January, 2021 | últimas notícias

Electoral College vote updates: Debate suspended in Congress as protesters storm Capitol – CNBC

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday afternoon that the National Guard was being deployed “along with other federal protective services.”

The lockdowns and evacuations came as both chambers of Congress debated Republicans’ objections to Arizona’s electoral results. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the start of the debate, forcefully rebuked efforts from members of his own party to overturn Biden’s win.

“The voters have spoken,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “If we overrule them, we damage our republic forever.”

Just before the proceedings began, Trump had hosted a rally outside the White House where he repeatedly, and falsely, claimed the election had been stolen from him. The president also pressured Pence to reject states’ slates of electors.

McConnell in his remarks explicitly rejected claims that Trump’s loss to Biden was due to massive fraud, and called out his colleagues in Congress who have vowed to lodge objections to the electoral results.

“Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale, the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election,” McConnell said. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We would never see the whole nation accept an election again.”

“It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and the states on this extraordinarily thin basis. And I will not pretend such a vote would be a harmless protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing,” McConnell said.

“I will vote to respect the people’s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.”

Those comments came as a joint session of Congress convened with the intention of counting and confirming the results of the Electoral College. Republicans were expected to object to other states as their electoral vote tallies are announced.

Shortly before the joint session of Congress began at 1 p.m. ET, Pence rejected Trump’s call for the vice president to unilaterally overturn the Electoral College vote, saying in a letter that he did not believe he had the authority to do so.

In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Trump lashed out at Pence, saying that he “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

But as the chaos escalated, Trump tweeted a follow-up message: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

And later, he asked “for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful.”

With Democrat Biden’s 306 electoral votes — 36 more than needed — the process normally would be a formality. But this year, it may take days because of the doomed effort by Trump to overturn his defeat.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/electoral-college-vote-certification-live-updates-biden-trump.html

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Mitt Romney blames Trump as his supporters storm the US Capitol – Salt Lake Tribune

Former Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a strong ally of Trump, said “Without any pause, caveat, or equivocation, I condemn the riots taking place at the US Capitol.”

Source Article from https://sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/01/06/burgess-owens-rallies/

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AJC’s Tia Mitchell recounts harrowing scene when rioters breached U.S. Capitol – Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Arkansas leaders condemn pro-Trump rioters who occupied Capitol, attacked police – KATV

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US Capitol locked down as Trump supporters clash with police – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters backing President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in violent clashes with police that force a delay in the constitutional process to affirm Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.

Trump had urged his supporters to come to Washington to protest Congress’ formal approval of Biden’s win. Several Republican lawmakers have backed his calls, despite there being no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing in the election.

Both chambers abruptly recessed as dozens of people breached security perimeters at the Capitol and lawmakers inside the House chamber were told to put on gas masks as tear gas was fired in the Rotunda.

A chaplain prayed as police guarded the doors to the chamber and lawmakers tried to gather information about what was happening.

An announcement was played inside the Capitol as lawmakers were meeting and expected to vote to affirm Biden’s victory. Due to an “external security threat,” no one could enter or exit the Capitol complex, the recording said.

Both chambers abruptly went into recess. The District of Columbia’s Mayor, Muriel Bowser, issued a curfew for 6 p.m.

The skirmishes occurred outside in the very spot where president-elect Biden will be inaugurated in just two weeks.

Protesters tore down metal barricades at the bottom of the Capitol’s steps and were met by officers in riot gear. Some tried to push past the officers who held shields and officers could be seen firing pepper spray into the crowd to keep them back. Some in the crowd were shouting “traitors” as officers tried to keep them back.

A suspicious package was also reported in the area, Capitol Police said.

The skirmishes came just shortly after Trump addressed thousands of his supporters, riling up the crowd with his baseless claims of election fraud at a rally near the White House on Wednesday ahead of Congress’ vote.

“We will not let them silence your voices,” Trump told the protesters, who had lined up before sunrise to get a prime position to hear the president.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/2f56a611445df15fb9640893bb9f7a93

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$15 minimum wage edges closer as Democrats near Senate control – CNBC

A $15 federal minimum wage edged closer after Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election, which seems likely to flip Senate control and unify government under the Democratic Party.

Such a pay boost would more than double the current federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, but would likely face resistance from some Republicans and business groups.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, won the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia on Tuesday, beating the Republican incumbent, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, according to NBC News projections.

Democrat Jon Ossoff was leading Republican David Perdue, whose Senate seat expired Sunday, in the other Georgia race, which was too close to call midday Wednesday, according to NBC News.

Democratic victories in those contests would give Democrats control of the Senate, the House and the presidency. Congress is scheduled to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

“It’s absolutely a priority,” Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said of Democrats passing legislation to set a higher pay floor.

Democrats, especially those from the party’s liberal wing, have long pushed to raise the national minimum wage. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who typically votes with Democrats, said in a Tuesday tweet that a $15 minimum wage was at stake in Georgia’s runoff election.

Proponents of increasing the pay floor argue the current standard doesn’t provide a livable wage for Americans.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/georgia-election-result-puts-15-federal-minimum-wage-closer.html

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Biden to tap Merrick Garland for attorney general – POLITICO

In a Republican-controlled Senate, Jones was viewed as the easiest candidate to get confirmed given his strong relationships across the aisle. Garland was also considered a risk in that it would be difficult to confirm a replacement for him on the appellate court.

