House impeachment managers deliver charges against Donald Trump to the Senate. “It was (Rep. Jamie) Raskin’s task Monday evening to read the impeachment charges on the Senate floor, including warnings that Trump poses an ongoing threat ‘to national security, democracy and the Constitution’ and therefore should be disqualified from holding ‘any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States’.” https://thehill.com/homenews/house/535749-house-formally-sends-impeachment-to-senate-putting-trump-on-trial-for-capitol Interestingly, there are only two possible punishments mentioned in the Constitution – removal from office and barring the person from holding public office. Trump can still be charged in a court of law for other offenses, however. It’s clear he tried to undermine the election, but the incitement charge will be difficult to prove since he never explicitly called for the storming of the Capitol.
Nine Houston, Texas police officers charged in connection with 2019 no-knock drug raid. “The raid occurred after (Officer Gerald) Goines was alleged to have lied to a judge to obtain a ‘no knock’ warrant to search the home of (Dennis) Tuttle and (Rhogena) Nichols, (Harris County District Attorney Kim) Ogg said. An investigation touched off by the firefight revealed that officers were involved in the scheme to steal overtime funds, she said.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9-houston-officers-charged-including-1-murder-probe-deadly-2019-n1255611 Tuttle, Nichols and their dog were all killed during the raid. Officer Felipe Gallegos and Officer Gerald Goines have reportedly been charged with murder.
FBI using mass surveillance technology to track down hundreds of Capitol rioters. “Working on tips from co-workers, acquaintances and friends, agents have (also used) driver’s license photos to match their faces with those captured on camera in the building. In some cases, authorities got records from Facebook or Twitter to connect their social media accounts to their email addresses or phone numbers. In others, agents used records from license plate readers to confirm their travels.” https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-media-social-media-f9a4050fc3179c87e0c29b8872e020e9
Supreme Court dismisses emolument lawsuits against the former president, orders lower courts to vacate their rulings. “Maryland and Washington (D.C.) contended that (Donald) Trump improperly benefited financially whenever foreign or state governments patronized his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW…. ‘The president’s establishments offer government patrons something that the plaintiffs cannot: the opportunity, by enriching the president, to obtain favorable governmental treatment from the president and the executive branch,’ it said.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-dismisses-challenges-trump-s-business-profits-n1255524
31 police officers from around the country reportedly under investigation in connection with D.C. ‘Save America’ rally, Capitol protest or Capitol invasion on January 6th. “Most of the officers have not been publicly identified; only a few have been charged. Some were identified by online sleuths. Others were reported by their colleagues or turned themselves in.” https://wreg.com/news/at-least-31-law-enforcement-officers-in-12-states-tied-to-storming-of-the-capitol/
Protesters in Tacoma, Washington want justice after police officer drove through crowd. “Both injured people went to hospitals with injuries not considered to be life threatening. One person has since been released, news outlets reported.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/25/tacoma-protests-washington-police-car-crowd “The officer was identified Monday as 58-year-old Khanh Phan, with the department nearly 30 years. He was placed on paid administrative leave per department policy immediately following the incident, TPD said in a statement Sunday.” https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/video-shows-tacoma-police-vehicle-driving-over-at-least-one-person-on-a-crowded-street/281-94cda0e5-daf6-4877-82ad-6fc703ef16a1
Farmers flood India’s capital with tractors to protest planned free market pricing of their crops. “Tens of thousands of protesting farmers drove long lines of tractors into India’s capital on Tuesday, breaking through police barricades, defying tear gas and storming the historic Red Fort as the nation celebrated Republic Day…. ‘Inequality is growing in India and farmers are becoming poorer. Policy planners have failed to realize this and have sucked the income from the bottom to the top. The farmers are only demanding what is their right.'” https://apnews.com/654ef151a8af6de8c264c29363d0607b
