King Abdullah II of Jordan received the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, according to a statement by the Royal Court.
Jordan’s Prince El Hassan bin Talal and Crown Prince Al Hussein also received the vaccine, the statement noted.
Jordan commenced a COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, with priority on vulnerable groups and frontline health workers. (Xinhua/NAN)
Ten fellow Republicans voted in support of outgoing President Donald Trump’s second impeachment by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
This, analysts say, further highlights the division in the party over Trump’s refusal to concede the Nov. 3 presidential election based on his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
In all, 232 lawmakers, including all 222 Democrats, voted in favour, while 197 Republicans opposed the impeachment, which is based on alleged “incitement of insurrection”.
Trump has made history as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, and Wednesday’s votes came barely a week before he leaves office on Jan. 20.
In December 2019, the Democratic-controlled House impeached Trump for obstructing Congress after he was alleged to have sought foreign interference in the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Unlike Wednesday’s impeachment votes, the first one was polarised along party lines in the House with all lawmakers from the president’s party voting against.
But the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him, thus keeping him in office.
The Republicans opposed to Wednesday’s decision argued that impeaching Trump would further divide the country at a time he is already leaving office.
Some of his die-hard loyalists in the House also said he was not responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection by his supporters at the Capitol Hill.
Trump can only be removed by the Senate, but that is unlikely before he leaves office on Jan. 20, and the Senate is currently on recess.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell gave this indication in a statement following the impeachment vote in the House on Wednesday.
McConnell pointed out that even if the Senate reconvened on the matter this week, it would not be able to reach a final decision before Jan. 20.
He said: “Remember, Inauguration Day is 20 January. The Senate can still convict Trump after his departure, though.
“In light of this reality, I believe it will best serve our nation if Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration.
(NAN)
Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey on Wednesday defended the platform’s decision to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump’s account indefinitely, but also said it sets a dangerous precedent.
Twitter banned the outgoing president in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob last week.
“I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here.
“After a clear warning we’d take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter,” Dorsey wrote in a Twitter thread.
However, he also said he feels turning to a ban ultimately shows a failure by Twitter to promote healthy conversation.
“Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us.
“They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning and sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation,” Dorsey wrote.
Facebook has also banned Trump from using his accounts, citing his intent to “undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power.”
Trump has complained that social media platforms are exercising censorship and suggested he may launch a competing platform.
Amazon had earlier on Wednesday defended its decision to kick the social network Parler from its cloud servers, saying the platform popular with Trump’s supporters failed to delete threats of violence.
Some people used Parler to spread messages promoting insurrection and to plan for last Wednesday’s deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
Amazon Web Services booted social network Parler on Monday in a move that effectively removed it from the internet.
The conservative-friendly platform then filed a lawsuit in a Seattle federal court that demanded Amazon keep Parler on its service.
Parler argued Amazon was driven by “political animus” and the decision was “the equivalent of pulling the plug on a hospital patient on life support. It will kill Parler’s business – at the very time it is set to skyrocket.”
Amazon hit back in its response on Tuesday, saying the case “is not about suppressing speech or stifling viewpoints.”
“This case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens.”
Amazon then listed more than a dozen examples from Parler users, including: “After the firing squads are done with the politicians the teachers are next” and “We are going to fight in a civil War on Jan. 20th, Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets.” (dpa/NAN)
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting last week’s deadly Capitol siege, making him the first president to be impeached twice.
The outcome, which was expected, comes only seven days before Trump leaves office and Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
The Democrat-controlled House charged Trump with inciting an insurrection after a mob of his supporters, riled up by his false claims of election fraud, stormed Congress and temporarily halted a joint session to certify Biden’s victory.
The House impeachment will lead to a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict Trump.
However, an outcome appears unlikely before Biden is sworn in as president.
The resolution is expected to pass in a bipartisan vote, with several Republican lawmakers having said they would join Democrats in voting for impeachment.
The impeachment came after lawmakers debated the charge against Trump – inciting an insurrection – in the same chamber that was evacuated a week ago as his supporters stormed Congress.
(dpa/NAN)
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has expressed concern over reports of violence and tensions in parts of Uganda ahead of Thursday’s presidential and parliamentary elections in the country.
