President-elect Joe Biden has privately told advisers that he doesn't want his presidency to be consumed by investigations of his predecessor, according to five people familiar with the discussions, despite pressure from some Democrats who want inquiries into President Donald Trump, his policies and members of his administration. Biden has raised concerns that investigations would further divide a country he is trying to unite and risk making every day of his presidency about Trump, said the sources, who spoke on background to offer details of private conversations.

Work by Jason Richwine has generated controversy

In the accountability-free zone in the Capitol, nobody has managed to challenge those responsible for the disappointing electoral result.

Hurricane Iota will bring potentially catastrophic rainfall flooding, mudslides, storm surge and damaging winds for the second time in two weeks to parts of Central America still recovering from Hurricane Eta in early November. Late Monday morning, Iota became only the second Category 5 hurricane on record in November and the record latest-in-season hurricane ever to reach that intensity in the Atlantic Basin.

Hannah Quinn and Blake Davis are on trial for the murder of Jett McKee after a botched robbery at their Forest Lodge granny flat in August 2018. Police allege Ms Quinn tackled the 30-year-old to the ground on Hereford Street before Mr Davis cracked his skull with a samurai sword.

President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country’s stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday. A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran’s facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency. Any strike — whether by missile or cyber — would almost certainly be focused on Natanz, where the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that Iran’s uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018. The agency also noted that Iran had not allowed it access to another suspected site where there was evidence of past nuclear activity.

Leprosy is an ancient ailment, but surprisingly little is known about where and when it emerged, or how exactly it spreads. The disease—and the terrible stigma it carries—once afflicted millions of people across the globe. But after a combination of antibiotics became standard therapy in the 1980s, cases plummeted and scientific interest waned. The difficulty of studying leprosy adds to the lack of interest, says co-author Charlotte Avanzi, a microbiologist at Colorado State University (CSU), Fort Collins. The bacteria that cause the disease, Mycobacterium leprae and the recently discovered M. lepromatosis, cannot be cultured in cells in the lab. The only way to multiply the pathogen is to inject it into armadillos or into the footpads of mice.

Mississippians should plan “to have very small Thanksgiving gatherings” with only nuclear family members this year to stay safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and other public health officials warned on Friday. “You’re going to have a lot of sick folks who caught (COVID-19) during Thanksgiving. We know this is the perfect milieu, having young folks and old folks and folks with chronic illness around the table—and then death,” Dobbs said during a sober Mississippi State Medical Association Zoom meeting with fellow physicians on Nov. 12. The state’s top health official urged even Mississippians who are having small holiday gatherings to observe 6 feet of social distancing and to hold the gatherings outdoors, where the chance of transmission is lower. “We don’t really want to see Mamaw at Thanksgiving and bury her by Christmas,” MSMA President Dr. Mark Horne said during the meeting, concurring with the state health officer. “We’re going to see some of that. It’s going to happen,” Dobbs replied. Horne agreed. “It’s going to happen. You’re going to say hi at Thanksgiving, it’s so nice to see you, and you’re either going to be visiting her by Facetime in the ICU or planning a small funeral by Christmas,” the MSMA president said.

An estimated 11 to 13 million renter households are at risk of eviction, according to Stout, an investment bank and global advisory firm. It predicts there could be as many as 6.4 million potential eviction filings by January 1, 2021

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state.

The obscure political appointee of President Trump who is blocking President-elect Joe Biden from launching his transition is reportedly looking for a new job once the new president takes office. Emily Murphy, the General Services Administrator, apparently sees the writing on the wall, despite her head-in-the-sand effort to curry favor with Trump by denying the reality of Biden’s win. ABC News reported Monday that Murphy has privately sent messages to acquaintances enquiring about job opportunities in 2021.

As Donald Trump nears the end of his elected presidential term, far-right and fascist groups maneuver to exploit rage among his supporters. The Oath Keepers, a militia made up of mostly retired military and law enforcement employees, have long sought to pose as a militant vanguard among Trump supporters, particularly older men. The group and […]

Three police officers in an unmarked pickup truck pulled into the parking lot of a Walgreens in Vallejo, California, responding to a call of looting in progress. It was just after midnight on June 2nd, and a group of people who had gathered around a smashed drive-through window quickly fled in two cars. Sean Monterrosa, a twenty-two-year-old from San Francisco, was left behind. As the police truck closed in on Monterrosa, Jarrett Tonn, a detective who had been with the Vallejo police force for six years, was in the back seat, aiming a rifle. No one told Monterrosa to freeze or to put his hands up, but he fell to his knees anyway. As the truck came to a stop, Tonn fired five rounds at Monterrosa through the windshield.