But with Democrats expected to have won the majority with a pair of upset victories in Georgia, confirmation issues with other candidates largely dissipated. The announcement of the selection could come as early as Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters on Wednesday.

Biden will also nominate Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general, Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, and Kristen Clarke as assistant attorney general for civil rights, per people familiar with the personnel decisions. The news of those pending appointments was first reported by the Associated Press.

Monaco served as Obama’s homeland security adviser and has been heavily involved in Biden’s transition. Gupta worked as U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Obama administration and is currently the president of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. Clarke is the president of the civil rights group, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and previously ran the civil rights bureau in the New York State Office of the Attorney General.

The Biden transition declined to comment.

Garland has served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for more than two decades after receiving a nomination from President Bill Clinton in 1997. He won confirmation that year by a vote of 76 to 23.

When Justice Antonin Scalia unexpectedly died in early 2016, President Barack Obama turned to Garland for what the then president hoped would be a consensus pick for the vacancy. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied Garland a hearing or a vote, leaving the nomination hanging for nearly a year. When Donald Trump won the election in 2016, any prospect for Garland’s confirmation ended.

Prior to his nomination as a judge, Garland served as a top Justice Department official and as a prosecutor on high-profile murder cases.

Should Garland be confirmed, he will be handed a number of thorny issues, including whether and how to investigate President Donald Trump for episodes of potential obstruction of justice described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, as well as allegations of tax fraud and other crimes related to Trump’s business dealings.

Citing a longstanding Justice Department legal opinion precluding criminal charges against a sitting president, Mueller did not offer a definitive conclusion on the obstruction charges, although former Attorney General Bill Barr said none of the incidents would have amounted to a crime even in the absence of the opinion. However, the opinion does not preclude prosecution of a former president.

The new attorney general will also face a series of challenges to reorient a department that has taken a decidedly skeptical approach to criminal justice reform efforts and the Black Lives Matter movement. He also will face major challenges in restoring morale at the department, which has seen a number of high-profile staff departures during the Trump years.

As Garland was under consideration as a potential AG pick, he took some unusual steps to seek to remain above ethical reproach. Beginning in early December, he recused from a series of civil and criminal justice cases involving the U.S. government, including appeals related to a string of executions the Trump administration is carrying out in the weeks leading up to the change in administration.

Biden’s pick of Garland carries a benefit for Democrats that may have made him more attractive in light of the expected victory of Democrats in the Georgia Senate runoff races Tuesday: it opens a seat on the D.C. Circuit, which is widely considered the second-most powerful court in the country.

With Democrats likely to win control of the Senate—and with the filibuster for low- and mid-level judicial nominations eliminated in 2013—confirming a successor to Garland should be relatively easy. Some close to Garland thought he was likely to declare senior status soon and open a vacancy on the court during the new administration, regardless of the outcome in Georgia and whether he was tapped for the AG slot.

Garland has an unusually broad base of support among Democratic lawyers in Washington D.C. thanks to a large number of law clerks who have gone on to high-profile jobs at the Justice Department and at prominent law firms.

“Merrick Garland is the perfect choice for this job,” said former Garland clerk Karen Dunn, who also served in the White House Counsel’s Office under Obama and is now a partner at law firm Paul Weiss. “He will restore independence and integrity to the Justice Department, be the people’s lawyer, not the president’s lawyer, and will come in with the respect of the career public servants who advance the cause of justice every day.”

The Garland pick is likely to be received warmly among Hill Democrats who have remained aggrieved by the refusal of Senate Republicans to give him a hearing in 2016. But some Senate Democrats had been pushing for Jones to be nominated, with a number of them writing a letter to Biden and his transition team urging the president-elect to nominate their former colleague. The letter, which was first reported by HuffPost, was organized by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) was sent to Biden’s team just after Christmas.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/06/biden-to-tap-merrick-garland-for-attorney-general-455410

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CNN host’s expletive-filled attack on Gov. DeSantis proves network’s commitment to ‘performance art’: Concha – Fox News

Video

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scolds media over vaccine rollout coverage

Fox News contributor Joe Concha says journalism has become a ‘performance art’ on ‘Fox & Friends’

The journalism industry has evolved into a “look at me too movement,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha said Wednesday, calling CNN host Brianna Keilar’s expletive-filled attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis the latest example of the network’s commitment to “performance art.”

Keilar called the Republican governor “an a–” on her show Tuesday after he scolded a reporter of the same network for appearing to blame him for coronavirus vaccine distribution issues at local Florida hospitals.

“This is a pattern with CNN,” Concha told “Fox & Friends” co-host Steeve Doocy. “We saw it with Jim Acosta during White House press conferences, or April Ryan where they will get into a confrontation, oftentimes it’s a contrived one either with a Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or Sean Spicer, or President Trump, and then they go on the air after to talk about how they were so victimized because that particular person in power or spokesperson was so mean to them.”

DESANTIS TAKES HIGH ROAD AFTER CNN ANCHOR CALLS HIM ‘AN ASS’ FOR SCOLDING REPORTER

Concha noted that on Monday, during her testy exchange with Gov. DeSantis, CNN reporter Rosa Flores had a camera focused on her as she accused him of not having a plan to ensure senior citizens don’t have to wait in long lines for the vaccine.

