Rights groups in Cameroon doubt the military’s claim it will properly investigate the latest alleged massacre of civilians by its troops. Activists and witnesses say the military killed 10 villagers Sunday, including women and children, while attempting to fight separatists. Cameroon’s military denies it was responsible, a line that has been questioned in past cases. Thirty-seven-year-old teacher Jacob Mende says he fled Cameroon’s southwestern village of Mautu after witnessing the military on Sunday shooting civilians. “Cameroon military invaded the village of Mautu,” he said, speaking via a messaging application from the coastal town of Limbe. “They were shooting indiscriminately. United Nations, African Union, they are killing our people in cold blood. They invaded Mautu, they invaded our villages, killed our young guys. These are civilians. The world should see.” Activists and witnesses quoted in local media say troops killed 10 villagers, including women and children.Cameroon’s military on Monday acknowledged clashes at Mautu village but said reports that troops killed civilians were unfounded. In a press release, a military spokesman accused Anglophone rebels of a massacre and trying to blame the military. The statement by Army Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo said troops surprised a group of armed men in the village, killing some, while others fled.It gave no casualty figures and said a military investigation was ordered to uncover every detail. But Cameroon activists poured doubt on the military conducting a proper investigation of yet another alleged massacre by its own troops. Felix Agbor Balla is a human rights lawyer and founder of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. “There is a need for a fact-finding mission, a commission of inquiry to ascertain whether all the victims were civilians and if there were civilians who were not taking any active part in hostility in the conflict, then the military is supposed to be held accountable for the indiscriminate shooting and killing of civilians,” he said.In December, three Cameroon soldiers were charged with killing villagers, including women and children, while fighting rebels last year in the northwestern village of Ngarr-buh. Human Rights Watch says troops were responsible for the deaths of 21 civilians, including 13 children and a pregnant woman. Separately, seven troops are on military trial in Yaoundé for the killing of two women and two children. Cameroon’s government and military initially dismissed all the allegations of troops killing civilians as efforts to tarnish their image. But, under international pressure and from rights groups, authorities later prosecuted the troops. Anglophone rebels have been fighting since 2017 to form an English-speaking state within the French-speaking-majority country. Rights groups say both the military and rebels have committed atrocities during the conflict, which the U.N. says have left over 3,000 people dead and more than half-a-million displaced.
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Month: January 2021
Testimony Begins Wednesday in Italy’s Largest Organized Crime Trial in Three Decades
Testimony begins Wednesday in Italy in the country’s largest organized crime trial in more than three decades. More than 350 defendants will stand in the dock in a specially-built high security courtroom in the southern town of Lamezia Terme, in Italy’s Calabrian region, home of the powerful mafia-like ‘Ndrangheta empire. As many as 900 witnesses will testify in a trial that is expected to last as long as a year, if not longer. Prosecutors are focusing their efforts primarily on the ‘Ndrangheta’s Mancuso family, which controls the Vibo Valentia area of Calabria. The defendants, including Mancuso blood relatives, disgraced politicians, lawyers, businessmen, law enforcement officials and others, are facing a host of crimes dating back decades, including murder, drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering. The ‘Ndrangheta’s various worldwide illicit and legitimate enterprises bring in an estimated $61 billion per year for the syndicate. A similar so-called “maxi-trial” in 1986 led to the convictions of more than 300 members and associates of Sicily’s notorious Cosa Nostra crime family.
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Taiwanese Health Official Warns Against Reliance on Coronavirus Vaccines
The Taiwanese health official credited with leading one of the world’s most successful COVID-19 control efforts is warning people globally to keep up their guard against coronavirus even as vaccines emerge.Governments will face challenges in distributing vaccine shots to their populations, leading to an “imbalance” between those who are protected and those still at risk, Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told VOA on Monday. Coronavirus caseloads worldwide have not yet reached their all-time peak, he added.Chen’s government has kept the Taiwan COVID-19 caseload at just 838 across a population of nearly 24 million, among the populous world’s lowest rates, due to strict quarantine rules and tracing of sick people’s contacts.Customers wear protective masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease while shopping at a market in Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 10, 2021.The flu killed no one in Taiwan over the final two months of 2020 when most people were wearing masks, down from 87 deaths from the flu in the same period of 2019, he said. Enterovirus cases dropped, too, added Chen, who plans to recommend continued facemask use in Taiwan after Covid-19 outbreaks ease.“Putting on a facemask isn’t that hard, especially in the winter when it’s cold outside anyway,” he said. “It’s useful for stopping Covid-19 as well as other respiratory diseases.”Control over COVID-19 at home won’t open a door to Taipei’s long-sought participation in the World Health Organization, from which it is barred by political rival China and its allies. But Chao Chien-min, dean of social sciences at Chinese Culture University in the capital, says it has given the island a welcome glow overseas.“I think Taiwan’s role has been big and its volume loud throughout this COVID-19 incident period, and whether in the WHO or in whatever forum, Taiwan’s epidemic control success will be mentioned,” Chao said. “So for Taiwan, there’s that effect.”But an infected airline pilot and two coronavirus cases in a Taiwan hospital since Dec. 22 have put Taiwan on high alert. Migrant workers coming in from infected countries such as Indonesia may carry the virus too, said Wu Chia-yi, associate professor in the National Taiwan University College of Medicine’s nursing faculty.“Because we import Indonesian labor, I think this group of people in Taiwan is a potential risk and a high risk,” Wu said. “So if you ask me whether Taiwan has future risk, I think we still have potential risk of outbreak from the imported cases.”
