McConnell says Taylor Greene’s embrace of conspiracy theories a ‘cancer’ to GOP, country

McConnell says Taylor Greene’s embrace of conspiracy theories a ‘cancer’ to GOP, country

The Hill reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blasted Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” as a “cancer for the Republican Party.” “Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” McConnell said in a statement first shared with The Hill. “This has nothing to do with the…

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An emboldened extremist wing flexes its power in a leaderless GOP

An emboldened extremist wing flexes its power in a leaderless GOP

The New York Times reports: Knute Buehler, who led Oregon’s Republican ticket as the candidate for governor in 2018, watched with growing alarm in recent weeks as Republicans around the nation challenged the reliability of the presidential election results. Then he watched the Jan. 6 siege at the United States Capitol in horror. And then, to his astonishment, Republican Party officials in his own state embraced the conspiracy theory that the attack was actually a left-wing “false flag” plot to…

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As virus variants spread, ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe’

As virus variants spread, ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe’

The New York Times reports: As a dangerous variant of the coronavirus first discovered in South Africa sickens and kills thousands across the country, Jan Matsena has shown up every day to stock the shelves at a Cape Town supermarket, terrified that he, too, will catch it. A neighbor died in December, then a co-worker in January. Now Mr. Matsena is waiting for a vaccine so he can return home to his township and hold his baby daughter again. But…

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Trump officials actively lobbied to deny states money for vaccine rollout last fall

Trump officials actively lobbied to deny states money for vaccine rollout last fall

STAT reports: Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation. The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with legislators. Without the extra money,…

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Trump’s 77-day campaign to subvert the election

Trump’s 77-day campaign to subvert the election

The New York Times reports: By Thursday the 12th of November, President Donald J. Trump’s election lawyers were concluding that the reality he faced was the inverse of the narrative he was promoting in his comments and on Twitter. There was no substantial evidence of election fraud, and there were nowhere near enough “irregularities” to reverse the outcome in the courts. Mr. Trump did not, could not, win the election, not by “a lot” or even a little. His presidency…

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Trump raised $255.4 million in 8 weeks as he sought to overturn election result

Trump raised $255.4 million in 8 weeks as he sought to overturn election result

The New York Times reports: President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party raised $255.4 million in the eight-plus weeks following the Nov. 3 election, new federal filings show, as he sought to undermine and overturn the results with unfounded accusations of fraud. Mr. Trump’s strongest fund-raising came in the immediate aftermath of the election, such as after major media organizations declared that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won on Nov. 7. But even as Mr. Trump and his legal…

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Scottish government may investigate sources of financing for Trump’s Scottish resorts

Scottish government may investigate sources of financing for Trump’s Scottish resorts

The Scotsman reports: An opposition debate in the Scottish Parliament will set out the arguments for ministers to apply to the Court of Session and act on growing concerns over how the former US president’s holdings in Scotland were acquired. While the issue has been discussed three times at Holyrood in the past 12 months, the coming debate is significant. A vote by MSPs calling on ministers to seek an UWO would not be binding, but it would substantially increase…

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Over 5,100 arrested at pro-Navalny protests across Russia

Over 5,100 arrested at pro-Navalny protests across Russia

The Associated Press reports: Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. More than 5,100 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and some were beaten. The massive protests came despite efforts by Russian authorities to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last…

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‘It’s a mess’: Biden’s first 10 days dominated by vaccine mysteries

‘It’s a mess’: Biden’s first 10 days dominated by vaccine mysteries

Politico reports: Joe Biden promised he’d bring in a competent, tested team to run the pandemic response, set ambitious vaccination targets and impose strict public health guidelines. His team arrived at the White House with a 200-page response plan ready to roll out. But instead, they have spent much of the last week trying to wrap their hands around the mushrooming crisis — a process officials acknowledge has been humbling, and triggered a concerted effort to temper expectations about how…

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Racial disparity seen in U.S. vaccination drive

Racial disparity seen in U.S. vaccination drive

The Associated Press reports: A racial gap has opened up in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, with Black Americans in many places lagging behind whites in receiving shots, an Associated Press analysis shows. An early look at the 17 states and two cities that have released racial breakdowns through Jan. 25 found that Black people in all places are getting inoculated at levels below their share of the general population, in some cases significantly below. That is true even though…

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Covid-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?

Covid-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?

Nature reports: When Emanuel Goldman went to his local New Jersey supermarket last March, he didn’t take any chances. Reports of COVID-19 cases were popping up across the United States, so he donned gloves to avoid contaminated surfaces and wore a mask to prevent him inhaling tiny virus-laden droplets from fellow shoppers. Neither gloves nor masks were recommended at the time. Then, at the end of March, a laboratory study showed that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can persist on plastic and…

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The remedy for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s crazy talk is censure

The remedy for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s crazy talk is censure

Jack Shafer writes: Nowhere in the Constitution—and this is excellent news for freshly sworn-in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—does it stipulate that a House member must have the mental capacity to cook on all four burners. This is in keeping with the Framers’ general idea that only the lowest bars should be set for officeholders. They declined to cordon off Congress with credential and qualification roadblocks, stating in Article I, section 2, clause 2 that House members need only be…

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Jan. 6 rally funded by top Trump donor, helped by Alex Jones, organizers say

Jan. 6 rally funded by top Trump donor, helped by Alex Jones, organizers say

The Wall Street Journal reports: The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host Alex Jones. Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed “top speaking slot of his choice,” according to a funding document outlining a deal between his…

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How Trump’s focus on antifa distracted law enforcement attention from the far-right threat

How Trump’s focus on antifa distracted law enforcement attention from the far-right threat

The New York Times reports: As racial justice protests erupted nationwide last year, President Donald J. Trump, struggling to find a winning campaign theme, hit on a message that he stressed over and over: The real domestic threat to the United States emanated from the radical left, even though law enforcement authorities had long since concluded it came from the far right. It was a message that was quickly embraced and amplified by his attorney general and his top homeland…

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In ice age Siberia, a meeting of carnivores may have given us dogs

In ice age Siberia, a meeting of carnivores may have given us dogs

The New York Times reports: Twenty-three thousand years ago, in the cold of the last ice age, some humans found a place where the climate was marginally better: Siberia. While many people associate the region that is now in Russia with forbidding cold today, climate data as well as archaeological and DNA evidence show that this was where horses, mammoths and other prey animals found enough to eat, which attracted humans and other carnivores. Hemmed in by worse conditions, the…

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