DeSantis criticized Flores for not researching the issues raised in her question as she attempted to speak over him. After a tense exchange, DeSantis explained that the coronavirus vaccine was distributed to hospitals and the hospitals decide how to dispense it.

Video

“How often do you see during an outside press conference a gaggle where the reporter gets a camera and the person being questioned gets a camera,” Concha said. “The reason why you do that is because you are looking as the reporter to do a montage with the sole intention not to get an answer to inform the public but to push a narrative and to go with viral. That’s the big tell there.”

Concha said Keilar’s use of the “a-word” proves the network’s intention is “not to inform,” but “to perform.

CNN HOST ATTACKS GOV. DESANTIS FOR SCOLDING REPORTER

“That’s what it’s become at this point for many in journalism, performance art,” he said. “So she calls him ‘a-word’ and of course that goes viral, too. And that’s the whole point now. It’s the ‘look at me too’ movement for many in journalism by dropping expletives or getting into confrontations by doing monologues instead of asking pointed questions that inform the public.”

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Concha said he believes the left-leaning media has taken a renewed interest in the governor because “they see him as a possible 2024 presidential candidate if President Trump decides not to run.”

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/joe-concha-cnn-florida-ron-desantis-coronavirus-vaccine

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Your Illinois News Radar » Pritzker announces Phase 1B, with an emphasis on racial equity, age range lowered – The Capitol Fax Blog

Building on guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Governor JB Pritzker announced guidelines for the next stage of COVID-19 vaccine distribution across Illinois – Phase 1B.

“ACIP’s guidance serves as the foundational blueprint for Illinois’ Phase 1B plan, with one key adjustment: here in Illinois we are more strongly pursuing equity in the distribution of our vaccinations,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “For people of color, multi-generational institutional racism in the provision of healthcare has reduced access to care, caused higher rates of environmental and social risk, and increased co-morbidities. I believe our exit plan for this pandemic must, on balance, overcome structural inequalities that has allowed COVID-19 to rage through our most vulnerable communities.”

“With limited amounts of vaccine available at this time, it is important to prioritize individuals who are at greatest risk of exposure to COVID-19 and those at greatest risk of severe illness or death,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Generally, Latinx and Black populations have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with data showing related deaths at younger ages. We are hopeful that by lowering the eligibility age to 65 years we can help reduce this disparity.”

Phase 1B will begin when Phase 1A is substantially complete. It will include all Illinois residents age 65 years and older and “frontline essential workers,” as outlined by ACIP. In order to reduce COVID-19 mortality and limit community spread in Black and Brown communities, Illinois reduced the age eligibility in Phase 1B by 10 years from ACIP’s recommendation. Currently, the average age of COVID-19 death is 81 for White residents, 72 for Black residents and 68 for Latino residents.

The frontline essential workers designation includes many residents who carry a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure because of their work duties, often because they are unable to work from home, and/or they must work closely to others without being able to socially distance. Communities of color are disproportionately represented in many of these industries. The category defined by the federal government as frontline essential workers, which the CDC estimates as about 30 million Americans, includes first responders; education workers, including teachers, support staff and childcare workers; manufacturing, distribution and agriculture workers, including grocery store workers; United States Postal Service workers; public transit employees; corrections workers and incarcerated people, and others.

All in all, Phase 1B totals approximately 3.2 million people throughout the state of Illinois.

Prioritizing equity is a critical component of every phase of the state’s vaccine distribution plan. Lowering the age eligibility and including frontlines essential workers in phase 1B is a pivotal step towards protecting all of Illinois’ elderly residents and Illinoisans who have been disproportionally impacted by the pandemic and ensuring the benefits of vaccination reach all our communities in a fair manner

As the state enters Phase 1B, the administration will be utilizing every available resource at the state’s disposal to ensure that as many Illinoisans as possible are able to receive the vaccine as quickly as possible. The Illinois National Guard will be assisting in the development of mass vaccination sites and the state will be increasing the number of providers enrolled in the state’s vaccination database to support widespread availability when the time comes.

These efforts are in line with the equity directive released earlier in the pandemic with a focus on ensuring vulnerable and historically marginalized communities receive equitable and informed access to COVID-19 vaccines. The state will continue to proactively expand infrastructure, especially in communities of color, to move these vaccines through Illinois at an even faster pace once there is an increase in the federal distribution pipeline. The IDPH team continues to review ACIP’s recommendations for Phase 1C.

As the state moves forward, it is critical that Illinoisans continue to follow public health mitigations to suppress the spread of the virus until vaccines are available for wider distribution.

Source Article from https://capitolfax.com/2021/01/06/pritzker-announces-phase-1b-with-an-emphasis-on-racial-equity/

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After a freezer filled with Covid-19 vaccines broke, a California hospital scrambled to administer more than 800 doses in about 2 hours – CNN

By Stella Chan and Christina Maxouris, CNN

Updated 8:55 AM ET, Wed January 6, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/us/california-broken-freezer-vaccines-trnd/index.html

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2 Louisville Officers Fired Over Role In Breonna Taylor’s Death – NPR

Emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by police in her home in March. Her name has become a rallying cry in protests against police brutality and social injustice.