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US Executes First Woman Since 1953
The U.S. government has carried out its first execution of a female inmate in nearly 70 years. Lisa Montgomery was put to death early Wednesday at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. A series of legal challenges seeking to stop the execution ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling late Tuesday it could go forward. Montgomery was convicted in 2007 for strangling a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her womb. Montgomery took the baby and tried to pass it off as her own. Her legal team argued she suffered from “sexual torture,” including gang rapes, as a child, permanently scarring her emotionally and exacerbating mental-health issues that ran in her family. Lawyer Kelley Henry said in a statement the decision to execute Montgomery was a “vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power.” “The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight,” Henry said. “Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.” The U.S. Justice Department said the execution was “in accordance with the capital sentence unanimously recommended by a federal jury and imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.” Montgomery is the 11th federal prisoner to be executed since July when President Donald Trump resumed federal executions after a 17-year break. There were two more executions scheduled to take place later this week, just before the end of Trump’s term, but a federal judge in Washington halted them after both of the inmates tested positive for COVID-19.
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Law Enforcement Gearing Up for Biden’s Inauguration
Ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, law enforcement and local government officials in Washington, D.C., are implementing unprecedented security measures to avoid the kind of massive security breach that happened last week when thousands of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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US House Will Vote to Impeach Trump Wednesday
The Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives will vote to impeach President Donald Trump as early as Wednesday, charging him with inciting an insurrection in an attempt to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.
Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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VOA Director Reassigns White House Correspondent
In a rebuke from Congress, U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Michael McCaul of Texas chastised the heads of USAGM and Voice of America on Tuesday for reassigning a VOA White House correspondent. Patsy Widakuswara was told late Monday she is being reassigned, hours after the veteran reporter attempted to question Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following a speech he delivered at VOA headquarters. “This is the United States of America – we do not punish our journalists for seeking answers to their questions. A free and fair press is at the core of our Constitution and our democracy,” Meeks, the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and lead Republican McCaul said in a joint statement. The lawmakers called for VOA to explain its actions and to reinstate Widakuswara. FILE – Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has a conversation with VOA Director Robert Reilly at the Voice of America headquarters in Washington, Jan. 11, 2021.Widakuswara was informed at around 10:30 p.m. Monday that she was being moved to general reporting instead of the high-profile White House job. No reason was provided. A VOA spokesperson replied to questions about Widakuswara’s reassignment and said the news organization does not comment on personnel matters. USAGM did not respond. VOA directors have the authority to reassign staff as they see fit. But journalism groups and a whistleblower agency criticized the move as an attack on press freedom. Although VOA is taxpayer funded, its journalists operate under a “firewall” framework designed to protect their independence from politics. That tradition has been challenged, however, by CEO Michael Pack, the Trump appointee who took over as chief of VOA’s parent agency, USAGM, in June. The actions taken against Widakuswara are an “assault on the First Amendment,” Zeke Miller, president of the White House Correspondents Club, said in a statement. “VOA’s reassignment of Patsy Widakuswara for doing her job, asking questions, is an affront to the very ideals Secretary of State Pompeo discussed in his speech,” Miller said. He added that removing Widakuswara from her beat “harms the interests of all Americans who depend on the free press to learn about the actions of their government and gives comfort to efforts to restrict press freedom around the world.” Widakuswara had been due to travel with President Donald Trump on Tuesday to cover his visit to Texas for VOA’s audience. The visit is Trump’s first public appearance since his supporters violently breached the U.S. Capitol last week, resulting in five deaths including that of a Capitol police officer. Even before Pompeo spoke, the Government Accountability Project, which protects federal whistleblowers, had written to USAGM to warn that the arrangements for covering the address appeared to violate the VOA Charter – which enshrines the agency’s editorial independence – and journalism ethics. FILE – Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY., speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, Feb. 28, 2020.”Patsy was doing her job. Her ‘reassignment’ is retaliatory political meddling. That’s an illegal breach of the firewall,” David Seide, senior counsel for GAP, told VOA. The organization is representing over 20 current and former journalists who contacted it over various concerns in recent months. FILE – Congressman Michael McCaul questions witnesses during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.In their joint statement, McCaul and Meeks said they were frustrated to learn that Widakuswara was reassigned after questioning Pompeo. “Absent a legitimate reason for this move, which has not been provided, we believe she should be reinstated,” they said. “This is the United States of America – we do not punish our journalists for seeking answers to their questions. A free and fair press is at the core of our Constitution and our democracy.” On Monday, Pompeo spoke about “American exceptionalism” in a speech at VOA and what he viewed as the proper role of VOA in promoting American values around the globe. It was followed by a brief Q&A session with Reilly, who did not pose questions submitted by the agency’s main newsroom about last week’s assault on the Capitol or Pompeo’s move that morning to declare the Houthis in Yemen as a terrorist organization. As the secretary of state left the network’s headquarters, Widakuswara followed and tried to question Pompeo. Video shows Widakuswara calling out questions to Pompeo as he left the VOA building, including whether he regretted saying that there would be a smooth transition to a “second Trump administration” despite Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden. In footage, the journalist is heard pivoting to Reilly and asking why he didn’t ask questions that journalists want to know the answers to. In response, the director is heard asking Widakuswara who she is. After she introduces herself, he tells the reporter, “You obviously don’t know how to behave” and adds that she is not authorized to ask questions. Widakuswara responds by saying she is a journalist and that her job is to ask questions. Until being reassigned, Widakuswara covered the White House for VOA’s website, TV and radio, and also hosted a podcast for the Indonesian language service, where she started as a reporter.In his speech at VOA headquarters, Pompeo implored the network’s journalists to carry out VOA’s mission and uphold press freedom. FILE – Michael Pack, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is seen at his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019. Pack’s nomination was confirmed June 4, 2020.The outgoing secretary of state also criticized a group of the agency’s journalists after the GAP wrote on their behalf to Pack and Reilly citing concerns that airing a live broadcast of a government official risked violating VOA’s laws and rules. The decision by VOA management to broadcast Pompeo’s speech live was criticized as potentially damaging to the network’s credibility. Allowing a senior U.S. official’s speech to be broadcast live is an attempt to reduce VOA to state broadcaster, Nick Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, told VOA. “When a government official goes down to a state-subsidized broadcaster and insists that particular propaganda be broadcast, that is so self-defeating and undermines any claims that broadcaster might make to being objective,” Cull said. “It reduces Voice of America to the level of not just state-funded broadcaster, but a state broadcaster.” Criticism over Widakuswara’s removal from the White House beat is the latest move by the agency to draw fire from lawmakers and whistleblower protection groups over Pack’s management of the agency and alleged attempts to interfere in VOA’s editorial independence. A U.S. District Court in November barred Pack and his aides from directly interfering in VOA until a lawsuit alleging violations of the firewall is settled; the Office of the Inspector General sent letters to Pack reminding the chief executive of protections whistleblowers have from retaliation; and the Office of Special Counsel ordered the CEO to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by its own officials.
