UK Judge Refuses US Extradition of WikiLeaks Founder Assange

A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’ request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges over the publication of secret U.S. documents a decade ago, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.

https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-london-espionage-freedom-of-speech-europe-5b148b0b6b9f72a20eedad4218e8227a

UK Prime Minister Orders New National Coronavirus Lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a new national lockdown for England until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading new version of the coronavirus.

Johnson said the country is at “a critical moment,” with cases rising rapidly in every part of the country.

https://apnews.com/article/uk-1st-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine-virus-013f538e8ec3a153a4d2e39601961472

Pro-Trump Mob Storms US Capitol in Bid to Overturn Election

A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.

The nation’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas marks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington’s mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818

Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump’s Account, Cites ‘Incitement of Violence’ Risk

Twitter Inc said on Friday that it has permanently suspended U.S. President Donald Trump’s account due to the risk of further incitement of violence following the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The suspension of Trump’s account, which had more than 88 million followers, silences his primary megaphone days before the end of his term and follows years of debate about how social media companies should moderate the accounts of powerful global leaders.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-twitter/twitter-permanently-suspends-trumps-account-idUSKBN29D355

Michigan Plans to Charge ex-Gov. Snyder in Flint Water Probe

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in 2014-15, The Associated Press has learned.

https://apnews.com/article/health-michigan-rick-snyder-flint-us-news-801ba227340f0ac2e10e37a06a82f08d

Trump Impeached After Capitol Riot in Historic Second Charge

President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.

With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol after the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-impeachment-vote-capitol-siege-0a6f2a348a6e43f27d5e1dc486027860

Biden Inaugurated as the 46th President Amid a Cascade of Crises

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, assuming leadership of a country ravaged by disease, dislocation and division with a call to “end this uncivil war” after four tumultuous years that tore at the fabric of American society.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/politics/biden-president.amp.html

Biden Rejoins the Paris Agreement

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday recommitted the United States to the Paris climate agreement, the international accord designed to avert catastrophic global warming, and ordered federal agencies to start reviewing and reinstating more than 100 environmental regulations that were weakened or rolled back by former President Donald J. Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/climate/biden-paris-agreement-keystone.amp.html

Larry King, Broadcasting Giant for Half-Century, Dies at 87

Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87.

https://apnews.com/article/larry-king-dead-391f55fabb843d14a2635a9bd55880d4

Myanmar Military Seizes Power, Detains Elected Leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids.

The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2A00VC

Russian Activist Navalny Sentenced to More Than 2 Years in Prison

A Russian court sentenced Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, to more than two years in prison on Tuesday, a decision likely to send him for a lengthy term in a far-flung penal colony for the first time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/world/europe/russia-navalny-putin.amp.html

Biden Ending US Support for Saudi-Led Offensive in Yemen

President Joe Biden announced Thursday the United States was ending support for a grinding five-year Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen that has deepened suffering in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, calling the move part of restoring a U.S. emphasis on diplomacy, democracy and human rights.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-yemen-saudi-arabia-b68f58493dbfc530b9fcfdb80a13098f

With Republican Firewall, U.S. Senate Acquits Trump of Inciting Deadly Capitol Riot

The U.S. Senate acquitted Donald Trump on Saturday of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol last month, sparing him from conviction in his second impeachment trial in a year despite broad condemnation of his role in sparking the deadly siege.

The Senate voted 57-43 in favor of convicting the former president, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to do so, on a charge that he incited the insurrection that left five people dead, forced lawmakers to flee, and put his own vice president in danger while overseeing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election win.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment/u-s-senate-acquits-trump-as-republicans-save-him-in-impeachment-again-idUSKBN2AD0AE

Conservative Radio Personality Rush Limbaugh Has Died at Age 70

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative commentator whose fiery rhetoric forged a new landscape for talk radio and inflamed the partisan divide that came to characterize political discourse in the U.S., has died, according to an announcement on his radio show Wednesday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/conservative-radio-personality-rush-limbaugh-has-died-age-70-n1164306

NASA Rover Lands on Mars to Look for Signs of Ancient Life

A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.

https://apnews.com/article/nasa-rover-streaks-towards-mars-62f78481fe746cd7d0e41e28969a2c5a

US Tops 500,000 Virus Deaths, Matching the Toll of 3 Wars

The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 Monday, a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.

President Joe Biden held a sunset moment of silence and a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House and ordered American flags lowered at federal buildings for the next five days.

https://apnews.com/article/us-over-500k-coronavirus-deaths-4ffa86c709f6a843de9cf0711e7215cf

US Implicates Saudi Crown Prince in Journalist’s Killing

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince likely approved an operation to kill or capture a U.S.-based journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday that could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew bipartisan and international outrage.

https://apnews.com/article/politics-journalists-istanbul-jamal-khashoggi-26c37f6d603737de7509f5ee09ae7f9d

Giant Container Ship That Blocked Suez Canal Finally Free

Salvage teams on Monday freed a colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.

Helped by the high tide, a flotilla of tugboats wrenched the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23.

https://apnews.com/article/egypt-suez-canal-48f856c9afed58feb908878c2a495287

Train Crash Kills 50 in Taiwan’s Deadliest Rail Tragedy in Decades

A Taiwan express train with almost 500 aboard derailed in a tunnel on Friday after hitting a truck that had slid down a bank onto the track, killing at least 50 passengers and injuring 146 in the island’s worst rail disaster in seven decades.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-train/taiwan-train-derails-at-least-36-dead-many-injured-idUSKBN2BP07P

Prince Philip, Husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Dies at 99

Prince Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth II who spent more than seven decades supporting his wife in a role that both defined and constricted his life, has died, Buckingham Palace said Friday. He was 99.

https://apnews.com/article/prince-philip-dead-at-99-0143185dc6ad526d4bb6357034972bb3

Raul Castro Confirms He’s Resigning, Ending Long Era in Cuba

Raul Castro said Friday he is resigning as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership by he and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution.

https://apnews.com/article/fidel-castro-miguel-diaz-canel-raul-castro-cuba-be9643a492b1803b67e29c8de467f7e9