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Taylor family

Emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by police in her home in March. Her name has become a rallying cry in protests against police brutality and social injustice.

Taylor family

Updated at 11:55 a.m. ET

A pair of Louisville, Ky., police officers connected to the raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment last year were formally terminated from the force, a spokesperson for the Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed Wednesday.

The termination letters, signed by interim Police Chief Yvette Gentry, said Detective Joshua Jaynes, who secured the warrant for the March 13 raid on Taylor’s home, and Detective Myles Cosgrove, who federal investigators said fired the fatal shot that killed Taylor, were dismissed from the force as of Tuesday.

Each has 10 days to appeal the police department’s decision.

The announcement of the terminations comes the same day Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer formally announced the hiring of Erika Shields, who previously led the Atlanta Police Department, as LMPD’s next police chief.

She is slated to be sworn in as Louisville’s top cop on Jan. 19.

Both Cosgrove and Jaynes have been on paid leave in the months since the shooting and in late December received notification from Gentry that LMPD intended to sever their employment.

Earlier this week a lawyer for Jaynes told Louisville NPR member station WFPL his client’s dismissal from LMPD would not come as a surprise.

“I think the outcome [has] already been pre-determined,” Thomas Clay said to WFPL. “I think Detective Jaynes is going to be terminated. And we’re prepared to do what needs to be done in order to appeal that decision.”

Jaynes is accused of providing false information in the search warrant application, the Louisville Courier Journal has reported.

In a separate report last week, the paper noted that Cosgrove did not identify a specific target as he fired more than a dozen rounds in Taylor’s apartment during the overnight raid, according to a pre-termination letter from LMPD that the Courier Journal obtained.

The letter also found that Cosgrove violated the department’s use-of-force protocols as well as failed to use his body camera, according to the paper.

None of the officers who discharged their service weapons during the raid faces criminal charges for Taylor’s death.

Dispute over charging decisions

Another member of the search party, former Officer Brett Hankison, was terminated from LMPD in June.

A Kentucky grand jury indicted Hankison in September on three counts of wanton endangerment for his role in shooting into an apartment unit near Taylor’s.

When Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, announced Hankison’s indictment during a press briefing on Sept. 23, he said that Cosgrove, who fired the fatal shot, and another officer, Jonathan Mattingly, “were justified in their use of force.”

Both Cosgrove and Mattingly fired into Taylor’s apartment after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, first fired upon them.

Walker has maintained that the couple did not hear officers announce themselves before entering the apartment. He also said he mistook them for intruders. Walker, a licensed gun owner, said he fired a warning shot, which struck Mattingly in the leg.

That prompted officers to return fire.

In October, Mattingly filed a counter-suit against Walker, saying that Walker committed assault, battery and intentional emotional distress. Earlier that month, Mattingly sat down for an interview with ABC News and the Courier Journal where he claimed that the Taylor shooting was “not a race thing like people try to make it to be.”

Breonna Taylor’s name became a rallying cry, along with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake and other Black Americans who were killed or seriously injured by law enforcement last year. Those encounters sparked a national reckoning on race and social inequities in the United States and internationally.

One of the grand jurors in the Taylor case said the move to terminate additional officers made him feel “vindicated,” according to WFPL. The grand juror, who has remained anonymous, has joined two others in coming forward to raise concerns about how Cameron, the attorney general, presented the case.

Cameron had said grand jurors agreed with not charging any of the officers for the killing of Taylor.

However, the three grand jurors have said they not only disagreed with Cameron’s characterization, but also said they pressed for more charges to be considered, but those requests were rebuffed by prosecutors.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953285549/two-louisville-police-officers-connected-to-breonna-taylor-shooting-have-been-fi

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Democrat Jon Ossoff Claims Victory Over David Perdue In Georgia Runoff – NPR

Democrat Jon Ossoff speaks at a rally outside of Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta on Monday.

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

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Democrat Jon Ossoff speaks at a rally outside of Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta on Monday.

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Democrat Jon Ossoff — who as of 9 a.m. ET Wednesday leads Republican David Perdue by about 16,000 votes in the Georgia runoff that could give Democrats control of the U.S. Senate — claimed victory Wednesday. The Associated Press, which NPR relies on for its results, has not yet called the contest.

“It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate,” Ossoff said in remarks Wednesday morning.

Perdue, whose Senate term expired earlier this week, has not conceded the race.

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“Everybody who cast your ballot, everybody who put your faith and confidence in our democracy’s capacity to deliver the representation that we deserve — whether you were for me, or against me — I’ll be for you in the U.S. Senate,” Ossoff said. “I will serve all the people of the state.”

An Ossoff victory would give Democrats control of the Senate, as his fellow Georgia Democrat, Raphael Warnock, won his runoff race against Sen. Kelly Loeffler. The Senate would be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, but once sworn in as vice president, Kamala Harris would have the power to break ties for Democrats.

The race was hard-fought and came after Democrats successfully flipped the state blue in the presidential race. Both major parties invested significant time and resources in seeking control of the Senate.

On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden campaigned in the state in support of Warnock and Ossoff, and Harris campaigned there Sunday.

