Friday, Jan 23rd
Last update09:57:22 AM GMT
More than 500,000 workers at the United States Postal Service (USPS) will be handling billions of deliveries through the holidays. For hundreds of them, this may be their last Christmas at their current mail sorting facility and workers are warning the impact on consumers will be severe.
The appointee as postmaster general under Donald Trump, Louis DeJoy, is currently implementing a 10-year “Delivering for America” austerity plan that will slash jobs and close sorting centers.
Donald Trump can't point to his time in the White House in an effort to duck a civil defamation lawsuit tied to sexual assault allegations because he waited too long to claim presidential immunity, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The case concerns Trump's denial in 2019, while he was president, of having sexually assaulted journalist and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s. In June of that year, Trump described Carroll as “a woman who has also accused other men of things," and called her account "a totally false accusation."
In a separate civil case, Trump was ordered in May to pay Carroll $5 million after a jury found both that he sexually abused her, and had defamed her through a 2022 statement denying the assault. Trump has appealed that verdict.
On Wednesday Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s governor, signed an executive order in effect banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at agencies and public colleges and universities across the state.
The order prohibits them from using state funds, property or resources towards DEI initiatives and orders them to dismiss “non-critical personnel”. It is effective immediately, but institutions are expected to comply no later than 31 May 2024.
The 25 public colleges and universities in the state also have to provide reports that detail the expenditure of their former DEI initiatives and job positions. Stitt said he is “implementing greater protections for Oklahomans and their tax dollars”. But according to local news outlet KFOR, only “around $10.2m was spent on DEI programs in the past decade. It accounted for three-tenths of one percent of all higher education spending.”
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is raising alarms about what he sees as the risk of potential cancer posed by COVID vaccines.
Ladapo, who rose to national prominence during the pandemic for spreading misinformation about the virus and promoting vaccination hesitancy, is asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to answer questions about his concerns regarding DNA integration in mRNA vaccines.
President Joe Biden invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House for a meeting on Tuesday and he has accepted, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and another White House official said Sunday.
Biden intends to “underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine” in its war against Russia, Jean-Pierre said.
“As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment,” she added.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have also invited Zelenskyy to speak at an all-senators meeting on Tuesday morning, according to a Senate leadership aide.
Just weeks before Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the head of Mossad arrived in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting with Qatari officials.
For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them.
During his meetings in September with the Qatari officials, according to several people familiar with the secret discussions, the Mossad chief, David Barnea, was asked a question that had not been on the agenda: Did Israel want the payments to continue?
Mia Leimberg emerged from nearly two months' captivity in Gaza with Bella, her Shih Tzu, in her arms, one of the most astonishing moments of a week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended last Friday.
"When we were there we had to feed her our leftovers - yeah I'm talking about you Bella," said Mia, 17, looking down at the small white dog in her arms. "And we had to make sure that she doesn't run wild where we were. We had to keep her so that she doesn't go exploring and annoy anybody there."
Mia and her mother Gabriela were visiting family in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak when they were taken hostage by Hamas during its Oct. 7 killing spree through southern Israel, sparking the war with the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza.
The mother, daughter, aunt and dog were set free as part of a swap for Palestinian prisoners, but her uncle and her aunt's partner remain in captivity.
Ukraine has launched an investigation after a video emerged purportedly showing Russian troops killing two Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered.
Ukrainian prosecutors say the footage shows "a group of people in Russian uniforms" shooting the unarmed Ukrainians at close range.
The prosecutors say the killing of prisoners of war is a "gross violation" of the laws and customs of conflict.
The video has not been independently verified. Russia has not commented.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of violating the Geneva conventions - a set of international humanitarian laws regulating the conduct of armed conflict, and specifically the treatment of POWs.
Republican Rep. Ken Buck laid into his own party Sunday, blasting those who continue to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was stolen for “lying to America.”
“Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,” the Colorado Republican said during an interview in CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Buck didn’t stop there.“Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn’t commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.”
Page 97 of 1169