Guterres, in a statement released by his office on Wednesday, urged all stakeholders to ensure the polls were conducted in an inclusive, transparent and peaceful manner.
The Secretary General called on all political actors and their supporters to refrain from the use of hate speech, intimidation and violence.
“Any electoral disputes should be resolved through legal and peaceful means.
“Further calls on the Ugandan authorities, particularly the security forces, to show maximum restraint during this period and act according to established human rights principles,” he said.
The UN chief reiterated the organisation’s commitment to supporting the East African country in its quest for sustainable development and prosperity for its citizens.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Uganda’s long-time President, Yoweri Museveni, 76, is seeking a sixth elected term in office after 35 years in power.
He faces 10 challengers, including music star, Robert Kyagulanyi, best known by his stage name, Bobi Wine, seen as a real threat to him.
Human rights groups have accused security forces of using excessive force to break up opposition rallies during the campaign, reports the BBC.
The outlet quoted a government spokesman as saying the strong measures were necessary to enforce compliance with a ban on large crowds aimed at checking the coronavirus pandemic.
(NAN)
United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in Washington D.C..
The declaration came on the heels of a revelation by the police of three plots to attack the Capitol Building ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, including the “largest armed protest in American history”.
It also came as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerted its agents to possible uprisings at capitols in 50 states ahead of Inauguration Day, particularly if Trump is removed from office before Biden enters the White House.
Trump’s declaration allows the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate with local authorities as Democrats had been furiously demanding.
On Monday night, the new chiefs of Capitol Police told House Democrats they were looking into three separate plans, including one described as “the largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil”.
The protesters plan to involve armed rioters encircling the Capitol and blocking Democrats from entering – killing them if necessary – so that Republicans can take command of government.
They also plan another protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the USAF veteran who was shot by a police officer as she tried to clamber into the Speaker’s Lobby during the Trump mob’s siege.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” one Democrat told Huffington Post of the police briefing.
The FBI’s internal memo warned of a group which was calling for the ‘storming’ of state, local and Federal Government buildings, as well as court houses if Trump is removed from office.
The bulletin came to light just as Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced an article of impeachment accusing Trump of incitement to insurrection, five days after the mob of the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol, leaving five people dead in a futile bid to overturn the general election.
More than 6,000 members of the National Guard were deployed to Washington, DC, over the weekend, with dozens of them standing guard over the Capitol during Monday’s proceedings.
Capitol Police told Congress that it was preparing for up to tens of thousands of Trump supporters arriving in the days ahead, including possible violence to take control of the White House and the Supreme Court.
Working alongside their colleagues in the National Guard, the police are said to have told Democrats that they had agreed on rules of engagement in the eventuality of an armed demonstration.
They do not plan to shoot anyone unless fired at first, but they added that there were exceptions to the rule.
The police urged caution on lawmakers about leaking any specifics to the press because Big Tech had so successfully ‘cut off main communications’ that many could now only learn of plans through traditional media.
One member remarked that the Silicon Valley gagging order on Trump’s supporters “might ultimately save lives”.
But as the Capitol Police expressed confidence it was making sufficient plans to combat any violent uprisings, some lawmakers questioned whether this was the case given the lax security last week.
One Democrat told the police chiefs that there was clear evidence that some in the police department could be ‘in league with the insurrectionists who love to carry their guns.’
“You can’t just let them bypass security and walk right up to Biden and Harris at inauguration,” this lawmaker told HuffPost.
A further area of Democrat speculation surrounded whether the Trump administration was preventing federal law enforcement from lending its expertise to the police.
The member told the HuffPost: “I don’t think anyone has confidence that the folks at the Pentagon, that may or may not even be needed for some of this, or the Department of Homeland Security, where we don’t even know who’s in charge, are going to be cooperative.”
The National Park Service said it would close the Washington Monument and other area facilities beginning today and lasting through January 24.
The Pentagon is also reportedly considering sending as many as 13,000 guardsmen to secure the area on Inauguration Day. Prior to last week’s breach, officials had planned to deploy roughly 7,000 guardsmen.
The hardened-up security plans came after the Department of Defence said it was aware of “further possible threats posed by would-be terrorists in the days up to and including Inauguration Day”, Congressman Jason Crow (D – Colorado) said in a statement Sunday after speaking with Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy about security preparations.