Between Nov. 4, 2020, and Tuesday, almost $500 million was spent on advertising for the two races, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

This is Ossoff’s second high-profile runoff in Georgia. In 2017, he sought a seat in the state’s 6th Congressional District. He lost by a slim margin in the historically Republican district that year but remained visible in Georgia politics.

At 33 years old, Ossoff would be the youngest member of the Senate in decades. Both parties have faced criticisms for continuing to be led by aging party members at the expense of investing in younger, more diverse candidates.

Like many Democrats this cycle, much of Ossoff’s campaign centered on the coronavirus pandemic and providing relief to Americans hit hardest by the virus.

In the runoff, Perdue stressed his vocal support of President Trump, who lost Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/952417689/democrat-jon-ossoff-claims-victory-over-david-perdue-in-georgia-runoff

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Live updates: Republicans loyal to Trump to object as Congress convenes to count electoral college votes – The Washington Post

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/06/congress-electoral-college-vote-live-updates/

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Dozens of Hong Kong pro-democracy figures, including U.S. lawyer, arrested – NBC News

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IRS now says you may be waiting until your tax return for stimulus payment – WHIO Radio

“If the second Economic Impact Payment was sent to an account that is closed or is no longer active the financial institution must , by law, return the payment to the IRS, they cannot hold and issue the payment to an individual when the account is no longer active,” the IRS said.

Source Article from https://www.whio.com/news/local/irs-now-says-you-may-be-waiting-until-your-tax-return-stimulus-payment/IHWY4Y2WXJADJHNNNYM346WESY/

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Kim Jong Un Admits Failures In Rare Display Of Contrition – NPR

A man watches a television screen at a railway station in Seoul on Wednesday showing news footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the 8th Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party held in Pyongyang.

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A man watches a television screen at a railway station in Seoul on Wednesday showing news footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the 8th Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party held in Pyongyang.

Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

Mistakes were made.

That’s according to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who in an address to a ruling party meeting made a frank admission — that the country’s policies in the past five years had ended in abject failure.

“Almost all sectors fell a long way short of the set objectives,” Kim told thousands of delegates to the Workers’ Party’s 8^th Congress who were seated in a huge auditorium in Pyongyang.

The country should digest the “bitter lessons” of failure, Kim added, and “be bold enough to recognize the mistakes, which, if left unaddressed, will grow into bigger obstacles.”

The congress is the first since 2016 and should produce a new economic blueprint for the next five years by the time it wraps up in the next few days.

Many veteran North Korea watchers believe the country is facing its worst economic crisis since the mid-1990s, when the loss of support from the defunct Soviet Union, compounded by Pyongyang’s own mismanagement, led to a famine that killed, by some estimates, more than a million people.

Kim had admitted last August to “shortcomings,” which led to a failure to meet the country’s development goals and improve people’s living standards. In November, he criticized economic officials for their mishandling of the economy.

International sanctions and back-to-back natural disasters over the past year have taken a toll on the economy. Anti-coronavirus measures have also weighed heavily, although no one in attendance at the party congress wore a mask. Officially, the government claims not to have a single case of COVID-19.

In his speech, Kim offered few new prescriptions for resolving the crisis, except to continue “consolidating our own strength.” Nor did he offer any hints of how he plans to deal with the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden, or respond to South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s attempts at engagement.

Biden has signaled that he intends to shore up the U.S. alliance with Seoul and avoid the high-stakes summitry with Kim preferred by Trump. For that reason, says Park Hyeong-jung, a veteran Pyongyang watcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government think tank in Seoul, Kim is likely to look elsewhere for support.

“North Korea would think that however bad its economy gets, they will eventually be able to receive help from China,” Park notes, adding that Pyongyang may seek to leverage souring ties between Beijing and Washington to its own advantage.

For now, though, the China-North Korea border remains shut to keep out the coronavirus, and the lack of cross-border trade has reportedly caused food prices to spike in North Korea.

In most of the years since he assumed power following his father’s death in 2011, Kim has laid out his priorities in a televised New Year’s speech, closely parsed by observers. But he has not delivered such a speech for two years in a row.

This may have been to avoid duplicating speeches at major party meetings close to the new year, but it also gives some observers the sense that things are not going well, and Kim has few accomplishments to trumpet.

Kim this year marked the new year with a brief, handwritten note to the North Korean people thanking them for their support in difficult times.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953858861/in-rare-display-of-contrition-north-korean-leader-admits-failures

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Julian Assange loses extradition bail bid – BBC News

Julian Assange: UK judge blocks extradition of Wikileaks founder to US

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55562207

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‘You don’t really expect any justice’: Donovan Mitchell saddened that officer who shot Jacob Blake won’t face charges – KSL.com

SALT LAKE CITY — In late August, the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, brought the NBA playoffs to a halt as players boycotted games in protest over what they saw as another unnecessary shooting of a person of color.

The games were played on Tuesday. But many hearts were heavy.

The decision by Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley not to charge police officer Rusten Sheskey with any crime didn’t lead to another round of games being boycotted, but maybe only because of what it made some players feel: defeated.

“To be honest with you, I don’t really have words,” Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell said following Utah’s 130-96 loss to the Nets on Tuesday. “Obviously we see the video and then you can make the point of, ‘Oh, we didn’t see what happened before that,’ but at the end of the day a man was shot in front of his children, and it’s heartbreaking and sad to see.”

