January 21, 2022 5:43 pm

COVID-19-free Tonga turned away a plane loaded with tsunami disaster aid after someone on board tested positive for the virus

The plane was forced to reverse course mid-flight on Thursday due to a positive COVID-19 case on board the aircraft that was headed for the Pacific nation in the aftermath of Saturday’s volcanic eruption and tsunami which devastated the country. Since Tonga is COVID-19 free, it has required delivery of aid to the island nation of about 105,000 to be contactless in order to keep the coronavirus out.

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January 21, 2022 5:41 pm

Davos: "Elites trust each other more and more"

Transcript: Ngaire Woods*: The good news is that the elite across the world trust each other more and more, so we can come together and design and do beautiful things together. The bad news is that in every single country they were polling the majority…

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January 21, 2022 5:35 pm

Mitch McConnell says US should arm Ukraine after Biden’s Russia comments

The comments, which the president and White House sought to clarify amid backlash, served as a signal to Russia that it was okay to “take some” of Ukraine, McConnell said on Thursday. “I hope Vladimir Putin doesn’t misunders…

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January 21, 2022 5:33 pm

Russia’s Top Five Persistent Disinformation Narratives

Theme #3: “The Collapse of Western Civilization is Imminent”Russia pushes the false claim that Western civilization is collapsing and has strayed from “traditional values” because it works to ensure the safety and equality o…

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January 21, 2022 5:32 pm

Los Angeles weighs phasing out oil and gas drilling

The University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles has a lot in common with urban areas across the US: A dense population with lots of businesses and housing. A cluster of car dealerships. A row of restaurants. Schools and a community center. But nestled …

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January 21, 2022 5:26 pm

One Group of Americans Are Most Likely to Spread Fake News

Whether it’s anti-vaccine messaging or falsehoods about the 2020 election, it’s easy to blame conservatives or Republicans as a group for spreading misinformation, as many in the media and academia have done. But this message is oversimpl…

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January 21, 2022 5:22 pm

Is the Media Doomed?

From a Big Tech crackdown to the rebirth of local news, 16 future-minded thinkers predict where journalism will be in 15 years. It’s almost conventional wisdom right now that the news media is in a fast-moving crisis, with mainstream news source…

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January 21, 2022 5:18 pm

NASA catches sun sending powerful flare into space

Our sun just had a medium-sized energy burp. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught a mid-level solar flare on Thursday (Jan. 20) with a peak at 1:01 a.m. EST (0601 GMT). You can see the flash on the limb, or edge, of the sun, thanks to SDO’s powerful imaging. Because the flare was on the sun’s limb, it likely wasn’t pointed squarely toward Earth. The flare is classified as medium or M5.5 class, powerful enough to potentially cause radio blackouts in polar regions if the flare were to hit our planet square-on. The sun has an 11-year cycle of solar…

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January 21, 2022 5:17 pm

Biden nominates former Stacey Abrams lawyer for campaign finance watchdog

President Joe Biden is nominating a new commissioner to the Federal Election Commission, the nation’s chief campaign finance watchdog. The White House announced on Friday that Biden was putting forward Dara Lindenbaum, a campaign finance attorney, to join the six-member board governing the agency, which is charged with enforcing campaign finance laws and issuing opinions guiding federal officeseekers. Lindenbaum, according to her bio on her law firm’s website, was general counsel to Stacey Abrams’ 2018 Georgia gubernatorial run and deputy general counsel for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2016 presidential bid. If confirmed, she would replace longtime commissioner Steven Walther,…

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January 21, 2022 5:14 pm

Republican U.S. Senate candidates unite, targeting fellow candidate on the rise in polls (oh, what a surprise!)

With just a few months left until North Carolina’s U.S. Senate primary, two Republican candidates stepped up their attacks on a third endorsed by former President Donald Trump and steadily moving up in the polls. Former Gov. Pat McCrory and form…

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January 21, 2022 5:11 pm

The stock market is a 'superbubble' about to burst, top hedge fund manager warns

Stocks are off to a tough start this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is already in a correction, a more than 10% drop. Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of Grantham, Mayo, & van Otterloo (GMO) said in a report called “Let the Wild Rumpus Begin” that stocks are now in the midst of a “superbubble,” that it won’t end well. He noted that US stocks have experienced two such “superbubbles” before: 1929, a market fall that led to the Great Depression, and again in 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst. He also said the US housing market was a…

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January 21, 2022 5:09 pm

[Catholic Caucus] Back to the 70’s: What if All Traditional Priests are Suspended? (Part I)

[Catholic Caucus] Back to the 70’s: What if All Traditional Priests are Suspended? (Part I) Bad news is brewing as to the future of Ecclesia Dei communities in light of Pope Francis’ promulgation of Traditionis Custodes, which attempts t…

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January 21, 2022 5:07 pm

Kevin McCarthy's path to speakership enters final but treacherous leg

Kevin McCarthy was done being nice. The House Republican leader cast off his typically sunny demeanor during a December 8 meeting of the GOP conference to deliver a stern warning to his most raucous members: Quit trying to hold your vote for speaker over my head. “He said, ‘If any of you come to me and tell me that you’re not going to vote for me unless I do something, I’m going to do exactly the opposite, even if I agree with you,'” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who was there at the time. A second Republican member told…

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