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US Identifies Over 170 Capitol Rioters for Possible Criminal Charges
U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday that they have identified more than 170 people for potential criminal charges in connection with the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol last week and expect the number to run into the hundreds in the coming weeks as a massive manhunt for the pro-Trump rioters continues. Acting Assistant District Attorney Michael Sherwin told reporters more than 70 people have been charged so far in the District of Columbia, with prosecutors pursuing charges against at least 100 others. “That number I suspect is going to grow into the hundreds,” Sherwin told reporters during a briefing on the sprawling federal investigation into the riots that left five dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer. Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that supporters of President Donald Trump who attacked the U.S. Capitol should be banned from flying. He called those in the mob insurrectionists who pose a threat to national security and should be added to a no-fly list. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters during a news conference, January 12, 2021, in New York. Schumer demanded individuals who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week be placed on a no-fly list.”We cannot allow these same insurrectionists to get on a plane and cause more violence and more damage,” Schumer said at a news conference. The New York Democrat is about the become majority leader of the Senate once his party takes control. The federal probe of the January 6 deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol by Trump zealots is rapidly gaining in intensity. Sherwin said he has set up a strike force of senior national security and public corruption prosecutors to pursue more serious sedition and conspiracy charges against some rioters. Those charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The range of criminal conduct in one location – from simple trespass to theft of mail to assault on a law enforcement officer – is unprecedented, Sherwin said. In many cases, FBI agents have relied on lesser charges to make arrests. With the charges filed, Sherwin said, prosecutors can now indict the defendants on more serious counts. A federal grand jury Washington, D.C., heard several hours of evidence presented by prosecutors in multiple felony cases involving possession of a destructive device and possession of a semi-automatic assault weapon, Sherwin said. Steven D’Antuono, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington field office, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., January 12, 2021.Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington office, told reporters that the bureau has received more than 100,000 photographic and video tips from members of the public in the wake of the riots. D’Antuono said the FBI is “actively” considering adding the names of the suspects to the federal no-fly list, as Schumer has suggested. The riot broke out after thousands of Trump supporters upset by false claims that Trump’s reelection had been stolen marched from near the White House to the Capitol. Hundreds broke into the areas connecting the Senate and House chambers of Congress, ransacking offices and scuffling with law enforcement officers. The violence left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer and a pro-Trump supporter who was fatally shot by police. The episode, the first large-scale violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in more than 200 years, has led to a Democratic effort to impeach Trump on charges of inciting the violence and raised serious questions about law enforcement agencies’ inability to prevent it.
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US Military Leaders Warn Troops Against Political Violence
Amid worry about renewed violence on Inauguration Day, the military’s top leaders issued a written reminder to all service members Tuesday that the deadly insurrection at the Capitol last week was an anti-democratic, criminal act, and that the right to free speech gives no one the right to commit violence. A memo signed by all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also reminded military members that Joe Biden was duly elected as the next president and will be sworn in office on January 20. The memo was unusual in that the military leadership, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, felt compelled to remind service members that it is wrong to disrupt the constitutional process. It comes as law enforcement agencies attempt to determine the full extent of criminal activity at the Capitol and to discover the extent of participation by current or past military members. FILE – Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., speaks during a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 29, 2019.It has already been established that some military veterans participated in the riots at the Capitol, but the extent of any active-duty involvement has not been established. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, on Monday wrote to the Defense Department requesting that its criminal investigative organizations cooperate with the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police in investigating whether current and retired members of the armed forces were part of a “seditious conspiracy” against the government. The Joint Chiefs memo did not allude directly to the question of military involvement. “We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law,” the memo said. “The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection. “As service members, we must embody the values and ideals of the nation. We support and defend the Constitution. Any act to disrupt the Constitutional process is not only against our traditions, values and oath; it is against the law.” Ahead of next week’s inauguration and President Donald Trump’s departure from office, the National Guard is gearing up to provide support to law enforcement agencies. There is no plan to use active-duty forces in security operations.
