AP News In Brief At 6:04 A.m. EST
Trump impeached after Capitol riot in historic second charge
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S.
House for a historic second time, charged with "incitement of insurrection" over the deadly mob siege of the U.S. 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 on Wednesday to impeach Trump.
The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol, egged on by the president´s calls for them to "fight like hell" against the election results.
Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a "clear and present danger" if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden´s inauguration Jan. 20.
Trump is the only U.S.
president to be twice impeached. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in modern times, more so than against Bill Clinton in 1998.
The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation´s history of peaceful transfers of power.
The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
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Enduring 2nd impeachment, Trump stands largely silent, alone
WASHINGTON (AP) - His place in the history books rewritten, President Donald Trump endured his second impeachment largely alone and silent.
For more than four years, Trump has dominated the national discourse like no one before him.
Yet when his legacy was set in stone on Wednesday, he was stunningly left on the sidelines.
Trump now stands with no equal, the only president to be charged twice with a high crime or misdemeanor, a new coda for a term defined by a deepening of the nation's divides, his failures during the worst pandemic in a century and his refusal to accept defeat at the ballot box.
Trump kept out of sight in a nearly empty White House as impeachment proceedings played out at the heavily fortified U.S.
Capitol. There, the damage from last week´s riots provided a visible reminder of the insurrection that the president was accused of inciting.
Abandoned by some in his own party, Trump could do nothing but watch history unfold on television. The suspension of his Twitter account deprived Trump of his most potent means to keep Republicans in line, giving a sense that Trump had been defanged and, for the first time, his hold on his adopted party was in question.
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WHO team arrives in Wuhan to investigate pandemic origins
WUHAN, China (AP) - A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries.
The group sent to Wuhan by the World Health Organization was approved by President Xi Jinping's government after months of diplomatic wrangling that prompted an unusual public complaint by the head of WHO.
Scientists suspect the virus that has killed more than 1.9 million people since late 2019 jumped to humans from bats or other animals, most likely in China's southwest.
The ruling Communist Party, stung by complaints it allowed the disease to spread, says the virus came from abroad, possibly on imported seafood, but international scientists reject that.
Fifteen team members were to arrive in Wuhan on Thursday, but two tested positive for coronavirus antibodies before leaving Singapore and were being retested there, WHO said in a statement on Twitter.
The rest of the team arrived at the Wuhan airport and walked through a makeshift clear plastic tunnel into the airport.
The researchers, who wore face masks, were greeted by airport staff in full protective gear, including masks, goggles and full body suits.
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Vaccines and masks: Biden plan aims to break pandemic cycle
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A coronavirus action plan being unveiled by President-elect Joe Biden centers on a mass vaccination campaign and closer coordination among all levels of government.
The Biden plan comes as a divided nation remains caught in the grip of the pandemic´s most dangerous wave yet.
So far, more than 380,000 Americans have died.
Biden hopes his multidimensional strategy, expected to be detailed in a Thursday evening speech, will put the country on the path to recovery by the end of his first 100 days. "It´s going to be hard," Biden said Monday after he got his second vaccine shot.
"It´s not going to be easy. But we can get it done."
A more disciplined focus on vaccination is the new and widely anticipated game-changing element, but that's far from the whole story. Biden is asking Americans to override their sense of pandemic fatigue and recommit to wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and avoiding indoor gatherings, particularly larger ones.
That's still the surest way to brake the COVID-19 wave, with more than 4,400 deaths reported just on Tuesday.
Biden has also talked about asking Congress to pump more money to states, to help their efforts to contain the pandemic and replenish depleted coffers that pay for basic services.
And Democratic lawmakers are eager to push for $2,000 economic stimulus payments to Americans.
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Expecting trouble, DC locks down a week before inauguration
WASHINGTON (AP) - All through downtown Washington, the primary sound for several blocks was the beeping of forklifts unloading more fencing.
There were no cars or scooters and visiteur seemingly no tourists Wednesday, just the occasional jogger and multiple construction crews at work.
The U.S. Capitol that proved such a soft target last week was visible only through lines of tall, black fence.
Two blocks from the White House, a group of uniformed National Guard troops emerged from a tour bus and headed into a hotel as a state of lockdown descended on Washington that will last through the Jan. 20 inauguration.