Mitchell has been one of the more outspoken NBA players when it comes to fighting for social justice and is a member of the newly formed National Basketball Social Justice Coalition. Breonna Taylor was shot and killed during a police raid in Louisville — the city where Mitchell went to college. That hit close to home. Each time he hears news of another black person being shot by police, he visualizes his friends, his sister, or even himself being caught up in the same situation.

So it was hard for him to hear Sheskey wouldn’t be charged.

“It’s sad that it’s become a thing where you don’t really expect any justice out of these things,” Mitchell said. “As an African American male, it’s just one of those things where you’re scared and it doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter if you’re the most famous person in the world or whatever. I play basketball but I’m an African American man and I have African American women in my life and it’s just disheartening. it’s sad. It’s tough to see.”

Mitchell has donated $45,000 to help Blake’s children pay for college.

The protests surrounding Blake’s shooting in August led to a nationwide dialogue — one which Jazz head coach Quin Snyder is hoping continues.

“There’s a lot going on in the world,” Snyder said. “We need to continue to educate ourselves and to not be afraid to have dialogue about those things. Certainly that situation is one that is very serious and has been incredibly impactful on many levels to our entire country and certainly to his family.”

In his first media availability as the owner of the Utah Jazz, Ryan Smith put his full support behind Mitchell and the Jazz in their fight to end racial injustices.

“It’s not that we’re going to be anti-racist; we’re going to be actively anti-racist as an organization. And that means we’re going to take our time and our energy and we’re going to use this platform to help make our communities more equitable from education to health care,” he said. “This is going to be one of the things we do and it should have been done a hell of a long time ago. I don’t know why we’re in this spot. I’m unapologetic about it and I stand with our guys.”

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Source Article from https://www.ksl.com/article/50078424/you-dont-really-expect-any-justice-donovan-mitchell-saddened-that-officer-who-shot-jacob-blake-wont-face-charges

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Democrats Move Closer to Senate Control As Counting Continues In Georgia – NPR

Democrats could take narrow control of the U.S. Senate if Jon Ossoff defeats Republican David Perdue.

Patrick Semansky/AP

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Patrick Semansky/AP

Democrats could take narrow control of the U.S. Senate if Jon Ossoff defeats Republican David Perdue.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Democrats moved one victory closer to exceedingly narrow control of the Senate Wednesday after winning one runoff election in Georgia and remaining ahead as votes continue to be counted in another runoff.

Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, a pastor from Atlanta, defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, after a bitter campaign. Warnock becomes the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from a Southern state.

The win brings Democrats to 49 seats in the Senate, with one race remaining. If Jon Ossoff, a 33-year-old Democrat challenging Republican David Perdue, holds his early Wednesday lead, the Senate will be in a 50-50 tie, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking the tie and giving Democrats control of the House, Senate and White House for the first time since 2009.

Ossoff’s narrow lead — about 16,000 votes early Wednesday — left the race too close to call despite he and Warnock campaigning closely. If his lead holds, Ossoff would become the youngest sitting senator and the first Jewish Senator from Georgia.

Impact on Biden agenda

Control of the Senate significantly changes what Biden can do but most importantly his party now can set the legislative agenda. Democrats failed to make the kind of gains in the Senate in November that many had forecast, with GOP incumbents staving off strong challenges in several states. But with narrow control, they will wield the gavels for Senate committees, call hearings, and decide which items get top priority.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York will replace GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell as majority leader and will determine which bills come to the floor for votes.

The ambitious proposals addressing climate change and health care and other domestic priorities touted by Biden and Harris will be difficult, if impossible to advance with more moderate Democrats, especially those facing competitive 2022 midterm reelection campaigns, reluctant to sign onto partisan proposals. The much smaller than anticipated House Democratic majority compounds the challenge for the party.

Instead Biden will need to consider which domestic priorities can get bipartisan support since Senate rules now require anything to get 60 votes to advance. The president-elect has already indicated additional coronavirus relief will be his first priority, but he has also said he plans to unveil an infrastructure plan that could get support from Republicans.

But Biden Cabinet nominees will fare better. It’s unclear with the short time between setting up committees and negotiating staff arrangements in the narrowly split chamber what that will mean for how quickly confirmation hearings and floor votes can happen with just two weeks before the inauguration.

Return of the bipartisan gangs

After months of stalemate over the size and scope of a coronavirus relief package in the closing weeks of the last Congress, a group of centrists from both parties led by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Maine Republican Susan Collins unveiled a $900 billion compromise plan that became the basis for the legislation that ultimately was approved by the House and Senate and signed by the president.

Manchin has said he hopes that model can translate into efforts in 2021.

Other Republican moderates like Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska who helped on the COVID-19 aid package could also serve as powerful players if they decide to work across the aisle.

Progressives will push for Senate rules changes

Liberal Democrats have pressed to get rid of the legislative filibuster so that they can pass major health care or environmental bills with a simple majority.

Biden has side-stepped questions about whether he supports doing away with keeping the 60 vote threshold, but several top Senate Democrats have signaled they back changing a rule that many of them once insisted was essential to the institution. There will be intense pressure on Biden and Democratic leaders to show they can pass some bills with GOP support, but if Senate Republicans stay largely unified to thwart the new administration’s agenda calls to eliminate the filibuster will increase.