The little spotted kiwi soared in the rankings before election organizers discovered 1,500 fraudulent votes placed for the flightless bird.

Loren Reed, dubbed the “Arizona Emo Anarchist” by a local right-wing news site, has been held in federal pre-trial detention for more than 6 months after the courts repeatedly rejected his requests to be released pending trial. Loren is charged with one count of “Threats to Damage and Destroy a Building by Means of Fire,” which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The charges stem from comments Loren made in a private Facebook chat while planning a protest against police violence in his hometown. Because federal grand juries were suspended in Arizona for six months due to COVID-19, Loren spent the majority of his time in pre-trial detention without an indictment–in legal limbo. After more than four months of detention, he was finally able to enter a plea of “not guilty” to the charge against him.

A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.

North Dakota has put in place a statewide mask mandate, occupancy limits on public-facing businesses and the suspension of most high school winter sports as the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 outbreak continues to spiral out of control. The mask order, announced in a news release late Friday night, Nov. 13, means residents of the state must wear face coverings in businesses, indoor public places and outdoor public settings where social distancing cannot be maintained. The order includes exemptions for children under five years of age, people attending religious services and those with disabilities that make mask-wearing unreasonable. The order from interim State Health Officer Dirk Wilke goes into effect on Saturday, Nov. 14, and will remain on the books through Dec. 14. Violators of the mask order can be cited for an infraction, which could come with a fine up to $1,000 for a first offense. However, Gov. Doug Burgum urged law enforcement to prioritize education and reserve penalties for the most egregious infringements.

MAGA nation may be turning its back on Fox News — but it doesn’t know where to go. Parler, the “free speech”-friendly version of Twitter, saw a massive explosion of growth right after the election — only to be hit with a viral claim that the social media platform was owned by George Soros. QAnon supporters revolted against Newsmax, a conservative cable channel owned by Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, after the network used a photo of a man wearing a hoodie to describe a white nationalist. Nationalist blogs began running hit pieces on Fox News, claiming its viewership was down, and Trump, reportedly mulling his own media enterprise when he leaves the White House, claimed that its ratings had “collapsed,” because “they forgot the Golden Goose.” While Fox News still easily bests newer networks like Newsmax in viewership, a Newsmax show on Thursday night drew more than 1 million viewers for the first time, according to Nielsen TV ratings. And since Fox News network committed the ultimate heresy — being the first to declare Biden had flipped Arizona, and later acknowledging Biden’s victory — the network’s disenchanted viewers may now be up for grabs.

President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, on Monday said there will be a “professional transition” to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration despite Trump’s refusal to concede that he lost the election. Speaking to The Hill’s editor-at-large Steve Clemons at the Global Security Forum, O’Brien left open the possibility that Trump could still win a second term if the courts determine there was widespread fraud. But O’Brien said it appears clear, at the moment, that Biden and running mate Kamala Harris won the election and should be given the time they need to get their people and policies in place.

Another pro-President Trump rally was held at the Michigan Capitol on Saturday as the “Million MAGA March” attracted thousands, including several far-right groups like the Proud Boys, in Washington, D.C. It was part of a national “Stop the Steal” effort, a massive disinformation campaign about voter fraud in the 2020 election linked to longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, CNN reports. Stone, who was convicted of several felonies for trying to stop a U.S. House investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, had his sentence commuted this year by Trump. Some Republicans have refused to accept that Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect, even though he has exceeded the required 270 electoral votes and has a 5.5 million lead in the popular vote that has been growing. Biden’s win in Michigan was by about 150,000 votes or 3% — which is roughly 14 times what Trump’s 2016 win was in the state. Nonetheless, the Trump campaign and its allies have filed a number of lawsuits with baseless claims of voter fraud in key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, most of which have been rejected. They have failed to change the outcome of the race in those states. The Washington Post, New York Times and other outlets have found no evidence of voter fraud.