"Clearly we are in uncharted waters," said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Last week´s "violent insurrection" at the Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump has "impacted the way we are approaching working with our federal partners in planning for the 59th inauguration," Bowser said Wednesday.
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EXPLAINER: Barring Trump from holding office again
WASHINGTON (AP) - Now that President Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives a second time, keeping him from holding office again could be Congress' next step.
Every House Democrat and 10 Republicans voted Wednesday to impeach Trump for his role in inciting last week's riot at the U.S.
Capitol.
"The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. ... There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," Rep.
Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House´s No. 3 House GOP leader, wrote in a statement announcing that she would vote for impeachment.
On the Senate side, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said privately he´s through with Trump.
But impeachment alone won´t prevent Trump from seeking office in the future.
Some questions and answers about how Congress might bar Trump from ever seeking federal office again.
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Leaders like UK´s Johnson who wooed Trump face tricky reset
LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said a lot of nice things about Donald Trump over the years, from expressing admiration for the U.S.
president to suggesting he might be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
But after a mob of Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Johnson has changed his tune.
Trump, he said, had encouraged the violent insurrection, had disputed the result of a "free and fair election," and was "completely wrong."
It was a dramatic pivot for someone who has often been compared to Trump and refrained for years from openly criticizing him.
Other world leaders also have faced dilemmas in dealing with the volatile and unpredictable president who trashed international agreements and institutions with abandon. But Johnson´s critics say his years of flattering - and, some say, imitating - Trump have harmed Britain´s international authority and poisoned its political culture.
Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S.
and the Americas program at the Chatham House think tank, said the issue of how to deal with Trump has been "the biggest question in in Western diplomacy for the past four years."
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Lebanon begins all-day curfew as virus spins out of control
BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanese authorities began enforcing an 11-day nationwide shutdown and round the clock curfew Thursday, hoping to limit the spread of coronavirus infections spinning out of control after the holiday period.
For the first time, residents were required to request a one-hour permit to be allowed to leave the house for "emergencies," including going to the bakery, pharmacist, doctor, hospital or airport.
Authorities came under pressure to take a tougher approach after the country's hospitals ran out of beds with daily infections reaching an all-time high of 5,440 cases last week in the country of nearly 6 million people.
The dramatic surge in infections began in late December.
As most governments around the world tightened lockdowns, Lebanon relaxed health measures over the holidays, allowing restaurants and nightclubs to reopen with barely any restrictions in place. An estimated 80,000 expats flowed back into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Years with loved ones, many of them expats who skipped visiting in the summer due to the devastating Aug.
4 explosion at Beirut port.
"The holiday season should have been the time for lockdown. The season of crowds, shopping and parties," said Hanna Azar, owner of a money transfer and telephones shop. "They opened it to allow dollars into the country and now they want to close, especially in this economic crisis. People don´t have money to eat."
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'Not worth my life': Ugandans vote in tense election
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Ugandans were voting Thursday in a presidential election tainted by widespread violence that some fear could escalate as security forces try to stop supporters of leading opposition challenger Bobi Wine from monitoring polling stations.
Internet access has been cut off.
Long lines of voters snaked into the distance in the capital, Kampala. "This is a miracle," mechanic Steven Kaderere said. "This shows me that Ugandans this time are determined to vote for the leader they want. I have never seen this before."
But delays were seen in the delivery of polling materials in some places, including where Wine voted.
After he arrived to the cheers of a crowd and cast his ballot, he made the sign of the cross, then raised his fist and smiled. He said he was "confident" of victory.
Problems were reported with some biometric machines to verify voters. "Our kit failed to start because mismatching passwords," said Derrick Lutakoma, the presiding officer at one polling station.
Results are expected within 48 hours of polls closing at 4 p.m.
More than 17 million people are registered voters in this East African country of 45 million people. A candidate must win more than 50% to avoid a runoff vote.
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Australia to kill pigeon that crossed Pacific from Oregon
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia.
Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.
Kevin Celli-Bird said Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 had disappeared from a race in the U.S. state of Oregon on Oct. 29.
Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the U.S.
president-elect, hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific.
Joe´s feat has attracted the attention of the Australian media but also of the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
Celli-Bird said quarantine authorities called him on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird.
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