Refugees from Tigray region of Ethiopia report mass killings and looting. “‘We are investigating credible reports of a whole range of abuses by the Eritrean forces in central Tigray, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, widespread looting and damage of public and private property, including hospitals,’ Human Rights Watch researcher Laetitia Bader said, urging ‘immediate international scrutiny’ and a U.N.-led investigation.” https://apnews.com/article/tigray-ethiopia-news-2bdd10888f7717690847ad117f09f2d4
U.N. International Labor Organization says pandemic-induced economic recession is four times worse for workers than the 2008-2009 financial crisis. “We are at a fork in the road. One path leads to an uneven, unsustainable, recovery with growing inequality and instability, and the prospect of more crises. The other focuses on a human-centered recovery for building back better, prioritizing employment, income and social protection, workers’ rights and social dialogue. If we want a lasting, sustainable and inclusive recovery, this is the path policymakers must commit to.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/25/covid-19-workers-lost-earnings-ilo-job-losses
Cyber-criminals reportedly selling Facebook users’ phone numbers. “Although the data is several years old, it still presents a cybersecurity and privacy risk to those whose phone numbers may be exposed—one person advertising the service says it contains data on 500 million users. Facebook told Motherboard the data relates to a vulnerability the company fixed in August 2019.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgz7bd/facebook-phone-numbers-bot-telegram
Many Chinese workers unhappy with long work hours imposed under capitalism. “(A social media post about life before the country’s economic transformation) has prompted a wave of nostalgia among the urban workers who are struggling with the so-called 996 working culture, which stands for ‘9 am to 9 pm, six days a week’…. Under the Weibo post, many commentators have accused the ‘capitalists’ of depriving people of a stress-free lifestyle and rights to enjoy the fruits of China’s economic success. ‘Everyone should read Marx to learn how capitalists exploit,’ one person said.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgz7ed/millennial-workers-in-china-wonder-about-life-before-996
The Oval Office ‘diet Coke button’ is back! “Photos from Monday show the call box sitting next to Biden’s phones, in the same place Trump placed the box when he would sit at there…. The call box has been around for decades and other recent presidents have also been pictured in the White House with it, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-brought-the-button-trump-used-to-order-diet-cokes-back-to-the-oval-office/ar-BB1d55Dr
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says U.S. will defend uninhabited rocky outcroppings claimed by Japan, which are located off the coast of Taiwan. “The Senkakus are uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are currently administered by Japan but are also claimed by China and Taiwan.” https://news.antiwar.com/2021/01/25/new-secdef-reaffirms-us-commitment-to-defending-senkaku-islands/ What could go wrong?
Amnesty International says denial of health care in Egyptian prisons ‘constitutes torture’. “Prisoners are kept in dark, poorly ventilated cells with little or no fresh air and unsanitary conditions with little access to water and toilets and receive unhealthy food, it said. Inadequate healthcare makes prisoners suffer unnecessarily and in some cases may have resulted in death, Amnesty alleged…. ‘When the denial (of treatment) causes severe pain or suffering and is a deliberate act for the purpose of punishment, it constitutes torture.'” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/25/amnesty-says-egypt-keeps-prisoners-in-inhumane-conditions
Popular Egyptian animator arrested after sharing his work on YouTube. “In one of his most recent videos, (Ashraf) Hamdi recounts the experiences felt during the 25 January revolution in 2011, including some of the popular slogans that were chanted, such as ‘bread, freedom, social justice’. In the video, an animated character speaks about his feelings of being silenced and his hopes for the revolution to continue.” https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-cartoonist-arrested-video-january-revolution
New York City wholesale produce market workers win $1/hour pay raise after short strike. “Some 1,400 members of the Teamsters Local 202 union walked off the job on January 17, demanding a $1 raise and recognition for their work to keep New Yorkers fed during the pandemic, with the Hunts Point Market supplying about 60% of the city’s produce. Management had offered a 32-cent raise instead.” https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/25/hunts_point_produce_market_bronx_strike