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Turkish-Chinese Extradition Law Alarms Uighur Refugees in Turkey
Turkey has been providing refuge for Uighurs fleeing Chinese persecution, but rights groups are worried that Turkey’s parliament is poised to pass an extradition treaty with China. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, this also has alarmed the Uighur community in Turkey.
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China’s Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine Less Effective than Initially Thought
Late-stage trials in Brazil show the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac to be 50.38% effective, nearly 30 percentage points below the initial results released last week. Instituto Butantan, the São Paulo-based research institute responsible for developing the vaccine and conducting trials in the country, announced last week the vaccine had a 78% overall efficacy, while offering total protection against severe cases. The new trials, which involved 12,508 volunteers, have shown that Sinovac continues to be 100% effective in blocking severe cases. “This is an efficient vaccine,” Instituto Butantan Chief Researcher Ricardo Palacios said during a press conference Tuesday. “We have a vaccine that is able to control the pandemic through this expected effect, which is the decrease in the disease’s intensity.” The results come at a moment in which President Jair Bolsonaro’s government has been criticized for the delay in rolling out the vaccine. Neighboring countries, such as Chile with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Argentina with Russia’s Sputnik V, started their vaccination campaigns weeks ago, while Brazil still does not have a concrete immunization plan a week after the country surpassed 200,000 COVID-19 deaths. Last week, Bolsonaro’s government closed an exclusive deal with Instituto Butantan for 100 million doses to be distributed by the end of 2021. The vaccine, however, still needs the approval of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). Instituto Butantan has included the new results in its emergency request for approval, initially filed Friday. ANVISA requires a 50% effective rate for vaccines, the same percentage recommended by the World Health Organization.
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Netherlands PM Extends COVID-19 Lockdown to February 9
Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced Tuesday the government is extending its COVID-19 restrictions by three weeks, to February 9, expressing concern about the new so-called “British variant” of the virus. At a televised news conference in The Hague, Rutte said he was certain the news was no surprise and that most people would understand there was no choice but to extend the pandemic-related restrictions, which had been scheduled to expire January 19. FILE – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks during his news conference in the Hague, Netherlands, March 19, 2020.Rutte said reports about the spread of the variant, identified last month in Britain, were “alarming.” The variant has been shown to spread more easily than the original form of the virus, though it is not been found to cause a more severe infection. Under the current restrictions, the toughest yet imposed in the nation, schools and nonessential businesses have been closed, and people are banned from having more than two people in their homes. There are limits on the size of outdoor gatherings, as well, and Rutte said they were considering imposing an evening curfew. COVID-19 infection rates had started to drop in recent weeks following the start of the lockdown last month. But health officials say daily rates are still too high. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the Netherlands have had a total of 890,000 cases and 12,512 deaths from the virus. The Netherlands rolled out its initial vaccination program last Wednesday, the last nation in the European Union to do so.
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COVID-19 Kills Two Malawian Cabinet Members; President Declares State of National Disaster
Two ministers in the cabinet of Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera died Tuesday from COVID-19. The southern African country is dealing with a steep rise in cases, and in a televised address the president urged Malawians to take protective measures.Speaking on state media from his residence in the capital, Lilongwe, Chakwera ordered that national flags fly at half-staff, and called for three days of national mourning.Lingison Belekanyama was minister of local government and Muhammad Sidik Mia was minister of transport.Their deaths come as Malawi deals with an unprecedented rise in cases and deaths from COVID-19.Malawi President Saddened Over Coronavirus SurgeIn a Sunday radio address, President Chakwera announced he was starting a 21-day fast to seek divine intervention into the pandemic; health experts say the situation needs more than prayersChakwera said he was saddened that out of 235 COVID-19 deaths registered since the “second wave” began in November, 50 of them have come since January 1.The rise in cases, he said, has compelled him to issue a number of directives.“In accordance with section 32, subsection 1, of the Disaster Preparedness and Relief Act, I declare state of national disaster in all districts in respect of all the districts of the country with effect from today, January 12, 2021,” Chakwera said.Chakwera appealed for more assistance to fight COVID-19 from the international community, relevant United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.He warned more stringent measures against the pandemic are yet to come.“This declaration of the national state of the disaster is but the first step towards the possible declaration of the state of emergency, subject to consultation with and approval from the defense and security committee of the national assembly as stipulated in section 45 of the constitution.” Chakwera said.Local media reports said nearly half of Chakwera’s 32-member cabinet is infected with COVID-19. Government officials dispute this.However, two cabinet ministers have declared themselves COVID-19 positive: Labor Minister Ken Kandodo and Minister of Industry Roy Kachale.President Chakwera concluded his address by urging Malawians not to lose hope.He encouraged them to police one another in observing COVID-19 preventive measures, which include washing hands with soap, observing social distance recommendations and putting on face coverings.
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British Officials Crack Down on COVID-19 Rule Violators
A top British police official Tuesday said officers have issued about 45,000 fines for violations of COVID-19 restrictions and that they will issue more to keep the infection from spreading. The chair of Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, made the comments at a news conference, along with Home Secretary Priti Patel. Hewitt said he makes no apology for the fines levied because too many people were still choosing not to abide by the rules. He warned there would be more officers out on patrol to catch those who he said were “endangering us all.” Britain is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic and is in the midst of a third national lockdown to stop rapidly spreading infections. The nation reported 1,243 more deaths Tuesday, bringing the current number of fatalities to 83,203. Patel described the figures as “horrifying” and stressed the “absolutely critical” need for people to follow the rules. Patel said she supported the efforts of police officers, and that a minority of people were putting the entire nation at risk by not following the rules. She said, “Our ability to get through the coming weeks and months depends on each and every one of us contributing to what is truly a national effort.”
