Algeria to further relax coronavirus lockdown

The Week

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger mocks GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz after House GOP votes to keep Liz Cheney in leadership

House Republicans voted by secret ballot Wednesday night to retain Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) as the No. 3 leader in their caucus, so it’s impossible to know which 145 Republicans voted to keep Cheney in leadership and which 61 voted to oust her for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump. But you’d be pretty safe betting that Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — who joined Cheney and eight other GOP colleagues to impeach Trump — voted for Cheney and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who traveled to Wyoming to attack Cheney, did not. No we voted. You were just wrong by like, a huuuuuge margin. https://t.co/2iwjlxpB3J — Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) February 4, 2021 Gaetz had assured Stephen Bannon on his “War Room” podcast that their faction of the GOP had enough votes to remove Cheney, but also predicted that the “establishment” would find some way to “avoid a vote.” Cheney reportedly insisted on a vote during the closed-door House GOP meeting, in which she also pointedly declined to apologize for voting to impeach Trump. More stories from theweek.comMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateKenyan woman finds a way to recycle plastic waste into bricks that are stronger than concrete

The Telegraph

Uighur women subjected to systematic rape in China internment camps, witnesses claim

Uighur women held at internment camps in China’s Xinjiang province have been subject to systematic mass rape, former prisoners and staff have claimed. Two former prisoners and two teachers who had worked at what the Chinese government calls “vocational and educational training centres” described a “culture” of gang rape and sexual torture in interviews with the BBC. The UN estimates more than one million ethnic Uighur and Kazakh men and women have been detained in a network of camps China built in its far-western Xinjiang Province since 2014. Chinese officials deny allegations of mistreatment and say camps are educational facilities designed to combat religious extremism and terrorism among the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority. In March 2019, the Telegraph spoke to eight former detainees who described a regime of systematic torture and forced labour. There have also been reports of forced sterilisations.

NextShark

People Are Changing Their Profile Photos to Drawing of Thai Man Pushed to His Death in SF

In a show of solidarity, social media users have started changing their profile photos to an illustration of Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai man who died after being shoved in San Francisco last week. The attack, which was caught on surveillance video, occurred as Ratanapakdee was walking along Anza Vista and Fortuna Avenues at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 28. For no apparent reason, Antoine Watson, 19, darted from the right side of the camera frame to push Ratanapakdee to the ground, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

National Review

Kerry Defended Taking Private Jet to Iceland for Environmental Award: ‘the Only Choice for Somebody Like Me’

White House climate czar John Kerry traveled to Iceland by private jet in 2019 to accept an environmental award and defended his transportation choice to a reporter at the time by calling it, “the only choice for somebody like me.” Kerry flew to Iceland in October, 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award, an iceberg sculpture, for his leadership on climate issues and being “a consistent voice pressuring the American authorities to commit to tackle environmental matters,” according to Icelandic outlet RUV. During the trip, Kerry was confronted by Icelandic reporter Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson on whether his use of a private jet was an “environmental way to travel.” “If you offset your carbon, it’s the only choice for somebody like me, who is traveling the world to win this battle,” Kerry responded. The former secretary of state went on to emphasize his climate accomplishments, including negotiating the Paris accord for the U.S. and bringing Chinese President Xi to the table. “I’ve been involved in this fight for years,” Kerry said. “I believe the time it takes me to get somewhere, I can’t sail across the ocean, I have to fly to meet with people and get things done,” he continued. “But what I’m doing almost full-time is working to win the battle of climate change. And in the end, if I offset and contribute my life to do this, I’m not going to be put on the defensive.” Last week, Kerry recommended that oil and gas workers should pivot to manufacturing solar panels if their jobs are eliminated as a consequence of the Biden administration’s environmental policies. Biden signed several executive orders on climate change last week aimed at achieving the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. During his first week in office, the president reentered the Paris climate accord, from which the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. in 2017. Biden also canceled the permit on the Keystone pipeline, a project that would have created about 11,000 U.S. jobs this year, according to the Keystone XL website. Many of the workers are temporary, but 8,000 are union workers.

The Week

Greene was reportedly applauded by GOP lawmakers after apologizing for past inflammatory remarks

During a GOP caucus meeting on Wednesday night, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) received a round of applause after she apologized for putting her fellow Republicans in a difficult spot due to her past racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim remarks, The Washington Post reports. Prior to her election in 2020, Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy, questioned the 9/11 attacks, claimed school shootings were staged, said Jewish space lasers sparked a California wildfire, endorsed the execution of Democratic leaders, and made a variety of racist remarks during podcasts and livestreams. Several Republicans who attended Wednesday night’s meeting said Greene offered an apology for some of those earlier comments. Before the meeting, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he spoke with Greene on Tuesday night, and made it clear that her remarks “do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference.” More stories from theweek.comMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger mocks GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz after House GOP votes to keep Liz Cheney in leadership

The Telegraph

Billionaire Robert Smith avoided prosecution after co-operating with prosecutors in largest ever tax evasion case

A billionaire businessman who praised the Trump administration’s efforts to help minority business owners and cleared black students’ debt was reportedly spared prosecution for tax evasion in a deal to co-operate on another massive tax case. Robert Smith, America’s wealthiest black businessman, made headlines when he pledged to pay the student debt for students graduating from Morehouse College, an all-male historically black college in Atlanta, in 2019. Mr Smith, who runs a private equity firm and is estimated to be worth $7 billion, was also a vocal advocate of the Trump administration’s financial relief efforts for minority business owners during the pandemic and spoke regularly with the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump. But according to Bloomberg, at the same time, Mr Smith was being investigated by prosecutors and the US taxman who believed he had failed to declare more than $200 million in income. According to the outlet, Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, signed off on a non-prosecution agreement which allowed him to avoid a potential jail term and losing control of his company Vista Equity Partners.

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