure, now famously known as a “monolith” was discovered in Utah last week, and had prompted multiple theories about how it had come to be there ranging from TV show set leftover, to art work, to aliens.
Related: Theories abound over mystery metal monolith found in Utah
Continue reading...Newspaper publishes comment urging retaliation with strike on Haifa that ‘causes heavy human casualties’
The body of Iran’s most senior nuclear scientist has been prepared for burial as anger at Israel and the US boiled over in the country following his assassination last week.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s coffin, draped in the Iranian flag and topped with flowers, was transported to a Muslim shrine for prayers and last tributes, the country’s state news reported.
Continue reading...GSA recognises Biden’s win, allowing presidential transition to go ahead, as Trump says he will leave White House if electoral college votes for Biden
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