Fmr. Gov. Bill Weld: A 'bunch' of Republicans will endorse Biden
Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman speaks with former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld about the likelihood of some Republicans endorsing Biden over Trump in the 2020 election.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party said Friday that Armin Laschet, the governor of Germany’s most populous state, has been confirmed as its new leader. The 59-year-old centrist came first in an online vote by party delegates Saturday, ahead of conservative rival Friedrich Merz. Under German law the election had to be officially endorsed with a postal ballot.
President Joe Biden, in just his third day on the job, ordered help for hungry Americans Friday in a rush to pull the country from its multi-pronged pandemic crisis.
The Senate on Friday confirmed Lloyd Austin as the nation's first Black defense secretary.
A rare gold coin made by a noted craftsman in New York in 1787 has sold at auction in Dallas for $9.36 million. Heritage Auctions offered the New York-style Brasher Doubloon on Thursday evening as part of an auction of U.S. coins. Heritage said the sale is the most ever paid for a gold coin at auction and the buyer wished to remain anonymous.
Record low mortgage rates amid the coronavirus pandemic fueled a US housing boom last year, pushing existing home sales to the highest since 2006, according to a survey released Friday.
By the time the community understands just how devastating the bee decline actually is, it may be too late to reverse it.
The Paris Agreement bears the name of the city where world leaders in 2015 negotiated the historic pact to combat global warming.
The fragile Italian government faces another threat of collapsing next week, as the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s plans to expand his tight majority in parliament were derailed by a mafia investigation involving a possible new ally. Mr Conte survived a confidence vote in the Senate by just a few ballots on Tuesday following the exit of Matteo Renzi’s tiny centrist party from the ruling coalition. But his bid to strengthen his hold on government appears increasingly challenging after one of the small parties he was courting, the centrist UDC, was hit on Thursday by a judicial scandal. Its head Lorenzo Cesa was forced to resign after being notified he was under investigation for alleged links with the powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia syndicate. According to prosecutors, Mr Cesa allegedly facilitated some ‘Ndrangheta businessmen and was their political “referent.” He has denied any wrongdoing, but said it was his duty to step down and wait for the outcome of the probe. It is part of a broader investigation, led by Catanzaro anti-mafia prosecutors, that has seen 48 people arrested and another 35 placed under house arrest under suspicion of mafia association, money laundering, illicit trafficking and other crimes. The news has rocked Italian politics and cast doubt on the fate of Mr Conte’s negotiations with his possible future allies. The Five Star Movement, one of the senior partners in Mr Conte’s ruling coalition, made clear that negotiating with UDC was not an option anymore. “I feel like saying that the Five Stars will never be able to open a dialogue with subjects convicted or under investigation for mafia or similar crimes,” Foreign Minister and Five Stars’ leader Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
President Biden's coronavirus plan will take time, experts say. Meanwhile, states are running out of vaccine. Latest COVID-19 news.
Protests have swept towns and cities throughout Tunisia for a week, often turning to violence as demonstrators denounce what they say are broken promises from the government, which hasn’t been able to turn around an economy on the verge of bankruptcy. Many protesters are disenfranchised young people, a third of whom are unemployed, taking their voices to the street after being left behind by the country’s leadership. Rights groups say the police have arrested some 1,000 people — many of them minors — for alleged acts of vandalism and theft, while parents and families are now also joining the protests, lobbying for the release of their children.
Compliance with speed rules designed to protect rare whales has increased in recent years but could still be higher, according to a report from the federal government. The slow speed zones are implemented to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number about 360 and are vulnerable to collisions with ships. The National Marine Fisheries Service implemented seasonal, mandatory vessel speed rules in some areas along the East Coast in 2008 to try to help the whales.
The House impeached President Donald Trump for "incitement of insurrection" on Jan. 13, making him the only president to be impeached twice.
President Biden's paid leave plan would cover an additional 106 million Americans if it becomes law.
The Senate Finance Committee approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th Treasury secretary on Friday, and supporters said they hoped to get the full Senate to approve it later in the day, making her the first woman to hold the job. The Finance Committee approved her nomination on a 26-0 vote. The administration is urging a quick confirmation vote, saying it's critical to get the top member of Biden’s economic team in place as the Democratic president seeks to win approval of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.
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The House will transmit its article of impeachment charging Donald Trump with "incitement of insurrection" to the Senate on Monday, launching the start of the former president's trial. Chuck Schumer, the Democrat Senate leader, declined to give a timetable for the trial but the chamber's rules dictate that the trial must begin very soon after the article of impeachment arrives. "There will be a trial," Mr Schumer said. "It will be a full trial, it will be a fair trial". It sets on course the second impeachment trial for Mr Trump, the only US president to face two impeachments. Trump is the first president to be twice impeached and the first to face a trial after leaving office. While the transmission of the article launches the trial, the schedule ahead remains uncertain.
Microsoft has raised prices for new Xbox Live Gold memberships — you'll now pay $60 for six months.
Each COVID-19 infection increases the risk of a mutation that could make it more infectious, deadlier, or different enough to make vaccines not work.
A British Army Reservist serving with the US National Guard provided security for President Biden's inauguration, the MoD has confirmed. Major Keiron Francis, a Royal Signals officer, is the first British reservist to be involved in a Presidential inauguration. Attached to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Major Francis supported the forward elements of the 25,000 troops brought into Washington DC to provide security for Wednesday's event. Under the Foreign Military Reserve Exchange Program, a scheme launched in 2017, Major Francis is able to continue to serve as a reservist whilst working in the US as a sales director in the defence industry. The reciprocal arrangement means that around 30 American, Australian, and Canadian soldiers are currently doing the same in the UK.
Scientists say the data's not in yet, but there are worrying signs the strain sweeping across South Africa could be resistant to the current vaccines.