Wicked Blue
Wicked Blue's JournalNew 'Treason Caucus' campaign targets Cruz, Hawley, and others for role in deadly Capitol insurrecti
Common Dreams via Raw Story
Demands for accountability ramped up on Friday as the progressive organization MoveOn Civic Action launched a "Treason Caucus" campaign calling on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to resign or be expelled from office for his role in helping to incite the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The state-specific and national campaign is also targeting Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and the 147 House Republicans who voted to overturn the November 2020 presidential election, which former President Donald Trump decisively lost to President Joe Biden.
Even before the right-wing siege of the Capitol that left five people dead, Cruz, Hawley, Johnson, and other GOP lawmakers came under fire for elevating unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud that Trump and his allies spouted to anyone who would listen in the months after the election.
"When the country watched as a violent Trump mob stormed the Capitol, we saw the impact of months of delusional election fraud lies and incendiary rhetoric from Donald Trump come to a deadly fruition," said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn Civic Action. "But Trump did not act alone."
https://www.rawstory.com/ted-cruz-josh-hawley/
Putin signs off on extension of New START treaty
Source: France24
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on legislation extending a key nuclear pact between Russia and the United States by five years, the Kremlin said on Friday.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the federal law 'on the ratification of the extension of the agreement between Russia and the USA'," the Kremlin said in a statement, referring to New START.
"The current federal law enters force on the day of its official publication," the statement said.
The New START treaty is the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals.
Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210129-putin-signs-off-on-extension-of-new-start-treaty
Israeli archaeologists find 'Biblical royal purple dye'
A purple dye dating back to the purported reign of the Biblical King David has been identified on a piece of fabric by Israeli archaeologists.
The dye is said to have been more valuable than gold and was associated with royalty.
It is the first time textile from that period with the colour has been found in the region.
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The fragment was unearthed during excavations at a site in Timna, about 220km (137 miles) south of Jerusalem.
Excavation at Timna.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55815820
China warns Taiwan independence 'means war' as US pledges support
Source: BBC
China has warned Taiwan that any attempt to seek independence "means war".
The warning comes days after China stepped up its military activities and flew warplanes near the island.
It also comes after new US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to Taiwan, and set out his stance in Asia.
The US has called China's latest warning "unfortunate", adding that tensions did not need to lead to "anything like confrontation".
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55851052
Biden to Visit Wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital
NBC4Washington
By Alexandra Jaffe
President Joe Biden is making his first major foray outside the White House on Friday, to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Biden has a long and personal history with the hospital, which treats thousands of military service members, veterans and their families. His son Beau, who served as a major in the Delaware Army National Guard, died there in 2015 after a long battle with brain cancer.
Even before Beau’s treatment at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were frequent visitors during his time as vice president, making multiple Christmas Day stops to meet with soldiers there. Jill Biden focused in part on promoting awareness of issues affecting military families during that time, and on Friday she’ll again be focused on the issue as she participates in a virtual event with military-connected students.
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Biden’s early visit there marks one of his first departures from the gated White House campus. Throughout the transition and even during the campaign, Biden has pared back his travel and in-person meetings, doing as much work as possible virtually to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/biden-to-visit-wounded-soldiers-at-walter-reed-hospital/2555297/
Former VP Pence seen on St. Croix
Virgin Islands Daily News
By A.J. RAO
Former Vice President Mike Pence is getting some rest and relaxation in the territory, according to St. Croix Administrator Sammuel Sanes.
While details are slight for security reasons, Sanes confirmed that Pence was seen Wednesday at the Seaside Market in Christiansted after a resident contacted The Daily News.
The duration of Pence’s trip or whether the former vice president would be traveling to other islands could not be confirmed by Sanes or Government House spokesperson Richard Motta Jr.
The visit is Pence’s first trip to the territory since October 2017, when he met with government and emergency officials on St. Croix after Hurricane Maria.
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/former-vp-pence-seen-on-st-croix/article_367d4e98-6eec-55ba-9ac7-1232a06eb367.html
Somehow I doubt he will stop by at Merde-a-Lago on the way home.