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Uganda’s Bobi Wine Reports Police Raid on Home Two Days Before Presidential Election
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine said the military raided his home Tuesday and beat one of his guards, two days before the presidential election. Reports said Uganda also ordered all social media blocked ahead of the election.Singer-turned-politician Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has not campaigned for the last five days.With authorities restricting his movements, Wine has spent most of his time at his house on the outskirts of Kampala.Speaking to reporters Tuesday, he accused police of invading his home.“This morning, my house was raided, two of my gardeners were taken away.” Kyagulanyi said. “And my security guard was beaten very badly. Even the polling agents that we sent out there, even the coordinators that have been identifying and recruiting polling agents are being rounded up and arrested and being charged with recruiting rebels.”Wine is campaigning for president as candidate of the National Unity Platform party, which has become the main opposition group in Uganda.Presidential challenger Bobi Wine holds a press conference in Kampala Uganda, Jan.12, 2021.Tuesday was meant to be the final day of campaigning for all presidential candidates in the central areas of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso districts.However, in December, the Electoral Commission suspended campaigns in 12 districts considered opposition strongholds. The commission said it was following guidelines by the Ministry of Health to curb the spread of COVID-19.Meanwhile, over 100 National Unity Platform supporters are being held in different detention centers around the country. The police said many of those arrested belong to youth brigades that have been involved in criminal activities ahead and during the elections.Opposition and human rights activists accuse the government of paving the way for another election victory by President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking to extend his 34-year rule over Uganda.Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said police have credible intelligence that Wine intends to go into hiding after casting his vote Thursday.“Honorable Kyagulanyi Sentamu Robert wants to go into hiding, possibly in one of the embassies immediately after casting his vote,” Enanga said. “And thereafter allege through his NUP Networks and bloggers that he has been kidnapped by state operatives. This intention is to incite the public.”As Ugandans wait to cast their vote Thursday, few have access to sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter after the government ordered a shutdown of social media.In a letter, the Uganda Communications Commission directed all telecom companies to immediately suspend any access and use of all social media platforms and online messaging applications over the networks until further notice.
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Europe Prepares for Biden
With days to go before the inauguration of Joe Biden as America’s 46th president, America’s European allies are preparing for the new administration.
For Europe’s leaders Biden’s return to the White House, which he left four years ago as Barack Obama’s vice president, along with familiar faces in key foreign and security jobs, is reassuring.
And it is even more so in the wake of last week’s violence against Congress by agitators supporting U.S. President Donald Trump, focused on deep-state conspiracy theories, who sought to reverse the result of Biden’s presidential election win. It is an assault that has left Europeans as disoriented and shaken as Americans.
Europe Expects Improved Transatlantic Relations, But Not a Return to Status Quo European leaders and officials are not expecting transatlantic relations to snap back to the way things were before Donald Trump was elected US presidentAt a security conference two years ago in Munich, European leaders were tugging at Biden’s sleeves in the margins, urging him to run for office. After enduring a rough-and-tough “America First” speech from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, their nerves were soothed by Biden, now seen as the most pro-Atlanticist president since George H.W. Bush, when he quipped in his address: “This too shall pass. We will be back.”
Biden and his team of top advisers, his nominee for U.S. secretary of state, Tony Blinken, and his picks for top jobs at the CIA and in the National Security Council, including Jake Sullivan and Amanda Sloat, are known quantities on the other side of the Atlantic, having served in the Obama administration. Sloat, a former senior State Department official, will lead the NSC’s European desk. “Amanda is a great professional who knows Europe well,” says David O’Sullivan, a retired Irish diplomat and former EU envoy in Washington.
Policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are now determined to repair frayed relations and to steady democracies roiled by unprecedented domestic political turmoil and challenged by authoritarian powers. There will be quick agreement on a range of issues with both Brussels and Washington eager for close collaboration, according to analysts. Biden already has committed to rejoining the Paris climate accord and says he will reverse Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization.FILE – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference, in Munich, Germany, Feb. 16, 2019.Washington and Brussels are likely to move quickly to shape an initiative on how the moribund World Trade Organization can be reformed and rules-based multilateral global governance generally strengthened, say analysts. They also expect a bid to iron out trade disputes. Last month, the European Commission called for the U.S. and the EU to “work closely together on solving bilateral trade irritants.” There is some hope in Brussels of Biden lifting Trump-era tariffs imposed on EU steel and aluminum imports.
That could pave the way to settle a longstanding dispute over subsidies to airplane manufacturers Boeing and Airbus. The EC also laid out a wish list for cooperation, including on the pandemic, climate change, technology, security and defense. The list was designed to demonstrate how in tune Europe is with some of Biden’s priorities. It also was, though, an early pitch of EU positions where there are differences, readying for negotiations.
Additionally, individual European countries have been courting the new administration. Biden has said he wants to convene a global summit of democracies to forge common goals that serve the cause of freedom and rally democracies to counter authoritarian alternatives. Victoria Nuland, a veteran diplomat slated for a top job at the State Department, recently said: “It’s time to stand up and defend it [democracy].”