Manchin has publicly said he will oppose any effort to change the rules, and he will have outsized influence in the closely divided chamber.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953712195/democrats-move-closer-to-senate-control-as-counting-continues-in-georgia

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GOP fears Electoral College challenge will ‘come back to haunt’ it – POLITICO

“I think this is something that will come back to haunt Republicans,” said Jon Gilmore, a Republican strategist in Arkansas and an adviser to the state’s governor, Asa Hutchinson. “It opens a Pandora’s box.”

Since the 1990s, Republican presidential candidates have won the popular vote only once — in George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004 — with Trump relying on the Electoral College for his victory in 2016 and having no chance of running even close to Biden without it this year. In the near future, the nation’s changing demographics, despite Trump’s modest inroads with people of color this year, appear likely to further put the popular vote out of Republicans’ reach, making the Electoral College all the more important to the GOP. Given the stakes, inadvertently delegitimizing the Electoral College would seem counterintuitive. To some Republicans, it’s nuts.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Trump ally and a potential presidential candidate in 2024, raised the concern briefly in a statement over the weekend opposing his Republican colleagues’ efforts to block the counting of the votes. He said that overturning the outcome “would imperil the Electoral College, which gives small states like Arkansas a voice in presidential elections. Democrats could achieve their long-standing goal of eliminating the Electoral College in effect by refusing to count electoral votes in the future for a Republican president-elect.”

And seven House Republicans were even more explicit, warning in a joint letter that future Republican presidential campaigns were on the line.

“From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years,” read the statement from Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ken Buck of Colorado, Chip Roy of Texas, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Tom McClintock of California and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. “They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes — based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election — we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024.”

As a point of principle, the proceedings on Wednesday will put Republicans in an awkward position.

“They all know it’s absurd,” said Stuart Stevens, who was chief strategist for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012 and who worked against Trump’s reelection last year. “It’s just part of this, you know, you have people like [Sen. Josh] Hawley and [Sen. Ted] Cruz that spent their entire life building establishment credentials, and now they find themselves in a political world in which that is a negative, not a positive, so they are attempting desperately to prove that even though I call myself a constitutional lawyer, I’m happy to shred the Constitution.”

And though Stevens is supportive of ditching the Electoral College, most Republicans aren’t. In terms of rank politics, undercutting the Electoral College may be remembered as a profound example of the GOP shooting itself in the foot. One former Republican Party state chair said, “Republicans can’t say they’re for federalism and then undercut the Electoral College.”

Recalling that congressional Democrats forced debate on Ohio’s electoral votes after the 2004 election, former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who served as National Republican Congressional Committee chair, said that Democrats “set the precedent” but that “Republicans are now taking it and just running it into the ground.”

“It’s a slap at voters,” he said, predicting that it will be a “legacy vote” for Republicans in which “people will be judged in history by whether they wanted to overturn the Electoral College.”

Davis said he had spoken with several House Republicans who have been threatened with primary challenges if they don’t go along with Trump. But, he said, “there are just some things you shouldn’t tamper with.”

It’s possible that Cotton and like-minded House members are overstating concern about the Electoral College. The post-election challenges by Trump and his allies have been rife with any number of seeming political contradictions that Republicans are unlikely to suffer long-term damage from, with Republican lawmakers going so far in some cases as to demand their own states’ elections be decertified — but just the presidential result, not theirs. The Trump presidency has been defined by democratic norm-breaking, and the Electoral College isn’t exactly on any endangered species list.

One Republican National Committee member described the objections that Cruz and others plan to raise as simple “leverage” to advance complaints about voter fraud, boosting a looming effort by Republicans in statehouses around the country to tighten vote-by-mail and other voting restrictions. That effort, if successful, would probably help Republican nominees in future presidential elections. One prominent Republican political strategist called any suggestion of long-term implications for the Electoral College “complete bull—-,” and Frank Pignanelli, a former Democratic state lawmaker in Utah who now advises politicians of both parties, said, “I don’t think the Electoral College is going away anytime soon.”

“Things move so fast,” Pignanelli said, “that I think a year from now people will forget.”

Trump himself in 2012 called the Electoral College a “disaster for a democracy,” before relying on it to win in 2016 and reversing course.

But if the Electoral College is relatively sturdy, it’s also far from sacrosanct. From the GOP’s perspective, that means it needs every defender it can get. Even before the November election, a majority of Americans — 61 percent — told Gallup they supported abolishing the Electoral College. And for those who would very much like to see the Electoral College tampered with, the legal and legislative maneuvering since the election — culminating with the proceedings on Wednesday — is beginning to look like a bonanza.

In the post-election maelstrom surrounding vote challenges, John Koza, whose National Popular Vote initiative has slowly been gaining steam, said calls and donations to his organization were up. Since the mid-2000s, 15 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the compact that his group is promoting in which — if enough states eventually sign — they would award their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, regardless of the outcome in their individual states.

For Americans who may not have previously paid much attention to the workings of the Electoral College, Koza said, the post-election litigation and legislative maneuvering “demonstrates in spades the instability that’s been around the current system for years.”