The Department of Homeland Security is working with the Defense Department, local DC authorities and inauguration officials to sharpen the law enforcement response in the coming days, including by erecting non-scalable fencing and security checkpoints around Capitol Hill.
“Now that it happened people will take it much more seriously,” a senior DHS official told CNN in reference to last week’s violence. “Now, the planners, they are all going to take it much more seriously.”
Federal and local authorities have faced fierce criticism for their perceived failure to crack down on Wednesday’s insurrection despite evidence that they knew it was coming.
Hundreds of people might face federal charges in the wake of last week’s Capitol breach, DC’s acting US attorney said in an interview with NPR over the weekend, saying a massive, 24-hour-a-day hunt was on to identify suspects and bring charges against them.
In the meantime, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said she is ‘extremely concerned’ about security on Inauguration Day in a letter to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf over the weekend. She wrote that the event ‘will require a very different approach to previous inaugurations given the chaos, injury and death experienced at the US Capitol during the insurrection’.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are set to be sworn in on the west front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20.
Nearly 5,000 people died in Afghanistan due to air pollution in 2020, the health ministry told dpa.
They died due to respiratory and heart diseases which are considered to be caused by air pollution, Ministry spokeswoman Masouma Jafari said on Wednesday.
In 2020, the Afghan capital was considered the world’s worst polluted city.
Around 10 per cent of those killed due to these diseases in Afghanistan were in Kabul city, the ministry figures show.
According to the air quality index, air in Kabul becomes “very unhealthy’’ at night during winter, placing Kabul among the most polluted cities in 2021.
The head of Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, Dr. Abdullah Ahmadi, told dpa that the hospital has received more than 600 patients in less than one month.
“An average of twenty patients with respiratory diseases visit our hospital on daily basis,’’ Ahmadi said. “Most of these problems are because of air pollution.’’
Excessive use of coal, old vehicles that produce a large amount of smoke and unpaved roads are the main reasons for increasing air pollution, an official at the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA) told dpa.
The problem is exacerbated by electricity shortage, expensive petrol, and low-quality fuel.
Since 2020, officials have begun a crackdown on local businesses thought to be the main contributor to air pollution by burning scrap tires and plastics to provide heating.
The air pollution problem is a global challenge. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year.
(dpa/NAN)
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah has submitted his resignation and that of his government.
According to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), the prime minister submitted the resignation letter to Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Wednesday.
The prime minister had met on Tuesday with the deputy prime minister and Defence Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah and the ministers.
Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali tendered resignation of all the cabinet members “in light of current developments regarding the relation between the National Assembly and the government, and what the national interest may warrant,” KUNA said.
(Xinhua/NAN)
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced the nomination of former career diplomat William Burns as Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the Biden-Harris transition team said in a statement.
Burns is a career diplomat who served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 33 years and holds the highest rank in the service, according to the statement.
Biden said that Burns shares his profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical, it said.
“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure.
”He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect,” the statement said.
Burns served as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama and has held other diplomatic posts over a three-decade career in Republican and Democratic administrations.
Ambassador Burns is a consummate professional full of integrity who will bring the facts and independence that our national security demands, the statement further said.
“Whether it’s cyber attacks emanating from Moscow, the challenge China poses, or the threat we face from terrorists and other non-state actors.
‘He has the experience and skill to marshal efforts across government and around the world to ensure the CIA is positioned to protect the American people,” it added.
(ANI/NAN)
Houston Rockets fans in China were able to watch them play for the first time in 15 months on Monday.
A team official’s tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters in 2019 had led to their games being blacked out.
Chinese state television had resumed airing National Basketball Association (NBA) games on its sports channel on Oct. 10.
This was almost a year after broadcasts were halted following a tweet from then Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey.
Tencent, which has exclusive internet streaming rights for the NBA in China, broadcast the Rockets’ 120-102 defeat to champions Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
Viewers in China however caught the action early on Monday.
Houston Rockets enjoy significant support among basketball fans in China, thanks to Yao Ming, who was drafted first overall by the Rockets in the 2002 Draft.
He played for them until 2011.
The report added that games involving the Philadelphia 76ers, who Morey joined as chief of basketball operations last year, are still not being shown in China.
(Reuters/NAN)