She added: “We’ve got problems not only dealing with the autocracies out there … we’ve got backsliding countries all over the world who may have elections, but they’re not behaving like democracies in terms of protecting free press and free judiciaries and upholding the rule of law. And we have problems inside our own societies.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Saturday: “We are ready to work with the United States on a joint Marshall Plan for democracy,” a reference to the U.S. campaign launched in 1948 to rebuild 18 war-torn Western European nations. Maas said there were “no better, closer, more natural partners in the 21st century than America and Europe.”
Britain, too, is ratcheting up outreach to Washington with four top cabinet ministers slated to visit the U.S. capital in the next few weeks. With an eye on the possibility that Biden would defeat Trump, Prime Minister Boris Johnson started advocating in June for the establishment of a D-10 group of leading democracies.
Under Biden, Europe Hopes for Compromise in US Digital Tax DebateAfter years of resistance by Trump administration, Europeans now hope incoming Biden administration will be willing to compromise – or face possible digital taxLast week, Johnson appointed a cabinet minister to take charge of the COP26 climate change summit, which Britain will host in November in Glasgow. The appointment came after Biden aides warned London it needed to ramp up summit preparations or risk not being taken seriously by the new administration.
Johnson’s government has been quick to outline how well-aligned it is with many of Biden’s key priorities, including strengthening NATO, especially in cybersecurity. It also is boosting its own defense spending. And last month it backed off reneging on parts of a year-old Brexit withdrawal agreement. That could have resulted in border posts being established on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, a breach of the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Peace deal.
Both moves were “responses to Biden’s victory,” says Lisa Nandy, the foreign affairs spokesperson of Britain’s Labor Party. She told VOA: “It has been made very clear and not just by Biden, but by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats, that Britain needs to start repairing relations with the EU. Britain has lot of work to do to show that we are still relevant post-Brexit.”FILE – Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks ahead of a meeting at European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 6, 2015.While there’s much to uniting the two continents, a simple return to how things were before Donald Trump’s presidency isn’t likely, policymakers and analysts agree. Major adjustments will have to be made because of domestic political developments both in the U.S. and Europe—and because of changed geopolitics.
Since Biden was last in the White House, China has become even more assertive and the Kremlin has amended the Russian Constitution, paving the way for Vladimir Putin to remain in power in Moscow for the foreseeable future. Both China and Russia have been accused of waging hybrid warfare against the West in a bid to unravel Western democracies by meddling in democratic elections, launching invisible cyber hacks against both the U.S. and Europe, and running online disinformation campaigns.
As Americans and Europeans swap their to-do lists, they say there are many crossovers but also concede differences, as well.
“A lot of commentators focus on how America has changed under Donald Trump. But Europe has also changed,” says Hans Kundnani of Britain’s Chatham House. He cites the growing debate in Europe about the bloc developing “strategic autonomy” with the goal of increasing EU self-sufficiency and independence at a time of growing geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China.
Biden aides say they don’t fear a more autonomous Europe, saying a marriage is strengthened when both partners are strong, as long as they don’t start going separate ways.
But EU ambitions to become a bigger global player are likely to expose some frictions—especially when it comes to handling China. Kundnani says Europe is likely to bristle at Washington’s efforts to draw the EU into alignment with the U.S. on China. He predicts there’ll be resistance with efforts to get Europe to decouple from China and to take more seriously the geopolitical and security implications of European companies trading with Beijing. “I’m thinking here particularly of Germany,” Kundnani says.
Biden wants a “united front” when it comes to China to increase leverage on Beijing. But to the disappointment of Biden aides, the EU last month struck an investment deal with Beijing, which on paper appears to open up China to more European investment hedged with fewer barriers.
Days before the agreement was sealed, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, urged the Europeans to delay the agreement, calling in a tweet for “early consultation with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices.”
Critics on both sides of the Atlantic say the deal will give China preferential access to European markets while Beijing continues to tamp down Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and maintain detention centers in Xinjiang province, where China’s Communist government has interned more than a million Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group, according to rights groups.
Even before Trump was elected, there was a bipartisan consensus in Washington that Europe needs to take more responsibility for its own security, but several countries have been dragging their feet. Biden will continue to push, say his aides, for equitable burden-sharing, but he won’t engage in the episodic questioning of the very value of the transatlantic defense pact President Trump did in bruising encounters with European leaders. European slowness in rebalancing NATO may remain a source of transatlantic tension, experts assert.
NATO aside, Biden has highly ambitious foreign policy goals, which may stretch the EU’s capacity to move fast and secure agreement among its 27 members.
“It’s going to take a lot of knitting and a lot of coordination to deal with the many things coming at us, from health to economy to China to tech, all of these kinds of things,” Nuland cautioned at a research group event last month. She said the U.S. will embrace Europe tightly, adding, “Maybe too tightly, so we’ll have to see how that goes.”
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WHO Scientists Will Arrive in China This Week to Begin Probe of Corovanirus Origins
China says a team of scientists from the World Health Organization will arrive this week in Wuhan to begin its investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that the 10-member team will leave from Singapore this Thursday and fly directly to Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. The virus eventually spread to nearly every corner of the globe, leading to more than 1.9 million fatalities out of nearly 91 million infections.
China has sought to change the narrative over the virus’s origins, with officials eagerly pushing theories that it first emerged in other nations.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of WHO’s emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva Monday the agency is simply “looking for the answers here that may save us in the future. Not culprits and not people to blame.”
Ryan said if blame exists, “we can blame climate change. We can blame policy decisions made 30 years ago about everything from urbanization to the way we exploit the forest,”
A health expert affiliated with WHO has said that expectations should be “very low” the mission will lead to a conclusion about the origins of the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness.