“This thing Wednesday, which is usually a total yawner, is now becoming a major event,” Koza said. “It focuses attention on the problem that the whole election revolves around a handful of battleground states, and 38 states are basically irrelevant in the presidential.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who was an early supporter of the National Popular Vote movement when he was a state lawmaker in California in 2006, said the spectacle surrounding the certification of this year’s election “does give more impetus for a national popular vote to replace the Electoral College.”

He said, “None of this would be an issue if we simply took Biden’s win of over 7 million votes.”

And for Republicans intent on keeping the Electoral College, even the risk of degrading faith in the institution is a problem. The Arkansas strategist Gilmore, like many Republicans, said the fight on Wednesday might be “just a flash in the pan.”

However, he said, “it’s not a flash in the pan that I, as a Republican operative and strategist who has worked in the party for a long time, want to see that spark continue.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/06/gop-electoral-college-challenge-backfire-455204

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Georgia counts ballots as US Senate control hangs in balance – Minneapolis Star Tribune

ATLANTA — Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party’s reach.

A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. It was a stinging rebuke of outgoing President Donald Trump, who made one of his final trips in office to Georgia to rally his loyal base behind Loeffler and the Republican running for the other seat, David Perdue.

The focus now shifts to the second race between Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. That contest was too early to call as votes were still being counted.

There were still some mail ballots and in-person early votes left to be counted statewide, the majority of which are in Democratic-leaning counties. Under Georgia law, a trailing candidate may request a recount when the margin of an election is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points.

If Ossoff wins, Democrats will have complete control of Congress, strengthening President-elect Joe Biden’s standing as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20.

Warnock’s victory is a symbol of a striking shift in Georgia’s politics as the swelling number of diverse, college-educated voters flex their power in the heart of the Deep South. It follows Biden’s victory in November, when he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

Warnock, 51, acknowledged his improbable victory in a message to supporters early Wednesday, citing his family’s experience with poverty. His mother, he said, used to pick “somebody else’s cotton” as a teenager.

“The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he said. “Tonight, we proved with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible.”

Loeffler refused to concede in a brief message to supporters shortly after midnight.

“We’ve got some work to do here. This is a game of inches. We’re going to win this election,” insisted Loeffler, a 50-year-old former businesswoman who was appointed to the Senate less than a year ago by the state’s governor.

Loeffler, who remains a Georgia senator until the results of Tuesday’s election are finalized, said she would return to Washington on Wednesday morning to join a small group of senators planning to challenge Congress’ vote to certify Biden’s victory.

“We are going to keep fighting for you,” Loeffler said, “This is about protecting the American dream.”

Georgia’s other runoff election pitted Perdue, a 71-year-old former business executive who held his Senate seat until his term expired on Sunday, against Ossoff, a former congressional aide and journalist. At just 33 years old, Ossoff would be the Senate’s youngest member.

Trump’s false claims of voter fraud cast a dark shadow over the runoff elections, which were held only because no candidate hit the 50% threshold in the general election. He attacked the state’s election chief on the eve of the election and raised the prospect that some votes might not be counted even as votes were being cast Tuesday afternoon.

Republican state officials on the ground reported no significant problems.

This week’s elections mark the formal finale to the turbulent 2020 election season more than two months after the rest of the nation finished voting. The unusually high stakes transformed Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, into one of the nation’s premier battlegrounds for the final days of Trump’s presidency — and likely beyond.

Both contests tested whether the political coalition that fueled Biden’s November victory was an anti-Trump anomaly or part of a new electoral landscape. To win in Tuesday’s elections — and in the future — Democrats needed strong African American support.

Drawing on his popularity with Black voters, among other groups, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November.

Trump’s claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, while meritless, resonated with Republican voters in Georgia. About 7 in 10 agreed with his false assertion that Biden was not the legitimately elected president, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,600 voters in the runoff elections.

Election officials across the country, including the Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, as well as Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the November election. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, where three Trump-nominated justices preside.

Even with Trump’s claims, voters in both parties were drawn to the polls because of the high stakes. AP VoteCast found that 6 in 10 Georgia voters say Senate party control was the most important factor in their vote.

Even before Tuesday, Georgia had shattered its turnout record for a runoff with more than 3 million votes by mail or during in-person advance voting in December. Including Tuesday’s vote, more people ultimately cast ballots in the runoffs than voted in Georgia’s 2016 presidential election.

In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, 37-year-old Kari Callaghan said she voted “all Democrat” on Tuesday, an experience that was new for her.

“I’ve always been Republican, but I’ve been pretty disgusted by Trump and just the way the Republicans are working,” she said. “I feel like for the Republican candidates to still stand there with Trump and campaign with Trump feels pretty rotten. This isn’t the conservative values that I grew up with.”

But 56-year-old Will James said he voted “straight GOP.”

He said he was concerned by the Republican candidates’ recent support of Trump’s challenges of the presidential election results in Georgia, “but it didn’t really change the reasons I voted.”

“I believe in balance of power, and I don’t want either party to have a referendum, basically,” he said.

___

Peoples reported from New York. Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga. Associated Press writers Haleluya Hadero, Angie Wang, Sophia Tulp, Ben Nadler and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.startribune.com/georgia-tallies-votes-as-us-senate-control-hangs-in-balance/600006854/

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