Facebook's new 'Supreme Court' knocks content rules as vague and incomplete in first rulings
Washington Post
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg
Jan. 28, 2021 at 10:26 a.m. EST
Facebook’s new Oversight Board found company content moderation policies vague and poorly communicated in its first set of decisions released Thursday, overruling the company’s actions in four of the five cases it decided in its initial round of cases.
The actions covered a range of issues that have vexed social media companies — alleged hate speech, coronavirus misinformation and references to dangerous organizations and people — and included one case in which an automated detection system apparently overreacted to an image of an uncovered female nipple in a breast-cancer awareness campaign.
Taken together, the rulings suggest the oversight board is going to demand greater clarity and transparency from Facebook in the tiny sliver of cases it chooses to review. The board is also weighing Facebook’s ban of President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, though a decision in that case is not likely for months. The five cases decided Thursday all date to October or November of last year.
“We often found that the community standards as written are incomplete,” said board member Sudhir Krishnaswamy, vice-chancellor of the National Law School of India University, in an interview with The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/28/facebook-oversight-board-cases/
Police raid Navalny offices, home as Russia fines social media platforms
France24.com
Russian police raided the Moscow offices of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's group on Wednesday and came to search several other properties, including a flat where his wife was, as the country's media watchdog said it would fine social media platforms for spreading protest calls.
The police searches come after tens of thousands of Navalny's supporters took to the streets on Saturday to call on the Kremlin to release him from jail where he is serving a 30-day stint for alleged parole violations that he denies.
Police had said the protests were illegal and detained close to 4,000 people. More than a dozen criminal cases have been opened. Navalny's allies plan to hold another rally this Sunday.
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said police appeared to be conducting the searches as part of an investigation into calls made to hold a protest that flouted restrictions imposed over the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210127-police-raid-navalny-offices-home-as-russia-fines-social-media-platforms
Prices at Trump's NYC buildings have plummeted in the latest sign that his name is 'radioactive'
Business Insider
Juliana Kaplan
After a tumultuous one-term presidency, a violent insurrection by supporters, and a retirement to Florida, the Trump name has attracted some negative connotations. And his real-estate holdings are feeling the heat: According to Curbed's analysis of a report from real-estate data firm UrbanDigs, Trump-branded Manhattan properties have lost half their value since Trump first took office.
UrbanDigs — which looked at the seven luxury buildings in Manhattan that still bear the Trump moniker, and three that used to — found that even properties that formerly had Trump in their names lost 17% of their value since 2016. By comparison, the overall price per square foot decline in Manhattan over the same period was just 9%.
In 2016, the average price per square foot in seven NYC properties run by his real-estate behemoth, the Trump Organization, was $3,346, according to the report. In 2017, following Trump's election and inauguration, that figure sunk to $1,903; by 2020, it was at $1,619. That's a drop of 51% from its 2016 price.
The average price per square foot for Manhattan properties was $1,995 in 2016, dipping to $1,815 in 2020 — a mere 9% decrease, Curbed notes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tower-buildings-value-real-estate-prices-2021-1
Toll of death, injuries from Capitol attack stands at more than 140 police officers, prosecutors and
By Tom Jackman
The toll of death and injuries for the police officers involved in defending the U.S. Capitol in Washington during the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob has risen to more than 140, according to federal and police authorities.
“I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained head injuries. One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake, to name some of the injuries,” Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the Capitol Police officers union, said in a statement Wednesday,
In addition to the death of one Capitol Police officer, according to federal prosecutors, more than 80 Capitol Police officers were assaulted.
About 65 officers from the D.C. police also suffered injuries, including several concussions from head blows from various objects, including metal poles ripped from inauguration-related scaffolding and even a pole with an American flag attached, D.C. police officials said. Other injuries included swollen ankles and wrists, bruised arms and legs, and irritated lungs from bear and pepper spray.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/27/trump-impeachment-joe-biden-live-updates/#link-33MD3J76YZGTLOUJ2NYD67AZEA
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