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the original outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet of China.
The WHO team’s journey to Wuhan comes a week after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with China’s failure to grant final permission to the delegation to enter the country, although the plans had been jointly arranged between the two sides.
Beijing dismissed Tedros’s criticisms, calling the delay a “misunderstanding.”
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Ford Shuts Down Manufacturing Operations in Brazil
Ford Motors Co. has announced it will cease its manufacturing operations in Brazil, where it has been operating for more than a century and controls 8% of the automotive industry.
In an effort to maintain global operating margins, the company announced Monday two plants will be shut down immediately, while a third one will close by the end of 2021. The decision, which will cost Ford about $4.1 billion in pretax charges, is expected to leave about 5,000 people unemployed.
“With more than a century in South America and Brazil, we know these are very difficult, but necessary, actions to create a healthy and sustainable business,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said. “We are moving to a lean, asset-light business model by ceasing production in Brazil.”
Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes lamented the decision, but he said in a statement that it “goes against the strong recovery observed in the majority of the country’s industrial sectors.”
Meanwhile, Brazil’s center-right House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said on Twitter it represents “a sign of the lack of credibility of the Brazilian government,” of which he has become a fierce critic.
“I hope that Ford’s decision alerts the government and the parliament so that we can move forward in modernizing the State and guaranteeing legal security for private capital in Brazil,” Maia added.
The fifth largest automaker in Brazil, Ford indicated it will continue to serve the Brazilian market with cars sourced from neighboring countries, including Argentina and Uruguay. It also said it will maintain its South America headquarters and proving grounds in São Paulo, as well as its product development center in the northeast state of Bahia.
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Britain Cuts Business Links to Chinese Province Xinjiang
The British government Tuesday announced it will set out new rules for companies to try to prevent goods from China’s Xinjiang Province from entering the supply chain following allegations of forced labor and other abuses.Speaking to Parliament, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said there was far-reaching and “harrowing” evidence of forced labor among Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang after the United Nations estimated at least 1 million of them and other minorities were held in an internment camp.Raab said other abuses include forced sterilization, extrajudicial internment, political reeducation, extensive and invasive surveillance targeting minorities, and systematic restrictions on Uighur culture, education and religion. China denies the charges, saying it has “deradicalized” Xinjiang and that the region has not had a terrorist attack in four years.Raab said the government must take action to make sure British businesses “are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang.”He said Britain would create more robust guidance for due diligence on sourcing, toughen the Modern Slavery Act to include fines, bar from government the contracts of any companies that do not comply to procurement rules, and launch a Xinjiang-specific review of export controls.Raab also said the United Nations needed access to China’s Xinjiang region to verify allegations of forced labor and other human rights violations.Raab said Britain wants a “positive and constructive” relationship with China, but “we won’t sacrifice our values or our security.”
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Social Media Wrestle With Aftermath of Blocking President Trump Over Capitol Riot
The attack on the U.S. Capitol has reignited criticism of social media and its alleged role in inciting violence. While Facebook and Twitter have banned President Trump, there are questions about the future of online speech. Tina Trinh reports.Producer: Matt Dibble
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European Markets in Mixed Territory Tuesday
European markets are mixed Tuesday as the worsening coronavirus pandemic around the world, coupled with political turmoil in the United States, is putting a damper on trading activity. At the midday point of the trading day, London’s FTSE index is down 0.6%, the CAC-40 index in Paris is nearly 3 points lower but unchanged percentage-wise (-0.04%) and Frankfurt’s DAX index is up nearly 4 points but is also unchanged (+0.03%).Asian markets were mixed earlier Tuesday. The Nikkei index in Tokyo finished 25 points higher, but was virtually unchanged percentage-wise (+0.09%), while the Shanghai Composite rose 2.1%. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index rose 1.3%, and Mumbai’s Sensex closed 0.5% higher. Pandemic and Political Turmoil Leave Asian Markets Mixed TuesdayGold, oil markets posting solid gains Sydney’s S&P/ASX index lost 0.2%. Seoul’s KOSPI index closed 0.7% lower, while the TSEC index in Taipei was down 0.3%. In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,858.40, up 0.4%. U.S. crude oil is selling at $52.90 per barrel, up 1.2%, while Brent crude is also 1.2% higher, selling at $56.35 per barrel. With the opening bell on Wall Street looming, the three major U.S. indices — the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq — are all trending positively in futures trading.
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Indonesia Retrieves ‘Black Box’ from Crashed Sriwijaya Air Plane
Indonesian authorities have retrieved one of the black boxes from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea at the weekend, a navy spokesman said on Tuesday.
The recording device was being transported to Jakarta’s port, spokesman Fajar Tri Rohadi told Reuters. Local television footage had earlier showed a white plastic box holding the device aboard a speed boat.
It was not immediately clear if it was the plane’s flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder that had been recovered.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and other officials were due to hold a news conference later on Tuesday.
The Boeing 737-500 plane with 62 people on board plunged into the Java Sea on Saturday, four minutes after taking off from Jakarta’s main airport.
Earlier on Tuesday, more human remains were found at the crash site, as well as personal effects such as wallets containing identification cards.
The plane was headed on a domestic flight to Pontianak on Borneo island, about 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta, before it disappeared from radar screens.
It was the second major air crash in Indonesia since 189 passengers and crew were killed in 2018 when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX also plunged into the Java Sea soon after taking off from Jakarta.
The jet that crashed on Saturday is a largely different design. Once the flight data and cockpit
voice recorders are recovered, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has said it expects to be able to read the information in three days.