Voting machine company suing Rudy Giuliani over allegations of election fraud, demands $1.3 billion in damages. “‘Dominion’s founder and employees have been harassed and received death threats, and Dominion has suffered unprecedented and irreparable harm,’ the lawsuit states.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/25/dominion-rudy-giuliani-lawsuit-election
U.K. will sell arms to almost anyone. “British ministers and officials have approved the sale of arms to nearly four-fifths of countries subject to arms embargoes, trade sanctions or other restrictions over the past five years, according to analysis…. Britain has authorized millions in sales of arms to China, mostly military radar equipment for the country’s fast growing navy, now the world’s largest.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/26/uk-sells-arms-to-nearly-80-of-countries-under-restrictions-shows-report
Greta Thunberg reminds virtual ‘Davos’ audience that the house is still on fire. “Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour. We are still telling you to panic, and to act as if you loved your children above all else…. I’m only here to once again remind you of the emergency we are in. The crisis that you and your predecessors have created and inflicted upon us. The crisis that you continue to ignore.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/25/enough-blah-blah-blah-global-elites-greta-thunberg-declares-digital-davos
Progressive groups try to torpedo Biden appointee for Sec. of Agriculture. “Tom Vilsack has made a career of catering to the whims of corporate agriculture giants—some of whom he has gone to work for—while failing to fight for struggling family farmers at every turn.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/25/groups-launch-grassroots-campaign-urging-senators-reject-tom-mr-monsanto-vilsack
Lyft drivers angered by ride share company’s new payment scheme. “On Friday, CNET reported the ongoing partial nationwide rollout of Lyft’s new ‘priority mode’, in which drivers are promised more rides, but with the caveat of having to agree to accept 10% less pay for each fare. Some drivers on online forums have been derisively calling Lyft’s latest effort to cut their pay ‘poverty mode’.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/25/poverty-mode-app-based-drivers-slam-lyfts-latest-pay-cut-scheme Let’s pit our employees against each other! Reminds me of the movie (the name of which I’m unable to recall) in which two gas station owners, whose businesses are located across the street from each other, bid each other down to get a man’s oil change business. “I’ll do it for $12.” “I’ll do it for $10!” “$9.”
Amnesty International calls on President Biden to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and end military trials of terrorism suspects. “It’s time to mark a new path for United States national security policy and close down Guantánamo. The detention center that has come to symbolize around the world the United States’ use of torture, rendition and indefinite detention without charge or trial—in complete violation of internationally agreed-upon standards of justice and human rights. President Biden must close down the Guantánamo detention center and the military commissions, once and for all.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/25/amnesty-calls-biden-close-guantanamo-and-end-military-commissions-once-and-all
Federal appeals court upholds sentences of Kansas men who plotted to blow up Muslims, rules they were not entrapped. “According to court documents, the men… planned to put the bombs in trashcans around an apartment complex inhabited by Somalian immigrants in Garden City, Kansas, and detonate them during Muslim prayer time using prepaid cellphones…. ‘The government responds that the actual evidence at trial reflects that the defendants, not Mr. Day or the undercover employee, originated a plan to kill innocent Muslims with explosives.'” https://www.courthousenews.com/convictions-of-militia-members-who-plotted-to-bomb-apartments-of-muslim-immigrants-upheld/
Federal court rules that Fort Worth police officers who killed an innocent homeowner when they responded to the wrong home are not liable for his death. “While responding to a burglary alarm at a house across the street, the officers mistakenly responded to the (72 year-old) man’s house (who), thinking he was being burglarized, he took his gun to his garage to investigate.” https://www.courthousenews.com/police-shooting-38/
Nine Chinese gold miners found dead. “Nine Chinese miners have been found dead a day after 11 of their colleagues were rescued after two weeks trapped in a gold mine in Shandong province…. One miner remains missing. Another died last week after falling into a coma.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55793578