With few immediate clues on what caused a catastrophic loss of control after take-off, investigators will rely heavily on the flight recorders to determine what went wrong.
The Sriwijaya Air plane was nearly 27 years old, much older than Boeing’s problem-plagued 737 MAX model. Older 737 models are widely flown and do not have the stall-prevention system implicated in the MAX safety crisis.
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Trump to Visit Southern Border
U.S. President Donald Trump travels Tuesday to the southern city of Alamo, Texas, near the U.S-Mexico border, where he is expected to use one of his final days in office to highlight his administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration.It will be his first public appearance since last Wednesday when he said in a speech to his supporters that the presidential election was being stolen and urged them to “fight” before they stormed the U.S. Capitol.His visit to Texas also comes as the Democrat-majority House of Representatives pursues efforts to remove Trump from office.US House Moves to Remove Trump from OfficeDemocrats accuse US leader of ‘incitement of insurrection’ in last week’s storming of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supportersImmigration was a major focus of Trump’s campaign for president in 2016, with his frequent calls to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.With his term set to end January 20, his administration has overseen the construction of roughly 450 miles of border wall. The vast majority of the construction replaced existing smaller barriers along the border.The visit also comes a day after Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf abruptly resigned.Ahead of Trump’s trip to Alamo, the Southern Poverty Law Center called for the visit to be cancelled, saying it would “only further the harm and beget more violence.”“For years, communities on the border have resisted this administration’s bigoted agenda. It’s these communities, from San Diego to Brownsville, who have been subjected to unconscionable violence inflamed by the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and xenophobic policies,” Efrén Olivares, deputy legal director of SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, said in a statement.
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US House Moves to Remove Trump from Office
The Democrat-majority U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution calling for Vice President Mike Pence and members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to use their constitutional authority to remove Trump from office.The measure, which is expected to pass, sets a 24-hour deadline for Pence to respond.WATCH: US House to Vote on Impeaching Trump Later this WeekSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) take part in a joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 election results at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.House leaders are also pushing ahead with a separate impeachment resolution that lawmakers are scheduled to begin considering Wednesday morning.Even though Trump’s four-year term expires at noon January 20, the four-page impeachment resolution said Trump has “demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”The four-page impeachment resolution cites Trump’s unfounded accusations that he was cheated out of a second four-year term by vote and vote-counting irregularities, his pressure on election officials in the southern state of Georgia to “find” him more than 11,000 votes to overtake Biden’s margin of victory in the state, and his statements at a rally last Wednesday urging thousands of supporters to march to the Capitol to pressure lawmakers to overturn the election outcome.A total of 218 Democrats have signed on to the resolution, ensuring a majority in the 435-member House without any Republican votes against the outgoing Republican president.Majority of Americans Want Trump Removed Immediately After US Capitol Violence – Reuters/Ipsos PollNearly 70% of Americans surveyed also said they disapprove of Trump’s actions in the run-up to Wednesday’s assaultBut it is unclear whether House leaders would immediately send the resolution to the Senate for a trial on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office, given that his term ends next week.Biden said it is his “hope and expectation” that the Senate could simultaneously hold an impeachment trial and confirm his Cabinet appointments after he takes office, while also approving more aid for the flagging U.S. economy weakened by the soaring coronavirus pandemic.He said Monday of the rioters, “It is critically important that there’ll be a real serious focus on holding those folks who engaged in sedition and threatening the lives, defacing public property, caused great damage — that they be held accountable.”Biden also told reporters, “I’m not afraid of taking the oath outside,” referring to next week’s swearing-in ceremony, which traditionally takes place at the U.S. Capitol’s west steps, one of the areas where people stormed the building.Even if Trump has already left office, a Senate impeachment conviction after his term ends could mean he would not hold federal office again.Republican Congressman Tom Reed said in a New York Times opinion piece that he would join an unspecified number of House colleagues in introducing a censure resolution against Trump on Tuesday as an alternative to a “hasty impeachment.”“If our leaders make the wrong decision in how to hold him accountable, it could damage the integrity of our system of justice, further fan the flames of division, and disillusion millions of Americans ─ all while failing to accomplish anything,” Reed wrote.Twitter Bans Trump, Others, Citing Risk of Violent IncitementSocial platform has been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following Wednesday’s assault on US Capitol Trump, banned from Twitter for his false, incendiary comments alleging election fraud, has not publicly commented on the effort to impeach him a second time, which would give him a singular distinction among 45 U.S. presidents in the 245-year history of the United States.The House impeached him the first time in late 2019, accusing him of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden ahead of last November’s election, but the Senate acquitted him in early February.At last Wednesday’s rally near the White House, Trump told several thousand people, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”The largely white mob that walked to the Capitol quickly overwhelmed police there, storming inside in droves, breaking windows, ransacking some congressional offices and scuffling with security officials.Dozens of Trump supporters have been arrested, and authorities are scouring security videos and social media accounts the rioters posted of themselves inside the Capitol to identify other wrongdoers. Five people died in the mayhem, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as a homicide.Trump has refused to concede his defeat or congratulate Biden, but he has acknowledged there will be a “new administration” come January 20.Trump has announced that he will not attend Biden’s inauguration, ignoring a long-standing tradition in the United States of an outgoing chief executive witnessing his successor take office as a show of the peaceful transition of power in the U.S. democracy.Pence, however, does plan to attend the ceremony, which will be downscaled significantly because of the surging number of coronavirus cases in the United States.
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